1. Empires, Nations and Lines on Map
Integrated Degree: Year 0 ( )
Week 8: Conceptualisation of Territory: Swadeshi Movement in Bengal -II

3. Indian National Congress at the turn of the 20th century : the moderates and extremists
INC (estd. 1885) at its initial stage had moderate aims of limited administrative reforms through moderate methods of ‘application and supplication’.
By the turn of the 20th century however, the younger generation within INC wanted more radical change through aggressive political methods, including public protests and demonstration against the policies of colonial government.
These young and radical leaders were known as ‘extremists’ – for their aims and methods.
The moment for ‘extremists’ came in 1905 when the colonial government decided to partition the province of Bengal.

4. A rare photograph of the three main ‘extremist leaders
A rare photograph of the three main ‘extremist leaders. Seated right to left: Bipan Pal, Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Lala Lajpat Rai, source: NCERT History textbook.

7. The partition of Bengal: 1905-1911
The province of Bengal was huge.
After a severe famine in Orissa in 1866, a reduction in the size of vast presidency of Bengal was suggested on grounds of administrative efficiency.
But the decision to divide the region in two, was finalised between
The formal proclamation to divide Bengal was announced on 1st September 1905.
Lord George Nathaniel Curzon,
The Viceroy of India ( ), took the final decision to divide Bengal.

8. Lord Curzon (1899-1905) ‘My name is George Nathaniel Curzon,
I am a most superior person.
My cheeks are pink, my hair is sleek, I dine at Blenheim once a week’.
(‘Balliol Rhyme’, a doggerel written by Curzon’s Oxford peers).
Source: Private Papers of Lord George Nathaniel Curzon, IOR, London.

9. The partition of Bengal
The colonial government claimed that Bengal was divided into two parts: the east and west, primarily for administrative efficiency.
This was largely true, Bengal was as large as France with much larger population.
But, there was another element – political.
The region by this time was the centre of nationalist politics of extremist variety.
Additionally, it was a province with a large Muslim population, with a tolerably good relations with Hindus.
This had a regional element: western Bengal was a Hindu majority area, while the east was a Muslim majority region.

10. The partition of Bengal
The political challenge Bengal posed was readily acknowledged in administrative circles.
The contemporary home secretary H.H. Risley wrote, ‘Bengal united is a power, Bengal divided will pull in several different ways’. [S. Sarkar, Swadeshi Movement in Bengal, , pp-17-18]
Moreover, the partition offered a great opportunity to divide Bengali nationalism along religious line.
Sir Herbert Hope Risley.

11. Curzon on Bengal partition…
‘The Bengalis, who like to think themselves a nation, and who dream of a future when the English will be turned out and a Bengali babu will be installed in Government House, Calcutta, of course bitterly resent any disruption…[..] A force already formidable, and certain to be a source of increasing trouble in the future’. [Curzon Collection, MSS Eur F.111/163 Vol, 8, IOR, London]
‘Conceive the howls! They will almost slay me in Bengal’. (Curzon Collection, MSS Eur F111/210, Vol 31, IOR, London)

12. The partition of Bengal: 1905
The province of Bengal was partitioned on 16th October 1905.
The partition is known as Banga-Bhanga (Bengal divided).
The response of the Bengalis – leaders and masses alike, to the partition was immediate, passionate and emotional. 500 meetings were held in East Bengal alone. 50,000 copies of pamphlets with a detailed critique of partition were distributed.
The colonial government had clearly underestimated the sense of unity among Bengali speaking people.
More importantly, the partition was seen as a final act of humiliation from the colonial government, from which highly-educated and politically conscious people of Bengal have been suffering since long.

13. The Indian responses: the swadeshi movement
Rabindranath Tagore,
The then young poet, took to the streets of Calcutta, singing and inspiring the anti-partition movement with fiery patriotic songs.
Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, the great novelist and a critic of the colonial government penned his classic ‘Anandamath’. A song from the novel ‘Bande Mataram ‘ (hail motherland) became the rallying cry of the movement.

