British Imperialism had a large indelible impact on India as well.

The British under the veil of

civilizing mission and Enlightenment carried out their colonial policy which leant more towards
indirect rule in India through distinctive Governor-Generals and Viceroys. For the administrative
convenience the British even ramified certain regions to create new provinces which naturally aroused
agitation and insurgence among the indigenous people. Such an event of paramount significance was
the The Swadeshi movement of Bengal or Partition of Bengal 1905 in the history of colonial India.
(1905-1908) is seen as an important historical event in the episodic narrative of the Indian Nationalist
Movement, which takes the story forward to its eventual climax in 1947. Dr RC MAJUMDAR has
called it as “great Bengali revolution.Lord Curzon’s unpopular decision to partition the province of
Bengal in 1905, led to this popular movement, which was organized around the effective use of
‘swadeshi’ and ‘boycott’ as methods of agitation, under Extremist leadership. The subsequent
unification of Bengal in 1911 came to be regarded as a marker of the movement’s success. Rajat Ray
has argued that the Swadeshi collection based on a political alliance between the Calcutta leaders and
their East Bengali sympathisers brought about a revolution in the political structure of the Bengal
society. The agitation against the partition had started in 1903, but became stronger and more
organised after the scheme was finally announced and implemented as well in 1905. In the beginning it
had the aim of securing the annulment of the partition, but it soon expanded into a more broad-based
movement, known as the Swadeshi movement. L. M. Bhole identifies five phases of the Swadeshi
Movement.7 1. 1850 to 1904: developed by leaders like Dadabhai Naoroji, Gokhale, Ranade, Tilak,
G.V. Joshi. 2. 1905 to 1917: Began with and because of the partition of Bengal in 1905 by Lord
Curzon. 3. 1918 to 1947: Swadeshi thought shaped by Mahatma Gandhi, accompanied by the rise of
Indian industrialists. 4. 1948 to 1991: Widespread curbs on international and inter-state trade. India
became a bastion of obsolete technology during the licence-permit raj. 5. 1991 onwards: liberalization
and globalization. Foreign capital, foreign technology, and many foreign goods are not excluded and
doctrine of export-led growth resulted in modern industrialism.

Bengal was no doubt an administratively unwieldy province extending from the Sutlej to Burma.
Assam had been separated in 1874, yet the 1901 census that recorded Bengal’s population at 78.5
million, which caused urgency for Partition. • Historians say that till 1903- administrative concerns
governed proposals behind Partition. • Sumit Sarkar shows that secret official minutes and public
speeches of Lord Curzon reveal that post 1903 the Partition was guided by the sole aim of crushing
the rising nationalist tide amongst the politically active Bengalis as Bengal was a Congress stronghold.
Partition of Bengal – • The Partition plan announced on 16th July, 1905 made this amply clear as
Curzon rejected the linguistic division of Bengal in favour of dividing it on communal lines and
linguistic lines - by creating a province of East Bengal and Assam- containing 31 million people-18
million Muslims and 12 million Hindus and Bengal containing 54 million people42 million Hindus and
9 million Muslims. • Bengal was also divided on linguistic lines with majority Oriya and Hindi speaking
population. Curzon’s Home Secretary HH Risley clearly spelt it-“Bengal united is a power. Bengal
divided will pull in different ways.” The announcement of the plan in 1903 sparked off a huge antipartition movement carried out by
the Moderates till 1905, as the Government had expected. • Bipan Chandra says Moderates aimed to turn public opinion abroad and in India
against the Partition using their traditional methods like – holding protest meetings, petitions, publishing a detailed critique of Partition through a
press campaign in The Bengalee, Hitabandi and large protest meetings at the Calcutta Town Hall twice (1904 and 1905) calling for Boycott of British
goods and Institutions. • However the government remained unnerve. • In July 1905 when the date for partition was announced as 16th October,
the Moderate anti partition movement changed character and now emerged as the Swadeshi movement- led by the new leaders the “Extremists”
with novel methods. Downloaded by Archana Bharti (archanamukhi396@gmail.com) lOMoARcPSD|5501455• This surprised the British and now
spread beyond Bengal to Punjab, Maharashtra and Madras.

