Home Rule Movement, Annie Besant & Lucknow Pact

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Q50. The famous Lucknow Pact of 1916 was associated with which pair of leaders?

[Bihar Jeevika Block Project Manager (24 November 2025, Morning Shift)]

1. Mahatma Gandhi and Aga Khan
2. Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Muhammad Ali Jinnah
3. Mahatma Gandhi and Muhammad Ali Jinnah
4. Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Aga Khan

Answer: (B) Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Muhammad Ali Jinnah

Explanation: Tilak and Jinnah were prominent in the inter-party understanding reached at Lucknow. Their political cooperation gave the Congress and Muslim League a shared platform to press for greater representative government during the First World War.

Q49. Lucknow Pact was signed in which year?

[OSSSC CRE Preliminary (8 November 2025, Shift 1)]

1. 1913
2. 1916
3. 1909
4. 1911

Answer: (B) 1916

Explanation: The Congress and Muslim League approved the Lucknow agreement in December 1916. This was also the year the moderate and extremist factions reunited within Congress. The convergence made the year especially important in the development of constitutional nationalism.

Q48. Which option best explains the significance of the Lucknow Pact (1916)?

[IB Security Assistant Executive (29 September 2025, Shift 4)]

1. An agreement for Congress and the Muslim League to work together
2. A declaration supporting the British war effort
3. A decision ending the Swadeshi Movement
4. An agreement allowing Tilak to return from prison

Answer: (A) An agreement for Congress and the Muslim League to work together

Explanation: The Lucknow Pact represented cooperation between the Congress and the Muslim League on constitutional reform. Its shared programme expressed the demand for Indian representation and greater self-rule, while compromises over separate electorates exposed problems that would outlast the alliance.

Q47. Match:
1. Partition of Bengal;
2. Separate electorates;
3. Lucknow Pact;
4. Hindu Mahasabha formation,

with
a. 1909;
b. 1915;
c. 1905;
d. 1916.

[UKSSSC Patwari (21 September 2025)]

1. 1-c, 2-a, 3-d, 4-b
2. 1-d, 2-c, 3-a, 4-b
3. 1-a, 2-d, 3-c, 4-b
4. 1-b, 2-c, 3-d, 4-a

Answer: (A) 1-c, 2-a, 3-d, 4-b

Explanation: Partition of Bengal occurred in 1905, separate Muslim electorates were introduced through the 1909 reforms, the Hindu Mahasabha emerged as an all-India organisation in 1915, and the Congress–League Lucknow Pact followed in 1916.

Q46. Where was the headquarters of Bal Gangadhar Tilak’s Home Rule League?

[RRB NTPC UG CBT-I (2 September 2025, Shift 2)]

1. Ajmer
2. Patna
3. Surat
4. Pune

Answer: (D) Pune

Explanation: Tilak’s league had its headquarters at Poona, now Pune. Although its establishment is associated with the Belgaum provincial conference, its organisational centre was Pune. The distinction between the founding meeting and headquarters is important for answering this question.

Q45. Who founded the Theosophical Society in India and started the Home Rule League?

[AP High Court Common Recruitment (24 August 2025, Shift 2)]

1. Aruna Asaf Ali
2. Annie Besant
3. Sarojini Naidu
4. Kamala Nehru

Answer: (B) Annie Besant

Explanation: The exam’s intended answer is Annie Besant, who led the Theosophical Society in India and founded a Home Rule League. Technically, the original Society was established in New York in 1875 by H. P. Blavatsky and Henry S. Olcott.

Q44. The Lucknow Pact was an agreement between which two major Indian political organisations?

[DSSSB PGT Political Science (13 July 2025, Shift 2)]

1. All-India Muslim League and Communist Party
2. Indian National Congress and All-India Muslim League
3. All-India Muslim League and Hindu Mahasabha
4. Indian National Congress and Swaraj Party

Answer: (B) Indian National Congress and All-India Muslim League

Explanation: The Indian National Congress and the All-India Muslim League agreed to a common political reform scheme in 1916. The document sought expanded representation and greater provincial autonomy. It formed a rare episode of joint lobbying across the two organisations.

Q43. Which two leaders initiated the Home Rule Movement in India during the First World War?

[RRB NTPC Graduate CBT-I (23 June 2025, Shift 3)]

1. Annie Besant and Bal Gangadhar Tilak
2. Mahatma Gandhi and Gopal Krishna Gokhale
3. Lala Lajpat Rai and Bipin Chandra Pal
4. Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhas Chandra Bose

Answer: (A) Annie Besant and Bal Gangadhar Tilak

Explanation: Tilak and Besant operated distinct but complementary Home Rule Leagues in 1916. Their emphasis was constitutional self-government, not immediate secession. Both organisations spread nationalist arguments beyond established Congress meetings, making the movement especially influential during wartime politics.

Q42. What was the main demand of the Home Rule Movement?

[RRB NTPC Graduate CBT-I (16 June 2025, Shift 2)]

1. Immediate complete independence from Britain
2. Prohibition of Western education
3. Abolition of all taxes
4. Self-governance within the British Empire

Answer: (D) Self-governance within the British Empire

Explanation: Home Rule referred to internal self-government, broadly comparable with dominion-style autonomy in other parts of the British Empire. The 1916 leagues expanded the demand for representative institutions, without yet advancing the later Congress objective of complete independence or Purna Swaraj.

Q41. Consider the statements: 1. The Theosophical Society was founded in America and its Indian headquarters was at Adyar near Madras. 2. B. R. Ambedkar founded the All India Harijan Sangh in 1932. Which is correct?

[MPPSC Assistant Professor History Paper II (1 June 2025)]

1. Only 1
2. Only 2
3. Both 1 and 2
4. Neither 1 nor 2

Answer: (A) Only 1

Explanation: The Theosophical Society was founded in New York in 1875, and its headquarters subsequently moved to Adyar. Annie Besant later became a major leader of the society. The Harijan Sevak Sangh was founded under Gandhi’s initiative, not Ambedkar’s.