Growth of Nationalism | ISC Class 11 History Notes

This note covers the growth of nationalism in India in the early twentieth century: the Partition of Bengal and the anti-Partition agitation, the Swadeshi and Boycott Movement with its causes, course and impact, the circumstances that led to the foundation of the Muslim League in 1906 and its objectives, the groups that took part, a timeline, how the Moderates and the assertive nationalists differed, and what the sources tell us.

What was the background to the growth of nationalism in India?

Indian nationalism grew out of the experience of colonial rule. As in many other colonies, people began to discover their unity in the process of struggling against colonialism.

The sense of being oppressed under colonial rule provided a shared bond that tied many different groups together. But each class and group felt the effects of colonialism differently, and their notions of freedom were not always the same.

The Indian National Congress, founded in 1885, became the main platform for this growing political consciousness.

Its early leaders, the Moderates, such as Dadabhai Naoroji, Pherozeshah Mehta, Surendranath Banerjea and Gopal Krishna Gokhale, worked through petitions, speeches and constitutional methods, asking for reform within the framework of British rule.

Dadabhai Naoroji's book Poverty and Un-British Rule in India (1901) set out the drain of wealth from India to Britain.

Definition: Nationalism is the belief that people who share a common history, culture and territory form a nation, and that this nation should control its own political destiny. In a colony it becomes a movement against foreign rule.

The Moderates' method won some concessions, such as the Indian Councils Act of 1892, which enlarged the legislative councils, but it also bred frustration among younger leaders.

By 1905 a more assertive group, led by Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Bipin Chandra Pal, Lala Lajpat Rai and Aurobindo Ghosh, wanted self-reliance and mass agitation, and the partition of Bengal gave them a cause.

The press, the schools and the new educated middle class carried nationalist ideas to a wider public than ever before.

Why was Bengal partitioned in 1905?

The province of Bengal was at this time the largest province of British India, with a population of about 78 million.

It included Bihar and Orissa as well as the Bengali-speaking districts, and Calcutta, its capital, was the centre of the new nationalist politics. The official reason given for partition was that the province was too large to be administered efficiently.

The plan was first made public in December 1903. The Viceroy, Lord Curzon, announced the final decision in July 1905.

The province was divided into two parts: a western part, which kept Bihar and Orissa, with its capital at Calcutta, and a new province of Eastern Bengal and Assam with its capital at Dacca.

The Bengali-speaking people were thus split between two provinces, and in the western province Bengalis became a minority, outnumbered by Hindi and Oriya speakers.

Note: The partition was presented as an administrative measure, but nationalists saw it as a political design. It divided a people who shared a language and a culture, and it weakened the most politically active region of India.

Official papers show the political aim. In 1904 the Home Secretary, Herbert Risley, wrote that "Bengal united is a power; Bengal divided will pull in several different ways." In February 1904 Curzon toured East Bengal and told Muslim audiences that the new province would give them a unity they had not enjoyed since the days of the old Muslim rulers.

The partition came into effect on 16 October 1905. Nationalists declared that day a day of mourning, and the agitation grew at once.

The new province had a Muslim majority, and the government presented the partition as a benefit to Muslims. This gave the measure a communal colour and showed the policy of divide and rule.

What were the causes of the Swadeshi and Boycott Movement?

The Swadeshi and Boycott Movement grew directly out of the anti-Partition agitation, and its causes can be grouped under a few heads.

Political causes

The immediate cause was the partition of Bengal in 1905. Nationalists believed that the government was trying to divide the Bengali people and to break the growing strength of the Congress in Bengal. The method used, an administrative order passed without consulting Indian opinion, deepened the sense of grievance.

Curzon had already offended educated Indians with the Calcutta Corporation Act of 1899, which cut the number of elected members, and the Indian Universities Act of 1904, which tightened official control over the universities. The government's refusal to listen to reasoned protest convinced many that petitions would not work.

Economic causes

The movement was also a protest against the economic exploitation of India. British goods were sold in India while Indian industries were neglected, and Indian handicrafts had declined under foreign competition.