Sumit Sarkar and S. Bandhopadhyay trace the origins of the Swadeshi movement in Bengal to factors apart from the initial spark-Partition of Bengal.
They say – • There was escalating Bengali unity –fostered by new cultural developments- like emergence of modern Bengali literature under
Rabindranath Tagore etc., Calcutta was now a metropolis and united students/professionals from all districts, early English education and Hindu
revivalism fostered self confidence. • Secondly political disappointment with Moderate methods and achievements spurred Swadeshi in order to
try new methods. • Economic grievances like overcrowding in liberal professions, famines, epidemics (1890s) and rising prices. • International
events like British defeats in Boer War and Russo Japanese War1904-5 boosted the movement

Sumit Sarkar identified four main trends in Bengal Swadeshi-(1) the Moderate Trend,(2)Constructive Swadeshi, (3)Political Extremism and
(4)Revolutionary Terrorism. All trends more or less overlapped between 1905-08, yet one does see a movement from one to the other. (1)The
Moderate trend – • It began in 1903 with the announcement of Partition proposals. • Moderates initially employed their usual methods of
opposition-prayers, petitions and public meetings but failed to change the Government’s proposals. • With Partition announcement in July 1905,
Moderates methods changed for first time, marking the start of a wider Swadeshi movement. Moderate, Surendranath Banerjea gave a first time
call for Boycott of British goods and institutions at the Calcutta Town Hall on 7th August 1905. • British crackdown on student picketers with the
Carlyle Circular (October 22, 1905) led to Boycott of educational institutions and organization of national schools. • For the first time Moderates
tried to mobilise non-literate population and thus helped in labour strikes and national education. • However Moderates aims remained limited-to
the annulment of Partition and they only saw Boycott a step in that direction. • Moderates reverted to limited policies and called off the
educational boycott by Nov 1905, in hope for British reforms as liberal Morely(Sec of State) came to power. • Yet Boycott and frustration with
Moderates led to the growth of-(a) Non-political Constructive Swadeshi and (b) Political Extremism alongside continuation of Moderate politics
• It rejected the self demeaning Moderate politics, in favour of self reliance or atmashaktithrough the setting up of Swadeshi industries, National
schools and village level constructive programmes. • Initially Bengal Extremists propounded non-political constructive Swadeshi, thus Swadeshi
industries like- The Bengal Chemical factory were set up by Prafullachandra Roy(1893), soap factories, textile mills etc. • Within National education
Satishchandra Mukherji’s journal Dawn and Dawn Society (1902) played a seminal role and so did Rabindranath Tagore’s Shantiniketan Ashram. • In
terms of village programmes, Rabindranath Tagore the main ideologue of constructive Swadeshi (1904) planned for constructive work in villages
through the revival of the traditional Hindu ‘samaj’ or community. In 1907 a 1000 village Samitis or national volunteer organizations were reported
in Bengal. Such non-political Constructive programmes often used Hindu revivalism as a tool of unity- as seen in Rabindranath Tagore’s Hindu Samaj
proposal, though Tagore rejected Hindu revivalism after 1906. However Hindu revivalism was used in a bigger way under political Extremism by
some leader. (3)Political Extremism • Emerged around 1906 as young political extremists like Aurobindo Ghosh, Bipin Chandra Pal and
Brahmobandhab Upadhyay were unhappy with the slow peaceful unostentatious development advocated by Constructive Swadeshi. • They argued
that freedom was essential to national regeneration and thus called for a struggle for Swaraj, in their journals like Bande Materam, Yugantar and
Sandhya. • The main difference was in new political methods they advocated like- organised boycott that extended beyond British goods to British
education, justice and executive administration and ultimately civil disobedience of unjust laws, social boycott of loyalists and recourse to armed
struggle if British repression escalated. • Older methods like modern industries, national school etc were meant to continue also. • Thus Sarkar says
that they anticipated future political programme of Gandhianism minus the dogma of non violence. One of their main aims was mass political
mobilization. In their efforts they set up a huge chain of Samitis and gave novel political leadership to labour unrest. Sarkar says one notes another
trend in the Swadeshi movement that cut across all differences in political methods- that is Hindu Revivalism. While some leaders embraced this in
a major way as a short cut to political mass mobilization others rejected it out right recognizing its divisive nature. Moderate proponents included
Surendranath Banerjea advocating Swadeshi vows in temples, national education plan with revivalist content etc, Extremists like Aurodhindo
Ghosh, Bipin Pal etc insisted on Shivaji Utsav taking the cue from Tilak in Maharashtra. Yet others like Brahmo edited journals like Sanjivani, post
1907 Radindranath Tagore and Krishnakumar Mitra’s Anti Circular Society etc denounced such religious patriotism as devisive. (4) Revolutionary
Terrorism • Sarkar says by 1907 the mass movement aim of the Political Extremists was being challenged from within their ranks, by men who
called for elite action terrorism or Revolutionary Terrorism. Downloaded by Archana Bharti (archanamukhi396@gmail.com) lOMoARcPSD|
5501455• He says that by 1908 the methods of Political extremists - Gandhian constructive work and mass Satyagraha proved very short lived. One
