Partition of Bengal & Swadeshi Movement

Partition of Bengal

• On January 6, 1899, Lord Curzon was appointed as the Viceroy of India.
• Instead of engaging with the nationalist intelligentsia, he implemented a series of repressive measures.
• For instance, he reduced the number of elected Indian representatives in the Calcutta Corporation (1899) by enacting Calcutta Corporation Act.
• The University Act of 1904 brought the Calcutta University under the direct control of the government.
• The Official Secrets Act (1904) was amended to curb the nationalist tone of Indian newspapers.
• Finally, he ordered partition of Bengal in 1905 (July 19).
• In Assam, when Curzon went on a tour, he was requested by the European planters to make a maritime outlet closer to Calcutta to reduce their dependence on the Assam-Bengal railways.
• Following this, in December 1903, Curzon drew up a scheme in his Minutes on Territorial Redistribution of India, which was later modified and published as the Risely Papers.
• The report gave two reasons in support of partition: Relief of Bengal and the improvement of Assam.
• The intention of Curzon was to suppress the political activities against the British rule in Bengal and to create a Hindu-Muslim divide.
• The day Bengal was officially partitioned on 16 October 1905 was declared as a day of mourning.

The Bengal was to be divided into two provinces:

1. The new Eastern Bengal and Assam were to include the divisions of Chittagong, Dhaka, parts of Rajshahi hills of Tippera, Assam province and Malda.
2. Western Bengal with Bihar and Orissa and Calcutta as capital.

• Nawab Salimullah in Dhaka supported the Bengal Partition. 
• Thousands of people took bath in the Ganga and marched on the streets of Calcutta singing “Bande Mataram“.
• The partition led to widespread protest all across India, starting a new phase of the Indian national movement.

Swadeshi Movement

• With the failure to stop the partition of Bengal and the pressure exerted by the radical leaders like Bipin Chandra Pal, Aswini Kumar Dutta, and Aurobindo Ghose, the moderate leaders were forced to rethink their strategy, and look for new techniques of protest.
• Boycott of British goods was one such method and for the first time, the moderates went beyond their conventional political methods.
• In the same meeting, Surendranath Banerjee gave a call for the boycott of British goods and intuitions.
• On 7 August, at another meeting at the Calcutta Town Hall, a formal proclamation of Swadeshi Movement was made.
• The militant nationalists, on the other hand, were in favour of extending the movement to other provinces too and to launch a full-fledged mass struggle.
• However, a big step forward was taken at the Congress session held at Calcutta (1906) under the presidentship of Dadabhai Naeroji, where it was declared that the goal of the Indian Congress was self-government or Swaraj like the United Kingdom or the colonies.
• October 16, 1905, the day the partition formally came into force, was observed as a day of mourning throughout Bengal. 
• The partition, instead of dividing the Bengali people along the religious line, united them.
• Bengali language had acquired literary status with Rabindranath Tagore as the central figure.
• People tied rakhis on each other’s hands as a symbol of unity of the two halves of Bengal.
• Later in the day, Surendranath Banerjee and Ananda Mohan Bose addressed huge gatherings.
• Religious festivals such as the Durga Pujas were utilized to invoke the idea of boycott.
• Soon, the movement spread to other parts of the country

1. Poona and Bombay – Bala Gangadhar Tilak
2. Punjab – Lala Lajpat Rai and Ajit Singh
3. Delhi – Syed Haider Raza 
4. Madras – V.O. Chidambaram Pillai.

Evolution of the idea of Swadeshi

• The idea of Swadeshi movement was conceptualized first during 1905 by a string of Congress leaders and then later in the 1920s under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi.
• Swadeshi means ‘of one’s own country’.
• The origin of the idea can be traced to 1872 when Mahadev Govind Ranade, in a series of lectures in Poona, popularised the idea of Swadeshi.

Types of Swadeshi

1. Constructive Swadeshi
2. Passive resistance
3. Samitis

Constructive Swadeshi

• It focused on building alternative institutions of self-governance that would operate entirely free from British control.
• Rabindranath Tagore was one of the central figures who popularised such ideas through his writings
• He outlined the constructive programme of Atmashakti (self-help).
• He also made the call for utilising Melas, or fairs, to spread the message of Atmashakti.
• This became the creed of the whole of Bengal and Swadeshi shops sprang all over the place selling textiles, handlooms, soaps, earthenware, matches and leather good    s.
• Setting up Swadeshi Educational Centers: Shanti Niketan, Bengali Topis Company.
• The paintings of traditional Indian art is drawn instead of Victoria type paintings. Mughalaya, Ajanta, Rajaputhira paintings were taken as role models. Nandallah Posh dedicated himself to Indian art. 
• In science, Jegadesh Chandra Bose and Bridullah Chandra Rai were the owners of many innovations

The idea of education

• The idea of education in vernacular language made its appearance much before the Swadeshi movement with the foundation of Dawn Society by Satish Chandra in 1902.
• On 5 November 1905, at the initiative of the Dawn Society, the National Council of Education was formed.
• In August 1906, Bengal National College and a School were founded. A passionate appeal was made by Satish Chandra to the students to come out of institutions of slavery! Such efforts, however, failed to attract many due to the bleak Job prospects.

Passive Resistance

• From 1906 the Swadeshi Movement took a turn where the repeal of partition was no longer on the agenda.
• For many leaders, the movement was to be utilized for propagating the idea of the political independence or Swaraj across India.

The Swadeshi movement had four characteristics

1. Boycott of foreign goods
2. Boycott of government schools and colleges, courts, titles and government services.
3. Development of Swadeshi industries, national schools.
4. Recourse to armed struggle if British repression went beyond the limits of endurance.

Samitis

• The other successful method of mass mobilization was the formation of Samitis (corps of volunteers).
• The Samitis were engaged in a range of activities such as physical and moral training of members, philanthropic work during the famines, epidemics, propagation of Swadeshi message during festivals, and organization of indigenous arbitration courts, and schools.
• By its very nature boycott was passive action and its aim was to refuse to cooperate with the British administration.
• Most of the samitis recruited from the educated middle class and other upper caste Hindus. Besides this, the Swadeshi campaigners often applied coercive methods, both social and physical.

Annulment of Partition

• It was decided to annul the partition of Bengal in 1911.
• It was also decided to shift the capital to Delhi as a sop to the Muslims
• Bihar and Orissa were taken out of Bengal and Assam was made a separate province.