 On 3 September 1939 , British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain announced the commencement of war with Nazi Germany . The following day , the Viceroy , Lord Linlithgow , without consulting Indian political leaders , announced that India had entered the war along with Britain . There were widespread protests in India . After meeting with Jinnah and with Gandhi , Linlithgow announced that negotiations on self @-@ government were suspended for the duration of the war . The Congress on 14 September demanded immediate independence with a constituent assembly to decide a constitution ; when this was refused , its eight provincial governments resigned on 10 November and governors in those provinces thereafter ruled by decree for the remainder of the war . Jinnah , on the other hand , was more willing to accommodate the British , and they in turn increasingly recognised him and the League as the representatives of India 's Muslims . Jinnah later stated , " after the war began , ... I was treated on the same basis as Mr. Gandhi . I was wonderstruck why I was promoted and given a place side by side with Mr. Gandhi . " Although the League did not actively support the British war effort , neither did they try to obstruct it . 
