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Eternal India
encyclopedia
FREEDOM MOVEMENT
Origin:
Swadeshi, as an economic movement,
was conceived as early as 1726 by Guru-
pada Swami (a Bengali ascetic of Nasik),
who led a crusade against foreign goods.
Swami Dayananda Saraswati (founder of
Arya Samaj) exhorted the people to go
Swadeshi. Swadeshi Bhandar was opened
in 1897 by Rabindranath Tagore at Calcutta.
In 1896 Tilak urged the people to stick to
Swadeshi and resist foreign goods. He said,
"We have neither the strength nor the de-
sire to use a weapon against our rulers. But
can we not stop paying crores of rupees
which we pay every year when we buy Brit-
ish goods." The partition of Bengal in 1905
gave a new impetus to the Swadeshi move-
ment. Mahatma Gandhi made it the most
important weapon in. the non-co-operation
movement.
Later
volunteers
picketed
shops selling foreign goods.
The Journal
Barisal Hitaishi
(of 19-7-
1905) pointed out the example of China and
exhorted the Bengalis to follow the same.
About the middle of the 19th C. Gopalhari
Deshmukh of Bombay wrote about the need
of a well-organised movement to awaken
the people; he wrote in 1873, "The vernacular
papers should hammer on the necessity of es-
tablishing banks, business houses and mills in
the country. The harm done to the country by
the purchase of foreign goods when indige-
nous products are available, should be widely
made known to the public..."
The Partition of Bengal called forth all
the latent forces of nationalism which had
been gathering for years. The protest took
the form of the Swadeshi movement which
merged itself into the All-India National
struggle for achieving freedom from the Brit-
ish yoke.
Thus Swadeshi or boycott of British
goods became an integral part of the free-
dom struggle.
Resolutions supporting the Swadeshi
movements were passed at the Benaras
session of the Congress under the presi-
dentship of Gokhale in December 1905.
Rabindranath's Swadeshi songs gave
expression to the people's anguish and
anger.
A large number of educational institu-
tions were also opened by nationalists and
a National Council of Education was set up.
The movement which had begun in Bengal
over the question of partition was transformed
SWADESHI MOVEMENT
into a wider movement. The British rulers to
suppress the movement unleashed naked re-
pression.
The bitterness caused by the partition
of Bengal led sections of the youth to take
to arms. A number of semi-legal and se-
cret societies sprang up in different parts
of the country, particularly in Maharashtra
and Bengal. The youths were trained in
the use of fire-arms. The differences be-
tween the moderates and the extremists
came into the open. The Bombay moder-
ates were against the idea of boycott,
though they welcomed Swadeshi. The
events in Bengal shook the belief of Indian
leaders in the justice of the British people.
Swadeshi brought into politics new
classes of people without distinction of caste
and creed. It taught the press to be outspoken,
students to rebel, Hindus and Muslims to co-
operate, people to reflect on their economic
condition, to shed fear, to defy authority and
to welcome any punishment. An emphatic
protest was made against the partition of
Bengal and the repressive measures adopted
by the Government. Lala Lajpat Rai asked
other provinces to follow the example of
Bengal, and Tilak stressed that the basic goal
of Swadeshi, boycott and national education
was the attainment of Swaraj.
The Swadeshi movement gave a stimu-
lus to cottage industries and even large-scale
enterprises of various sorts.
The Swadeshi movement activated new
movements in the realm of culture also. A
new type of nationalist poetry, prose and
journalism, filled with idealism was born.
The patriotic songs composed by poets such
as Rabindranath tagore, Rajani Kant Sen,
and Mukunda Das were effective and had a
literary quality of permanent value.
Tilak carried to western India the cult of
boycott and Swadeshi. He led a bonfire of
foreign cloth at Poona. He opened co-
operative stores as the head of the Swadeshi
Bonfire of foreign cloth in Bombay
Wastu Pracharini Sabha. A Swadeshi weaving
company was formed at Poona.
In Punjab, protests were made against the
use of foreign sugar, the import of which had
largely reduced domestic manufacture and
cane production. The movement spread to
Hardwar, Delhi, Kangra and Jammu. Syed
Haidar Reza was the moving spirit of Swadeshi
in Delhi. Chidambaram Pillai founded the
Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company in
Tuticorin on the east coast of the Madras
province.
As early as 1874 boycott was advocated as
a means for reviving Indian industries. Boy-
cott of Manchester cloth was preached in
1875,1876and 1878 on account of the hostil-
ity of Manchester to the newly started Indian
mills in Bombay. In 1883-84 when popular
feelings were aroused against the Ilbert Bill
and the imprisonment of Surendranath Ban-
erji, the boycott of British goods was ardently
preached.
The twin weapons of Swadeshi and boy-
cott were forged to undo the great wrong
which was inflicted upon the Indians by the
British government. It became instrumental
in the fight for a common cause which rallied
fifty million Bengalis.
The idea of economic boycott as a weapon
to coerce the British to undo the partition
gradually receded into the background. It de-
veloped into an idea of non-cooperation with
the British in every field, and the main aim was
a political regeneration of the country com-
bined with absolute freedom.
Though Manchester cloth was the chief
target of attack, the movement was extended
to other British manufactures also. Rabin-
dranath Tagore also inaugurated the Rakhi-
bandhan. The ceremony was observed every
year on 16 October, when all the people of the
village, tied on one another's wrist the col-
oured piece of thread, which was symbolical
of fraternal ties.
The ideas of Swadeshi and boycott were
kept alive and brought to every door by
articles in newspapers, processions and popu-
lar songs. The old apparels of foreign make,
were placed in a heap and then set on fire. The
blazing flames were greeted with shouts of
Bande Mataram. There was great enthusiasm,
and many people required no persuasion to
buy Swadeshi goods in exclusion of the for-
eign.