PoliticsNational and Dravidian movements

Annie Besant launches the Home Rule League at Adyar

· Adyar

Annie Besant launches the Home Rule League at Adyar
London Stereoscopic Company, Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Annie Besant founded the All India Home Rule League at Adyar, Madras, to campaign for self-government within the British Empire.

Bal Gangadhar Tilak founded the first Home Rule League at Belgaum in April 1916. In September 1916 Annie Besant, president of the Theosophical Society, founded a second league at Adyar, Madras. The leagues campaigned for self-government on the model of the dominions through meetings, publications and local branches. In the Madras Presidency the movement drew in many educated nationalists, and Besant's newspaper New India became its chief voice.

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