Page 108 - SST Class 05

Know It!

v For their revolutionary activities, Madan Lal Dhingra was hanged
to death while Savarkar was awarded two life imprisonments.

First World War

In the year 1914, the First World War broke out. Many countries took part in it. India
had nothing to do with the war, but the British sent a large number of Indian soldiers
to fight the war. The Indian leaders demanded freedom in lieu of the sacrifice of the
Indian soldiers. However, the British did not agree. At this, the Indian leaders started
to agitate for home rule.

Bal Gangadhar Tilak established the Home Rule League in 1916. Yet another Home
Rule League was formed by Annie
Besant . These two leaders
cooperated with each other and
demanded self-rule. This became a
popular movement.

It was around this time that
Mahatma Gandhi returned to India
from South Africa in 1915. With

this, a new era of the Indian
freedom struggle started. Annie Besant Gandhiji arriving by
ship in 1915

nationalism : love and loyalty towards one’s country.

Sati custom : a custom in which a wife entered the burning pyre of her dead
husband.

Indian Renaissance : the period when social reformers worked to eradicate social evils.
moderate phase : the period when the Congress leaders submitted only appeals and
petitions.
extremist phase : the period when the Congress leaders adopted hartal, processions and
picketing against the British rule.
hartal : stopping work in protest.
picketing : stopping customers from approaching the shops.
Swadeshi : the use of indigenous goods.
Boycott : not to use foreign goods.

policy of Divide and Rule : the British policy to put one community against the other.
revolutionary : a person who wanted to throw the British out of the country by force.

108 Contemporary Social Science-5