14. The swadeshi movement (1905-1908)
The word swadeshi, (lit. country-made), a compound of two Sanskrit words: swa (one’s own) and desh (country).
To let the British know how unhappy the Bengalis were at the partition of Bengal, leaders of the anti-partition movement decided to use only Indian goods and to boycott British goods.
People gathered at the cross roads and burnt the imported clothes that they had. People picketed the shops selling foreign goods, and imported sugar was boycotted
The swadeshi movement was devised as an economic tool to hurt British interests in India.

16. The swadeshi movement (1905-1908)
Though swadeshi movement began as an economic measure, it soon became a social and political movement including boycott of government institutions and social ostracisation of individuals who were suspected of having sympathies with the colonial government.
A still from Satyajit Ray classic ‘ghare -baire’ (1984), based upon Tagore’s novel ‘The home and the world’. The story revolves around swadeshi movement and its wider social implications.

17. The phases of the swadeshi movement
Sumit Sarkar has identified four distinct phases in the swadeshi movement between These are:
1. the moderate tradition.
The gospel of atmashakti (lit. soul power) or constructive swadeshi.
Political extremism – the passive resistance technique.
The shift to ‘terrorism’.

18. Aspects of the swadeshi movement
The movement, though aimed at unification (both geographical and political) had quite different consequences.
The economic boycott hurt different social groups unevenly, especially poor were badly hurt, and in East Bengal this translated as Muslim peasants.
At another level, thinking of nation in symbolic and literary terms had an unintentional but real alienating influence on the Muslim masses. The use of Sanskrit and imagining India as Bharat-mata (lit. mother India) alienated large section of Muslims.
Last but not least, by revoking the partition (1911), the government took the steam off the movement.
Also, the Morley-Minto reforms of 1909, introduced administrative reforms, including separate electorate, which had long-term consequences for communal relations between Hindus and Muslims.

19. Aspects of the swadeshi movement
A still from Satyajit Ray classic ‘ghare -baire’ (1984), based upon Tagore’s novel ‘The home and the world’.
The Hindu landlord in story refuses to introduce swadeshi in his estate because it would have harmed his poor subjects, primarily Muslims.

20. Aspects of the swadeshi movement
Bharat-mata by A.N. Tagore. Though the picture was painted to envisage Bengal as a nourishing motherland, it was eventually seen as ‘mother India’.
Bande-mataram by Bankim, later adopted as the national song of India.

21. In many ways, Rabindranath Tagore, and his literary output brings out the tensions and the long-term consequences of the swadeshi movement:
The rise of militant nationalism.
The incompatibility of Hindus and Muslims on many issues, most importantly, economic.
The alienation of large groups of Muslims (poor) from the swadeshi and eventually nationalist movement.
Last but not least, the futility of the violent, ‘terrorist’ activities against the British colonial government, as it was brutally clamped down.
The essentially selfish and cynical nature of mass politics and propaganda and selfish use of gullible public for greater causes.

22. The legacy of the swadeshi movement
The first mass, anti-colonial movement.
A coherent strategy of economic and political challenge.
Successful movement, to a large extent.
Widely imitated in other parts of India, notably Maharashtra and Punjab.
A strong and continuing legacy of violent tactics to challenge the colonial authority (as opposed to Gandhian tactics).
A great moment for Bengali nationalism.
Amazing cultural and social output.
But, sows the seeds of Hindu-Muslim issues in Bengal - a perennially difficult issue, which continued to plague Bengal and India, and will eventually lead to the partition in on religious line.

23. A swadeshi poster from Punjab.
Khudiram Bose ( ), a Bengali revolutionary. One of the youngest revolutionaries of colonial India, Bose was found guilty of attacking government officers and was executed by hanging. At the time of his hanging, he was 18 years old.
A swadeshi poster from Punjab.