Britain and the United States issued the Atlantic Charter in August 1941, which declared that: ‘They respect the right of all people to choose the form of Government under which they will live; and they wish to see sovereign rights and self-Government restored to those who have been forcibly deprived of them.’10 Indians were aware that President Roosevelt had been pushing the British to make concessions to the colonies, but this declaration made it concrete. All hope was dashed, however, when Churchill clarified a few weeks later in the House of Commons that the Atlantic Charter did not apply
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