@taninamdar I'm not sure we can evaluate inevitability. That seems like it would drift a bit towards alt history. Also, wouldn't one argue that it was the Indian independence movement that was inevitable (due to nationalism)?

Yes, but what I want to know is whether the independence movement was one of the or the factor towards the independence. I've been reading some books (not alt-history / fiction / conspiracy), and my impression after reading them is -- what did the Indian leaders think they were doing? The British Empire was such a huge "multinational" empire, and they thought protests would compel it to grant independence? That's not what I learned in my Indian textbooks (nor would I like to believe that :P )!

So I think the question you want to ask, then, is why/how did Indian leaders expect essemtially peaceful protests could compel Great Britain to leave India?

If so, that would be a much more suitable question here.

Yes, that's definitely one part of what I want to ask. But even more, I want to know that regardless of why they thought that, did it really have the desired effect?

In the sense that, was that the main reason why India gained its independence, or was it the weakened state of Britain after WW2, similar to the act of throwing away flotsam?

@taninamdar Definitely make that a separate question. It's much better (for various reasons...) to have multiple small, focused questions than one big, book-length-answer-inciting one anyway

It will be a somewhat problematic question here because you know how anti-alt-history some members are. Bit I think what you want would be something like, "Having been weakened in WW2, would Britain have left India anyway without the Indian indepedence movement?"

But I would say the answer is no - India was the jewel of the British crown. Britain would not have abandoned India if indigenous nationalism hadn't made it too costly to hang on to.

I'm in process of framing the question, I know it's tricky because it's on the borderline of being alt-history. You can edit as you please once I finish it. :-)

I really do suggest making it into at least two questions, if you still want to find out about what Indian leaders were thinking. I'm going to nap though, good luck with it.