saw a return to Moderate politics and the growth of Revolutionary Terrorism. • A common explanation for this decline in the Swadeshi movement
post 1908 has been British repression. However the total number of people tried during Swadeshi movement till 1909 were a minute-115, with
short sentences of 6months-2yrs and two cases of firing on non Swadeshi demonstrators. • Thus he analyses the achievements main
methods/trends of the movement and each one’s internal limitation that resulted in its decline/ anticlimax. • These methods were not exclusive to
one group-Moderates, constructive Swadeshi men or political extremists though revolutionary terrorism was used mainly by radical political
extremists. MAIN COMPONENTS OF THE MOVEMENT + INTERNAL LIMITATIONS – Boycott and Swadeshi – • The movement saw great success
initially as the Calcutta Customs Collector in September 1905 reported a 22% fall in imported cotton goods, 44% in cotton yarn, 55% in cigarettes,
68% in shoes as compared to August 1905, due to a boycott of such goods. The sharpest decline interestingly was in ‘cigarettes and shoes’ – middle
class Indian gentlemanly products reflecting the social base of this movement. • Sarkar says that this decline in imports was not just due to boycott
but more due to a disagreement on trade terms between Calcutta Marwari dealers and British Merchants and imports picked up once this dispute
was settled. Bombay Mill owners despite Bengali pleas still hiked up their prices in this period. • Swadeshi was successful as indigenous industries
like Handloom, silk weaving etc were revived. Modern Indian industries were promoted- e.g. Banga Lakshmi Cotton mills (1906) Calcutta Pottery
Works (1906) along with matches, cigarettes and soap factories etc. Patrons included few big zamindars but mainly professional intelligentsia. • The
main limitation of Swadeshi enterprise was the lack of capital and role of the Indian business community which found it easier to make money from
trade than investment in industry. It was an intelligentsia movement with bourgeoisie aspirations but no bourgeois support. • Thus in the long
term, Swadeshi never seriously threatened British economic interests in Bengal. National Education • National education was promoted during the
Swadeshi movement to foster self reliance and saw varied educational institutions being set up. • These included the Bengal Technical Institute for
technical education, the Bengal National College, with Aurobindo Ghosh as principal and scores of national schools across the country. • In 1906 the
National Council of Education was established to organize education on “national lines” with the advocacy of vernacular education in most
institutions. • According to Sarkar the main limitations of national education were – 1) its negligible job prospects which failed to attract students 2)
little focus on village level education. Downloaded by Archana Bharti (archanamukhi396@gmail.com) lOMoARcPSD|5501455• Ultimately what
survived were the Bengal National College, Bengal Technical Institute and a dozen national schools in West Bengal. The largest number of national
schools was in East Bengal which aimed to extend education to villages although in later years they became centres for Revolutionary activity.
Samitis – • Samitis or National Volunteer organizations were one of Swadeshi’s biggest achievements. • Till 1908 Samitis were engaged in varied
activities like-physical and moral training, social work during famines, preaching the Swadeshi message by organizing craft manufacture, schools,
arbitration courts. Bipan Chandra says that Samitis were used for mass mobilization. • The most prominent Samiti was Ashwini Kumar Dutt’s
Swadesh Bhandav Samiti in Barisal(East Bengal). It had 175 branches in the district and unparalleled mass following amongst mainly Muslim
peasants. The Samiti movement was strongest in East Bengal. • Samitis were varied in their social base and activities- 1) the Calcutta Anushilan
Samiti had a secular social base 2) The Barisal Swadesh Bhandav had a mass base through humanitarian work, 3) the Dacca Anushilan samiti
 emphasised physical training of cadres and used Hindu revivalism. • Post the summer of 1908 in the face of repression many Samitis disappeared
while some turned into revolutionary outfits-eg Dacca Anushilam Samiti. Another reason for their decline was that many village samitis didn’t
develop peasant membership but consisted mostly village bhadralok. Labour Unrest – • This was due to rising prices during the Swadeshi period,
especially in white collar enterprises, which found the support of Swadeshi leaders. • Extremist newspapers supported these strikes and some
financial aid was also given. • In Sept 1905, 247 Bengali Clerks of Burn Company-Howrah went on strike and were lauded by the public. • The main
achievement was that the first Labour Union was founded- the Printers Union (1905). • In 1906 with a strike of Eastern Railways clerks the
Railwaymen’s Union was founded and Swadeshi leaders Bipin Chandrapal, Liakat Hussain etc, addressed coolies to draw them in. • Jute strikes
peaked between 1905-8 and in 1906 the labour movement was formidable. • Yet the main limitation of labour movement Sarkar says was that
there were no real political strikes as plantation and mine labourers didn’t participate and Swadeshi contacts were mainly with white collar clerks or
at best jute workers. Revolutionary groups • Sumit Sarkar says that revolutionary groups began developing as early as 1902 in Midnapur(Midnapur
Society) and Calcutta(e.g.Anushilan Samiti founded Satishchandra Basu, Sarla Ghoshal founded a gymnasium and the Atmonnoti Samiti were
founded). • Initially their activities were confined to physical and moral training and were insignificant till 1907-08.

