THE second world war was virtually in the making for quite some time before it actually broke out in late 1939. On 3 September, 1939, the Viceroy unilaterally associated India with Britain's declaration of war on Germany without even pretending to consult the provincial Indian ministries or the Indian leaders. The Congress had little option to continue in office in this war situation and on 29-30 October Congress ministries resigned in all the eight provinces where they were in power.

But despite popular opposition to the war, the Congress was still not ready for any vigorous anti-war action. The Ramgarh Congress in March 1940 talked of civil disobedience “as soon as the Congress organisation is considered fit enough for the purpose”. Finally in October 1940, Gandhi sanctioned a very restricted individual satyagraha – starting with Vinoba Bhave on 17 October and Nehru on 31 October, Congress leaders were to individually court arrest by making anti-war speeches. This turned out to be by far the weakest and most lacklustre of Gandhian campaigns.

The Communist Party, which remained banned since 1934 and was consequently operating secretly and through mass organisations like AITUC and the Kisan Sabha as well as under the banner of the Congress Socialist Party formed in the mid-30s too opposed the British decision to drag India into the war. To articulate a united Left opposition to the war the CPI also took the initiative to form a Left Consolidation Committee which included Subhas Chandra Bose, Jai Prakash Narayan, PC Joshi, MN Roy, Swami Sahajanand Saraswati, NG Ranga and others with Subhas Bose as its convener.

But the LCC soon broke down as equations underwent a sea-change and diametrically divergent views surfaced among different political trends with Germany invading the Soviet Union on 22 June, 1941. Saving the Soviet Union and defeating fascism became the topmost priority of the communist party, a position which was more or less shared by pro-Nehru sections within the Congress as well. Subhas Bose on the other hand advocated collaborating with the Germany-Japan axis to corner the British government in India. Quite uncharacteristically, this situation found Gandhi striking a very militant posture.