New Forms of Struggle and the Extent of Mass Participation

At a Glance

• What it is The methods and social base of the Swadeshi Movement
• New forms Boycott, meetings, samitis, festivals, atma shakti, national education, swadeshi enterprise
• Participants Students, women, some zamindars, workers; most Muslims stayed away
• Outcome Partition annulled in 1911
• Exam link UPSC Prelims, Modern History: Era of Militant Nationalism, 1905-1909

Where Does It Fit?

This is the fifth topic of the category on the era of militant nationalism. The previous topic described the Extremist leadership and programme. This topic describes the forms of struggle and who took part. The next topic evaluates the Swadeshi Movement. Previous topic: Swadeshi and Boycott Movement Under Extremist Leadership.

What New Forms of Struggle Appeared?

The militant nationalists put forward several fresh ideas at the theoretical, propaganda and programme levels.

What Was the Impact on Culture and Science?

Nationalists of all hues took inspiration from songs written by Rabindranath Tagore, Rajnikant Sen, Dwijendralal Ray, Mukunda Das, Syed Abu Mohammad and others. Tagore’s Amar Sonar Bangla was later adopted as the national anthem of Bangladesh. In Tamil Nadu, Subramania Bharati wrote Sudesha Geetham. In painting, Abanindranath Tagore broke the domination of Victorian naturalism and took inspiration from Ajanta, Mughal and Rajput art; Nandalal Bose, who left a major imprint on Indian art, was the first recipient of a scholarship offered by the Indian Society of Oriental Art, founded in 1907. In science, Jagdish Chandra Bose, Prafullachandra Roy and others pioneered original research praised across the world.

Who Participated?

Students: Students came out in large numbers to propagate and practise swadeshi and led the picketing of shops selling foreign goods. Student participation was visible in Bengal, Maharashtra, especially Poona, and in the south (Guntur, Madras, Salem). The police were repressive: schools and colleges whose students took part could be disaffiliated or lose grants and privileges, and guilty students could be disqualified from government jobs and scholarships, fined, expelled, arrested or beaten.

Women: Women, traditionally home-centred, especially of the urban middle classes, took an active part in processions and picketing and would play a significant role in the national movement from then on.

Muslims: Some Muslims participated, such as Barrister Abdul Rasul, Liaqat Hussain, Guznavi and Maulana Azad (who joined one of the revolutionary terrorist groups), but most of the upper and middle class Muslims stayed away or, led by Nawab Salimullah of Dacca, supported the partition on the plea that it would give them a Muslim-majority East Bengal. To further its interests the government propped up the All India Muslim League, formed at Dacca on 30 December 1906 (the chapter says 1905), as an anti-Congress front, and encouraged reactionary elements like Nawab Salimullah. The nature of the movement, with leaders evoking Hindu festivals and goddesses for inspiration, also tended to exclude Muslims. The League is told in Morley-Minto Reforms, 1909, and the Formation of the Muslim League.

Labour: At first some strikes were organised on the issues of rising prices and racial insult, primarily in foreign-owned companies. In September 1905 more than 250 Bengali clerks of the Burn Company, Howrah, walked out against a derogatory work regulation. In July 1906 a strike of workers in the East Indian Railway led to the formation of a Railwaymen’s Union. Between 1906 and 1908 strikes in the jute mills were very frequent, at times affecting, in the chapter’s words, all the mills. Subramania Siva and Chidambaram Pillai led strikes in a foreign-owned cotton mill at Tuticorin and Tirunelveli, and in Rawalpindi the arsenal and railway workers struck under Lala Lajpat Rai and Ajit Singh. By the summer of 1908 labour unrest subsided under strict action.

Thus the social base of the movement expanded to include some zamindars, students, women and the lower middle classes in cities and towns. An attempt was also made to give political expression to the economic grievances of the working class through strikes. But the movement could not win the support of Muslims, especially the Muslim peasantry, because of a conscious government policy of divide and rule, helped by the overlap of class and community at places.

What Was the All-India Aspect and the End of the Partition?

Movements in support of Bengal’s unity and the swadeshi and boycott agitation were organised in many parts of the country. Tilak, who played a leading role in spreading the movement outside Bengal, saw in it the opening of a new chapter in the national movement and a challenge and an opportunity to organise popular mass struggle against British rule and unite the country in a bond of common sympathy.

It was decided to annul the partition in 1911, mainly to curb the menace of revolutionary terrorism. The annulment came as a rude shock to the Muslim political elite. It was also decided to shift the capital to Delhi as a sop to Muslims, since Delhi was associated with Muslim glory, but the Muslims were not pleased. Bihar and Orissa were taken out of Bengal and Assam was made a separate province.

As an analytical point, the new forms of struggle show that the Swadeshi Movement was as much a cultural and economic movement as a political one. Its limit was social: it reached students, the urban middle class and some workers, but not the peasantry or most Muslims, which is the central point of the evaluation in Evaluation of the Swadeshi Movement.

Why Is This Topic Important?

• Forms of struggle Samitis, atma shakti and national education are common Prelims items
• Social base Who joined and who did not is a standard Mains point
• Link to later movements These forms reappear in Gandhian movements

What Came Next?

The next topic evaluates the Swadeshi Movement. Next topic: Evaluation of the Swadeshi Movement.

Key People and Terms

• Samiti A volunteer corps used for mass mobilisation
• Atma shakti Self-reliance, the reassertion of national dignity and confidence
• National Council of Education The body set up on 15 August 1906 for education on national lines
• Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company V.O. Chidambaram Pillai’s shipping venture at Tuticorin
• Nawab Salimullah The Dacca Nawab who supported the partition
• Annulment The cancellation of the partition in 1911

Exam Corner

Mains Angle

Questions ask for the forms and social base of the Swadeshi Movement. These points add depth.

• Innovation Samitis, festivals and national education
• Broadened base Students, women, workers and some zamindars
• Limits Muslims and the peasantry stayed away