a.

A R DESAI
The chief forerunners of Swadeshi Movement were Bala Gangadhara Tilak, Lala Lajpat Rai, Bipin
Chandra Pal, Aurobindo Ghose and Veer Savarkar.

Chopra, R.P., British Policy and Administration in Bengal, 1905-1912, Calcutta, 1977, p.1. The
Swadeshi Movement quickly gathered force in the country. Burning of British cloth in public places
demonstrated the people's determination not to rely on foreign products. The sale of English goods fell
drastically, as Bombay Mills worked overtime to meet the demand for Swadeshi textiles. It became a
matter of national and personal pride to wear coarse dhotis woven on local handlooms rather than
fashionable Manchester cottons. Student volunteers further encouraged people to use Indian products.
Popular enthusiasm was sustained by songs written by Rabindranath Tagore and others. 5 ‘Vande
Mataram’ by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee became the national anthem. Further, the Swadeshi
movement gave tremendous inputs to Indian industries.

The Nature of the Swadeshi Movement 13The Bengalis adopted the boycott movement as the last resort
after they had exhausted the armoury of constitutional agitation 3 Antonova, et al., A History of India Book
2, Moscow, 1978, p.124. 191 known to them, namely vocal protests, appeals, petitions and conferences to
coerce the British to concede the unanimous national demand. The original conception of Boycott was
mainly an economic one. It had two distinct, but allied purposes in view. The first was to bring pressure
upon the British public by the pecuniary loss they would suffer by the boycott of British goods, particularly
the Manchester cotton goods for which Bengal provided the richest market in India. Secondly, it was
regarded as essential for the revival of indigenous industry which being at its infant stage could never grow
in the face of free competition with foreign countries which had highly developed industry. Like the
Boycott, the Swadeshi as a purely economic measure for the growth of Indian Industry was not an altogether
novel idea in India. It was preached by several eminent personalities in the 19th century, Gopal Hari
Deshmukh, better known as Lokahitawadi of Bombay, Arya Samaj founder Dayanand Saraswati and
Bholanath Chandra of Calcutta. But, the seeds sown by them did not germinate till the soil was rendered
fertile by the grim resolve of a united people, exasperated beyond measure; to forge the twin weapons of
Boycott and Swadeshi in order to undo the great wrong which was inflicted upon them by an arrogant
Government, callous to the voice of the people.14 14 Bandyopadhyay, Sekhar. From Plassey to Partition - A
History of Modern India, New Delhi, 2004, pp.248–62. Later on, the economic boycott receded into
background with the passage of time and it developed into an idea of non-cooperation with the British in
every field and the object aimed at was a political regeneration of the country with the distant goal of
absolute freedom looming large before the eyes of the more advanced section. Similarly, Swadeshi
completely outgrew the original conception of promoting Indian industry. It assumed a new form based
upon the literal connotation of the word Swadeshi, namely attachment to everything Indian. In the economic
sense, Swadeshi would represent both a positive and a negative element. These have been discussed as
under:- The positive element of economic Swadeshi was the regeneration of indigenous goods. The boycott
of foreign goods led to the increase in demand of indigenous goods especially clothes which felt short of
supply. The mill-owners of Bombay and Ahmadabad came to its rescue. The Boycott movement in Bengal
supplied a momentum and driving force to the cotton-mills in India and the opportunity thus presented was
exploited by the mill-owners. It was complained at that time that the Bombay mill-owners made a huge
profit at the expense of what they regarded as ‘Bengali Sentimentalism’, for buying indigenous cloth at any
sacrifice and there maybe some truth in it, but this is not sure.15 15 Das, M. N. India Under Morley and
Minto: Politics Behind Revolution, Revolution and Reform, New Delhi, 1964, p.66.193 Bengal had to
supplement the supply from Bombay mills by the coarse production of handlooms. The weaving industry in
Bengal was a very flourishing one till the British ruined it after they had established their rule over the
province in the 18th century. The economic boycott movement seemed to be a suitable opportunity for
reviving that industry. The clothes produce were very coarse, but were accepted by the Bengalis in the true
spirit of the Swadeshi Movement. A song which became very popular all over the country urged upon the
people to give the place of honour to the coarse cloth which is the gift of the mother, too poor to offer a
