Home Rule Movement & Lucknow Pact (1916)

§1 — Background (1907–15)

Background: Years of Stagnation (1907–1915)

The decade after the Surat Split (1907) was a period of stagnation for the Indian National Congress. With the Extremists expelled, the Moderates dominated — but their methods (petitions, prayers) yielded little. The Morley-Minto Reforms of 1909 disappointed everyone except the Muslim elite (separate electorates).

Three factors created the conditions for the Home Rule Movement of 1916:

• Tilak's release from Mandalay in June 1914 (after 6 years of transportation) brought back the Extremist leadership.
• World War I began in August 1914. India contributed 1.3 million soldiers and £100 million to the war — Indian leaders expected substantial political concessions in return.
• Annie Besant's political turn — president of the Theosophical Society from 1907, she founded Commonweal (a weekly) and New India (a daily, Madras 1914) to campaign for Indian self-government.

The Irish Home Rule Inspiration

The term "Home Rule" was directly borrowed from the Irish Home Rule Movement (Charles Parnell, then John Redmond). Just as Ireland sought self-government within the British Empire, Indian leaders adopted the same demand — explicitly avoiding the more radical "complete independence" framing.

Annie Besant's Initial Approach to Congress (1915)

At the Bombay Congress of December 1915, Besant proposed setting up a Home Rule League under Congress aegis. Conservative Moderates (Pherozeshah Mehta — who had since died in November 1915 — and Surendranath Banerjee) blocked her. Besant decided to launch her own League. Tilak, also rebuffed initially, decided to start his own.

§2 — Tilak's Indian Home Rule League

Tilak's Indian Home Rule League (April 1916)

Bal Gangadhar Tilak founded the Indian Home Rule League at Belgaum (Belagavi, Karnataka) on 28 April 1916. Headquarters at Pune.

Geographical Scope

By agreement with Besant's League, Tilak's League operated in:

• Maharashtra (excluding Bombay city)
• Karnataka
• Central Provinces
• Berar

The league had about 14,000 members at its peak (1917).

Tilak's Slogan

Tilak's iconic 1916 slogan: "Swaraj is my birthright, and I shall have it!" — delivered at Pune. It became the guiding motto of the Home Rule Movement.

Methods

• Newspapers: Mahratta (English) and Kesari (Marathi) — long-running Tilak organs.
• Public meetings, lectures, pamphlets in Marathi and Kannada.
• Six branches established across the assigned territories.
• Tilak charged with sedition for his speeches in 1916 — case dismissed (defended by M.A. Jinnah).

§3 — Annie Besant's All India Home Rule League

Annie Besant's All India Home Rule League (September 1916)

Annie Besant founded the All India Home Rule League at Madras on 1 September 1916, with George Arundale as Organising Secretary.

Geographical Scope

Operated in the rest of India — Madras Presidency, Bombay city, United Provinces, Bengal, Bihar, Punjab, Sind, Gujarat, etc. Headquarters at Adyar (Madras), the same as the Theosophical Society.

Membership

Besant's League had about 27,000 members at its peak (1917) — nearly twice Tilak's. Total combined membership was thus about 41,000 — a quantum leap over Congress's earlier reach.

Members

Many later prominent leaders began their public careers in Besant's League:

• Jawaharlal Nehru — joined the Allahabad branch (1917); his first political affiliation.
• Motilal Nehru
• C. Rajagopalachari
• S. Subramania Iyer (Madras)
• B. Chakravarti
• Madan Mohan Malaviya (also a member)
• M.A. Jinnah

Newspapers

• New India (daily, Madras, founded 1914) — Besant's main political organ.
• Commonweal (weekly).
• Young India and Young Men's Indian Association (G.S. Arundale).

Internment of Besant (June 1917)

Madras Government interned Annie Besant, B.P. Wadia, and George Arundale on 15 June 1917 at Ootacamund (Ooty) for "seditious" activities. The internment galvanised the movement enormously — protest meetings spread across India. Even moderates like M.K. Gandhi, Madan Mohan Malaviya, Surendranath Banerjee, M.M. Malaviya joined protests. By September 1917, the Government released them. The internment turned Besant into an all-India hero.

§4 — Methods and Achievements

Methods and Achievements of the Home Rule Movement

Methods

• Public meetings, processions, lectures across small towns and cities — taking nationalism beyond the metropolitan elite.
• Newspapers and pamphlets in vernacular languages — Tilak's Kesari and Besant's New India were the flagships.
• Educational and political mobilisation — youth and middle class drawn in.
• Petitions and resolutions sent to British government and Parliament.
• Coordinated agitation with Congress and Muslim League — leading to the Lucknow Pact (December 1916).

Achievements

• Made Home Rule (self-government) the consensus political demand of Indian opinion — moving beyond the Moderates' incremental reformism.
• Brought the Extremists back into the Congress mainstream at the Lucknow Session (December 1916).
• Achieved the Congress-League Lucknow Pact — first major political agreement between the two organisations.
• Produced the Montagu Declaration (20 August 1917) — first British acknowledgement of "responsible government" as a goal.
• Laid the political groundwork for Gandhi's mass movements after 1919.
• Brought Annie Besant to the Congress Presidency at the Calcutta session of December 1917 — first woman President of the INC.

