The Cripps mission was an attempt in late March of 1942by the British government tosecure Indian cooperation and

support for their efforts inWorld War II. The mission washeaded bySir Stafford Cripps, a senior left-wing politician and government minister inthe War Cabinet of Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Background With theBattle of Britainand the entry of theU.S.,World War IIwas becoming increasingly grave and critical for the future survival of Britain and European nations.The British government desired to enlist the full cooperation and support of Indian political leaders in order to recruit more Indians into theBritish Indian Army, whichfoughtImperial JapaninSouth East AsiaandFascist Italyand Nazi GermanyinEurope andNorth Africaalongside theBritish Armyand its Australian, New Zealander, and American allies. In1939the Viceroy,Lord Linlithgow, had declared India a belligerent state on the side of the allies without consulting Indian political leaders or the elected provincial representatives. This caused considerable resentment in India and provoked theresignation en masse of electedCongress PartyProvincial Governments, giving rise tothe prospect of public revolt and political disorder in India. The British feared adestabilizing revolt in India which could be fatal to their campaign against the Japanese,as well as detrimental to obtaining much-needed resources and manpower to fight the war in Europe as well. Debate over cooperation or protest The Congress was divided upon its response to India's entry intoWorld War II. Angryover the decision made by theViceroy of

India,some Congress leaders favored launchinga popular revolt against the British despite the gravity of the war in Europe, whichthreatened Britain's own freedom. Others, such asChakravarti Rajagopalachariadvocatedoffering an olive branch to the British - supporting them in this crucial time in hope thatthe gesture would be reciprocated with independence after the war. India's and Congress'major leader,Mohandas Gandhi,was opposed to Indian involvement in the war as hewould not morally endorse a war - he also suspected British intentions, believing that theBritish were not sincere about Indian aspirations for freedom. But Rajagopalachari, alongwith support fromSardar Vallabhbhai Patel,Maulana AzadandJawaharlal Nehruheld talks with Cripps and offered full support in return for immediate self-government, andeventual independence.The leader of theMuslim League, Muhammad Ali Jinnah,supported the war effort and condemned the Congress policy. Insisting on aseparate Muslim state, he resistedCongress calls for pan-Indian cooperation and immediate independence.

Failure of the mission

Upon his arrival inIndia, Cripps held talks with Indian leaders. There is some confusionover what Cripps had been authorized to offer India's nationalist politicians by ChurchillandLeo Amery, and he also faced hostility from the Viceroy,Lord Linlithgow. He began by offering India fullDominionstatus at the end of the war, with the chance to secedefrom the Commonwealth and go for total independence. Privately, Cripps also promisedto get rid of Linlithgow and grant India Dominion Status with immediate effect, reservingonly the Defence Ministry for the British. However, in public he failed to present anyconcrete proposals for greater self-government in the short-term, other than a vaguecommitment to increase the number of Indian members of the Viceroy's Executive

Council. Cripps spent much of his time in encouraging Congress leaders and Jinnah to come to a common, public arrangement in support of the war and government; however, the Congress leaders felt that whatever Cripps might say, his political masters were notinterested in granting the complete Indianisation of the Viceory's Executive Council, its conversion into a Cabinet with collective responsibility, or Indian control over Defense in wartime. They were also suspicious of an optout clause which Amery was rumored to have offered the Muslim League in any putative Dominion arrangement. There was too little trust between the British and Congress by this stage, and both sides felt that the other was concealing its true plans. The Congress stopped talks with Cripps and, guided by Mohandas Gandhi, the national leadership demanded immediate self-government in return for war support. When the British remained unresponsive, Gandhi and the Congress began planning a major public revolt, the Quit India movement, which demanded immediate British withdrawal from India. As theImperial Japanese Army advanced closer to India with the conquest of Burma, Indians perceived an inability upon the part of the British to defend Indian soil.This period concurred with the rise of theIndian National Army,led bySubhas Chandra Bose. The British response to the Quit India movement was to throw most of theCongress leadership in jail.Jinnah's Muslim League condemned the Quit India movement, participating in provincial governments as well as the legislative councils of the British Raj, and encouraging Muslims to participate in the war. With this limited cooperation from the Muslim League, the British were able to continue administering India for the duration of the war using officials and military personnel where Indian politicians could not be found. This would not prove to be feasible in the long-term, however. The long-term significance of the Cripps Mission only really became apparent in the after math of the war, as troops were

demobilized and sent back home. Even Churchill recognized that there could be no retraction of the offer of Independence which Cripps had made, although by the end of the war Churchill was out of power and could only watch as the new Labor government gave India independence. This confidence that the British would soon leave was reflected in the readiness with which Congress politicians stood in the elections of 1945-6and formed provincial governments. [1] In retrospect, this unsuccessful and badly-planned attempt to placate the Congress in return for temporary wartime support was the point at which the British departure from India became inevitable at the war's end