In 1940, Subhas Bose was deeply disturbed by the danger of India's vivisection. After talks with Muslim League leader Mohammad Ali Jinnah, in 1940 in Mumbai, he came to Wardha to meet Gandhiji.

This was to be his last meeting with the Mahatma. He vented to Gandhiji his fears. He told Gandhiji that continuation of British rule would inevitably lead to the partition of India.

In March 1940, the Muslim League demanded separate sovereign states comprising the Muslim majority provinces of India. This was an added reason why he thought of moving out of India for wartime help for hastening the end of British rule.

In 1940, he decided to send secret emissaries to Japan to probe the Japanese intentions. Japan, in 1940, had not joined its European allies in the war against the imperialist democracies of Europe. Pearl Harbour had not happened, and the then US president Roosevelt was sitting on the fence, with a very pronounced tilt towards England.