The Swadeshi and Boycott Movement (1903-1908)

• The Swadeshi and Boycott movement began as an agitation to oppose the Bengal partition, which later turned
into a mass movement throughout the country.
• The formal proclamation of Swadeshi Movement was made on 7th August 1905 in a meeting held at the
Calcutta Town Hall. In the meeting, the famous Boycott Resolution was passed.
• The Indian National Congress, meeting in 1905 under the presidency of Gokhale, resolved to
1. Condemn the partition of Bengal and the reactionary policies of Curzon
2. Support the anti-partition and Swadeshi Movement of Bengal
• The militant nationalists led by Tilak, Lajpat Rai, Bipin Chandra Pal and Aurobindo Ghosh wanted the movement
to be taken outside Bengal to other parts of the country and go beyond a boycott of foreign goods to become a
full-fledged political mass struggle with the goal of attaining swaraj. But the Moderates, dominating the
Congress at that time, were not willing to go that far.
• The Congress Session of 1906- The session took place at Calcutta under the presidentship of Dadabhai Naoroji,
declared goal of INC was “self-government or SWARAJ”. Also a resolution supporting the programme of
swadeshi, boycott and national education was passed.

New forms of Struggle and Impact

1. Boycott of Foreign Goods: Boycott of British goods such as Manchester cloth and the Liverpool salt and British
institutions, refusal by washermen to wash foreign clothes.
2. Public Meetings and Processions: Major methods of mass mobilization.
3. Corps of Volunteers or ‘Samitis’: Samitis such as Swadesh Bandhab Samiti of Ashwini Kumar Dutta (in Barisal)
(very popular), Swadeshi Sangam in Tirunelveli, TN by VO Chidambaram Pillai, Subramania Siva and some
lawyers helped in mobilizing masses by engaging in various types of activities such social work during famines
,festivals; preaching swadeshi message, organizing crafts, setting up arbitration courts etc.
4. Imaginative use of Traditional Popular Festivals and Melas: Imaginative use of religion for invoking spirit of
righteousness by calling Britishers as evil and opening resistance against them through celebration of Shivaji
Mahotsav, Ganesh Utsav.
5. Emphasis given to Self-Reliance: Reassertion of national dignity, honour and confidence and social and
economic regeneration of the villages. Also included social reforms and campaigns against caste oppression etc.
6. Programme of Swadeshi or National Education: Bengal National College inspired by Tagore’s Shantinikatan,
was set up with Aurobindo Ghosh as its principal. On August 15, 1906, the National Council of Education was
set up. A Bengal Institute of technology was also set up.
7. Swadeshi or Indigenous Enterprises: Promotion of indigenous industries such as PC Ray’s Bengal chemicals, VO
Chidambaram Pillai’s Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company etc.
8. Impact in the Cultural Sphere: The resistance could also be seen in cultural sphere in literature and songs of
Rabindranath Tagore, Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay’s Vande Matram; Abindranath Tagore broke the
dominance of Victorian art form and took to Indian styles of painting; JC Bose’s study in the field of biology filled
Indians with sense of pride and achievement. Nandlal Bose made a major imprint on Indian art. He was the first
recipient of a scholarship offered by the Indian Society of Oriental Art, which was founded in 1907.

Impact of the movement

• People from various walks of life participated in the movement with the greatest contribution coming from
students and women. But the movement was not able to garner support of the Muslims, especially the Muslim
peasantry, because of a conscious govt. policy of Divide and Rule.
• Taking advantage of this occasion, Nawab Salimullah of Dacca proposed the setting up of an organisation to
look after the Muslim interests. The proposal was accepted & All-India Muslim League was finally set up on
December 30, 1906.
 • The Swadeshi movement led the people to learn to challenge and disobey the British government explicitly
without fearing the atrocities of the police and imprisonment.
• Labour unrest and trade unions took participation. Ex Subramania Siva and C. Pillai led strikes in Tuticorin and
Tirunelveli in a foreign owned cotton mill. In Rawalpindi (Punjab), the arsenal and Railway workers went on
strike led by L. Rai and Ajit Singh.
• Most of all its concept of constructive swadeshi and boycott was actively used by Gandhi in later nationalist
movements.
• The Swadeshi movement led the people to learn to challenge and disobey the British government explicitly
without fearing the atrocities of the police and imprisonment.
• The richness of the movement was not confined to the political sphere, but encompassed art, literature, science
and industry also.
• It led to building of self-reliance or Atma Shakti asserting on national dignity, honor and confidence.
• It forced British dispensation to offer some concession to Indians in forms of Morley-Minto reforms in 1909.

