Quit India speech, Gowalia Tank Maidan, Bombay, 8 August 1942
Do or Die
On the evening of 8 August 1942, the All India Congress Committee met at Gowalia Tank Maidan in Bombay. The delegates had just passed the Quit India resolution, demanding an immediate end to British rule in the middle of the Second World War. Maulana Abul Kalam Azad presided, Jawaharlal Nehru moved the text, and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel backed it. Then Mahatma Gandhi took the platform. He spoke to the crowd first in Hindustani and then in English. He knew the police were waiting outside the grounds, and he knew this was his last chance to speak to the country before he went to prison.
Many people thought he was calling for a fight with weapons, but he insisted the struggle stay non-violent. He needed three words that ordinary people could remember when their leaders were in jail. He told them: "Here is a mantra, a short one, that I give you. You may imprint it on your hearts and let every breath of yours give expression to it. The mantra is: "Do or Die."" He explained that Indians had to free the country or die trying, because living as subjects was no longer acceptable. The phrase gave people permission to direct themselves. When you commit to see a hard task through, you stop looking for a safe exit.
Therefore
When a decisive moment arrives, give people a clear line they can hold on their own. Do not leave them waiting for instructions that cannot reach them.
Aga Khan Palace, Poona, 1942–1944
Before dawn on 9 August 1942, police arrested Gandhiji, Kasturba Gandhi, and his secretary Mahadev Desai under the Defence of India Rules. The British held them at the Aga Khan Palace in Poona. Aruna Asaf Ali hoisted the flag at the maidan after they were gone, and strikes broke out across the country. The government used gunfire to crush the protests within weeks, and grief followed in Poona. Mahadev Desai died of a heart attack on 15 August 1942, and Kasturba Gandhi died on 22 February 1944. The British released Gandhiji in May 1944, but the demand never went away, and the park is now called August Kranti Maidan.
A small reminder, on the desk or the notebook, that when the time comes to act, you have to see it through.
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