Extremism

The failure of the moderate politics and programmes gave rise to a radical and extremist
approach. This crystallized in the formation of a new group that dominated the Indian
political scene from early part of the 20th century. The moderate led movement yielded no
result. Prayers failed. The popular belief in constitutional methods lost value. A more radical
and confrontanalist way was advocated. Thus, extremist emerged out of an ideological
confrontation. The divisive tactics of the Government has embittered the leaders. Its
suppressive measures and restrictions forced them to give up moderation. Assertion of
rights, political agitations and fighting spirit were adopted. As a result the extremists took
control of the situation and shaped the movement in their colour. Tilak, Lala Lajpat Rai and
Bipin Chandra Pal emerged as leaders.
The nature of extremist movement was best exhibited in their action. They gave the idea of
independence the central place in politics. They bitterly opposed the English. They
popularized the Boycott of foreign goods. They harped on mass mobilization through public
meetings. Religious festivals were used to further political propaganda. Reassertion of
national dignity, honour and confidence was focused on, Swadeshi and Swaraj were the
catchword with the extremists. National Schools and swadeshi industries were established
by extremist leaders. Emergence of extremist leaders shaped the Congress towards a mass
based organization. Its programmes were successful and able to draw people towards it. It
changed the character of movement for freedom. It focused on freedom as the ultimate
goal. By the starting of the 20th century, Indian politics had come under influence and
dominance of extremists. Though from the last few years of the 19th century, extremists
came into existence, it was only after the partition of Bengal that they gained popularity.
. Causes of Extremism:
a. Leadership of moderates had failed to deliver any fruit to India and so young nationalist
leaders started to acquire dominant position gradually.
b. Act of 1892 dissatisfied the congress leaders and so they choose to resort to legal and
nationalist policies for their demands.
c. Now they recognised the true nature of the British rule which moderates failed to and had
belief in its being just.
d. Education gave them a new vision and they got inspiration from India history. Western
thinkers also influenced them.
e. Increasing westernisation of India by British led them to think that they will destroy Indian
traditions, customs and culture and so they grew against British.
f. Lord Curzon’s reactionary policy was also responsible for the growth of extremism. He
spoke derogatorily of Indian character in general which hurt pride of Indi
g. Much more was the dissatisfaction with achievements of moderates which pave a way to
extremists in Indian politics.
Nature of Extremism:
a. Extremists had wide social base of political agitations, they involved lower middle class
and middle class public apart from educated class of people.
b. They did not believe in British rule and believed crown’s claim unworthy.
c. They got their inspiration from Indian history, tradition, culture and heritage and had faith
in masses capacity to participate and sacrifice.