Decline of Swadeshi Movement

• There was severe government repression.

• The movement failed to create an effective organisation or a party structure.
• The movement was rendered leaderless with most of the leaders either arrested or deported by 1908.
Aurobindo-Ghosh and Bipin Chandra Pal retired from active politics.
• Internal squabbles among leaders, magnified by the Surat split (1907), did much harm to the movement.
• The movement aroused the people but did not know how to tap the newly released energy or how to find new
forms to give expression to popular resentment.
• The movement largely remained confined to the upper and middle classes and zamindars, and failed to reach
the masses—especially the peasantry.
• Non-cooperation and passive resistance remained mere ideas.
• It was difficult to sustain a mass-based movement at a high pitch for too long.

Use of Carrot and Stick during Swadeshi

• It was a 3-level approach of repression-conciliation and suppression.

1. Under this policy in the first stage mild suppression of extremists were to be done and the main aim was to
frighten the moderate Nationalists.
2. In the second phase, British govt used the moderates as an alternative to the militant nationalists who were
growing in popularity and made promises to the Moderates that reform will be brought if they disassociate
themselves from the Extremists. This was a conciliation approach.
3. In the third phase once Moderates joined the British, the Extremists can be suppressed heavily. And later,
moderates also can be ignored thus materializing the actual objective of the Carrot and Stick Policy.

The Indian Councils Act 1909

• It was more commonly called the Morley-Minto Reforms after the Secretary of State for India John Morley and
the Viceroy of India, Minto.
• It considerably increased the size of the legislative councils, both Central and provincial. The number of
members in the Central Legislative Council was raised from 16 to 60. The number of members in the provincial
legislative councils was not uniform.
• It retained official majority in the Central Legislative Council but allowed the provincial legislative councils to
have non-official majority.
• It enlarged the deliberative functions of the legislative councils at both the levels. For example, members were
allowed to ask supplementary questions, move resolutions on the budget, and so on.
 • It introduced a system of communal representation for Muslims by accepting the concept of ‘separate
electorate’. Under this, the Muslim members were to be elected only by Muslim voters. Thus, the Act ‘legalised
communalism’ and Lord Minto came to be known as the Father of Communal Electorate.
• Besides separate electorates for the Muslims, representations in excess of the strength of their population was
accorded to the Muslims. Also, the income qualification for Muslim voters was kept lower than that for Hindus.
• Satyendra Sinha was appointed as the first Indian member of the Viceroy s Executive Council since one Indian
was to be appointed to the viceroy’s executive council.
• It effectively allowed the election of Indians to the various legislative councils in India for the first time, though
previously some Indians had been appointed to legislative councils.
• Morley-Minto Reform prevented people from concentrating on political and economic problems that were
common to all Indians, irrespective of Hindu or Muslim.
• The size of the councils was increased but their functions and powers were not enlarged. Under the Act the
position of the Governor-General and his veto power remained unchanged.
• The members could discuss the budget but could not make any substantial change in the Budget.
• The resolutions were like recommendations and were not binding on the government.
• They could ask questions but could not force the executives to reply.
• Lord Morley was against the introduction of parliamentary or responsible government in India.

