Swadeshi Movement
- The sound of Experiment
- Oct 21, 2024
- 12 min read
Updated: Oct 24, 2024
Introduction
The Swadeshi movement, also known as the Vande Mataram, was a self-sufficiency movement that was part of the Indian independence movement and contributed to the development of Indian nationalism. It was the most successful of the pre-Gandhican movements. The term comes from the combination of two Sanskrit words: swa ("self" or "own") and desh ("country") and means "one's own country". Although the roots of Indian nationalism can be traced back to pre-colonial India, it was fully developed during the Indian independence movement that fought for independence from British rule. Indian nationalism quickly became popular in India through these united anti-colonial coalitions and (‘Indian Nationalism’) Movements. Independence figures such as Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru led the Indian nationalist movement. Indian nationalists were inspired by nationalist movements worldwide from Ireland, Japan, Egypt, Turkey, Persia and China that demolished myths of European invincibility (‘Swadeshi and Boycott Movement’). The movement took its enormous size and form after wealthy Indians donated money and land dedicated to the Khadi and Gramodyog societies who began producing textiles in every household. It also included other industries of the village, in order to make the village self-sufficient and self-sufficient. The Indian National Congress used this movement as an arsenal for its liberation struggle and finally on August 15, 1947, a handmade Indian Khadi flag "tricolor ashok chakra" was unfurled in "Princess Park" near India Gate, New Delhi by Jawaharlal Nehru (‘Swadeshi Movement’). The importance of the Swadeshi movement along with the boycott movement lies in the following reasons. 1) These two movements were India's first in the 20th century to encourage mass participation in contemporary nationalist politics by a large part of society. 2) For the first time, women had the opportunity to participate in processions and pickets of foreign stores. 3) These two movements changed the character of the Indian National Congress. 4) Finally, the ideas of non-cooperation and passive resistance successfully implemented many years later by Mahatma Gandhi, came from the Swadeshi movement and boycott in the early 20'sTh Century (Aryan).
History
In 1900, Bengal was the main province of British India. The Indian national movement began in Bengal and so, the British decided to partition Bengal. When Lord Curzon, then Viceroy of India, announced the partition of Bengal in July 1905, the Indian National Congress launched the Swadeshi movement in Bengal at the same time that Art Nouveau was prevalent in Europe. The Swadeshi movement began as a protest movement that also gave the lead to the Boycott movement in the country (‘Swadeshi Movement’). Initially the partition plan was opposed through the intensive use of conventional "moderate" methods of press campaigning, numerous meetings and reports, and major conferences at Calcutta City Hall in March 1904 and January 1905 (Swadeshi Movement - Banglapedia). This phase was marked by a series of protests, petitions, and even boycotts of anything from the West. The Indians only used goods made in India and burned anything that was imported (MUSKAAN). The swadeshi movement can be divided into four periods. The first lasted from 1850–1904. During this period, Dadabay Naoroji, Gopal Krishna Gokale, Mahadev Govind Ranad, Bal Gangandar Tilak, Ganesh Vianakatesh Joshi and Baswat K. Nigoni began to organize to promote Indian nationalism (the First Suantesi Movement). The second period from 1871-1872. The Namdhari Sikhs boycott English fabric in Punjab. Ram Singh Kuka boycotted English textiles, education and courts and instead promoted handmade khaddar fabrics, colloquial education and khap panchayats. In the Third Period, 1905–1917 the movement opposed the partition of Bengal in 1905, which was ordered by Lord Curzon. Revolutionary groups in the form of local clubs grew. Anushilan Samiti and the Jugantar Party made attempts at uprisings and assassinations of notorious administrators. In the fourth and final period, 1918-1947 the movement was further strengthened by Mahatma Gandhi when he pledged to boycott foreign goods by burning 150,000 English cloths at Elpinstone Mill Compound, Parel, Mumbai on 31 July 1921. Mahatma Gandhi organized Hadi rotation centers across the country and described the Khadi spinners as freedom fighters. Indians began to abandon British products for Indian products, even though they were more expensive. The impact has been strong with the UK seeing a 20% drop in sales of its products. The trio of Lal-Bal-Pal organized several samites, Bal Gangadhar Tilak led Ganesh Utsav as a means to spread the use and consumption of indigenous products from soil to sweets. Another notable figure of the Swadeshi movement is V. O. Chidambaram Pillai in Tuticorin, who took over the British Indian Steamship Company and turned it into an Indian shipping company and named it the Swadeshi Shipping Company in October 1906 (‘Swadeshi Movement’).
