Arrest Of Annie Besant & Home Rule Movement In 1917

The arrest of Mrs. Besant and her associates, B.P. Wadia and George Arundale, by the Government of Madras in June 1917 marked a turning point in the movement. Their detention became a source of national outrage. Sir S. Subramania Aiyar renounced his knighthood in a dramatic gesture. Many moderate leaders, including Madan Mohan Malaviya, Surendranath Banerjea, and M.A. Jinnah, who had stayed away, joined the Home Rule Leagues to show their support for the internees and condemnation of the government's actions. Tilak advocated the use of passive resistance or civil disobedience if the government refused to release the internees at an AICC meeting on July 28, 1917.

 

•    The proposal to adopt passive resistance was sent to all of the Provincial Congress Committees for comment, and while Berar and Madras were eager to adopt it right away, the majority of the others preferred to take more time before making a decision. 

 

•    Shankerlal Banker and Jamnadas Dwarkadas, at Gandhiji's request, gathered the signatures of a thousand men willing to defy the internment orders and march to Besant's detention centre.

 

•    They also started collecting signatures on a petition for Home Rule from a million peasants and workers. They paid regular visits to Gujarat towns and villages, where they assisted in the establishment of League branches. 

 

•    Montague, writing in his Diary, commented: ‘...Shiva cut his wife into fifty-two pieces only to discover that he had fifty-two wives. This is really what happens to the Government of India when it interns Mrs. Besant.’

 

•    The British government decided to make a policy shift and take a more conciliatory stance. The new Secretary of State, Montague, made a historic declaration in the House of Commons, On 20 August, 1917 in which he stated: ‘‘The policy of His Majesty’s Government . . . is that of the increasing association of Indians in every branch of the administration and the gradual development of self-governing institutions, with a view to the progressive realisation of responsible government in India as an integral part of the British Empire.” This statement contrasted sharply with that of Lord Morley, who had stated categorically during the introduction of the Constitutional Reforms in 1909 that the reforms were not intended to lead to self-government. 

 

•    Montague's Declaration was significant in that it declared that the demand for Home Rule or self-government could no longer be considered seditious.

 

•    However, this did not imply that the British government would grant self-government. The accompanying clause in the statement, which clarified that the nature and timing of the transition to responsible government would be determined solely by the government, gave it enough leeway to delay any real transfer of power to Indian hands for a long enough period of time.

 

•    Annie Besant was released in September 1917, in keeping with the Montague Declaration's conciliatory stance. Annie Besant was at the height of her popularity when she was elected President of the Congress in December 1917, at Tilak's suggestion.

 

•    However, during 1918, a number of factors conspired to disperse the energies that had been concentrated in the fight for Home Rule. Instead of continuing after its great advance in 1917, the movement gradually disintegrated. 

 

•    For one thing, the promise of reforms and Besant's release pacified the Moderates who had joined the movement after Besant's arrest. They were also put off by the talk of civil disobedience, and from September 1918 onwards, they did not attend the Congress. 

 

•    The publication of the Government Reform Scheme in July 1918 further polarised nationalists. Some wanted to accept it outright, while others wanted to reject it outright, and many others believed that, despite their inadequacy, they should be given a chance. 

 

•    Annie Besant herself vacillated a lot on this subject, as well as on the subject of passive resistance. She would deny passive resistance at times and advocate it at others, ostensibly in response to pressure from her younger followers. 

 

•    Similarly, she and Tilak initially thought the reforms were unworthy of Britain to offer and India to accept, but later changed their minds. Tilak was more consistent in his approach, but given Besant's vacillations and the change in the Moderate stance, he couldn't do much on his own to keep the movement going. 

 

•    He also decided to go to England near the end of the year to pursue the libel case he had filed against Valentine Chirol, the author of Indian Unrest, and was gone for several crucial months. The movement was left without a leader when Annie Besant was unable to provide a firm lead and Tilak was away in England.

 

•    The Home Rule Movement's greatest achievement and legacy was that it produced a generation of ardent nationalists who would form the backbone of the national movement in the years ahead, when it entered its truly mass phase under the leadership of the Mahatma. 

 

•    The Home Rule Leagues also established organisational ties between town and country that would later prove invaluable. Furthermore, it created a widespread pro-nationalist atmosphere in the country by popularising the concept of Home Rule or self-government and making it a commonplace thing. 

 

•    By the end of World War I, in 1918, a new generation of nationalists had become politically aware and impatient with the pace of change, and they were looking for a way to express themselves through effective political action. 

 

The leaders of the Home Rule League, who had brought them to this point, were unable to show them how to move forward. The stage was thus set for Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi's arrival, a man who had already made a name for himself as a leader of Indians in South Africa and as a leader of Indian peasants and workers in Champaran, Ahmedabad, and Kheda. And when he called for a Satyagraha in March 1919 to protest the obnoxious ‘Rowlatt' Act, he was the rallying point for almost everyone who had been enthralled by the Home Rule Movement.