Why did Congress Party provincial governments resign in 1939?

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Mahatma Gandhi, holding a walking stick, walks beside Sarojini Naidu during the Salt March protest in 1930, with several men following behind them. — Indian National Congress Indian National Congress leaders Mahatma Gandhi (left) and Sarojini Naidu (right) on the Salt March in western India, March 1930.

In 1939, the Indian National Congress provincial governments resigned in protest against the British government’s decision to declare India a belligerent in World War II without prior consultation with Indian leadership.1

The viceroy of India, Lord Linlithgow, unilaterally announced that India was at war with Germany, a move that deeply dismayed the Congress Party. While the party had initially expressed a willingness to support the British war effort, they conditioned this support on a clear assurance of eventual self-governance for India. When the British authorities refused to meet this demand, the Congress Party chose to withdraw from provincial governance as a stand against the lack of democratic consultation and the continuation of British colonialism.21