Previous Year Question

The correct chronological order is Resignation letters of Congress Ministers (1939) → Ramgarh Congress Session (1940) → Linlithgow August Offer (1940) → Cripps Mission arrival in India (1942).

The earliest among these was the resignation of the Congress ministries in 1939. When the Second World War began, the British Government declared India to be at war without consulting Indian political leaders, which was opposed by the Congress.

On 22 October 1939, the Congress Working Committee considered the Viceroy's policy unsatisfactory and called upon the Congress provincial ministries to resign. The provincial Congress ministries then resigned one after another; the Madras Ministry resigned on 28 October 1939, and the other Congress ministries followed within about a fortnight.

Next came the Ramgarh Congress Session in March 1940. It was presided over by Maulana Abul Kalam Azad. He delivered his presidential address on 17 March, and the Congress clarified its political position regarding the war and India's independence.

The third event was the Linlithgow August Offer. The British Government presented this offer on 8 August 1940. It proposed a greater Indian role in post-war constitution-making and measures such as expansion of the Governor-General's Executive Council.

The Congress considered the offer inadequate because it did not accept the demand for an immediate national government or complete independence. Gandhiji subsequently adopted the policy of Individual Satyagraha.

The latest event was the arrival of the Cripps Mission in India in March 1942. Sir Stafford Cripps was sent by the British Government to explore the possibility of a constitutional agreement with Indian political leaders. The Mission reached India on 22 March 1942.

The Cripps proposals provided for Dominion Status and constitution-making after the war, but agreement could not be reached on the question of immediate transfer of power and the negotiations failed.