Politics
The Indian National Congress (Congress Party) held its first meeting in December 1885 in the city of Bombay, while British Indian troops were still fighting in Upper Burma. Thus, just as the British Indian Empire was approaching its outer limits of expansion, the institutional seed of the greatest of its national successors was sown. The provincial roots of Indian nationalism, however, can be traced back to the beginning of the era of crown rule in Mumbai, Bengal and Madras. Nationalism emerged in 19th-century British India as both an imitation and a reaction against the consolidation of British rule and the spread of Western civilization. There were, moreover, two turbulent national main axes that rolled beneath the deceptively calm official surface of the British administration: the larger, headed by the Indian National Congress, which eventually led to the birth of India, and the smaller Muslim, which acquired its organizational skeleton with the founding of the Muslim League in 1906 and led to the creation of Pakistan. During the 1870s, young leaders in Bombay founded a number of provincial political associations (1842–1901). The first partition of Bengal in 1905 brought the province to the brink of open rebellion. The British recognized that Bengal, with about 85 million people, was too large for a single province and decided it deserved reorganization and clever division. The line drawn by Lord Curzon's government, however, crossed the heart of the Bengali-speaking "nation", leaving the bhadralok ("respectable people") of West Bengal, the spiritual Hindu leadership of Calcutta, tied to the much less politically active Bihari and Oriya-speaking Hindus in the north and south. One of the last major demands added to the Congress Party platform after the first partition of Bengal was swaraj (self-government), which soon became the most popular mantra of Indian nationalism. Swaraj was first formulated in Dadabhai Naoroji's presidential speech as a goal of Congress at the Calcutta session in 1906 (India - Indian Nationalism and the British Response, 1885–1920 | Britannica).
Arts
Art and literature played an important role in India's liberation struggle. Both art and literature served as a tool in India's liberation struggle against colonialism. As part of the freedom movement, many indigenous industries and businesses were created. Indian art and literature flourished and soon became a source of national pride. For example, Abanindranath Tagore through his paintings helped raise the consciousness of many people. Through various magazines, newspapers such as Hariyan's freedom fighters such as Gandhiji, Rabindranath Tagore raised important issues on the national platform. In particular, art and literature strengthened India's liberation struggle in the following ways. 1) Educating emotions: Art helped nationalists in their struggle by evoking feelings related to oppression or the kind of injustice people faced for a long time. It also contributed to increasing the sensitivity of the elite and bourgeoisie to the suffering of ordinary people, depicting the poor living situation and atrocities. 2) Increasing nationalist sentiments: Nationalist sentiment has replaced what had previously dominated portraits and songs. Now, literature and poetry have been used for patriotic purposes and to create nationalist discourse. 3) Overcoming language barriers: Indian art helped overcome linguistic differences that existed in India as it took the form of visual and performing arts. Moreover, nationalist literature was in the local language that helped ordinary people take part in India's liberation struggle. 4) Helped spread awareness: Writers and poets like Tagore used literature, poetry and speech in general as a tool to spread awareness against British atrocities among Indians and to provoke thoughts about freedom and to encourage people to fight for the country. 5) Through women's participation: Women leaders such as Begum Rokeya and Sarojini Naidu promoted the empowerment of Indian women and encouraged their participation in national politics. 6) Literature became a propaganda tool against the British: Newspapers tried to sensitize Indian citizens not only socially and politically, but also to unite them for a common cause. 7) Finally, patriotic sentiments spread: Art and literature were used to spread the message of patriotism and to expose the atrocities of the British (‘[Answered] Discuss How Art and Literature Influenced India’s Freedom Struggle?’).