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d. They also adopted extra constitutional methods of boycott, etc.
e. Their demand was Swaraj, as their birthright.
Swadeshi-Boycott movement
The Swadeshi Movement had its genesis in the anti-partition movement which was started
to oppose the British decision to partition Bengal. The Government’s decision to partition
Bengal had been made public in December 1903. They wanted to partition Bengal for
administrative convenience but the real motive behind the partition plan was to weaken
Bengal, the nerve centre of Indian nationalism.
This was sought to achieve by dividing Bengal (i) On the basis of language and (ii) On the
basis of religion. The effect of which would be to reduce Bengalis to a minority in Bengal
itself and create a rift between Hindus and Muslims. The government announced partition
of Bengal in July, 1905. The decision escalated the protest meeting, leading to the passage
of Boycott resolution in a massive meeting held in Calcutta townhall, and the formal
proclamation of Swadeshi Movement was made. Leaders like Surendranath Banerjee,
Ananda Mohan Bose, K K Mitra. Prithwischadra Ray attempted to bring the people of Bengal
through addressing a huge gathering. Soon the movement spread to other parts of the
country; in Pune and Bombay under Tilak, in Punjab under Lala Lajpat Rai and Ajit Singh, in
Delhi under Syed Haider Raza and in Madras under Chaidamabaram Pillai.
The Swadeshi Movement in Bengal was dominated by the extremist. They put forward new
forms of struggle. The movement mainly introduced boycott of foreign goods, and used
public meetings and procession for mass mobilization. Self reliance or ‘Atma Shakti’,
Swadeshi educations and enterprises, were emphasised on. Several samities remained
active to ensure mass participation and in the cultural sphere songs written by Rabindranath
Tagore, Rajnikant sen, Dwijendralal Ray, Mukunda Das and others inspired the masses. The
movement got wide scale participation from the students and women too took active part
in processions and picketing. Certain sections of Zamindars and Muslims too enrolled their
participation. The movement roused people from slumber, and saw them taking bold
political positions and participate in new forms of political work. Such protests were faced
with the obvious consequence of severe repression by the government.
The real motive behind the partition plan was the British desire to weaken Bengal, the nerve
centre of Indian nationalism. This it sought to achieve by putting the Bengalis under two
administrations by dividing them (i) on the basis of language (thus reducing the Bengalis to a
minority in Bengal itself as in the new proposal Bengal proper was to have 17 million
Bengalis and 37 million Hindi and Oriya speakers), and (ii) on the basis of religion, as the
western half was to be a Hindu majority area (42 million out of a total 54 million) and the
eastern half was to be a Muslim majority area (18 million out of a total of 31 million). Trying
to woo the Muslims, Curzon, the viceroy at that time, argued that Dacca could become the
capital of the new Muslim majority province, which would provide them with a unity not
experienced by them since the days of old Muslim viceroys and kings. Thus, it was clear that
the Government was up to its old policy of propping up Muslim communalists to counter
the Congress and the national movement.
During this period, the leadership was provided by men like Surendranath Banerjea, K.K.
Mitra and Prithwishchandra Ray. The methods adopted were petitions to the Government,
public meetings, memoranda, and propaganda through pamphlets and newspapers such as

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Hitabadi, Sanjibani and Bengalee. Their objective was to exert sufficient pressure on the
Government through an educated public opinion in India and England to prevent the unjust
partition of Bengal from being implemented.
Ignoring a loud public opinion against the partition proposal, the Government announced
partition of Bengal in July 1905. Within days, protest meetings were held in small towns all
over Bengal. It was in these meetings that the pledge to boycott foreign goods was first
taken. On August 7, 1905, with the passage of Boycott Resolution in a massive meeting held
in the Calcutta Townhall, the formal proclamation of Swadeshi Movement was made. After
this, the leaders dispersed to other parts of Bengal to propagate the message of boycott of
Manchester cloth and Liverpool salt.
October 16, 1905, the day the partition formally came into force, was observed as a day of
mourning throughout Bengal. People fasted, bathed in the Ganga and walked barefoot in
processions singing Bande Mataram (which almost spontaneously became the theme song
of the movement). People tied rakhis on each other’s hands as a symbol of unity of the two
halves of Bengal. Later in the day, Surendranath Banerjea and Ananda Mohan Bose
addressed huge gatherings (perhaps the largest till then under the nationalist banner).
Within a few hours of the meeting, Rs 50,000 were raised for the movement. Soon, the
movement spread to other parts of the country in Poona and Bombay under Tilak, in Punjab
under Lala Lajpat Rai and Ajit Singh, in Delhi under Syed Haider Raza, and in Madras under
Chidambaram Pillai.
The Congress’s Position:
The Indian National Congress, meeting in 1905 under the president ship of Gokhale,
resolved to (i) condemn the partition of Bengal and the reactionary policies of Curzon, and
(ii) support the anti-partition and Swadeshi Movement of Bengal.
The militant nationalists led by Tilak, Lajpat Rai, Bipin Chandra Pal and Aurobindo Ghosh
wanted the movement to be taken outside Bengal to other parts of the country and go
beyond a boycott of foreign goods to become a full-fledged political mass struggle with the
goal of attaining swaraj.
But the Moderates, dominating the Congress at that time, were not willing to go that far.
However, a big step forward was taken at the Congress session held at Calcutta (1906)
under the president ship of Dadabhai Naoroji, where it was declared that the goal of the
Indian National Congress was ‘self- government or swaraj like the United Kingdom or the
colonies’. The Moderate-Extremist dispute over the pace of the movement and techniques
of struggle reached a deadlock at the Surat session of the Indian National Congress (1907)
where the party split with serious consequences for the Swadeshi Movement.
After 1905, the Extremists acquired a dominant influence over the Swadeshi Movement in
Bengal.
There were three reasons for this:
1. The Moderate-led movement had failed to yield results.
2. The divisive tactics of the Governments of both the Bengals had embittered the
nationalists.
3. The Government had resorted to suppressive measures, which included atrocities on
students many of whom were given corporal punishment; ban on public singing of Bande
Mataram; restriction on public meetings; prosecution and long imprisonment of swadeshi

