The Swadeshi and Boycott Movement (1905 to 1911)

The Swadeshi Movement, which began as a protest against the Partition of Bengal, used boycott of British goods, national education and self-help to build a mass nationalist movement for the first time.

Main features

• Boycott of British cloth and goods, including public burning of foreign cloth. Swadeshi (use of Indian goods) and national education.
• Methods: public meetings, samitis (volunteer groups), processions, songs (Vande Mataram), use of traditional festivals (Tilak's Ganapati and Shivaji festivals), and strikes.
• Samitis: the most famous was the Swadesh Bandhab Samiti of Barisal led by Ashwini Kumar Dutta.
• Students and women took part widely. The government's Carlyle Circular (October 1905) tried to stop students, and the Anti-Circular Society was formed. The Barisal Conference (1906) was attacked by the police.

Constructive work

• National education: the National Council of Education (1906) and the Bengal National College, with Aurobindo Ghosh as principal, and the Bengal Technical Institute.
• Swadeshi industries: Bengal Chemical and Pharmaceutical Works (P.C. Ray), textile mills, banks, and the Tata Iron and Steel Company (1907). V.O. Chidambaram Pillai started the Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company (1906) between Tuticorin and Colombo.
• Culture: Tagore's patriotic songs, Abanindranath Tagore's art (Bengal School), and the Vande Mataram slogan.

Spread beyond Bengal

• Lala Lajpat Rai and Ajit Singh in Punjab (the Punjab Colonisation Bill and the "Pagri Sambhal Jatta" movement, 1907); Tilak in Maharashtra; Chidambaram Pillai and Subramania Siva in Madras; Syed Haider Raza in Delhi.

Results and limits

• The movement shifted nationalism from petitions to mass action, created leaders, and produced new ideas of Swaraj and self-reliance.
• It lost steam after 1908 because of repression (arrests, press laws, deportation), leadership splits (Surat 1907), and limited peasant and Muslim participation.
• It also led to the rise of revolutionary terrorism.