Swadeshi Movement

Lokmanya Tilak spread the message of swadeshi to Poona

and Bombay and organised Ganapati and Shivaji festivals to arouse patriotic feelings. He stressed that the aim of swadeshi, boycott and national education was attainment of swaraj. He opened cooperative stores and headed the Swadeshi Wastu Pracharini Sabha.

Lala Lajpat Rai took the movement to Punjab and parts of northern India. He was assisted in his venture by Ajit Singh. His articles, which were published in Kayastha Samachar, endorsed technical education and industrial self-sufficiency.

Syed Haider Raza popularised the Swadeshi Movement in

Delhi.

Chidambaram Pillai spread the movement to Madras and

organised the strike of the Tuticorin Coral Mill. He founded the Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company in Tuticorin on the east coast of the Madras Province.

Bipin Chandra Pal of the Extremist clan played a major role in popularising the movement, especially in the urban areas. He was the editor of New India.

Laikat Hossain of Patna suggested boycott and organised the East Indian Railway strike in 1906. He also wrote fiery articles in Urdu to rouse nationalist sentiments in Muslims. He was supported by other Muslim swadeshi agitators like Ghaznavi, Rasul, Din Mohammed, Dedar Bux, Moniruzzaman, Ismail Hussain, Siraji, Abdul Hussain and Abdul Gaffar.

Shyamsunder Chakrabarti, a swadeshi political leader, helped in organising strikes.

Ramendra Sunder Trivedi called for observance of arandhan (keeping the hearth unlit) as a mark of mourning and protest on the day the partition was put into effect.

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Rabindranath Tagore composed several songs to inspire freedom struggle and revived Bengali folk music to rouse national pride. He also set up some swadeshi stores and called for the observance of raksha bandhan (tying of threads on each other’s wrists as a sign of brotherhood).

Aurobindo Ghosh was in favour of extending the movement to the rest of India. He was appointed as the principal of Bengal National College founded in 1906 to encourage patriotic thinking and an education system related to Indian conditions and culture. He was also the editor of Bande Mataram and through his editorials encouraged strikes, national education etc., in the spirit of the Swadeshi Movement. He was assisted by Jatindranath Bannerji and Barindrakumar Ghosh (who managed the Anushilan Samiti). Surendranath Banerjea who held moderate nationalist opinion launched powerful press campaigns through newspapers like The Bengalee and addressed mass meetings. He was assisted by

Krishnakumar Mitra and Narendra Kumar Sen.

Ashwini Kumar Dutt, a school teacher, set up Swadesh Bandhab Samiti to propagate the Swadeshi Movement and led the Muslim peasants of Barisal in their protests.

Promotha Mitter, Barindrakumar Ghosh, Jatindranath Bannerji founded the Anushilan Samiti in Calcutta.

G.K. Gokhale, president of the Benaras session of the Indian National Congress, 1905, supported the Swadeshi Movement.

Abdul Halim Guznavi, a zamindar and a lawyer, set up swadeshi industries and helped Aurobindo Ghosh to extend revolutionary activities outside Bengal. He was assisted by Abul Kalam Azad.

Dadabhai Naoroji at the 1906 Congress session declared that the goal of the Congress was to attain swaraj.

Acharya P.C. Roy, in order to promote swadeshi, set up the Bengal Chemicals Factory.

Mukunda Das, Rajanikanta Sen, Dwijendralal Roy, Girindramohini Dosi, Sayed Abu Mohammed composed patriotic songs on swadeshi themes. Girishchandra Ghosh, Kshirodeprasad Vidyavinode and Amritlal Bose were play-wrights who contributed to the swadeshi spirit through their creative efforts.

Ashwini Coomar Banerjee, a swadeshi activist, led the jute mill workers to form an Indian Millhands’ Union at Budge-Budge in August 1906.

Satish Chandra Mukherji through his Dawn Society promoted an education system under indigenous control.

Motilal Ghosh of the Amrit Bazar Patrika group contributed several fiery articles in the paper to arouse patriotic sentiments and was in favour of Extremism.

Brahmabandhab Upadhyay through his Sandhya and Yugantar (brought out by a group associated with Barindrakumar Ghosh) popularised swaraj and the Swadeshi Movement.

Jogendrachandra set up an association in March 1904 to raise funds to facilitate students to go abroad for technical and industrial training.

Manindra Nandi, a zamindar from Kasimbazar, patronised several indigenous industries.

Kalisankar Sukul brought out several pamphlets on Swadeshi Movement and argued that a new kind of business class should be built to promote national interests.

Sunder Lal, a student from UP, was drawn towards terrorism.

Kunwarji Mehta and Kalyanji Mehta began organisational work through the Patidar Yuvak Mandal.

Lala Harkishan Lal promoted Swadeshi Movement in Punjab through the Brahmo-leaning group which began the Tribune newspaper. He also founded the Punjab National Bank.

Muhammed Shafi and Fazal-i-Husain were leaders of a Muslim group in Punjab involved in constructive swadeshi, rather than boycott.

V. Krishnaswami Iyer headed the ‘Mylapore’ group in the Madras Presidency.

G. Subramaniya Iyer, T. Prakasam and M. Krishna Rao were other leaders in the south but were opposed to V.K. Iyer. Prakasam and Krishna Rao started Kistnapatrika in Masulipatnam in 1904.

Subramaniya Bharati, a member of Tamilian revolutionary group and an eminent poet, played a significant role in arousing nationalism in the Tamil areas.

Prabhatkusum Roy Chaudhuri, Athanasuis Apurba-kumar Ghosh were lawyers who helped in organising labour; Premtosh Bose was another pioneer labour leader.

Hemachandra Kanungo was one of the first revolutionary leaders, and after his return from Paris (he had gone there to get military training), a combined bomb factory and religious school was set up in Calcutta.

Khudiram Bose and Prafulla Chaki, two revolutionaries, murdered Kennedy on April 30, 1908.

Pulin Das organised the Deccan Anushilan, with the Barrah dacoity as its first major venture.

Madan Mohan Malaviya and Motilal Nehru were in favour of cooperation with provincial governments and non-political Swadeshi Movement.

Sachindranath Sanyal emerged as a revolutionary leader in Benaras through contacts with Mokhodacharan Samadhyay (the editor of Sandhya after the death of Brahmabandhab).

The Savarkar brothers founded the Mitra Mela in 1899 and were directly involved in extremism in Maharashtra.

Dinshaw Wacha persuaded mill-owners in Maharashtra to sell dhotis at moderate prices.