Lesson 42 of 94 7 min Premium

Partition of Bengal, Swadeshi Movement and the Extremists (1905–1918)

The partition of Bengal

On 20 July 1905, Viceroy Lord Curzon announced the Partition of Bengal, which came into effect on 16 October 1905. The province of Bengal (with Bihar and Orissa) had about 78 million people. It was divided into:

Eastern Bengal and Assam, with its capital at Dhaka, a Muslim-majority province of about 31 million.
Bengal (western Bengal, Bihar and Orissa), with its capital at Calcutta, where Bengali speakers became a minority.

Map of eastern India showing the 1905 partition: Bengal with Bihar and Orissa centred on Calcutta, and Eastern Bengal and Assam centred on Dhaka, which included present-day Bangladesh — Present-day Bangladesh, not shaded here, formed the core of the new eastern province.

The official reason was administrative convenience – the province was too large to govern well. But the real aim, as officials such as Herbert Risley (Home Secretary) wrote privately, was to weaken Bengal, the nerve centre of Indian nationalism, and to divide Hindus and Muslims: "Bengal united is a power; Bengal divided will pull in different ways." Curzon himself told Muslims at Dhaka that the new province would give them a unity they had not enjoyed since the old Muslim rulers.

The Swadeshi and Boycott Movement

The anti-partition movement was formally launched at a meeting in the Calcutta Town Hall on 7 August 1905, where the boycott of British goods was adopted. On 16 October 1905, the day partition took effect, Bengal observed a day of mourning: people fasted, bathed in the Ganga, walked barefoot singing "Amar Sonar Bangla" (written by Rabindranath Tagore, now Bangladesh's national anthem) and tied rakhis on each other's wrists as a symbol of unity, at Tagore's suggestion.

Methods and forms of the movement

Boycott of British cloth, salt and sugar; public bonfires of foreign cloth; picketing of shops; social boycott of those who bought foreign goods.
Swadeshi: use of Indian goods; growth of Indian enterprises – the Bengal Chemicals factory of P.C. Ray, textile mills, match and soap factories, banks and insurance companies, and V.O. Chidambaram Pillai's Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company at Tuticorin (1906).
National education: the National Council of Education (1906), the Bengal National College with Aurobindo Ghose as principal, and many national schools.
Samitis (volunteer bodies) such as the Swadesh Bandhab Samiti of Ashwini Kumar Dutt in Barisal mobilised people.
Culture: patriotic songs by Tagore, Rajanikanta Sen and Mukunda Das; Abanindranath Tagore's paintings (*Bharat Mata*); scientific work of J.C. Bose and P.C. Ray as national pride.
Mass participation of students, women and some sections of the urban lower middle class.

The Congress session at Benaras (1905) under Gokhale supported boycott in Bengal. At Calcutta (1906), under Dadabhai Naoroji, the Congress declared Swaraj (self-government like the colonies) as its goal and adopted four resolutions: Swaraj, Swadeshi, Boycott and National Education.

The Extremists

A new group of leaders, the Extremists or Assertive Nationalists, gave the movement a more radical edge. Its leading figures were "Lal–Bal–Pal": Lala Lajpat Rai (Punjab), Bal Gangadhar Tilak (Maharashtra) and Bipin Chandra Pal (Bengal), along with Aurobindo Ghose.

Lala Lajpat Rai, Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Bipin Chandra Pal ('Lal–Bal–Pal'). Credit: Wikimedia Commons · Public domain.

Table comparing Moderates and Extremists by goals, methods, social base and leaders — The two groups split at Surat in 1907 and reunited at Lucknow in 1916.

Feature	Moderates	Extremists
Goal	Reforms and self-government within the empire, gradually	Swaraj as a right
Faith in British	Believed in British justice	Rejected it
Methods	Petitions, speeches, councils	Boycott, swadeshi, passive resistance, mass action
Social base	Educated urban elite	Lower middle class, students, youth
Inspiration	Western liberalism	Indian history and culture, self-reliance

Tilak used popular festivals – the Ganapati festival (1893) and Shivaji festival (1895) – to spread nationalism. His newspapers *Kesari* and *Mahratta* inspired the masses. His slogan, "Swaraj is my birthright and I shall have it", became famous during the Home Rule movement. In 1908 he was sentenced to six years in Mandalay jail, where he wrote *Gita Rahasya*.

The Surat Split (1907)

At the Surat session (December 1907), differences between the two groups over the choice of president (the Moderates backed Rash Behari Ghosh; the Extremists wanted Lajpat Rai or Tilak) and over the four Calcutta resolutions led to chaos and a split. The Moderates controlled the Congress, and the Extremists were excluded until the Lucknow session of 1916. The government took advantage of the split to crush the Extremists through arrests and repressive laws such as the Newspapers (Incitement to Offences) Act, 1908 and the Indian Press Act, 1910.

The Muslim League and the Morley–Minto Reforms

Simla Deputation (October 1906): a group of Muslim leaders led by the Aga Khan met Viceroy Lord Minto and asked for separate electorates and weightage for Muslims.
The All India Muslim League was founded at Dhaka on 30 December 1906 by the Aga Khan, Nawab Salimullah of Dhaka and Nawab Mohsin-ul-Mulk, to protect Muslim political interests and promote loyalty to the British.
Indian Councils Act, 1909 (Morley–Minto Reforms): enlarged the legislative councils, allowed members to ask supplementary questions and move resolutions, admitted the first Indian (Satyendra Prasanna Sinha) to the Viceroy's Executive Council, and introduced separate electorates for Muslims. Minto is therefore called the "Father of Communal Electorates".

