Why did the Britishers 'actually' leave India

When BP Chakravarti was acting as Governor of West Bengal, Lord Attlee visited India and stayed as his guest for three days at the Raj Bhavan. Chakravarti asked Attlee about the real grounds for granting Independence to India . Specifically, his question was, when the Quit India movement lay in ruins years before 1947, what was the need for the British to leave in such a hurry. Attlee’s response is most illuminating and important for history. Here is the Governor’s account of what Attlee told him:

 

“In reply, Attlee cited several reasons, the most important were the activities of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose which weakened the very foundation of the attachment of the Indian land and naval forces to the British Government. Towards the end, I asked Lord Attlee about the extent to which the British decision to quit India was influenced by Gandhi’s activities. On hearing this question Attlee’s lips widened in a smile of disdain and he uttered, slowly, putting emphasis on each single letter mi-ni-mal.”

 

This ‘unimpeachable’ truth will come as a shock to most Indians brought up to believe that the Congress movement driven by the ’spiritual force’ of Mahatma Gandhi forced the British to leave India.

 

But both the evidence and the logic of history are against this beautiful but childish fantasy; it was the fear of mutiny by the Indian armed forces - and not any ‘spiritual force’- that forced the issue of freedom. The British saw that the sooner they left India the better for themselves, for, at the end of the war, India had some three million men under arms. Majumdar had reached the same conclusion years earlier, as far back as 1948 as he records. The most dramatic event after the end of World War II was the INA Trials at the Red Fort — not any movement by Gandhi or Nehru. This led directly to the mutiny of the naval ratings, which, more than anything, helped the British make up their minds to leave India in a hurry. They sensed that it was only a matter of time before the spirit spread to other sections of the armed forces and the rest of the Government. None of this would have happened without Subhas Bose and the INA.

 

The crucial point to note is that thanks to Subhas Bose’s activities and the INA, the Armed Forces began to see themselves as defenders of India rather than upholders of the British Empire. This, more than anything else, was what led to India’s freedom. This is also the reason why the British Empire disappeared from the face of the earth within an astonishingly short space of twenty years. Indian soldiers, who were the main prop of the Empire, were no longer willing to fight to hold the Empire together.

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Do not serve the poor!

Serve the poor!

Help the needy!

Assist the unfortunate!

...these are the few things we grow up listening. For me these 'quotations' were(attempted) imbibed much deeply because of my great parents. I hail from a family where helping the needy & serving others is the motto of life. Since childhood my parents have always taken me on donation trips to small villages or to the local slums. Sometimes it would be old clothes, sometimes old books and at times it would be huge budget. For example, few years back my parents raised funds with collaboration with few trusts and donated washing machines to the leprosy patients accommodation in my native place.

In these trips I would always observe them like a third person and act as if I didn't exist there. Seeing me my mom would ask me to participate & I had to, I bet no living thing in this world has the courtesy to disobey my mom. 

Anyways, I guess I've kind of portrayed myself to be a very stubborn and selfish girl. But let me explain myself now. What I really feel is that all of us are born on this Earth for a purpose. Being blessed with the life of Human Being is the greatest thing that could have ever happened. We all should work to earn our bread and butter. According to me depending on others for survival is equivalent to living a life of a parasite. 

I see so many people from villages or slums doing nothing & merely waiting for the government to give them Ration. They do nothing but get drunk & beat up their wives. I remember visiting my Nani's Hometown, Vhadhona, close to Amravati. I happened to ask I rickshaw driver to give me a ride, which was long enough to fetch him a descent sum. But he bluntly refused and once again engrossed himself into his game of cards.I'm sure that even Viswanathan Anand doesn't concentrate on his game as much as this rickshaw driver did. Seeing me like that a passing bullock cart driver volunteered to drop me to my destination, the farm. I merrily hoped in and enjoyed that topsy turvy ride  In the farm my Mama told me that they didn't have many workers. I was always under the impression that India suffered from the disease of unemployment, seems like the rural scenario is completely opposite.How on earth is our Country going to progress if the interiors are dump with this sluggish attitude? 

Now coming back to my parents, let me talk about the case where they donated blankets to people sleeping on the roads in winters. After two weeks, my dad visited the same place to find so3/4 of the people sleeping without their blankets.Not because the mice had eaten them up but because they had sold them to treat themselves with a hefty dose of liquor.

I do agree that there are people who really need help and life is miserable for them. But the kind of help we or our government provides should be thoughtful. According to me it is wiser to go and teach a person some sort of craftsmanship or vocational training. So that he can earn enough to afford himself a blanket rather than just taking it from someone & acting like a pest . We should volunteer to work with NGOs to teach these people and help them build up a future rather than just tossing off a bundle of notes as a donation & inviting some more poverty.