Anushilan Samiti
• The first revolutionary organization in Bengal was the Anushilan samiti. It was established by Pramathanath
Mitra, a barrister from Calcutta.
• The people associated with this samiti were Sri Aurobindo, Deshabandhu Chittaranjan Das, Surendranath
Tagore, Jatindranath Banerjee, Bagha Jatin, Bhupendra Natha Datta, Barindra Ghosh etc. Bhupendra Nath Datta
was brother of Swami Vivekananda.
• Barindra Ghosh was sent to Paris to learn the science of Bomb Making and here he came in touch were Madam
Bhikaji Cama. Madam Cama was already associated with the India House and the Paris India Society.
• Its members Kudiram Bose and Prafulla Chaki were entrusted with the task of assassination of Kingsford the
vindictive judge who had sentenced many political prisoners to heavy terms of punishment. On 30th April 1908,
they threw a bomb at the carriage in which they believed Kingsford to be travelling. But unfortunately, two
British ladies who were in the carriage were inadvertently killed. Kudiram was arrested and hanged on 11th
August 1908.
• They published a periodical named Jugantar, which openly preached armed rebellion in order to create the
necessary revolutionary mentality among the people. Both Sandhya and Jugantar openly preached the cult of
violence.

Alipore Conspiracy Case

• Also called Muraripukur conspiracy or Manicktolla bomb conspiracy.
• Douglas Kingsford was an unpopular British Chief Magistrate who was the target of the bomb thrown at
Muzaffarpur (Northern Bihar).
• Unfortunately, the carriage at which the bomb was targeted contained two English ladies and not Kingsford. The
two women died in the attack.
• Revolutionaries who threw the bomb were Prafulla Chaki and Khudiram Bose.
• Chaki committed suicide while Bose, then only 18 years of age, was caught and sentenced to death by hanging.
• The other people who were tried in the case were Aurobindo Ghosh and his brother Barindra Ghosh, Kanailal
Dutt, Satyendranath Bose and more than 30 others. They were all members of the Anushilan Samiti in
Calcutta.
• Aurobindo Ghosh was acquitted due to lack of evidence and others served varying life-terms in prison.
Delhi-Lahore Conspiracy Case (1912)
• Also known as the Delhi Conspiracy Case.
• This was an assassination attempt on Lord Hardinge, the then Viceroy of India.
• The revolutionaries were led by Rashbehari Bose.
• A homemade bomb was thrown into the viceroy’s howdah (elephant-carriage) during a ceremonial procession in
Delhi. The occasion was the transfer of the British capital from Calcutta to Delhi.
• Lord Hardinge was injured while an Indian attendant was killed.
• Bose escaped being caught whereas a few others were convicted for their roles in the conspiracy.

German Plot or Zimmerman Plan

• The western Anushilan Samiti found a good leader in Jatindranath Mukherjee or Bagha Jatin and emerged as
the Jugantar (or Yugantar).
• Jatin revitalised links between the central organisation in Calcutta and other places in Bengal, Bihar and Orissa.
• During the First World War, the Jugantar party arranged to import German arms and ammunition through
sympathisers and revolutionaries abroad.
• Jatin asked Rashbehari Bose to take charge of Upper India, aiming to bring about an all India insurrection in what
has come to be called the ‘German Plot’ or the ‘Zimmerman Plan’.
• The Jugantar party raised funds through a series of dacoities which came to be known as taxicab dacoities and
boat dacoities, so as to work out the Indo-German conspiracy.
• It was planned that a guerrilla force would be organised to start an uprising in the country, with a seizure of Fort
William and a mutiny by armed forces.
• Unfortunately for the revolutionaries, the plot was leaked out by a traitor. Police came to know that Bagha Jatin
was in Balasore waiting for the delivery of German arms.
• Jatin and his associates were located by the police. There was a gunfight as a result of which the revolutionaries
were either killed or arrested. The German plot thus failed.
• Jatin Mukherjee was shot and died a hero’s death in Balasore on the Orissa coast in September 1915. “We shall
die to awaken the nation”, was the call of Bagha Jatin.

