Indian Home Rule movement

However, the split in the congress and the absence of leaders like Tilak, who was imprisoned in Mandalay, meant that nationalistic response to the British policies remained tepid.

Wartime policies such as the 1915 Defence of India Act, which were perceived as oppressive restrictions, also contributed to the rise of the Indian Home Rule movement.

Between 1916 and 1918, when the war was beginning, prominent Indians like Joseph Baptista, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, G. S. Khaparde, Sir S. Subramania Iyer, Satyendra Nath Bose and the leader of the Theosophical Society, Annie Besant, decided to organize a national alliance of leagues across India, specifically to demand Home Rule, or self-government within the British Empire for all of India.

The move created considerable excitement at the time, and attracted many members of the Indian National Congress and the All-India Muslim League, who had been allied since the 1916 Lucknow Pact.

The leaders of the League gave fiery speeches, and petitions with hundreds of thousands of Indians as signatories were submitted to British authorities.

Unification of moderates and radicals as well as unity between Muslim League and Indian National Congress was a remarkable achievement of Annie Besant.

The speech given by him in a meeting held in kurnool is highlighted here in which he thrashed the British Government saying the (bulk of) bureaucracy has failed to understand the needs of the people and the requirements of time.

The movement of home rule continued to provide strength to nationalist sentiments in the future and this sequence of activities eventually resulted in the Independence of India in 1947.

Its further growth and activity were stalled by the rise of Mahatma Gandhi and his Satyagraha art of revolution: non-violent, but mass-based civil disobedience.

His victories in leading the farmers of Champaran, Bihar and Kheda, Gujarat against the British authorities on tax revolts made him a national hero.