The 'Azad Dasta', an underground group of freedom fighters that carried out guerrilla activities, was active in Bihar and Nepal during the:

The "Azad Dasta" ("freedom squad") was an underground group of freedom fighters, organised by Jayaprakash Narayan and other socialist leaders, which was active in Bihar and on the Nepal border during the Quit India Movement (1942-1943).

Background:

• After the arrest of the top Congress leaders on 9 August 1942, the Quit India Movement continued under local and underground leaders.
• Socialist leaders, who believed in a more militant form of struggle, organised underground activities.

Jayaprakash Narayan's escape:

• JP was imprisoned in the Hazaribagh Central Jail in Bihar.
• On the night of Diwali, 9 November 1942, he escaped from the jail with five companions, by climbing over the jail wall using a rope made of dhotis.
• He then organised the underground movement.

About the Azad Dasta:

• It was organised with training camps in the terai forests on the Nepal border, where volunteers were trained in guerrilla warfare and the use of arms.
• Its members carried out sabotage, such as cutting telegraph lines, damaging railway tracks and attacking government property, to disrupt the British administration.
• JP and Ram Manohar Lohia, along with other leaders, directed its activities.
• In 1943, JP, Lohia and others were arrested by the Nepal police; but a group of Azad Dasta members rescued them from the jail at Hanuman Nagar.
• JP was later arrested again in September 1943 and imprisoned in the Lahore Fort, where he was tortured.

Significance:

• The Azad Dasta was one example of the underground resistance during the Quit India Movement.
• It showed the role of the socialists in keeping the movement alive after the arrest of the Congress leaders.

Other underground activities:

• Usha Mehta and others ran a secret radio station, the Congress Radio, from Bombay.
• Aruna Asaf Ali, Sucheta Kripalani and Achyut Patwardhan led underground activities.

Why not the other options?

• ✗The Non-Cooperation Movement, the Swadeshi Movement and the Revolt of 1857 were earlier movements.