Nasik Conspiracy Case

• Savarkar and his brother organised Mitra Mela, a secret society, in 1899 which merged with Abhinav
Bharat (after Mazzinni’s ‘Young Italy’) in 1904.
• Soon Nasik, Poona and Bombay emerged as centers of bomb manufacture.
• In 1909, A.M.T. Jackson, the Collector of Nasik, who was also a well-known Indologist, was killed by Anant
Lakshman Kanhere, a member of Abhinav Bharat.
• It was found that the killing was part of a conspiracy to overthrow the British government in India by means
of armed revolution. Thirty-eight people were arrested.
• Among these, it was found that Savarkar (with his two brothers,) was the brain, leader, and moving spirit of the
conspiracy.
• At the trial, Savarkar as the soul, inspiration, and moving spirit of the conspiracy extending over a number of
years, was sentenced to transportation for life and forfeiture of all his property in 1910.

Shyamji Krishnavarma
• He was a member of Mitramela Abhinav Bharat revolutionary group. He left Bombay in 1897 and went to
London.
• He started a monthly journal, the Indian sociologist; an organ of freedom struggle of India in 1905.
 • Shyamji established the Indian Home Rule society and a hostel for Indian students living in London, popularly
known as the Indian House.
• The most important revolutionaries associated with him were V.D. Savarkar, Madanlal Dhingra, Madame
Cama, and Lala Hardyal.
• In 1907 Shyamji shifted his headquarters to Paris and Savarkar took up the political leadership of the Indian
House in London.

The Ghadr Party

• The Ghadr Party was a revolutionary group organized around a weekly newspaper ‘The Ghadr’ with its
headquarters at San Francisco.
• These revolutionaries included mainly ex-soldiers and peasants who had migrated from the Punjab to the USA
and Canada in search of better employment opportunities.
• Ghadr was established in 1913 by the efforts of Lala Hardayal, Ramchandra, Bhagwan Singh, Kartar Singh
Saraba, Barkatulla & Bhai Parmanand.
• To carry out revolutionary activities, the earlier activists had set up a ‘Swadesh Sevak Home’ at Vancouver and
‘United India House’ in Seattle.
• The Ghadr programme was to organise assassinations of officials, publish revolutionary and anti-imperialist
literature, work among Indian troops stationed abroad, procure arms and bring about a simultaneous revolt in
all British colonies.
• The Ghadrites intended to bring about a revolt in India with their plans encouraged by two events in 1914—the
Maru incident and the outbreak of the First World War.

Komagata Maru Incident

• The importance of this event lies in the fact that it created an explosive situation in the Punjab.
• Komagata Maru was the name of a ship which was carrying 370 passengers, mainly Sikh and Punjabi Muslim
would-be immigrants, from Singapore to Vancouver.
• They were turned back by Canadian authorities after two months of privation & uncertainty.
• It was generally believed that the Canadian authorities were influenced by British Government.
• The ship finally anchored at Calcutta in September 1914 but the inmates refused to board the Punjab-bound
train.
• In the ensuing with the police near Calcutta, 22 persons died.
• Inflamed by this and with the outbreak of the War, the Ghadr leaders decided to launch violent attack on British
rule in India.
• They urged fighters to go to India. Bengal revolutionaries were contacted; Political dacoities were committed to
raise funds mainly in Punjab.
• Thus, an explosive situation was created in Punjab.
• The Ghadrites fixed February 21, 1915 as the date for an armed revolt in Ferozepur, Lahore and Rawalpindi
garrisons. The plan was foiled at the last moment due to treachery.
• The authorities took immediate action, aided by the Defence of India Rules, 1915.

Defence of India Rules, 1915.

• The Defence of India Act 1915, also referred to as the Defence of India Regulations Act, was an
emergency criminal law enacted by the Governor-General of India in 1915 with the intention of curtailing the
nationalist and revolutionary activities during and in the aftermath of the First World War
• It granted the Executive very wide powers of preventive detention, internment without trial, restriction of
writing, speech, and of movement.
 • The act was first applied during the First Lahore Conspiracy trial in the aftermath of the failed Ghadar
Conspiracy of 1915, and was instrumental in crushing the Ghadr movement in Punjab and the Anushilan
Samiti in Bengal.

