Question

In the absence of Gandhi, the Quit India Movement had been led by ________.
A.Jawaharlal Nehru
B.Sarojini Naidu
C.Aruna Asaf Ali
D.Dadabhai Naoroji

Answer 1

Hint: The Quit India Movement, also known as the August Movement, was a movement initiated at the Bombay session of the All-India Congress Committee by Mahatma Gandhi on 9 August 1942, during World War II, seeking an end to British rule in India.

Complete answer: After the failure of the Cripps Mission to gain Indian support for the British war effort, Gandhi made a call to Do or Die in his speech at the Gowalia Tank Maidan in Bombay on 8 August 1942. The All-India Congress Committee launched a mass movement calling for what Gandhi called the An Orderly British Withdrawal'' from India. Even though it was in battle, the British were prepared to act.
Almost the entire leadership of the Indian National Congress was imprisoned without trial within a few hours of Gandhi's speech. Much spent the remainder of the war in jail and out of touch with the masses. The British had the support of the Viceroy's Council (which had a majority of Indians), the All India Muslim League, the Hindu Mahasabha, the Princely States, the Indian Imperial Police, the British Indian Army, and the Indian Civil Service. Many Indian businessmen benefiting from heavy wartime expenditure have not embraced the Quit India Movement. Many students paid more attention to Subhas Chandra Bose, who was in exile and supported the Axis Forces. The only outside support came from the Americans when President Franklin D. Roosevelt pressed Prime Minister Winston Churchill to give in to some of the Indian demands.
The Quit India movement was effectively defeated. The British declined to grant immediate independence, saying it could happen.The British Government responded to the Quit India resolution by arresting key leaders of the Congress Working Committee. The young Aruna Asaf Ali was left to lead the movement. She was an Indian freedom fighter who is best known for hoisting the Indian National Congress flag at the Gowalia Tank maidan in Bombay during the Quit India Movement. She earned the title “Heroine of the 1942 movement”. She represented the linkage of the women’s rights movement with the freedom struggle.

Thus, the answer is option C: Aruna Asaf Ali.

Note: The movement had less support in the princely states, as the princes strongly opposed and financed the opposition. There was very little foreign support from the Indian nationalists. They understood that in theory, the United States firmly supported Indian independence and assumed that the U.S. was an ally. However after Churchill threatened to resign if pushed too hard, the U.S. secretly embraced him while bombing Indians with propaganda intended to increase popular support for the war effort. The bad American activity has irritated the Indians.