Lucknow Pact (1916)

The split of Congress at Surat session continued till 1916. Tilak and Besant made efforts to reunite Moderates and Extremists into the congress. Ambika Charan Majumdar presided over the congress session of Lucknow in 1916. This session was important for two reasons :

(1). The Extremists rejoined Congress.

(2). Congress and Muslim League formed a pact.

At the Lucknow session Congress and Muslim League signed a pact to cooperate each other  on the basis of common programme in political field, which is known as Congress-League Pact.

Tilak and Besant played leading role in Congress-League pact. This pact was opposed by Madan Mohan Malviya because Congress accepted the demand of 'separate electoral college' by Muslim League. It was a great achievement for Muslim League.

With the discontinuation of Non Cooperation movement in 1922, the Lucknow pact ended.

After the Surat split, Congress once again divided due to disagreement over the Montague declaration. The liberals under S. N. Bannerjee welcomed Montague declaration whereas Nationalist opposed it. At Surat session, liberals had expelled extremist from Congress but this time liberals left Congress to support government.

In 1918, the Liberals founded National Liberal League under the leadership of S N Bannerjee and it latter came to be known as National Liberal federation. Its other members were : Srinivas Sashtri, Tej Bahadur Sapru and Bipin Chandra Pal. Liberals referred Montague Chelmsford reform as Magna Carta of India.

Home Rule Movement (1914)

On 16th June 1914, Tilak was released from Mandaley prison after 6 years.

Annie Besant joined Congress in 1914. She came to India in 1893 to work for Theosophical society (was established in 1875, in India it was opened in 1886 at Adiyar (Madras)), it worked for the reform of Hinduism, Buddhism and Parsi).

In 1914, Besant decided to launch Home Rule Movement on the basis of Home Rule League of Ireland. She thought that the permission of Congress & Extremist support was necessary for Home Rule Movement, so she started convincing Moderate leaders to re-include Bal Gangadhar Tilak and his Extremist supporters in the Congress.

Firuz Shah Mehta opposed entry of extremist into Congress in the Congress session of 1914. After the Congress session of  1914, Tilak and Besant decided to launch Home Rule Movement on their own. The Home Rule Movement was inaugurated  on 2nd January 1915 with the publication of a weekly magazine 'Commonwill'. The objective of this movement was to obtain self rule under the British rule in constitutional way.
Bal Gangadhar Tilak founded Indian Home Rule League on 28th April 1916 in Belgaon province session. Annie Besant founded Home Rule Movement in September 1916, Madras. The region of Home Rule League of Tilak was Karnataka, Maharashtra (not Bombay), Central Provinces and Berar. Besant's Home Rule League operated in remaining part of India.
Largest number of offices of Home Rule League was in Madras. Tilak used "Maratha" and "Kesari" newspaper to propogate Home Rule League and Annie Besant used "Commonwill" and "New India". By March 1917, membership of Tilak's League reached 14000 whereas Besant's League had 7000 members. On 23rd July 1916, a team of advocate led by Jinnah fought the case of so called notice to Tilak. The leading people joining Besant's Home Rule League were Jawahar Lal Nehru, B. Chackravorty and J. Bannerjee.
In 1917, government fearing the growing popularity of Home Rule League, arrested Annie Besant. Subramaniyam rejected Knighthood in protest of arrest of Annie Besant.
As a result of Montague declaration, on 20th August 1917, Annie Besant declared abolition of Home Rule Luague. In September 1917, Besant was released from prison. In December 1917, Besant was elected as the President of Congress on the proposal of Tilak.