Home Rule League Movement

Factors leading to movement

• Great national awakening of the Indian people, of their rising political consciousness and increasing critical
attitude to the measures of the British government especially in the spheres of politics, economic policy and
education.
• The demands of the nationalist leaders were not satisfied by the Government of India Act (1909).
• There was an atmosphere of resentment against British rule due to the Ghadar Mutiny and its suppression.
• Due to the involvement in the First World War, people in India were quite unhappy.
• Further Indian Soldiers were fighting along with British against the Ottoman Empire and Indian Muslim saw the
Sultan as the Caliph of Islam and fighting against him displeased them.

Objective

• To achieve self-government in India.

• To promote political education and discussion to set up agitation for self-government.
• To build confidence among Indians to speak against the government’s suppression.
• To demand a larger political representation for Indians from the British government.
• To revive political activity in India while maintaining the principles of the Congress Party.

Significance

• The Home Rule League functioned throughout the year as opposed to the Congress Party whose activities were
confined to once a year.
• The movement was able to garner huge support from a lot of educated Indians. In 1917, the two leagues
combined had around 40,000 members.
• Many members of the Congress and the Muslim League joined the league. Many prominent leaders like
Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Joseph Baptista, G S Kharpade and Sir S Subramanya Iyer were among its members.
• The moderates, extremists and the Muslim League were briefly united through this movement.
• The movement was able to spread political consciousness to more regions in the country.
• This movement led to the Montague Declaration of 1917 in which it was declared that there would be more
Indians in the government leading to the development of self-governing institutions ultimately
realising responsible governments in India. This Declaration (also known as August Declaration) implied that
the demand for home rule would no longer be considered seditious. This was the biggest significance of the
movement.

Decline

• The movement was not a mass movement. It was restricted to educated people and college students.
• The leagues did not find a lot of support among Muslims, Anglo-Indians and non-Brahmins from Southern India
as they thought home rule would mean a rule of the upper caste Hindu majority.
• Many of the moderates were satisfied with the government’s assurance of reforms (as preluded in the
Montague Declaration). They did not take the movement further.
• Annie Besant kept oscillating between being satisfied with the government talk of reforms and pushing the
home rule movement forward. She was not able to provide firm leadership to her followers. (Although
ultimately, she did call the reforms ‘unworthy of Indian acceptance’).
 • In September 1918, Tilak went to England to pursue a libel case against Sir Ignatius Valentine Chirol, British
journalist and author of the book ‘Indian Unrest’. The book contained deprecatory comments and had called
Tilak the ‘Father of Indian Unrest.’ (Tilak lost the case).
• Tilak’s absence and Besant’s inability to lead the people led to the movement’s fizzing out.
• After the war, Mahatma Gandhi gained prominence as a leader of the masses and the Home Rule Leagues
merged with the Congress Party in 1920.

Lucknow Pact 1916

Congress and Muslim League negotiated an agreement that

• There shall be self-government in India.

• Muslims should be given one-third representation in the central government.
• There should be separate electorates for all the communities until a community demanded joint electorates.
• A system of weightage to minority political representation (giving minorities more representation in the
government then is proportional to their share of the population) should be adopted.
• The number of the members of Central Legislative Council should be increased to 150.
• At the provincial level, four-fifth of the members of the Legislative Councils should be elected and one-fifth
should be nominated.
• The size of provincial legislatures should not be less than 125 in the major provinces and from 50 to 75 in the
minor provinces.
• All members, except those nominated, should be elected directly on the basis of adult franchise.
• No bill concerning a community should be passed if the bill is opposed by three-fourth of the members of that
community in the Legislative Council.
• The term of the Legislative Council should be five years.
• Members of Legislative Council should themselves elect their president.
• Half of the members of Imperial Legislative Council should be Indians.
• The salaries of the Secretary of State for Indian Affairs should be paid by the British government and not from
Indian funds.
• Of the two Under Secretaries, one should be Indian.
• The Executive should be separated from the Judiciary.

The Montague Statement of August 1917

The Montague declaration is titled:

“Increasing association of Indians in every branch of administration, and the Gradual development of self-governing
Institutions with a view to the progressive realization of responsible governments in India as an Integral part of the
British Empire”.