[Gandhiji with Lord Mountbatten]

"It might be said that the Indian authorities were literally sitting on top of a volcano, and as a result of the situation which had arisen after the war, the outbreak of revolution might be expected at any time."

The Coming of Independence

World War II not only changed the map of the world and reduced Britain to a second rate power, it also helped mature British public opinion on India. The Labour Party’s victory in 1945, an expression of the intellectual and social ferment helped in reassessing the merits of the traditional policies. The Indian situation drove the Labour Party to proepare for a new policy although ideologically it was not averse to it.

Speaking on March 6, 1947 in the House of Commons on the condition of India, in November and December 1945, Mr.Alexander, a member of the Labour Cabinet, observed: ‘It might be said that the Indian authorities were literally sitting on top of a volcano, and as a result of the situation which had arisen after the war, the outbreak of revolution might be expected at any time.'

Events in early 1946 confirmed the correctness of this estimate. There were violent outbreaks at the slightest provocation and sometimes without any provocation. In February 1946, a Muslim demonstration at Calcutta against a court martial verdict on a Muslim officer of the Indian National army degenerated into general lawlessness, in which shops were ransacked and tramcars and buses burnt. There were instances of indiscipline in the Air Force and a major naval mutiny in Bombay. In several Provinces there were signs of disaffection spreading to the police.The instruments of law and order, on which British rule ultimately depended, were proving very ineffective.