92 SOCIAL SCIENTIST totally confirm to what happens at the top. This probably shows the specificities of politics at various levels. Though there should be an underlying thread linking different levels of politics to make it an organic whole, each level has its own dynamics which perhaps explains the continuity of the movement at one level when the all-India counterpart saw its eclipse. The inter-level/sector relationships are crucial in understanding why the same movement continued with alarm at one level and declined at another. For instance, though the quit India upsurge gained momentum in Midnapur gradually, neither the All India Congress Committee nor the Bengal Provincial Congress Committee provided adequate backing to sustain the popular zeal. Here lies the significance of mass initiatives which grew into a monumental movement in a context which seemed otherwise adverse especially after the onset of a devastating cyclone. The continuity of the movement for almost two years despite severe police and military repression therefore indicates the role of the local inhabitants regardless of caste and class in sustaining the anti-British sentiment. So, not only was the movement remarkable as an instance of successful political mobilization in an otherwise unfavourable situation, the 1942 upsurge in Midnapur was perhaps the only example of active mass involvement, which largely accounts for the continuity of the movement long after the Congress had anticipated. NOTES AND REFERENCES 1. S. Dasgupta, Local Politics in Bengal: Midnapur, 1921-31, unpublished Ph.D. dissertation. University of London, 1980. 2. West Bengal State Archives (WBSA hereafter) Home-Poll 71/42, District Officer's chronicles, p. 16. 3. Ibid. 4. Bidyut Chakrabarty, 'Viranganas and the Quit India Movement', The Statesman, Calcutta & Delhi, 22 January, 1989. 5. WBSA, Home-Poll 71/42, op. cit. pp. 16-17. 6. Ibid. 7. The seditious movement, as was described in the official parlencc, perturbed the Midnapur District Magistrate, N.M. Khan to the extent of inviting extra armed forces to nip the movement at the bud. See, India Office Records (IOR hereafter), R/3.2.36, DM, Midnapur to the Chief Secretary, Govt. of Bengal, 26/9/1942. 8. Hitesranjan Sanyal, 'Dakshin-Paschim Banglay Jatiatabadi Andolon', Chaturanga, Calcutta, 38, 1, (May-July, 1976), pp. 1-26; 38, 3 (Nov-Jan, 1977), pp. 188-207; 39, 1 (May-July, 1977), pp. 68-83; 'Congress movements in the villages of Eastern Midnapur, 1921-31, in M. Gaborieau and A. Thorner (eds) Asie du sud : traditions et Changements, Paris, Editions du Centre de la Recherche Scientifique 1979, pp. 169-78. 9. Partha Chattcrjce, 'Spontaneity and Organization in Peasant Movements in Bengal, 1920-47', in Political Violence, collected seminar papers No. 30, University of London, 1987, p. 40.