Swadeshi Movement in Tamil Nadu

Swadeshi Movement in Tamil Nadu

• Swadeshi movement in Tamil Nadu, notably in Tirunelveli district, generated a lot of attention and support.
• There was a deep divide in the Tamilnadu congress between the moderates and the extremists.
• V.O. Chidambaranar, V. Chakkaraiyar, Subramania Bharati and Surendranath Arya were some of the prominent leaders in Tamilnadu.
• Tamil was used on the public platform for the first time to mobilise the people.
• Subaramania Bharati’s patriotic songs were especially important in stirring patriotic emotions. Many journals were started to propagate Swadeshi ideals.
• Swadesamitran and India were prominent journals.
• Students and youth participated widely in the Swadeshi Movement.
• The shift from English oratory to vernacular oratory was a significant development of this time.
• Europeans in public places were greeted by the students with shouts of Vande Mataram.
• In 1907, Bipin Chandra Pal came to Madras and his speeches on the Madras Beach electrified the audience and won new converts to the nationalist cause.

V.O.Chidhambaram Pillai

• The Partition of Bengal in 1905 had drawn him into politics.
• In 1907, he attended the Congress sessions held at Surat, where the Congress split into moderates and Extremists.
• He followed the militant leader Bala Gangadhar Tilak and preached his philosophy.
• He was the founder of the ‘Swadesi Dharma Sanga Weaving Association’ and ‘Swadesi Co-operative stores’ at Tuticorin.
• He formed the Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company and ran the service between Tuticorin and Colombo.
• He organized Coral mill Strike in the town near the sea shore that resulted in the increase of workers’ wages and reduction of working hours.

Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company

• In 1906, V.O.C. registered a joint stock company called the Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company (SSNC)
• The Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company (SSNC) with a capital of Rs 10 Lakh, divided into 40,000 shares of Rs.25 each. Shares were open only to Indians, Ceylonese and other Asian nationals. 
• The major shareholders included Pandithural Thevar and Haji Fakir Mohamed.
• V.O.C. purchased two steamships, S.S. Gallia and S.S. Lavo and plied them between Thoothukudi and Colombo.
• Lokmanya Tilak wrote about the success of the Swadeshi Navigation Company in his papers Kesari and Mahratta.
• Aurobindo Ghose also lauded the Swadeshi efforts and helped to promote the sale of shares of the company.
• However, due to cutthroat competition from the European company and the blatantly partisan role played by the government, V.O.C’s efforts ended in failure.

The Coral Mill Strike

• From February to March 1907, V.O.C and Subramania Shiva addressed meetings almost on a daily basis at the beach in Tuticorin, educating the people about Swadeshi and the boycott campaign. 
• In March 1908, the workers of the Coral Cotton Mills, inspired by the address of V.O.C and Subramania Siva went on strike.
• Bharati, Bipin Chandra Pal, joined with V.O.C and Subramania Siva.
• It was one of the earliest organised labour agitations in India.
• Finally, the mill owners decided to negotiate with the workers and concede their demands.
• Aurobindo Ghosh’s Bande Matram hailed the strike as “forgiving a bond between educated class and the masses, which is the first great step towards Swaraj… Every victory of Indian labour is a victory for the nation….”

Arrest and imprisonment of V.O.C. and Subramania Siva

• On March 9, 1907, Bipin Chindra Pal was released from prison.
• The Swadeshi leaders in Tamil Nadu planned to celebrate the day of his release as ‘Swarajya Day in Tirunelveli.
• The leaders were arrested on 7 July 1908, V.O.C. and Subramania Siva were found guilty and imprisoned on charges of sedition, Others to be arrested included G. Subramaniam and Ethiraj Surendranath Arya

• Initially V.O.C. was given a draconian sentence of two life imprisonments.
• The news of the arrest sparked riots in Tirunelveli leading to the burning down of the police station, court building and municipal office and it led to the death of four people in police firing.
• V.O.C. was treated harshly in prison and was made to pull the heavy oil press.
• To avoid imprisonment Subramania Bharati moved to Pondicherry which was under French rule.
• Bharati’s example was followed by many other nationalists such as Aurobindo Ghosh and V.V.Subramanianar.
• The brutal crackdown on Swadeshi leaders virtually brought the Swadeshi Movement to a close in Tamil Nadu.

Bharathiyar

• In 1907 Bharathi participated in the Surat Conference, supported the demand for Swaraj along with Tilak and Aurobindo.
• He translated into Tamil Tilak’s Tenets of the New Party and a booklet on the Madras militants’ trip to the Surat Congress in 1907.
• In Madras, in 1908, he organized a huge public meeting to celebrated ‘Swaraj Day’.
• His poems ‘Vande Matharam’, ‘Achamillai, Achamillai’, ‘Enthaiyaum, Thayum’ Jaya Bharatham were printed and distributed free to Tamil people.
• In 1908, he gave evidence in the case which had been instituted by the British against ‘Kappalotiya V.O.Chidambram Pillai. Hence, British ordered to arrest Bharathi.
• Faced with the prospect of arrest, Bharathi escaped to Pondicherry which was under the French rule. 
• From there he edited and published the dailies, weekly and monthly. But the British banned them in India in 1909.

Vanchinathan

• A plan was hatched to avenge the Tirunelveli event.
• Vanchinathan of Senkottai, was influenced by Baratha Matha Association.
• On 17 June 1911 he shot dead Robert W.D’E.Ashe Collector of Tirunelveli in Maniyachi Junction and he shot himself.
• A letter was found in his pocket describing that the act of murder of collector Ashe was the first rehearsal to assassinate King George V who was expected to Madras.
• During the course of the trial, the British government was able to establish that V.V. Subramaniya Iyer and other political exiles in Pondicherry were in close and active association with the accused in the Ashe murder conspiracy.
• The colonial administration grew more suspicious with the Pondicherry groups and their activities. Such an atmosphere further scuttled the possibility of nationalistic propaganda and their activities in Tamil Nadu.
• As a fall-out of the repressive measure taken by the colonial government, the nationalist movement in Tamil Nadu entered a period of lull and some sort of revival happened only with the Home Rule Movement in 1916.

Decline of the Swadeshi Movement

• The government passed a series of repressive Acts such as the Public Meetings Act (1907), the Explosive Substance Act (1908), the Newspaper (incitement and Offence Act 1908) and the Indian Press Act (1910) to crush the nationalistic activities of any nature.
• The movement failed to create an effective organisation or a party structure.
• The movement was leaderless with most of the leaders either arrested or deported by 1908.
• AurobindoGhosh and Bipin Chandra Pal retiring from active politics.
• Internal squabbles among leaders, magnified by the Surat split (1907).
• The movement largely remained confined to the upper and middle classes and zamindars, and failed to reach the masses-especially the peasantry.

Repressive acts by Viceroy Minto

• The Newspapers (Incitement to Offence) Act, 1908. This act empowered the magistrate to confiscate press property
• Indian Press Act 1910 made it mandatory for publishers and the printers to deposit a security.
• The Indian Criminal Law Amendment Act 1908 allowed summary trails.