Home Rule League (1916)

HOME RULE LEAGUE MOVEMENT

• The Home rule league Movement was the Indian response to the First World War in a less charged but a more effective way than the response of Indians.
• The Indian Home rule leagues were organized on the lines of Irish Home rule league.
• Annie Beasant & Bal Gangadhar Tilak were the leaders of this new trend.

Factors leading to the movement: - 

Some of the factors leading to the formation –

• The moderates were disillusioned with the Morley-Minto Reforms.
• The war, being fought among the major powers of the day & backed by naked propaganda against each other, exposed the myth of white superiority.
• People were feeling the burden of wartime miseries caused by high taxation & a rise in prices, & were ready to participated in any aggressive movement of protest.
• Tilak was ready to take leadership after his released in June 1914.
• He had made conciliatory gestures to reassure the government of his loyalty and,
• The moderates wanted, like the Irish Home rulers a reform of the administration and not an overthrow of government.
• He also said that the act of violence had only served to related the peace of political progress in India.
• Annie Beasant, the Irish theosophist based in India since 1896, She had decided to enlarge the sphere of her activities to include the building of movement for Home rule. 

The League: -

• Both Tilak & Besant realized that the sanction of Moderates dominated congress as well as full co-operation of the Extremist was essential for the movement to succeed.
• Tilak & Besant decided to revive political activity on their own.
• In 1915, Annie Besant had launched a campaign to demand self-government for India.
• She campaigned, and through public meetings, newspaper, New India & commonweal & conference.
• She decided that the Extremists be admitted to the congress. Although She failed to get the congress to approve her scheme of Home Rule League.
• Tilak & Besant set up their separate league to avoid any friction.

• Tilak League`s was setup in April 1916 & was restricted to Maharashtra, Karnataka, Central provinces & Berar.
• It had six branches & their demands include swarajya, formation of linguistic states & education in Vernacular.

• Besant`s Leagues was setup in September 1916 in Madras & covered rest of India (including Bombay city).
• It had 200 branches.
• Tilak`s League & George Arundale as the organizing secretary.
• The Home rule agitation was later joined by Motilal Nehru, Jawahar lal Nehru, Bhulabhai Desai, Chittaranjan Das, Madan Mohan Malviya, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, Tej Bahadur Sapru & Lala Lajpat Rai.
• Moderates Congressmen who were disillusioned with congress inactivity & some members of Gokhale`s servant of Indian society also joined. 

Government Attitude: -

• The government came down with suppression, especially in Madras where the students prohibited from attending political meetings. 
• Tilak was banned from entering in Punjab & Delhi.
• In June 1917, Annie Besant, B.P. Wadia & George Arundale were arrested.
• This scenario was invited nationwide protest.
• The Government released Besant in Sept. 1917.

Why the Agitation faded out by 1919-

• There was a lack of effective organization.
• Communal rights during 1917-18.
• When the Bessant`s arrest then the Moderates were pacified by talk of reforms in Montagu`s statement which held self-government as the long-term goal of British rule in India.
• Talk of passive resistance by the Extremists kept the moderates off from activity from September 1918.
• Montagu-Chelmsford reform which became known in July 1918 further divided the nationalist ranks.
• Tilak had to go abroad (Sept. 1918) in connection with a case.
• Annie Besant vacillated over her response to the reforms & the technique of passive resistance.
• With Besant unable to give a positive lead & Tilak away in England, the movement was left leaderless.