Home Rule league prepared the ground for the Lucknow Pact of 1916. Here, in this post, we shall read about the Lucknow Pact of 1916.
INC Lucknow Session: Lucknow Pact
In 1916, the Lucknow Session of the Indian National Congress was held under the presidentship of Ambika Charan Majumdar. In this session both the Moderates and Extremists reunited. Both became complementary to each other. Moderates became the controller of the organization. Whereas Extremists became the mass mobilizer. So, both the moderates and extremists led the freedom struggle.
Unity between INC and Muslim League
Congress wanted mass support and Muslim League got irritated by the British behavior with the Ottoman Empire of Turkey. So, Muslim League united with the Indian National Congress. Because by the help of the Indian National Congress, they wanted to pressurize the British Government over the issue of Caliphate during the World War-I.
In this important role was Mohammad Ali Jinnah. Sarojini Naidu called him an ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity. But in the Lucknow Pact of 1916, Indian National Congress accepted a separate electorate given by the India Council Act of 1909.
This strengthened the national movement. But as the national movement strengthened this became the cause of tension between the British Government and nationalists. So, Britishers once again came out with Carrot and Stick to control the situation. The Carrot was Montagu-Chelmsford Declaration and Stick on the Annie Besant and Tilak.
Montagu-Chelmsford Declaration-1917
The carrot came in terms of the Montagu-Chelmsford Declaration, which included political reforms for the Indians. In which the main objective was to increase the share of Indians in Polity and administration. This led to the coming of the act of 1919.
Strict Action Against Tilak and Annie Besant
Annie Besant was inturned house arrest and after coming out of it she withdrew herself from Home Rule League. She was of the opinion that Montagu-Chelmsford reform was convincing.
But on the other side, Bal Gangadhar Tilak faced Show-Cause-Notice. The government imposed a fine of 60 thousand on him. So, he failed to satisfy government by his answer on Show-Cause-Notice. Bal Gangadhar Tilak was once again in trouble and in this scenario, he left India on the issue of Valentine Chirol.
Valentine Chirol was a British journalist, who called Tilak the Father of unrest in India. So, Tilak left India on this issue in 1917. Therefore, this proved to be an end of the political career of Tilak and also intermission of the National Movement. 🙂
After the intermission, the leading character of the movie of Freedom Struggle of India will come. He was none other than the Legend of Indian Freedom Struggle, the father of the nation, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, commonly known as Mahatma Gandhi.
So, from here starts the Gandhian Era of Freedom Struggle. In the next coming post, we shall read the Gandhian phase of the Freedom Struggle.
Thank you so much. 🙂 Stay Connected. 🙂