Painting
As far as painting is concerned, the modern Indian art movement in Indian painting is thought to have begun in Calcutta in the late nineteenth century. The old traditions of painting had more or less disappeared in Bengal and new art schools were started by the British. Initially, protagonists of Indian art such as Raja Ravi Varma relied on Western traditions and techniques, including oil painting and easel painting. A reaction to Western influence led to a revival of primitivism, called the Bengal art school, which drew on India's rich cultural heritage. It was succeeded by the Santiniketan school, led by Rabindranath Tagore's return to idyllic rural folk and rural life. Despite its influence throughout the country in the early years, the importance of the school declined from the forties and no longer exists (‘Modern Indian Painting’). In particular, Tagore broke the dominance of Victorian naturalism in Indian art and was inspired by the paintings of Mughal, Ajanta and Rajput. The first to significantly influence Indian art was Nandal Bose, who was the first artist to receive a scholarship from the Indian Society of Oriental Art, founded in 1907. During this period, folk festivals and melas were particularly used as means of reaching out to the general public. In particular, the festivals of Ganpati and Shivaji became a medium of swadeshi propaganda, not only in West India but also in Bengal (Cultural Importance of Swadeshi Movement Issues and Analysis @ Abhipedia Powered by ABHIMANU IAS).
Swadeshi και Ghandi
Satyagraha and Suantesi are fundamental to Gandhi's philosophy of life. According to Gandhi, the whole range of human activities constitutes an indivisible whole. Life cannot be divided into watertight compartments such as social, economic, political, religious and so on. Thus, the ideas and concepts he developed during his relentless experiments with truth were an attempt to integrate the various aspects of life. The concept of swadeshi was no exception. It wasn't just an economic dogma. In fact, the concept of swadeshi covered all aspects of human life. Gandhi's vision of swadeshi is a universal concept, although he proposed it in the context of India's struggle for freedom. He used swadeshi as a means to achieve India's swaraj. India's struggle for freedom has been a source of inspiration for many nonviolent struggles in different parts of the globe. Swaraj through swadeshi is a principle of universal application and can be imitated by people in their struggle for freedom. It was one of eleven vows prescribed by Gandhi for a satygraha lifestyle. In this article an attempt has been made to understand Gandhi's concept of swadeshi and its manifestation in important aspects of human life. Swadeshi as a general concept covers almost every aspect of human life, all its ideas, concepts, methods and programs. However, the scope of this document has been limited to areas such as economic, political, social, religious, educational and health. First, we will analyze Gandhi's vision of swadeshi (Understanding Gandhi’s Vision of Swadeshi | Swadeshi-Khadi | Articles on and by Mahatma Gandhi).
Music
In the early 1900s, as the Indian independence movement grew and the Swadeshi Movement gained momentum, the region's music also began to reflect its response to the changing socio-political landscape. While Bankim Chandra Chatterjee's Vande Mataram became the anthem for political movements, devotional songs such as Raghu Pati Raghav Raja Ram, popularized by Gandhi, became particularly popular during the Salt Satyagraha in 1930. In Bengal, Vande Mataram's slogan reached even the most remote villages, which otherwise had no direct connection to the centers of the liberation struggle, explains Calcutta-based educator Chandra Mukhopadhyay. In particular, the call mobilized the women of these villages, who had their own ways of expressing their loyalty to the homeland. The idea of using only domestic products and rejecting foreign goods resonated with them, and they began to encourage the idea of wearing indigenous clothes, bracelets, vermillions, and so on. While their songs were still about marriage or farming, they quickly made room for the phrase Vande Mataram. Chandra has spent many years extensively researching and documenting the folk music of the undivided region of Bengal, traveling to areas such as Murshidabad, Cooch Behar, Jalpaiguri, and Bankura, among others, and learning about this female musical tradition. These songs belonged to a historical line of oral tradition, but were not preserved anywhere in texts. Chandra worried that the younger generation might never be privy to them and that the tradition was beginning to disappear. "Folk traditional music lacks life itself. The life we live is not depicted in these songs. It's all about love, stars and so on. But reality is not reflected. Folk songs are born from the soil and talk about the soil," says Chandra. Through this music, women talk about their work, their joys and sorrows, any experiences they had, compose music for special occasions and much more. "All over the world, women's work is not recognized as work. But these women recognize their work — through the composition of these songs." These songs were not sung as a form of entertainment for others. They accompanied women's lives and talked about all sorts of things, from a girl's first menstrual cycle to a woman giving birth and caring for a child, and from the agricultural activities they did to songs they sang during ceremonies like weddings. "We can conclude from this that the women were not at home and that they were singing their own songs in public." Patriotic songs entered a new era, when the nationalist movement gained momentum from the 1920s. The main theme of patriotic songs was to mark the subordination under the country under foreign rule. Tagore himself wrote many songs highlighting the resources and heritage of the country. The themes of these songs were the wealth of the country's resources and the heroism of the country's freedom fighters. Bansimsandra, Rabindranath, Duyendral, Rajanikada, Atulprasad, Kazi Nazrul Islam, Mukundadas, Talim Hossein and Farruh Ahmed were in the vanguard of patriotic song creators. During the Bangladesh liberation war, patriotic songs provided great strength, courage and hope in the minds of the people and freedom fighters on the battlefields (Patriotic Songs - Banglapedia).