The idea of swadeshi, meaning the use of goods produced in one's own country, offered a way both to protest and to rebuild Indian industry.

Cultural and social causes

The partition was resented as an attack on Bengali language and culture. The movement drew on a revival of pride in India's past, in its literature, its festivals and its traditions.

The song 'Vande Mataram', written by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay in the 1870s as a hymn to the motherland and later included in his novel Anandamath (1882), was widely sung during the Swadeshi movement in Bengal.

The example of a wider world

Japan's victory over Russia in 1905 showed that an Asian country could defeat a European power, and it lifted the confidence of Indian nationalists. The call for a boycott of British goods was first made in Bengal by Krishna Kumar Mitra's weekly Sanjivani in July 1905.

Taken together, these causes made the movement more than a protest against one order. The political grievance was the partition itself. The economic grievance was the drain of wealth and the decline of Indian handicrafts.

The cultural grievance was the insult to Bengali language and culture. Each of these gave the agitation a separate appeal, and together they brought students, women, artisans and townspeople into the same movement.

How did the anti-Partition and Swadeshi Movement unfold?

The movement passed through several stages, and its methods widened as it went on.

1. On 7 August 1905 a mass meeting at the Calcutta Town Hall passed the boycott resolution, which formally launched the Swadeshi Movement.
2. On 16 October 1905, the day the partition took effect, Calcutta observed a hartal and a day of mourning. People fasted, bathed in the Ganga, sang Rabindranath Tagore's "Amar Sonar Bangla" and tied rakhis on one another's wrists as a sign of the unity of the two Bengals.
3. Boycott of British goods was organised: foreign cloth was burnt in bonfires, and shops selling foreign goods were picketed. In some places washermen and priests refused to serve people who used foreign goods.
4. Swadeshi was promoted: people were urged to buy Indian cloth and goods, and Indian textile mills, handlooms, match and soap factories and banks were set up. Volunteer bodies called samitis, such as Ashwini Kumar Dutt's Swadesh Bandhab Samiti in Barisal, carried the message to the villages.
5. The movement spread beyond Bengal. Tilak led it in Poona and Bombay, Lala Lajpat Rai and Ajit Singh in Punjab, Syed Haider Raza in Delhi, and V.O. Chidambaram Pillai in Madras, who launched the Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company at Tuticorin in 1906.
6. Nationalist education was organised. Students left government schools and colleges, and the National Council of Education was set up in August 1906, with Aurobindo Ghosh as principal of the new Bengal National College.
7. At its Calcutta session in December 1906, presided over by Dadabhai Naoroji, the Congress declared swaraj, self-government like that of the self-governing colonies, to be its goal, and supported swadeshi, boycott and national education.
8. The Moderates and the Extremists quarrelled over how far to take the movement, and the Congress split at Surat in December 1907.
9. From 1907 the government met the movement with repression: meetings and newspapers were banned and leaders were jailed. In July 1908 Tilak was sentenced to six years' imprisonment in Mandalay. By 1908 the open movement had declined, and some young men turned to revolutionary violence.
10. The agitation still won its demand. At the Delhi Durbar in December 1911, King George V announced that the partition would be annulled and that the capital would move from Calcutta to Delhi.

Definition: Swadeshi means the use of goods and services produced in one's own country. Boycott means the refusal to deal and associate with people, or to participate in activities, or to buy and use things; it is usually a form of protest.

The movement also brought forward a new style of leadership. The moderate method of petition and appeal was challenged by leaders who wanted mass agitation and a stronger demand for self-government.

The hartal of 16 October 1905 was followed by boycott and picketing, and then by the positive programme of swadeshi.

The bonfires of foreign cloth became the most visible image of the agitation. The boycott of government schools and courts showed that the movement was aimed at British institutions and not only at British goods.

What was the impact of the Swadeshi and Boycott Movement?

The movement had effects that went well beyond the immediate question of the partition.