Annulment and the end of the movement

By 1908 the movement declined because of repression, the Surat split, lack of organisation and limited support among peasants and many Muslims. But at the Delhi Durbar of December 1911, held for King George V, the partition was annulled. At the same time, the capital was shifted from Calcutta to Delhi (formally 1912; New Delhi inaugurated in 1931), and Bihar and Orissa were separated from Bengal, while Assam became a separate province again.

Timeline from the partition announcement in July 1905 to its annulment at the Delhi Durbar in December 1911 — The annulment was a victory for the Swadeshi movement.

Significance

The Swadeshi movement was the first major mass movement of Indian nationalism. It took politics beyond the drawing room, introduced boycott and passive resistance that Gandhi later developed, promoted Indian industry and national education, and produced a cultural flowering. Its weaknesses – little peasant participation and limited Hindu–Muslim unity – were lessons later leaders tried to address.

Home Rule and the Lucknow Pact (1916)

During the First World War, two Home Rule Leagues revived national politics. Tilak founded his league at Belgaum in April 1916, working in Maharashtra, Karnataka, the Central Provinces and Berar. Annie Besant founded the All India Home Rule League at Madras in September 1916, working in the rest of India, with branches run by her associates such as George Arundale and C.P. Ramaswamy Aiyar. The leagues demanded self-government within the empire, organised study circles and reading rooms, and drew in new regions such as Gujarat, Sind and the United Provinces. When Besant was interned in June 1917, protests forced her release, and she became Congress president at Calcutta in 1917.

The Lucknow session (1916), presided over by A.C. Mazumdar, achieved two things. The Moderates and Extremists reunited, and the Congress and the Muslim League signed the Lucknow Pact, in which the Congress accepted separate electorates and the two bodies put forward joint demands for self-government. Tilak and M.A. Jinnah were its main architects. The British response was the August Declaration (20 August 1917) of Secretary of State Edwin Montagu, which promised the "progressive realisation of responsible government in India".

Mains practice question

Q. "The Swadeshi movement was a rehearsal for the Gandhian mass movements." Discuss. (250 words)

Framework: partition and its motives; boycott, swadeshi, national education, samitis; new methods of mass mobilisation; Extremist ideology; Surat split and repression; limitations; legacy for non-cooperation and civil disobedience.

Quick self-test

When did the partition of Bengal take effect? *(16 October 1905)*
Where was the Muslim League founded? *(Dhaka, 1906)*
Which session saw the split in the Congress? *(Surat, 1907)*
When was the partition annulled? *(Delhi Durbar, 1911)*

⚡ Quick revision

Partition: announced 20 July 1905, effective 16 Oct 1905 (Curzon); East Bengal & Assam capital Dhaka; Risley's motive
Boycott resolution: Calcutta Town Hall, 7 Aug 1905; rakhi bandhan; Amar Sonar Bangla
Swadeshi: Bengal Chemicals (P.C. Ray), VOC's Swadeshi Steam Navigation (1906), National Council of Education 1906
Calcutta 1906 (Naoroji): Swaraj, Swadeshi, Boycott, National Education
Extremists: Lal–Bal–Pal, Aurobindo; Tilak's festivals, Mandalay 1908
Surat split 1907; reunion at Lucknow 1916
Muslim League: Dhaka 30 Dec 1906; Morley–Minto 1909 separate electorates; S.P. Sinha
Annulment and capital to Delhi: Delhi Durbar 1911

Lord Curzon was Viceroy of India from 1899 to 1905, known for the partition of Bengal in 1905, a series of centralising administrative reforms, the Ancient Monuments Preservation Act of 1904 and a forward policy on India's frontiers.India's largest river system, formed at Devprayag where the Bhagirathi (from Gaumukh at the Gangotri glacier) meets the Alaknanda, which flows about 2,500 km across the northern plains to the Bay of Bengal, ending in the world's largest delta shared with the Brahmaputra.Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941) was a Bengali poet, novelist, composer, painter and educator who became the first non-European Nobel laureate in Literature in 1913 and wrote the national anthems of India and Bangladesh.Dadabhai Naoroji (1825–1917) was a Parsi scholar, businessman and early nationalist who developed the "drain of wealth" theory, presided over the Indian National Congress three times and became the first Indian elected to the British House of Commons.Bal Gangadhar Tilak (1856–1920), called Lokmanya, was a leader of the extremist wing of the Congress who declared that "Swaraj is my birthright", used festivals and the press to mobilise people and led the Home Rule League in Maharashtra.Founder of the Maratha state (crowned 1674), known for his administration and guerrilla tactics. Full coverage: The Marathas: Shivaji, Administration and the Peshwas.The Home Rule Movement (1916–18) was a campaign for self-government within the British Empire, led by Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Annie Besant through two separate Home Rule Leagues, which revived nationalist politics during the First World War.Three British laws (1861, 1892 and 1909) that gradually brought Indians into the legislative councils of British India, ending with the Morley–Minto Reforms, which introduced elections and separate electorates for Muslims.The Lucknow Pact of December 1916 was an agreement between the Indian National Congress and the All-India Muslim League on a joint scheme of constitutional reforms. It reunited the Moderates and Extremists in the Congress and, for the first time, saw the Congress accept separate electorates for Muslims.The Non-Cooperation Movement (1920–22) was the first nationwide mass movement led by Gandhi, combined with the Khilafat agitation, in which Indians were asked to withdraw cooperation from British institutions; it was called off after the Chauri Chaura violence in February 1922.