“9th of August was and will always remain a people’s event. But, as yet, 15th August is celebrated with a lot of fanfare, for on that day the British Viceroy Lord Mountbatten shook hands with the Indian Prime Minister and gave damaged independence to a damaged country. 9th August expressed the will of the people—we want to be free and we shall be free. For the first time after a long period in our history, crores of people expressed their desire to be free. In some places it was done in great strength. But the will was short-lived, though strong. It didn’t have a lasting intensity. The day our nation acquires a tenacious will, we will be able to face the world.”
—Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia
After playing an underground role in the Quit India Movement for twenty-one months, Lohia was arrested in Bombay on May 10, 1944. He was imprisoned first in Lahore Fort and later in Agra. In Lahore Jail, the British police subjected him to inhumane torture. Lohia was finally released in June 1946, after two years of imprisonment.
It is worth reflecting on why Lohia—who participated actively and with unwavering dedication in the freedom struggle—described August 9 as the “Day of the People of India” and urged that it be commemorated with the same vigour as August 15.
First, it is well known that following the Congress party’s call for the Quit India Movement in Bombay, all its senior leaders—including Mahatma Gandhi—were arrested on August 9. The Communist leadership had turned against the movement after aligning itself with the Soviet Union’s “People’s War” position. Communal forces—including the Hindu Mahasabha, the RSS and the Muslim League—stood on the side of British rule, while the Princely States provided financial and military assistance to the British authorities in their efforts to crush the movement. Those serving on the Viceroy’s Council, too, remained aligned with British authority.
In such a critical hour, the Indian people themselves took charge of the movement and propelled it forward. Leadership capable of shouldering diverse responsibilities emerged from within the masses. This potential among the people had not emerged overnight; it had been cultivated through their long participation in the struggle for independence.
Second, August 9 became a day belonging to the Indian people because, once the established leadership had been imprisoned, the movement demonstrated the capacity of ordinary citizens to assume responsibility. The absence of conventional leadership did not bring the struggle to an end. Instead, new forms of leadership emerged from below, demonstrating that the freedom movement had acquired a social depth far greater than that represented by established political organisations alone.
Third, the place of August 9 in the history of India’s freedom struggle is demonstrated by the nationwide character of the movement. India’s extraordinarily diverse population—men and women, from different regions and social backgrounds—participated on a massive scale, displaying unprecedented courage and resilience.
Even the people of the Princely States played an active role in the Quit India Movement by establishing Praja Mandals. Citing the Russian revolutionary thinker Leon Trotsky, Lohia noted that while only about one percent of the population participated in the Russian Revolution, as much as 20 percent of India’s population took part in the August Revolution.
The literary record across Indian languages, including English, also bears witness to the nationwide character of the movement that erupted on August 9. Its representation in literature and creative imagination has endured from that period to the present.
Fourth, the people fought against imperialist domination and oppression armed with what Lohia called the “will to freedom.” The Viceroy accused Congress leaders of plotting an armed rebellion during the Quit India Movement and alleged that the large crowds participating in the movement were engaged in violence.
Writing to the Viceroy from prison, Lohia responded:
“If we had planned an armed insurrection and our crowds were asked to resort to violence, believe me Mr. Linlithgow, Gandhiji would today have been securing a reprieve for you from a free people and their government.”
The statement captured the fundamental character of the movement: it was not merely a struggle directed by political leaders, but an eruption of popular will against imperial rule.
Fifth, the Quit India Movement, which unfolded in the midst of the Second World War, became the centre of intense political debates, disputes and conflicts—particularly between socialists and communists. Political circles continue to witness accusations and counter-accusations over who led the movement and who betrayed it.
Yet the Indian people, in participating in the movement, were ahead of both the progressive internationalists and the reactionary or communal revivalists of that era. The endless cycle of accusations should have ended with Lohia’s insistence that the movement ultimately belonged to the Indian people.
In fact, Lohia’s conviction that August 9 belongs to the people of India is rooted in his broader political vision, which placed the highest importance on the role of ordinary people in nation-building. As a committed democrat, he advocated a state that was genuinely of the people—a “people’s state.”
That is precisely why he juxtaposed “the Day of the People” with “the Day of the State.” At the heart of this distinction was his belief that India’s independence was the outcome of the struggle waged by its people. Consequently, ownership of the Indian state must belong to the people—not to corporate houses, nor to political and intellectual elites who facilitate their power.
The statement by Lohia cited at the beginning of this article continues:
“Anyhow, this is the 25th anniversary of 9th August 1942. It should be celebrated well. Its 50th anniversary perhaps will be celebrated in such a way that 15th August will be forgotten, and even 26th January will be put into a shade, or will only equal it. 26th January [1930] and 9th August are events of the same class. One expressed the will to freedom and the other the will to fight for it.”
The 50th anniversary of the August Revolution fell in August 1992. But how could a state that had, in Lohia’s terms, mortgaged the country’s independence at the behest of the regulatory institutions of corporate capitalism—and had abandoned the values of constitutional secularism by demolishing a 500-year-old mosque—retain the spirit of August 9 necessary to commemorate its 50th anniversary?
That question remains relevant today.
August 15 may commemorate the transfer of power and the birth of an independent state. August 9, however, reminds us of something deeper: that independence was won because ordinary Indians acquired the will to fight for freedom.
For Lohia, that distinction was fundamental. A democracy is meaningful only when the people remain the source, owner and active participant in the political life of the nation. The enduring significance of August 9, therefore, lies not merely in remembering an episode of the freedom struggle, but in recovering the people’s claim over the state they fought to create.
August 9 was, and remains, the Day of the People of India.
---
The author is associated with the socialist movement, a former teacher at the University of Delhi, and a former Fellow of the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla
Comments
Post a Comment
NOTE: Hateful, abusive comments won't be published. -- Editor