Moving the focus back from the global to the regional, let us now take a look at the nature of the movement as it developed in Bengal between 1942 and 1944. Almost a century after the Revolt of 1857, the Quit India Movement emerged as one of the biggest moments of a direct confrontation between the colonial state and the masses. Just like in other parts of the country, in Bengal too, the movement first started in the urban areas, but as the violence and disturbances in these areas started subsiding, it sprang up with renewed vigour in the countryside. This chapter is divided into two main sections. The first section looks at the main centres of the movement in the urban areas in parts of north Bengal, Birbhum, Howrah and Calcutta. Midnapore, which was the main storm centre in the countryside, has been discussed in a separate section, as the formation of the Tamralipta Jatiya Sarkar deserves a separate analysis. More or less, the movement followed a similar pattern throughout the province.

In north Bengal, students played a key role in popularising and leading the movement. Here, student politics was heavily influenced by revolutionary groups, especially the resurgent Anushilan Party and Jugantar, whose main areas of influence were Dinajpur, Pabna, Rajshahi, Japlpaiguri and Rangpur. In Pabna, Siliguri and Rajshahi, a large number of students left schools and colleges and led hartals, processions and distribution of anti-British pamphlets.