Political impact

The partition of Bengal was annulled in 1911, which was seen as a victory for the agitation.

The movement also widened the base of the national movement, bringing students, women, artisans and townspeople into political activity. It sharpened the demand for self-government and prepared the ground for the later mass movements.

It also divided the Congress at Surat in 1907, and the repression that followed pushed some young men in Bengal towards revolutionary violence. In April 1908 Khudiram Bose and Prafulla Chaki threw a bomb at Muzaffarpur, and Khudiram was hanged later that year.

Economic impact

The boycott of foreign goods and the promotion of swadeshi gave a stimulus to Indian industry. Indian mills and handlooms found a growing market, and Indian enterprises such as the Tata Iron and Steel Company, founded in 1907, were welcomed as swadeshi ventures.

The idea that economic self-reliance was part of political freedom took root, and the boycott of foreign cloth became a lasting weapon of the national movement.

Cultural impact

The movement encouraged Indian literature, art and music, and it gave the nation some of its enduring symbols. 'Vande Mataram' became a song of the national movement, and Rabindranath Tagore's "Amar Sonar Bangla", written in 1905, later became the national anthem of Bangladesh.

The image of Bharat Mata, first created by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay in his writing, was painted by Abanindranath Tagore in 1905, moved by the Swadeshi movement. In this painting Bharat Mata is portrayed as an ascetic figure; she is calm, composed, divine and spiritual.

Impact on the national movement's methods

The movement showed that mass agitation and boycott could be powerful instruments.

It also revealed the limits of such a movement: it was strongest in Bengal, it could not be sustained at the same intensity everywhere, and it failed to draw in most peasants, especially the Muslim peasants of East Bengal.

The annulment of the partition in 1911 was the clearest political result. The widening of the base of the movement was a slower but deeper change, because students, women and artisans had now tasted political activity.

The Surat split of 1907 and the turn to revolutionary violence were its costs. The cultural symbols of the movement, above all 'Vande Mataram' and the image of Bharat Mata, outlived the agitation itself.

What circumstances led to the foundation of the Muslim League?

The All India Muslim League was founded at Dacca on 30 December 1906. Several circumstances came together to bring it about.

The government's policy of dividing communities

Around the partition of Bengal, the government encouraged the idea that Muslims had separate interests from Hindus. The new province of Eastern Bengal and Assam had a Muslim majority, and the government presented the partition as a benefit to Muslims.

A section of Muslim leaders, led by Nawab Salimullah of Dacca, supported the partition and was encouraged to organise separately and to assure the government of loyalty.

The Aligarh tradition of keeping apart from the Congress

Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, who founded the Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College at Aligarh in 1877, urged Muslims to concentrate on modern education and to stay away from the Congress, which he saw as dominated by Hindus.

In 1888 he helped set up the United Indian Patriotic Association to oppose the Congress. Many of the League's founders came from this Aligarh circle of landlords, nawabs and educated Muslims.

The promise of council reforms

In 1906 the Secretary of State for India, John Morley, indicated that the legislative councils would be reformed and enlarged. Muslim leaders feared that elections based on numbers would give most seats to Hindus, and they hurried to place their claims before the Viceroy.

The fear of a Hindu majority

Some Muslim leaders feared that in a system based on numbers, the interests of Muslims as a minority would be submerged under the domination of a Hindu majority. They argued that separate organisation was needed to safeguard their political interests.

The Simla Deputation of 1906

On 1 October 1906 a deputation of about 35 Muslim leaders led by the Aga Khan met the Viceroy, Lord Minto, at Simla.

It asked for separate electorates and for representation in the councils and services based not only on the Muslims' numbers but also on their political importance and their services to the empire.

Minto replied that Muslim political rights would be safeguarded, and this encouraged the formation of a separate political body.

The Dacca meeting

On 30 December 1906, during the annual session of the All India Muhammadan Educational Conference at Dacca, hosted by Nawab Salimullah, the All India Muslim League was founded. Nawab Viqar-ul-Mulk presided over the meeting, and the Aga Khan became the League's first president.

