In May 1916 the Anglo-Irish agitator and disciple of theosophy Annie Besant began to spread her influence from Madras across India, regaling crowds of tens of thousands in Bombay with rousing tales of the Dublin uprising.24 The radical Hindu leader Bal Gangadhar Tilak revived his fundamentalist wing of Indian nationalism and joined in the clamour for Home Rule. At Allahabad in the spring of 1916, leaders of the Hindu-dominated Indian National Congress and the Muslim League issued an unprecedented joint declaration calling for far-reaching constitutional change. This cooperation was
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