the Parliament but was unsuccessful. Her visit, however, aroused sympathy for India. On her return, she started a daily newspaper New India on July , . She revealed her concept of self-rule in a speech at Bombay: “I mean by self-government that the country shall have a government by councils, elected by the people, and responsible to the House”.
She organized public meetings and conferences to spread the idea and demanded that India be granted self-government on the lines of the White colonies after the War. On September , , Besant made a formal declaration that she would start the Home Rule League Movement for India with objectives Impact of World War I on Indian Freedom Movement Tilak popularised the demand for Home Rule through his lectures. The popularity of his League was confined to Maharashtra and Karnataka but claimed a membership of , in April and , by early . On July on his 60th birthday Tilak was arrested for propagating the idea of Home Rule.
(b) Besant's Home Rule League Finding no signs from the Congress, Besant herself inaugurated the Home Rule League at Madras in September . Its branches were established at Kanpur, Allahabad, Benaras, Mathura, Calicut and Ahmednagar. She made an extensive tour and spread the idea of Home Rule. She declared that "the price of India's loyalty is India's Freedom".
Moderate congressmen who were dissatisfied with the inactivity of the Congress joined the Home Rule League. The popularity of the League can be gauged from the fact that Jawaharlal Nehru, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, B. Chakravarti, Jitendralal Banerji, Satyamurti and Khaliquzzaman were taking up the membership of the League. As Besant’s Home Rule Movement became very popular in Madras, the Government of Madras decided to suppress it.
Students were barred from attending its meetings. In June Besant and her associates, B.P. Wadia and George Arundale were interred in Ootacamund. The government’s repression strengthened the supporters, and with renewed determination they began to resist.
To support Besant, Sir S. Subramaniam renounced his