In this article, We discuss the home rule league or movement in India and we also discuss its background and activities.
Home Rule This name was first mentioned in Ireland in the 1860s. Indian Home rule league is inspired by the Irish Home rule league.
British rule was going on in Ireland too and the demand of the people here was that the rule would be of the people of Britain but the government would be of the people of Ireland.
Due to this movement, the people of Ireland were getting a lot of progress. This led to the Irish Home Rule Bill being passed in the British Parliament for the first time in 1886.
This bill was not passed at first but after 3 attempts this bill was passed in 1920. Ani Basant is the connection between the Irish and the Indian Home Rule League.
When Ani Basant came to India, he had no intention of introducing Home Rule. Ani Basant came to India in 1893 to join the Theosophical Society of India.
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First of all, let us understand what is the Theosophical Society of India. Theo means God and Sophia means Wisdom. The objective of the Theosophical Society was to read different scriptures, gain knowledge and at the same time acquire divine wisdom.
This society was started in America but the knowledge of Upanishads and Vedas brought them to India. The headquarters of this organization was Madras.
Ani Basant had made a good fan following in India by following the Theosophical Society of India.
Because people wanted to hear and read his thoughts, he started 2 newspapers in 1914, their name was Commonweal and New India. New India was not a new newspaper, Madras Standard was bought and renamed as New India.
Ani was not only talking about theosophical thoughts on these newspapers but was also discussing the political things of that time.
Ani Basant was getting interested in Indian Politics and the Indian Freedom Struggle. Due to this she joined Congress in 1914. She was also a delegate in the Congress session of 1914.
Along with this, his popularity in the Congress was also increasing and in the next session of the Congress in 1915, he expressed the idea of starting the Home Rule League.
Ani Basant told the people that look, I am from Ireland, and their home rule league is running, if we implement a home rule league in India so similar results can be seen here.
In the 1915 session, both the extremists and the moderates were reunited. When Ani Basant spoke about Home Rule to the people in this session, he did not like it right.
But Annie Besant was adamant on her point, she told the Congress, till September 1916, if the Congress wants, then it is fine. Otherwise, I myself will start a Home Rule League as a separate organization.
Lokmanya Tilak came back from jail in 1914 and was present in the Congress session of 1915. He liked the idea of the Home Rule League and he started home rule league in April 1916.
Ani Basant waited till Sept and due to no response from Congress, together with his Theosophical partner Jorge Arundale started the Home Rule League.
This means that Lok Manyya Tilak and Ani Basant had become the Home Rule League of both of them.
Lok Manya Tilak's Home Rule League was operating in Maharashtra, Berar, Central Provinces and Karnataka. There were a total of 6 branches in these areas, what work would be done in these areas was already defined.
Ani Basant's Home Rule League was functioning all over India except the areas of Lok Manya Tilak's Home Rule League. Nothing was predefined in Ani Basant's Home Rule League.
Any 3 people could jointly open their home rule branch and due to this 200 branches of Ani Basant's home rule league were opened.
Lok Manya Tilak's Home Rule League had only 6 branches and there was no permission to open more branches.
In the Home Rule League, these people used to do political discussions among the common people.
But the branches opened so much that some people had opened branches only for time pass.
Many big political leaders also joined Ani Basant's Home Rule League like Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Jinnah.
There was no estrangement between Ani Basant and Lokmanya Tilak, the thing was that the followers of Lokmanya Tilak did not like Ani Basant and the followers of Ani Basant did not like Lokmanya Tilak, so both the Home Rule Leagues were separate work.
Lokmanya Tilak's Home Rule League had two demands, first, the Indian states should be divides on the basis of language. The second demand was that Indian children should be taught in their own language.
In July 1916, the British sent him a show-cause notice. The British said that they do not feel good about the actions of Tilak. This case went on for three to four months and it was won in Nov 1916. His case was fought by Jinnah.
The Lucknow session of the Congress was held in 1916 and it was a joint session between the delegates of the Congress and the Muslim League.
In this session of Congress, both the Home Rule Leagues were given a chance to show their strength.
Now thousands of people flocked to join the Home Rule League. The Home Rule League was becoming popular day by day, so the British put Besant and Arundale in jail under the Defense of India Act. The British charged for conspiring against British rule.
At that time the followers of Ani Basant were very much and they got furious. Taking advantage of this opportunity, the big leaders of the Moderates joined the Home Rule League.
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Lokmanya Tilak also made it clear that if Ani Basant is not left out, then he will adopt the path of passive resistance and civil disobedience.
At the same time, the new Secretary of State Montage made it clear in the British Parliament in 1917 that we would include more Indians in the Indian government. So that in the future, Indians can make a responsible government.
Ani Basant was released from prison in September 1917. It was released because the concept of the Home Rule League fell out of the Conspiracy category after Montague's declaration.
Due to big moderate leaders, Ani Basant Home Rule League was not able to run properly and Lok Manya Tilak also went to London to fight a case.
Due to all these reasons, the All India Home Rule League gradually came to an end and finally joined the Congress in 1920.
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