Impact of Swadeshi movement In India 1905-1906

Swadeshi movement is an anti-British movement in India 1905-1906. This movement originated from the Partition of Bengal in 1905 and continued till 1906.  This movement was the most successful of the pre-Gandhi movements.  At the initial stage, statements were made in the press, numerous meetings and rallies were held and memorandums were presented, and a massive conference was held at Calcutta Town Hall in March 1904 and January 1905 to oppose the partition plan in a moderate manner.  The overall failure of all these strategies inspired the opponents of the Partition of Bengal to seek new forms of opposition such as boycott of British goods, rakhi binding, ardhan etc.

 Impact of Swadeshi movement In India (1905-1906)

Theoretically, two mainstreams can be identified within the Swadeshi movement, ‘constructive Swadeshi’ and ‘political extremism’.  The boycott policy was the main tool for the success of the Swadeshi movement.  ‘Constructive Swadeshi’ was a trend of self-reliance through efforts to build Swadeshi industries, national schools, village development and organization.  It was manifested through constructive work in the villages through the business initiatives of Prafulla Chandra Roy or the Nilratan government, the national education movement initiated by Satish Chandra Mukherjee and the revival of the traditional Hindu society portrayed by Rabindranath Tagore.  Ashwini Kumar Dutt's Swadesh Bandhab Samiti also played an important role in the restructuring effort.  Rabindranath called such a situation the development of self-empowerment.

 

Its appeal to the agitated educated youth of Bengal, who were more attracted to political extremist ideologies, was minimal.  Their fundamental difference with constructive indigenous preachers was in approach.  Several articles published after Arvind Ghosh in April 1908 provide details on this subject.  These were later reprinted as the Doctrine of Passive Resistance.  He realized the program of ‘well-organized and sustained boycott of British goods, formal authoritarian education, justice and executive administration’ (supported by the positive development of indigenous industries, schools and arbitration courts).  At the same time, he wanted to take refuge in armed struggle if the lawlessness movement, the social exclusion of the royalists and the British oppression were tolerated.

 Another debate arose between the modernist and the Hindu renaissance trends over cultural ideology.  Indigenous attitudes in general were closely associated with efforts to keep politics involved with the religious renaissance.  Surendranath Banerjee claimed that he was the first person to use the Swadeshi oath system in temples.  The National Education Plan often contained strong Renaissance material and sought to enforce the boycott through traditional caste restrictions.  Such aggressive Hinduism was often inextricably linked in the pages of Bande Mataram, Sandhya or Jugantar, whereas this view was criticized in Brahmo magazines like Sanjivani or Prabasi.

 The new province, combined with the Hindu Renaissance trend to create more jobs for Muslims, had significant success in turning upper and middle class Muslims against the Swadeshi movement.  The communal riots took place in East Bengal despite the passionate appeal of an active group of Muslims believing in the Swadeshi movement such as Ghaznabi, Rasul, Deen Mohammad, Didar, Liaquat Hossain for communal unity.  Among the Hindu zamindars and moneylenders who started imposing 'theism' for the preservation of idols became the target of the riots.  Thus a large section of the Muslim community in Bengal refrained from the Swadeshi movement and the Hindu gentlemen who believed in moderate or extremist politics took a leading role in this movement.

Such a limitation of the spontaneity of the movement was noticed in the eyes of Rabindranath and other intellectuals.  Although Rabindranath was influenced by Renaissanceism for several years, he noted in a series of articles published in the mid-1908s that communal divisions were deeply ingrained, blaming the British for the riots was an inadequate response.

 Along with all these cultural limitations, the history of the boycott of British goods and the indigenous movement without the real support of the bourgeoisie in general but with the real support of the real bourgeoisie highlights the limitations of the intellectual community movement.  With the initial success of the boycott policy, in September 1906, the Calcutta Collector of Manchester noticed a decline in the sale of cloth.  This deterioration played a major role in creating a dispute over the terms of trade between the Marwari traders of Calcutta and the British producers.  Significantly, the demand for shoes and cigarettes declined the most among the consumer goods of the Indian middle class.

 Despite such limitations, the Swadeshi doctrine was able to bring about a significant revival in the weaving industry, silk weaving and some other traditional crafts.  Several steps were also taken to develop modern industry.  Thus the Bangalakshmi Cotton Mill was established in August 1906 and several successful initiatives were taken in the field of porcelain, chrome, soap, matches and cigarettes.

 Significant diversity is seen in the national education efforts in Swadeshi Bengal.  Such educational efforts stemmed from plans to provide technical education through the mother tongue, which extended to Rabindranath's Santiniketan and Satish Mukherjee's Dawn Society.  These were a plan for the selected youth to combine the traditional and modern process in the way of higher culture.  In March 1908, the National Society of Education was established as an alternative to the university.  Although national education with low job prospects failed to attract large numbers of students, a number of institutions, such as the Bengal National College or the Bengal Technical Institute, survived for several years.

Another success of the Swadeshi era was the emergence of associations.  By 1908, most of these associations were engaged in various activities as public bodies.  One of these activities was the physical and moral training of the members, social service in religious festivals, promotion of various indigenous ideologies, handicrafts, schools, arbitration courts and village association organizations and implementation of passive prevention methods.  Indirectly, the Swadeshi movement keeps ordinary Muslims away from national politics in India . They followed a different path which culminated in the formation of the Muslim League (1906) in Dhaka.