Note: A common confusion is to date the Muslim League to the Simla Deputation. The deputation met the Viceroy on 1 October 1906 and asked for safeguards; the League itself was founded at Dacca on 30 December 1906.

The Simla Deputation and the Dacca meeting are therefore two separate events, three months apart. The deputation asked for safeguards; the Dacca meeting set up the organisation that would press for them.

The Morley-Minto Reforms of 1909 came after the League was founded, and they granted the separate electorates that the deputation had requested.

What were the objectives of the Muslim League?

The objectives of the Muslim League, as stated at its foundation in 1906, were these.

• To promote among Muslims a feeling of loyalty to the British government and to remove any misunderstanding that might arise about the intentions of the government towards them.
• To protect and advance the political rights and interests of Muslims, and to represent their needs and aspirations to the government.
• To prevent the rise among Muslims of any feeling of hostility towards other communities, without prejudice to the first two aims.

In practice the League also hoped to keep educated Muslims away from the Congress. It supported the partition of Bengal and pressed for separate electorates, which the Morley-Minto Reforms (the Indian Councils Act of 1909) granted.

In 1913 the League adopted the goal of self-government suitable to India, and in 1916 the League and the Congress concluded the Lucknow Pact, by which the Congress accepted separate electorates for Muslims.

The three founding objectives are worth learning in order. The first is loyalty to the British government. The second is the protection of Muslim political rights. The third is the prevention of hostility between communities.

The Lucknow Pact of 1916 shows how far the League had travelled in ten years: from loyalty to the government to a joint demand for self-government with the Congress.

How did different groups take part in these movements?

The movements of this period drew in different social groups, each with its own hopes.

Students and the educated middle class

Students were among the most active participants. They left government-controlled schools and colleges, took part in processions, picketing and boycotts, and helped to spread the message of swadeshi in towns and villages. The educated middle class provided much of the leadership and the press support for the agitation.

Women

Women, especially from middle-class homes in Calcutta and other towns, came out to take part in processions and in the boycott of foreign cloth. On 16 October 1905 many kept the day of mourning by refusing to cook. Sarala Devi Chaudhurani promoted swadeshi goods and physical training for the young.

Peasants and workers

The movement drew in few peasants. In East Bengal most peasants were Muslims and many landlords were Hindus, so a boycott often enforced by Hindu landlords and volunteers could look to them like a Hindu upper-class campaign.

Some workers, for example in Calcutta's printing presses and on the railways, struck work in 1905 and 1906, and Bombay's mill workers struck for six days in July 1908 when Tilak was sentenced.

Muslims

Muslim participation varied. Some Muslim leaders, such as Abdul Rasul and Liaqat Hussain, supported the Swadeshi Movement, while others, led by Nawab Salimullah, backed the partition and chose separate organisation through the Muslim League.

Communal riots broke out at Comilla and Jamalpur in East Bengal in 1907, and the government's policy of treating Muslims as a separate community deepened the division.

The students gave the movement its processions and its reach into small towns.

The educated middle class gave it its leadership and its press. Women gave it a public presence that was new in Indian politics. Peasants and workers joined only in part, with grievances of their own. Muslim participation was divided, and official policy widened that division.

Timeline of the growth of nationalism

Read down the table and the sequence is clear. The partition was planned from 1903 and imposed in 1905; the agitation peaked in 1905 and 1906 and declined after the Surat split and the repression of 1907 and 1908.

The Muslim League grew out of the same years, from the Simla Deputation of October 1906 to the Dacca meeting three months later, and its demand was met in 1909. The annulment of 1911 and the Lucknow Pact of 1916 closed the period.

How did the Moderates and the assertive nationalists differ during the Swadeshi Movement?

The Swadeshi Movement brought into the open a difference inside the Congress between the Moderates and the assertive nationalists, whom their opponents called Extremists.

Both opposed the partition, but they disagreed about goals, methods and how far the boycott should go. The quarrel ended in the Surat split of December 1907.

