Rise of Extremism and Swadeshi Movement - Study Notes

Lesson summary

By the 1890s many Congressmen resented the moderates' "mendicant policy" of prayers and petitions. An extremist or militant trend grew under Bal Gangadhar Tilak (Maharashtra), Bipin Chandra Pal (Bengal) and Lala Lajpat Rai (Punjab). Its causes were factionalism in the Congress, frustration with moderate politics and anger at Lord Curzon for dividing Bengal. The Swadeshi movement (1905-1911) was the most important phase of the national movement before Gandhi: it widened the social base to women, workers, peasants and marginalised groups, and it boosted the vernacular press (Swadesamitran, Kesari, Yugantar). The government replied with the Public Meetings Act (1907), the Explosive Substance Act (1908), the Newspaper Act (1908) and the Indian Press Act (1910); police used shorthand to record speeches for the first time.

Partition of Bengal

• Lord Curzon became Governor General and Viceroy on 6 January 1899. He cut elected Indians in the Calcutta Corporation (1899), passed the University Act (1904) and amended the Official Secrets Act (1904).
• Partition had been discussed since the 1860s and revived in March 1890. Curzon's scheme of December 1903 (Minutes on Territorial Redistribution of India) was published as the Risley Papers, citing relief of Bengal and improvement of Assam.
• The new province of Eastern Bengal and Assam took in Chittagong, Dhaka, parts of Rajshahi, hill Tippera, Assam and Malda.
• The real aim was a Hindu-Muslim divide. Curzon rejected a linguistic division and at Dhaka in February 1904 promised Muslims unity.
• Instead, partition united Bengalis, whose identity had grown through Tagore's literature and the regional press.

Anti-partition and Swadeshi

• Constructive Swadeshi: self-help; Tagore's atmashakti, education in swadeshi languages and the use of melas.
• Idea of Swadeshi: Ranade's Poona lectures (1872); Gandhi's meaning in the 1920s; G. Subramaniam called it "a revolt against their state of dependence".
• Dawn Society: Satish Chandra Mukherjee, 1902.
• Samitis: volunteer corps for training, famine relief, arbitration courts and schools; weak among Muslim peasants and the Depressed Classes.
• Passive resistance (from 1906): boycott of goods, schools, courts, titles and services, under Aurobindo Ghose and Bipin Chandra Pal.

Militant nationalism and the Surat split

• Lal-Bal-Pal made Maharashtra, Bengal and Punjab its epicentres; Aurobindo Ghose was another leader.
• Swaraj: for Tilak, Indian control of administration without total severance from Britain; for Pal, complete freedom from foreign rule.
• 1906 Calcutta session: Dadabhai Naoroji president; four resolutions on Swadeshi, Boycott, National Education, Self-Government.
• 1907: venue moved from Poona to Surat; militants proposed Lala Lajpat Rai against Rash Behari Ghosh; session ended in chaos. The moderate rump was called the Mehta Congress.
• By 1908 militant nationalism declined.

Revolutionary extremism

• Akharas from the 1870s; Bankim Chandra Chatterjee's Anandmath gave Bande Mataram.
• Anushilan Samity of Calcutta: Jatindernath Banerjee and Barindrakumar Ghose. Dhaka Anushilan Samity (1906): Pulin Behari Das. Weekly Yugantar; first swadeshi dacoity at Rangpur, August 1906.
• Hemchandra Kanungo trained in Paris and set up a bomb factory at Maniktala (1908).
• 30 April 1908: Khudiram Bose (18) and Prafulla Chaki (19) bombed a carriage meant for Kingsford.
• Alipore Bomb case: Chittaranjan Das defended; Aurobindo acquitted, went to Pondicherry (died 1950).
• Repression: Morley-Minto reforms (December 1908, communal electorates); Newspapers (Incitement to Offence) Act 1908; Indian Press Act 1910; Criminal Law Amendment Act.

Swadeshi in Tamil Nadu

• Vernacular oratory at the Marina and Moore Market; Bipin Chandra Pal's 1907 Madras speeches.
• V.O.C. registered the SSNC in 1906: Rs 10 lakh, 40,000 shares of Rs 25; ships S.S. Gallia and S.S. Lawoe; praised by Tilak in Kesari and Mahratta.
• Coral Mill strike, March 1908, after speeches by V.O.C. and Subramania Siva.
• G. Subramaniam co-founded The Hindu and Swadesamitran. Bharati: sub-editor of Swadesamitran (1904), editor of Chakravartini and the weekly India; Gurumani Sister Nivedita.
• Arrest on 12 March 1908; conviction on 7 July 1908: Siva 10 years' transportation, V.O.C. two life sentences. Tirunelveli riots, four killed, punitive tax.
• June 1911: Vanchinathan shot Collector Robert Ashe at Maniyachi, trained by V.V. Subramaniam. Revival came with the Home Rule Movement in 1916.

Exam tips

• Remember 1899, 1903, 1905, 1906, 1907, 1908, 1910, 1911.
• Calcutta vs Dhaka Anushilan founders; Tilak vs Pal on Swaraj.