better one. The negative element (This can be considered negative only with regard to the British) of the
economic Swadeshi was the boycott and burning of foreign goods. Though Manchester cloth was the chief
target of attack, the movement was extended to other British manufacturers also, such as salt and sugar as
well as luxury goods in general.16 The ideas of Swadeshi and economic boycott was kept alive and brought
home to every door by articles in newspapers, processions, popular songs, enrollment of volunteers to keep
vigilant watch and by occasion bonfires of foreign cloth, salt and sugar. The old apparels of foreign made
belonging to sundry people were placed in a heap and then it was set on fire. The blazing flames were
looked upon as a special mode of homouring noted public leaders and 16 Annie Besant, How India Wrought
for Freedom, Madras, 1915, pp.418-419. 194 the bonfires greeting them were regarded as of great value as a
means of infusing enthusiasm for Swadeshi. Fines were inflicted on anyone found using foreign sugar.
Foreign cigarettes were bought and burnt in the streets, Brahmins refused to assist any religious ceremonies
in houses where European salt and sugar in houses where European salt and sugar were used and Marwaris
were warned of importing foreign articles. All these bonfires however affected the economy of the people.
To burn ‘Manchester made goods’ bought at a high price literally affects the people, but swept by national
enthusiasm, people continued to eschew and burn foreign goods.17
Dutt’s book was followed by A.R. Desai’s Social Background of Indian Nationalism (1948). It is another
thoroughgoing account of the colonial period and the rise of nationalism from a Marxist perspective.
According to Desai, the Indian national movement developed through five phases. Each phase was based on
particular social classes which supported and sustained it. In the first phase, the Indian national movement
was basically initiated and supported by the intelligentsia who were the product of the modern English
system of education. This phase, which began with Rammohan Roy and his followers, continued till 1885
when the Indian National Congress was founded. Now a new phase began which extended until 1905 when
the Swadeshi Movement emerged. In this phase, the national movement represented the interests of the new
bourgeoisie which had started developing in India, although it was still in its infancy. The modern education
had created a middle class, the development of the Indian and international trade had given rise to a
merchant class, and the modern industries had created a class of industrialists. Thus, in its new phase, Indian
national movement took up ‘the demands of the educated classes and the trading bourgeoisie such as the
Indianisation of Services, the association of the Indians with the administrative machinery of the state, the
stoppage of economic drain, and others formulated in the resolutions of the Indian National Congress’. The
third phase of the national movement started with the Swadeshi Movement and continued till 1918. During
this phase, the national movement covered a relatively broader social base which included ‘sections of the
lower-middle class’.

R p dutt Swadeshi, as a strategy, was a key focus of Mahatma Gandhi, who described it as the soul of Swaraj
(self rule). It was strongest in Bengal and was also called Vandemataram movement. Gandhi, at the time of
the actual movement, remained loyal to the British Crown.

Thus the Partition of Bengal is the most crucial and politically stirring event that created great controversies in the whole nation and exogenous to the rise
of Swadeshi movement and Boycott. The social composition of the Swadeshi movement was such that it belies easy characterization on the basis of class.
While sympathy from zamindars or landlords was much talked about, it was the mid-level tenure holder who was more active. Historian R. P. Dutt has
argued that Swadeshi was reflective of the grievances of the petty bourgeoisie, but Sarkar has shown that trading communities and the industrial
bourgeoisie were in fact indifferent or hostile to the movement. Swadeshi movement was a crowning achievement of nationalist politics. Disenchanted
from the mendicant politics of the moderates and angered by the racist and divisive policies of the British, the young people all over India, but particularly
in Bengal, Maharashtra and Punjab, became agitated. The partition of Bengal provided the spark to ignite the nationalist passion to a high pitch. A large
number of people participated in the protest demonstrations organised by the nationalist leaders all over the province. Protests continued for quite some
time. The repression by the colonial government and its apathy towards the demands of the people led the emergence of revolutionary nationalism which
also spread in many parts of the country