The difference shaped the movement's impact. The Extremists widened the boycott into a programme of passive resistance, while the Moderates feared that this would bring repression and cost them the reforms they hoped for from Morley.

After the split the government struck at the Extremists while it offered the Morley-Minto Reforms of 1909 to the Moderates.

The methods of the Swadeshi years did not disappear. Boycott, swadeshi, picketing and national education returned on a far larger scale in the Non-Cooperation Movement of 1920 to 1922 and the Civil Disobedience Movement of 1930, when Mahatma Gandhi turned them into all-India mass movements.

What sources tell us about the growth of nationalism?

Several kinds of evidence help us understand how nationalism grew in this period.

The first is the record of the movements themselves. The anti-Partition agitation of 1905, the boycott of foreign goods and the annulment of the partition in 1911 are documented in government papers, newspapers and the writings of nationalist leaders.

Official papers such as Risley's note of 1904 reveal the political aim behind the partition. Nationalist papers such as the Bande Mataram, edited by Aurobindo Ghosh, the Sandhya and the Yugantar in Bengal, and Tilak's Kesari in Poona show how the leaders argued their case.

The second is the cultural material that nationalism produced. 'Vande Mataram', written by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay in the 1870s and included in his novel Anandamath, was widely sung during the Swadeshi movement in Bengal. Abanindranath Tagore painted his famous image of Bharat Mata in 1905, moved by the Swadeshi movement.

In later years the image of Bharat Mata acquired many different forms, as it circulated in popular prints and was painted by different artists. Devotion to this mother figure came to be seen as evidence of one's nationalism.

The third is the evidence of symbols. During the Swadeshi movement in Bengal, a tricolour flag of red, green and yellow was designed. It had eight lotuses representing eight provinces of British India, and a crescent moon, representing Hindus and Muslims.

By 1921, Gandhiji had designed the Swaraj flag, again a tricolour of red, green and white, with a spinning wheel in the centre representing the Gandhian ideal of self-help. Carrying the flag, holding it aloft during marches, became a symbol of defiance.

The fourth is the reinterpretation of history and folklore. By the end of the nineteenth century many Indians felt that, to instil a sense of pride in the nation, Indian history had to be thought about differently.

The British saw Indians as backward and primitive, incapable of governing themselves. In response, Indians wrote about the glorious developments of ancient times, when art and architecture, science and mathematics, religion and culture, law and philosophy, crafts and trade had flourished.

Tarinicharan Chattopadhyay's Bharatbarsher Itihas, whose first volume appeared in 1858, contrasted the courage of ancient Indians with their subjection under British rule.

Nationalists also collected folk tales and songs: Rabindranath Tagore gathered ballads, nursery rhymes and myths, and in Madras Natesa Sastri published a four-volume collection, The Folklore of Southern India.

Note: These efforts to unify people were not without problems. When the past being glorified was Hindu, and when the images celebrated were drawn from Hindu iconography, people of other communities felt left out. This is one reason why separate political organisation appealed to some Muslim leaders.

Historians have since studied these sources closely. Sumit Sarkar's The Swadeshi Movement in Bengal, 1903-1908, published in 1973, remains the standard study; it traces four strands in the movement: moderate protest, constructive swadeshi, political extremism and revolutionary terrorism.

Each kind of source shows the same thing: nationalism grew through culture as much as through politics.

Glossary

• Nationalism: The belief that people sharing a common history, culture and territory form a nation that should govern itself.
• Swadeshi: The use of goods and services produced in one's own country, adopted as a form of protest and self-help.
• Boycott: The refusal to deal and associate with people, or to participate in activities, or to buy and use things; usually a form of protest.
• Picket: A form of demonstration or protest by which people block the entrance to a shop, factory or office.
• Hartal: A general strike, with the closing of shops and suspension of work, observed as a mark of protest.
• Partition: The division of a province or territory into two or more separate administrative units.
• Separate electorate: A system in which a particular community votes only for candidates of its own community, who sit in seats reserved for it.
• Deputation: A small group of people chosen to represent a larger body and to place its views before an authority.
• Communalism: The belief that people of one religion form a separate community with interests distinct from, and often opposed to, those of other communities.
• Bharat Mata: The motherland pictured as a goddess, an image used to create a visual identity for the nation.
• Swadeshi flag: The tricolour of red, green and yellow designed during the Swadeshi movement, with eight lotuses and a crescent moon.
• Moderates: Congress leaders who relied on petitions, appeals and constitutional methods to press for reform.

