Yusuf Meherally: 5 facts on man who coined the iconic slogan 'Quit India'

The Quit India Movement or the India August Movement, was a movement launched at the Bombay session of the All-India Congress Committee by Mahatma Gandhi on 8 August 1942, during World War II, demanding an end to British Rule of India.

Yusuf Meherally played a major role in India's struggle for independence. He was seen in leading role in peasants' organisations and trade unions. Meherally was imprisoned eight times during the freedom movement. The 'Quit India' slogan coined by him was adopted by Gandhiji for India's final Nationwide campaign for independence. One of the founders of the Congress Socialist Party, Yusuf Meherally wrote, "I hate ugliness and cruelty and that is why I am a socialist. My socialism is based on aesthetic and ethical premises and not on Economics." A voracious reader and a connoisseur of arts, he himself was a writer of a couple of books and had founded a journal. 

Check out 5 facts here

-During his stint in Lahore jail in 1942 he was elected as the mayor of Bombay 

-Meherally was responsible for mobilising his socialist colleagues – including Rammanohar Lohia, Aruna Asaf Ali and Achyut Patwardhan – and ensuring they took the Quit India movement forward while hiding underground after the arrest of the Congress leaders.

-At the time, 39-year-old Meherally was the mayor of Bombay – the first socialist to be elected to the post. 

-In 1928, he came up with the catchphrase “Simon Go Back” in protest against the all-British Simon Commission appointed by the imperial government to recommend improvements to British governance in India.

-He was imprisoned eight times during the freedom struggle.He was released from prison in 1946 and went on to become an MLA in Independent India and founder of the Congress Socialist Party. He died in July 1950, in Mumbai.