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workers; clashes between the police and the people in many towns; arrests and deportation
of leaders; and suppression of freedom of the press.
Emboldened by Dadabhai Naoroji’s declaration at the Calcutta session (1906) that self-
government or swaraj was to be the goal of the Congress, the Extremists gave a call for
passive resistance in addition to swadeshi and boycott which would include a boycott of
government schools and colleges, government service, courts, legislative councils,
municipalities, government titles, etc. so as to, as Aurobindo put it, “make the
administration under present conditions impossible by an organised refusal to do anything
which will help either the British commerce in the exploitation of the country or British
officialdom in the administration of it”.
The militant nationalists tried to transform the anti- partition and Swadeshi Movement into
a mass struggle and gave the slogan of India’s independence from foreign rule. “Political
freedom is the life breath of a nation,” declared Aurobindo. Thus, the Extremists gave the
idea of India’s independence the central place in India’s politics. The goal of independence
was to be achieved through self-sacrifice.
New Forms of Struggle:
The militant nationalists put forward several fresh ideas at the theoretical, propaganda and
programme levels. Among the several forms of struggle thrown up by the movement were:
Boycott of foreign goods: This included boycott and public burning of foreign cloth, boycott
of foreign-made salt or sugar, refusal by priests to ritualise marriages involving exchange of
foreign goods, refusal by washermen to wash foreign clothes. This form of protest met with
great success at the practical and popular level. Public meetings and processions emerged
as major methods of mass mobilisation and simultaneously as forms of popular expression.
Corps of volunteers or ‘samitis’ such as the Swadesh Bandhab Samiti of Ashwini Kumar
Dutta (in Barisal) emerged as a very popular and powerful method of mass mobilisation.
These samitis generated political consciousness among the masses through magic lantern
lectures, swadeshi songs, physical and moral training to their members, social work during
famines and epidemics, organisation of schools, training in swadeshi crafts and arbitration
courts.
Occasions as traditional festivals and celebrations were used as a means of reaching out to
the masses and spreading political messages. For instance, Tilak’s Ganapati and Shivaji
festivals became a medium of swadeshi propaganda not only in western India, but also in
Bengal. In Bengal also, the traditional folk theatre forms were used for this purpose.
Programme of swadeshi or national education: Bengal National College, inspired by Tagore’s
Shantiniketan, was set up with Aurobindo Ghosh as its principal. Soon national schools and
colleges sprang up in various parts of the country. On August 15, 1906, the National Council
of Education was set up to organise a system of education literary, scientific and technical
on national lines and under national control. Education was to be imparted through the
medium of vernaculars. A Bengal Institute of Technology was set up for technical education
and funds were raised to send students to Japan for advanced learning.
Swadeshi or indigenous enterprises: The swadeshi spirit also found expression in the
establishment of swadeshi textile mills, soap and match factories, tanneries, banks,
insurance companies, shops etc. These enterprises were based more on patriotic zeal than
on business acumen.