Notable Compositions
Bango amar janani amar – Dwijendralal Ray (χρονολογία, διάρκεια)
Dwigendral Ray (19 July 1863 – 17 May 1913) was an Indian poet, playwright and musician. He was known for his Hindu mythological and nationalist historical works and songs known as Dwijendrageeti or his songs Dwijendralal, which number over 500, create a distinct subgenre of Bengali music (‘Dwijendralal Ray’).
Dhano dhanya pushpobhora amader ei boshundhora
It was based on Raga Kentara with three genres of musical rhythm, and follows the English musical motif (Correspondent).
Amar shonar Bangla, ami tomaye bhalobashi - Rabindranath Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore is perhaps the only one to have written the national anthems of two countries. "Amar Sonar Bangla, ami tomaye balobashi" gained popularity during the Suantesi Movement. Swadeshi activists, revolutionaries and those opposing the partition of Bengal (1905) used this song to ignite the spirit of nationalism among the masses. The song again appeared in the mainstream when it was skillfully used in Zahir Raihan's feature film Jibon Thekey Nya (1970) (Correspondent).
Jodi Tor Daak Shune Keu Na Ase
It is one of Tagore's classic patriotic works, it is also one of Mahatma Gandhi's favorites (Correspondent).
Dekh Ma Ebar Duar Khule - Atulprasad Sen
Atul Prasad Sen (20 October 1871 – 26 August 1934) was a Bengali composer, lyricist and singer, as well as lawyer, philanthropist, social worker, educator and writer (‘Atul Prasad Sen’). Although he wrote relatively few songs compared to his contemporaries, he carved out a niche for himself in the cultural scene dominated by Tagore (Correspondent).
Karar Oi Louha Kapat - Nazrul
Armed with an impeccable foundation in classical music and Persian, Arabic, Sanskrit literature, Nastrul's inspirational songs are still zealously interpreted today (Correspondent).
Amar Bhaier Rokte Rangano Ekushe February - Abdul Latif
Abdul Latif (1927–2005) was a Bangladeshi singer, musician and songwriter. He was the original songwriter of the Bengali language movement. He was awarded the Ekushey Padak Award in 1997 and the Independence Day Award in 2002 by the Government of Bangladesh (‘Abdul Latif (Musician)’). The lyrics of this famous song mean, "Oh how can I forget the sacrifice of my brothers & blood on February 21st." It's not just a song, it's an anthem for people around the world who love their mother tongue. Bengalis around the world, however, have commemorated the day as Bhasha Dipas for more than six decades now. In world history, there are not many examples of people who died to save their language. But that's what happened for Bangla. The bloodshed for the mother tongue immortalized Salam, Barkat, Rafiq and Jabbar, in whose memory Bangladesh observes Basha Shahed Dibas every year on this day - "Ekushe February" (Amar Bhaier Rokte Rangano Ekushe February || International Mother Language Day || Patriotic Song).
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