Q. In 1920, which of the following changed its name to “Swarajya Sabha”?

All India Home Rule League
Hindu Mahasabha
South Indian Liberal Federation
The Servants of India Society

Answer: (a) All India Home Rule League

Indian Home Rule movement:

The Indian Home Rule movement was a movement in British India on the lines of the Irish Home Rule movement and other home rule movements.
The movement lasted around two years between 1916–1918 and is believed to have set the stage for the Indian independence movement under the leadership of Annie Besant and Bal Gangadhar Tilak to the educated English speaking upper class Indians.
In this context, two Home Rule Leagues were formed in 1916. Lokamanya Tilak led the first, covering Maharashtra, Bombay, Karnataka, and parts of the Central Provinces, while Annie Besant and S. Subramaniya Iyer led the second, which focused on areas across India, particularly Madras Presidency.
- Their shared aim was to promote the demand for Home Rule or self-government for India after the war, with Tilak’s famous slogan, “Home Rule is my birthright, and I will have it,” galvanising supporters nationwide.
In 1920, All India Home Rule League changed its name to Swarajya Sabha.

Reasons for movement to fade out:

The movement was not a mass movement. It was restricted to educated people and college students.
The leagues did not find a lot of support among Muslims, Anglo-Indians and non-Brahmins from Southern India as they thought home rule would mean a rule of the upper caste Hindu majority.
Many of the moderates were satisfied with the government’s assurance of reforms (as preluded in the Montague Declaration). They did not take the movement further.
Annie Besant kept oscillating between being satisfied with the government talk of reforms and pushing the home rule movement forward. She was not able to provide firm leadership to her followers. Although ultimately she did call the reforms ‘unworthy of Indian acceptance’.
In September 1918, Tilak went to England to pursue a libel case against Sir Ignatius Valentine Chirol, British journalist and author of the book ‘Indian Unrest’. The book contained deprecatory comments and had called Tilak the ‘Father of Indian Unrest.’
The Government made use of Defence of India Act, 1915 to curb the activities of the agitators.
Students were prohibited from attending Home Rule meetings.
Tilak was prosecuted and his entry in Punjab and Delhi was banned.
Indian Press Act of 1910 was imposed on the press and restrictions were enforced.
Tilak’s absence and Besant’s inability to lead the people led to the movement’s fizzing out.
The movement was left leaderless with Tilak going abroad and Besant unable to give a positive lead.
After the war, Mahatma Gandhi gained prominence as a leader of the masses and the Home Rule Leagues merged with the Congress Party in 1920.

Hindu Mahasabha:

It was established in 1915 to protect the rights of the Hindu community.
It was known previously as the Sarvadeshak Hindu Sabha.
In April 1921 it changed its name to Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha.
Founded in 1915 by Madan Mohan Malviya, the Mahasabha functioned mainly as a pressure group advocating the interests of Orthodox Hindus before the British Raj from within the Indian National Congress.
In the 1930s, it emerged as a distinct party under the leadership of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, who developed the concept of Hindutva and became a fierce opponent of the western, secular nationalism espoused by the Congress.
During the Second World War, the Mahasabha supported the British war effort and briefly entered coalitions with the Muslim League in provincial and central councils.
It opposed the Quit India Movement and supported the British.
The party opposed the 1947 partition of India and sought the establishment of a secular and united state named Hindustan with same rights for citizens without regards to religion
The Eminent personalities who founded this Organisation and who presided over the All India Sessions held include Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya, Lal Lajpat Rai, Veer Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, etc.

Servants of India Society:

The Servants of India Society was formed in 1905 by Gopal Krishna Gokhale in Pune, Maharashtra.
Along with him were a small group of educated Indians, as Natesh Appaji Dravid, Gopal Krishna Deodhar, Surendra Nath Banerjee, and Anant Patwardhan who wanted to promote social and human development and overthrow the British rule in India.
Its aim is to build a dedicated group of people for social service and reforms. It focused on nation-building through education, social welfare, and uplifting the downtrodden, particularly the underprivileged, rural, and tribal populations.
The society also worked to unite people of different ethnicities and religions for welfare purposes, contributing to the integration of the masses during the Indian Independence movement.

South Indian Liberal Federation (Justice Party):

It was popularly known as the Justice Party.
It was a political party in the Madras Presidency of British India.
It was established on 20 November 1916 in Victoria Memorial Hall in Madras by Dr. C. Natesa Mudaliar and co-founded by T. M. Nair, P. Theagaraya Chetty and Alamelu Mangai Thayarammal as a result of a series of non-Brahmin conferences and meetings in the presidency.
When a diarchial system of administration was established due to the 1919 Montagu–Chelmsford reforms, the Justice Partytook part in presidential governance.
- In 1920, it won the first direct elections in the presidency and formed the government.
It was the main political alternative to the nationalist Indian National Congress in Madras. After it lost to the Congress in the 1937 election, it never recovered.
It came under the leadership of Periyar E. V. Ramaswamy and his Self-Respect Movement. In 1944, Periyar transformed the Justice Party into the social organisation Dravidar Kazhagam and withdrew it from electoral politics.