§5 — Lucknow Pact (December 1916)

The Lucknow Pact (December 1916)

The Lucknow Pact was signed at the joint sessions of the Indian National Congress and the All-India Muslim League at Lucknow in December 1916. The Congress was presided by Ambika Charan Mazumdar; the Muslim League by M.A. Jinnah (himself simultaneously a Congress member at this date).

Architects of the Pact

• Bal Gangadhar Tilak — for the Extremists.
• M.A. Jinnah — at this time the "Ambassador of Hindu-Muslim Unity" (Sarojini Naidu's phrase).
• Annie Besant — facilitator.
• Madan Mohan Malaviya — Hindu Mahasabha link; opposed but reluctantly accepted.

Major Provisions of the Pact

Significance

• First major political agreement between the Congress and the Muslim League.
• Marked the readmission of the Extremists (Tilak) to the Congress at the same Lucknow session.
• Established communal representation as the basis of Indian constitutional politics — a step the Congress had long opposed but now accepted as the price of unity.
• The pact was extensively cited by the Government of India Act 1919 and Government of India Act 1935.

Critique

The Lucknow Pact is historiographically controversial. Critics argue:

• It legitimised separate electorates — a system the Congress had long argued was divisive. Once granted, it became hard to undo, contributing eventually to Partition.
• It exchanged a transient unity for a permanent communal architecture.
• Hindu Mahasabha and Muslim League both later disavowed it — neither was satisfied.
• Sumit Sarkar called it "a mortgage of the future for short-term gains".

Defenders argue: in the conditions of 1916, Hindu-Muslim unity was politically essential; the alternative was perpetual division and British dominance.

§6 — Montagu Declaration (20 August 1917)

The Montagu Declaration (20 August 1917)

On 20 August 1917, in the British House of Commons, Edwin Samuel Montagu, Secretary of State for India (replacing Austen Chamberlain after the Mesopotamia Commission's adverse report), made a historic declaration of British policy:

"The policy of His Majesty's Government, with which the Government of India are in complete accord, is that of increasing association of Indians in every branch of the administration and the gradual development of self-governing institutions, with a view to the progressive realization of responsible government in India as an integral part of the British Empire."

Significance

• First British acknowledgement that "responsible government" was the goal of British policy in India.
• Drove a wedge between this and earlier statements (e.g., Morley's that "responsible government" was NOT the aim).
• Direct response to the Home Rule Movement and India's WWI contribution.
• Led to the Montagu-Chelmsford Report (July 1918) and the Government of India Act 1919.

Reactions

• Annie Besant celebrated; the Home Rule Movement claimed victory.
• Tilak welcomed cautiously — wanted faster pace of reform.
• Indian National Congress at the December 1917 Calcutta session praised the declaration but demanded more.
• British Conservatives (Lord Curzon, Sir Reginald Dyer) opposed it strongly.

§7 — Decline of the Home Rule Movement

Decline of the Home Rule Movement (1918–20)

By 1918, the Home Rule Movement was declining for several reasons:

• Montagu Declaration (August 1917) and the Montagu-Chelmsford Report (July 1918) appeared to satisfy Moderates — the All-India Liberal Federation broke off from Congress in November 1918 (S.N. Banerjee, T.B. Sapru, V.S. Srinivasa Sastri).
• Tilak's London visit (October 1918 – November 1919) — to pursue a libel suit against Sir Valentine Chirol; weakened on-ground organisation.
• Annie Besant's vacillation over the Government of India Act 1919 — she eventually opposed it; her relevance declined.
• Gandhi's emergence with Champaran (1917) and Kheda (1918) Satyagrahas — a new, more dynamic leadership.
• Rowlatt Satyagraha (1919) and Jallianwala Bagh massacre (13 April 1919) radicalised the political scene — Home Rule's "loyal" methods seemed dated.

Merger

Both Home Rule Leagues effectively merged into the Indian National Congress by 1920. Tilak's League became part of Gandhi's emerging mass movement. Tilak himself died on 1 August 1920 — the same day Gandhi launched the Non-Cooperation Movement. The torch passed to Gandhi.

§8 — Significance of 1916–17

Significance of the 1916–17 Years

The 1916–17 period was a watershed in Indian nationalism:

• Annie Besant became INC President (Calcutta, December 1917) — first woman.
• Champaran Satyagraha (April 1917) — Gandhi's first major Indian campaign.
• Foundation of the Sabarmati Ashram (May 1915 by Gandhi, on the bank of Sabarmati).
• Birth of the Servants of India Society's extensive social work (Gokhale died February 1915).
• WWI cooperation raising Indian expectations.
• The political ground was prepared for the mass-movement phase of nationalism (1919 onwards).

§9 — Frequently Asked Questions

Frequently Asked Questions