Common errors and misconceptions

• Misconception: The Swadeshi Movement was only about cloth. Correct: It was a broad movement against the partition of Bengal, covering boycott of British goods and institutions, promotion of Indian industry, and cultural revival.
• Misconception: The partition of Bengal was carried out by Lord Minto. Correct: It was carried out in 1905 by the Viceroy Lord Curzon.
• Misconception: The Muslim League was founded at Simla. Correct: The Simla Deputation met the Viceroy in October 1906; the League was founded at Dacca in December 1906.
• Misconception: Separate electorates were introduced at the founding of the Muslim League. Correct: They were introduced by the Morley-Minto Reforms of 1909.
• Misconception: The partition of Bengal was never reversed. Correct: Its annulment was announced in December 1911, together with the decision to move the capital from Calcutta to Delhi.
• Misconception: 'Vande Mataram' was written during the Swadeshi Movement. Correct: It was written by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay in the 1870s and was widely sung during the Swadeshi movement.
• Misconception: All Muslims supported the Muslim League from the start. Correct: Muslim opinion was divided, and some leaders worked closely with the Congress.

Exam-style questions with model answers

Q1. State any two objectives of the Muslim League at its foundation. [2 marks]

1. To promote among Muslims loyalty to the British government and to remove any misunderstanding about its intentions towards them.
2. To protect and advance the political rights and interests of Muslims and to represent their needs to the government.

Q2. In 1905 the Viceroy Lord Curzon divided the largest province of British India into a western part with its capital at Calcutta and a new province of Eastern Bengal and Assam with its capital at Dacca. Name the province and state the immediate cause of the agitation that followed. [2 marks]

1. The province was Bengal.
2. The immediate cause was the partition itself, which nationalists saw as an attempt to divide the Bengali people and weaken the nationalist movement.

Q3. Explain any three causes of the Swadeshi and Boycott Movement. [3 marks]

1. The partition of Bengal, announced in July 1905, which nationalists saw as a political design to divide a people who shared a language and culture.
2. Economic exploitation, with British goods sold in India while Indian industries were neglected and handicrafts had declined.
3. The government's refusal to listen to reasoned protest, which convinced many that petitions would not work and that a mass movement was needed.

Q4. State any four circumstances that led to the foundation of the Muslim League in 1906. [4 marks]

1. The government's policy of treating Muslims as a separate community, encouraged after the partition of Bengal.
2. The fear among some Muslim leaders that the interests of Muslims as a minority would be submerged under a Hindu majority.
3. The Simla Deputation of 1 October 1906, which asked the Viceroy for separate electorates and a share in the councils and services beyond the Muslims' numbers.
4. The favourable response of the Viceroy, Lord Minto, which encouraged Muslim leaders to form a separate political body, founded at Dacca on 30 December 1906.

Q5. Explain the impact of the Swadeshi and Boycott Movement on Indian politics and industry. [4 marks]

1. The partition of Bengal was annulled in December 1911, which was seen as a victory for the agitation.
2. The base of the national movement widened, bringing students, women, artisans and ordinary people into political activity.
3. The boycott of foreign goods and the promotion of swadeshi gave a stimulus to Indian mills and handlooms.
4. The idea that economic self-reliance was part of political freedom took root, and the boycott of foreign cloth became a lasting weapon of the national movement.

