Swadeshi Movement

Swadeshi Movement: The partition of Bengal united the Bengalis. Rajat Ray 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 Bengal. The agitation against the partition started in 1903, but became stronger and more organised after the scheme was finally announced and implemented in 1905.

In the starting it aimed at securing the annulment of the partition, but it soon expanded into a more broad-based movement, called the Swadeshi movement. The Swadeshi movement integrated a whole range of political and social issues. Sumit Sarkar identified four major trends in the Swadeshi, mainly the moderate trend, constructive Swadeshi, political extremism and revolutionary nationalism. Sarkar said all these trends were present more or less throughout this period.

After the partition scheme was announced in 1903, the moderates initially thought that the British would accept their demands which they presented through petitions, prayers and public meetings. But, they did not succeed, and in 1905, when the partition was announced, they devised a wider Swadeshi movement.

In a meeting in Calcutta on 17 July, 1905, Surendra Nath Banerjee gave a call for the boycott of British goods and institutions. In another meeting at the Calcutta Town Hall on 7 August, 1905, a formal boycott resolution was passed, which marked the beginning of the Swadeshi movement.

The leaders of the Swadeshi movement emphasised on self-reliance, village level organisation and constructive programmes to develop indigenous or Swadeshi brands which could be alternative for foreign goods. Sarkar said that two main currents were visible in 1905—a non-political constructive Swadeshi with strong emphasis on self development efforts and political extremism with its main emphasis on passive resistance.

In the initial period, the Bengal extremists were more inclined to the programme of constructive Swadeshi. The programmes included efforts to produce daily necessities, national education, arbitration courts and village organisations. In the 1890s, focus was given on Swadeshi enterprise which was reflected in the establishment of companies like the Bengal Chemicals. In 1901, another factory was started to produce porcelain. The national education movement was led by people like Satish Chandra Mukherjee who founded the Bhagavat Chatuspathi and the Dawn Society in Calcutta. Some Swadeshi leaders believed that Hinduism would actually provide a platform for establishing unity for the whole nation.

By 1906, the extremists argued that without freedom there could not be any move towards the regeneration of national life. The movement came to espouse the slogan of complete independence or Swaraj. The extremists decided to boycott British goods and institutions and to develop indigenous alternatives, violate unjust laws and resort to violent movement if necessary. Thus, Sarkar argued that the Swadeshi movement anticipated much of the strategies inherent in the Gandhian programmes except the use of violence.

Extremist leaders like Aurobindo Ghosh were aware of the importance of mass mobilisation and emphasised on religion as an agency for reaching the masses. Religious revivalism gave a new dimension to this politics. The Bhagavat Gita became a source of spiritual inspiration for the Swadeshi volunteers. Hindu religious symbols and Sakta imageries were also frequently used to mobilise the masses. Mass mobilisation also happened through the Samitis.

The Swadeshi leaders deployed the tool of social coercion or social boycott to produce consent among the reluctant participants. They found it difficult to purchase the Swadeshi alternatives which were dearer than British goods. The lower caste peasantry in Bengal also started developing their own corporate identities, based on their notions of social mobility and self-esteem which the Swadeshi leaders failed to include in their programmes.

The Swadeshi volunteers tried to mobilise the workers employed in the foreign companies. But, they could only penetrate into the ranks of the white collar workers, while the vast body of migrant labour from Eastern India and Northern India remained untouched. It was one of the possible reasons behind the failure of the Boycott movement.

By 1908, political extremism declined and revolutionary terrorism started. The Surat split of 1907 encouraged such developments. Moderate leaders like Pheroze Shah Mehta, Dinshaw Wacha and Gopal Krishna Gokhale expressed their apprehensions over the activities of the extremists. Lala Lajpat Rai favoured a policy of restraint and wanted reconciliation between the moderates and the extremists. However, the radicalism generated by the Swadeshi movement in Bengal gave a new twist to the politics of the Congress.

The 1907 session of the Congress, which was to be held in Poona, a stronghold of the extremist politics, was shifted to Surat by the moderate leaders to avoid any disturbances.

Extremists proposed Lala Lajpat Rai’s name for the post of the Congress President, while the moderate candidate was Rash Behari Ghosh. Rai did not want a split and thus he refused the Nomination. The Surat session ended in a scuffle over the election of Rash Behari Ghosh. The Congress of 1908 was only attended by the moderates who were firm in their loyalty to the Raj. But, the extremist politics also lost its direction since Tilak died soon after and Aurobindo took up the life of a hermit. The two factions remained separate and in 1920 Gandhi once again united the two groups.

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