Swadeshi & Boycott movement

Story hook

It is 16 October 1905, Karthik Amavasya. Lord Curzon's Partition of Bengal comes into effect, splitting Bengal into Hindu-majority West (with Bihar + Orissa) and Muslim-majority East Bengal + Assam — ostensibly for administrative convenience, actually to break the heart of Indian nationalism which was concentrated in undivided Bengal.

Across Bengal — and soon across India — Rabindranath Tagore composed "Amar Sonar Bangla" + people tied rakhis to one another in symbolic unity + lit funeral pyres of Manchester cloth in street bonfires. Within days, the Swadeshi Movement had erupted — the first mass-mobilisation nationalism in Indian history. Within six years (12 December 1911), Curzon's partition would be annulled by Lord Hardinge II, and the capital shifted to Delhi.

For UPSC, Swadeshi-Boycott + Partition of Bengal is the inflection point between INC moderate phase and the mass-nationalism Gandhi inherited in 1915.

Why this matters for UPSC

For UPSC:

• Prelims: Partition of Bengal date + repeal; "Amar Sonar Bangla" + Rakhi Day; INC Calcutta Session 1906; Surat Split 1907; Vande Mataram; Tilak's 4-fold programme; Anti-Partition movements; Bal-Pal-Lal trio; Boycott impact on textiles; Annulment 1911 + capital shift.
• Mains GS-I: Swadeshi as nationalism's mass-base; Hindu- Muslim communal seed in Partition + Muslim League formation Dec 1906.
• Interview: Was Swadeshi truly mass-based or middle-class led?