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Impact in the cultural sphere: The nationalists of all hues took inspiration from songs written
by Rabindranath Tagore, Rajnikant Sen, Dwijendralal Ray, Mukunda Das, Syed Abu
Mohammad and others. Tagore’s Amar Sonar Bangla written on this occasion was later to
inspire the liberation struggle of Bangladesh and was adopted by it as its national anthem.
In painting, Abanindranath Tagore broke the domination of Victorian naturalism over Indian
art and took inspiration from Mughal, Ajanta and Rajput paintings. Nandlal Bose, who left a
major imprint on Indian art, was the first recipient of a scholarship offered by the Indian
Society of Oriental Art, founded in 1907. In science, Jagdish Chandra Bose, Prafullachandra
Roy and others pioneered original research which was praised the world over.
Extent of Mass Participation:
Students came out in large numbers to propagate and practise swadeshi, and to take a lead
in organising picketing of shops selling foreign goods. Police adopted a repressive attitude
towards the students. Schools and colleges whose students participated in the agitation
were to be penalised by disaffiliating them or stopping of grants and privileges to them.
Students who were found guilty of participation were to be disqualified for government jobs
or for government scholarships, and disciplinary action fine, expulsion, arrest, beating, etc.
was to be taken against them. Women, who were traditionally home-centred, especi¬ally
those of the urban middle classes, took active part in processions and picketing. From now
onwards, they were to play a significant role in the national movement. Most of the upper
and middle class Muslims stayed away or, led by Nawab Salimullah of Dacca, supported the
partition on the plea that it would give them a Muslim-majority East Bengal.

Thus, the social base of the movement expanded to include certain sections of the
zamindari, the students, the women, and the lower middle classes in cities and towns. An
attempt was also made to give political expression to economic grievances of the working
class by organising strikes in British- owned concerns such as Eastern Indian Railways. But
the movement was not able to garner support of the Muslims, especially the Muslim
peasantry, because of a conscious government policy of divide and rule helped by overlap of
class and community at places. To further government interests, the All India Muslim
League was propped up in 1907 as an anti-Congress front and reactionary elements like
Nawab Salimullah of Dacca were encouraged.
Movements in support of Bengal’s unity and the swadeshi and boycott agitation were
organised in many parts of the country. Tilak, who played a leading role in the spread of the
movement outside Bengal. He realised that here was a challenge and an opportunity to
organise popular mass struggle against the British rule to unite the country in a bond of
common sympathy.
Annulment of Partition:
It was decided to annul the partition of Bengal in 1911 mainly to curb the menace of
revolutionary terrorism. The annulment came as a rude shock to the Muslim political elite. It
was also decided to shift the capital to Delhi as a sop to the Muslims, as it was associated
with Muslim glory, but the Muslims were not pleased. Bihar and Orissa were taken out of
Bengal and Assam was made a separate province.
Assessment: The movement was a turning point in modern Indian history:

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1. It proved to be a “leap forward” in more ways than one. Hitherto untouched
sections—students, women, some sections of urban and rural population—participated. All
major trends of the national movement, from conservative moderation to political
extremism, from revolutionary terrorism to incipient socialism, from petitions and prayers
to passive resistance and non-cooperation, emerged during the Swadeshi Movement.
The richness of the movement was not confined to the political sphere alone, but
encompassed art, literature, science and industry also.
2. People were aroused from slumber and now they learned to take bold political positions
and participate in new forms of political work.
3. The swadeshi campaign undermined the hegemony of colonial ideas and institutions.
4. The future struggle was to draw heavily from the experience gamed.
Thus, with the coming of Swadeshi and Boycott Movement, it became clear that the
Moderates had outlived
3. The swadeshi campaign undermined the hegemony of colonial ideas and institutions.
4. The future struggle was to draw heavily from the experience gained.