Eternal India Encyclopedia

Eternal India encyclopedia

FREEDOM MOVEMENT

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

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.

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

Bonfire of foreign cloth in Bombay