Q6. 'The growth of nationalism in a colony is closely linked to the anti-colonial movement.' Explain this statement with reference to India. [5 marks]

1. In India, as in many other colonies, people began discovering their unity in the process of their struggle with colonialism.
2. The sense of being oppressed under colonial rule provided a shared bond that tied many different groups together.
3. Common grievances against the government, such as the partition of Bengal in 1905, brought different sections together in a common agitation.
4. Each class and group felt the effects of colonialism differently, so their notions of freedom were not always the same, and the unity did not emerge without conflict.
5. Through repeated movements the Congress tried to forge these groups together, and the experience of united struggle itself strengthened the sense of belonging to one nation.

Q7. Distinguish between the Moderates and the Extremists in their approach to the Swadeshi and Boycott Movement. How did their differences affect the Congress? [6 marks]

1. The Moderates, such as Gokhale and Surendranath Banerjea, wanted self-government within the British Empire, reached step by step through reforms; the Extremists, led by Tilak, Bipin Chandra Pal, Lala Lajpat Rai and Aurobindo Ghosh, demanded swaraj.
2. The Moderates relied on petitions, meetings and the press; the Extremists wanted mass agitation, boycott and passive resistance.
3. The Moderates wished to limit the boycott to foreign goods and mainly to Bengal; the Extremists wanted it extended across India and to government schools, courts, offices and titles.
4. The Moderates still trusted British justice and hoped for reforms from the Secretary of State, John Morley; the Extremists believed that appeals had failed and that only pressure would succeed.
5. The differences came to a head at the Surat session of December 1907, where the Congress split and the Moderates kept control of the party.
6. The split weakened the movement: the government repressed the Extremists, jailing Tilak in 1908, while it offered the Morley-Minto Reforms of 1909 to the Moderates. The two groups came together again only at Lucknow in 1916.

Key takeaways

• Indian nationalism grew out of the anti-colonial struggle, and the sense of being oppressed under colonial rule tied different groups together.
• The partition of Bengal in 1905 by Lord Curzon was the immediate cause of the Swadeshi and Boycott Movement.
• Swadeshi meant the use of Indian goods; boycott meant the refusal to buy or deal in foreign goods and institutions.
• The movement had political, economic and cultural effects, and the partition was annulled in 1911.
• The Muslim League was founded at Dacca in December 1906, after the Simla Deputation of October 1906.
• Its objectives were loyalty to the government, protection of Muslim political rights, and prevention of hostility towards other communities.
• Separate electorates for Muslims were introduced by the Morley-Minto Reforms of 1909.
• The movement split the Congress at Surat in 1907 and declined under repression after 1908, but it widened the base of nationalism.
• Different groups joined the national movement with different hopes, and their notions of freedom were not always the same.

Test yourself

In which year was Bengal partitioned, and by whom?

Bengal was partitioned in 1905 by the Viceroy Lord Curzon. The province was divided into a western part with its capital at Calcutta and a new province of Eastern Bengal and Assam with its capital at Dacca.

What did swadeshi mean?

Swadeshi meant the use of goods and services produced in one's own country. It was adopted as a form of protest against British goods and as a way of rebuilding Indian industry.

When and where was the Muslim League founded?

The All India Muslim League was founded at Dacca on 30 December 1906. The Aga Khan became its first president.

What was the Simla Deputation?

On 1 October 1906 a deputation of Muslim leaders led by the Aga Khan met the Viceroy, Lord Minto, at Simla. It asked for separate electorates and for a share in the councils and services based on the Muslims' political importance as well as their numbers.

When was the partition of Bengal annulled?

The annulment was announced at the Delhi Durbar in December 1911, together with the decision to move the capital from Calcutta to Delhi.

Who wrote 'Vande Mataram', and when was it widely sung?

'Vande Mataram' was written by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay in the 1870s as a hymn to the motherland. It was included in his novel Anandamath and was widely sung during the Swadeshi movement in Bengal.

What did the tricolour flag of the Swadeshi movement show?

The flag was red, green and yellow. It had eight lotuses representing eight provinces of British India, and a crescent moon representing Hindus and Muslims.