भारत सरकारGOVERNMENT OF INDIA
संस्कृति मंत्रालयMINISTRY OF CULTURE
Sri Potti Sriramulu Nellore, Andhra Pradesh
June 07, 2023
The Home Rule movement led by Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Annie Besant was an important turning point in India’s freedom struggle. It aimed at creating a dominion status for India under British rule. The Campaign greatly impacted the people of the Nellore district of present-day Andhra Pradesh.
The followers of Bal Gangadhar Tilak delivered lectures on Home Rule in different spots across the district and collected money from the people. The Home Rule branch of Nellore began in 1917. The people of Nellore supported the movement by boycotting foreign clothes and opting for Swadeshi goods. Annie Besant took a tour all across Andhra in 1916 and gave speeches. She also declared that Home Rule was India’s birthright and Indians shall achieve it. The British government tried to suppress the movement and prohibited Annie Besant and two of her colleagues, George S. Arundel and B.P Wadia from promoting the Home Rule movement. Protest meetings were held all across the district. The leaders of the Home Rule movement in the district gathered 32,000 signatures and worked on a memorandum under the Montague-Chelmsford reforms or the Government of India Act of 1919.
Source: Indian Culture Portal