Reasons For The Swadeshi And Boycott Movement's Failure (1905–1908)

The Swadeshi and Boycott Movement was unsuccessful for a variety of reasons. By 1908, the Swadeshi and Boycott movement was in its last stages in the open phase (as opposed to the underground revolutionary phase). This is confirmed by the fact that by 1908 widespread agitation had ended and revolutionary acts of violence were being committed by small groups of educated young men in opposition to imperialism. The anti-partition movement, which opposed the British administration's intention to divide Bengal, gave rise to the Swadeshi Movement. Bengal was divided for political reasons, nevertheless, as Indian nationalism grew in strength. Bengal, which was seen at the time as the hub of Indian nationalism, was to be weakened by the split, which went into effect in 1905. 

 

•    The Bengalis turned to the boycott movement as a last choice when all other constitutional agitation methods, including loud rallies, pleas, petitions, and conferences, failed to convince the British to grant the unanimity of the national demand.

 

•    The boycott's first goals were purely economic in nature. It has two different but connected objectives in mind.

 

•    The first was to exert pressure on the British people by warning them that they would suffer financial loss if they boycotted British products, especially Manchester cotton products, for which Bengal supplied the richest market in India.

 

•    Second, the boycott was seen as essential for reviving domestic industry, which was in its infancy and incapable of expanding in the face of unrestricted global competition from nations with highly developed industries.

 

•    As time went on, the economic boycott was put on the back burner and was replaced with the idea of refusing to cooperate with the British in any way, with the more developed section seeing the ultimate goal of complete freedom as looming large in the distance.

 

•    Similar to this, Swadeshi's original objective of supporting Indian industry has evolved.

 

•    The initiative has revived the market for indigenous goods.

 

•    The demand for native goods surged as a result of the boycott of imported items. Bombay and Ahmedabad's mill owners supported the movement.

 

•    The Bengali boycott campaign gave India's cotton mills a boost and momentum, and mill owners took advantage of this to their advantage.

 

•    It bemoaned at the time that the "Bengali Sentimentalism," or the practice of purchasing native cloth at whatever cost, was causing the mill owners in Bombay to make enormous profits.

 

•    Bengal was forced to produce coarse handlooms to complement the supply from Bombay mills.

 

•    Before the British established their dominion over the province in the 18th century, Bengal's weaving industry was prospering.

 

•    The economic boycott movement seemed like a great chance to revive that sector of the economy. The Bengalis adopted the crude garments in the true spirit of the Swadeshi Movement despite their coarseness.

 

•    Two of the movement's unfavorable effects were the boycott and the burning of imported products.

 

•    Although Manchester cloth was the movement's main aim, it also spread to other British producers like salt and sugar and luxury products in general.

 

•    Through newspaper articles, processions, popular songs, the recruitment of volunteers to stand vigil, and occasionally bonfires of foreign fabric, salt, and sugar, the concepts of swadeshi and economic boycott were kept alive and carried to every door.

 

•    The bonfires that met them were thought to be quite helpful in terms of igniting passion for the movement, and the flames were seen as a novel manner of amusing important public personalities.

 

•    Anyone found consuming imported sugar was fined. On the streets, cigarettes from abroad were bought and smoked.

 

•    Marwaris were forewarned against bringing in foreign goods, and Brahmins refused to take part in religious ceremonies in homes that utilized European salt and sugar.

 

•    The authorities reacted forcefully after realizing the potential for revolution. The majority of the movement's senior figures were either imprisoned or deported between 1907 and 1908.

 

•    Any mass movement cannot persist permanently at the same degree of militancy and self-sacrifice, especially when faced with heavy repression.

 

•    The movement was undermined by internal conflicts, particularly the split in the Congress, the leading all-Indian organization.

 

•    It lacked a strong party structure and organizational structure.

 

•    The movement failed to create a successful organization or party system.

 

•    It introduced a host of Gandhian political tactics like non-cooperation, passive resistance, packing British jails, social change, and constructive work but failed to give them a focused direction.

 

•    The movement failed to reach the general populace, especially the peasantry, and remained mostly restricted to the elite and middle classes and zamindars.

 

•    The majority of Muslims, particularly the Muslim peasantry, were unwilling to support it. Muslims and Hindus were separated based on class, with the former being peasants and the latter being landowners.

 

•    Despite the Swadeshi Movement's expansion outside of Bengal, the rest of the nation was still not prepared to accept the new political scene and style.

 

•    The movement awoke people, but they were unsure of how to employ the freshly released energy or how to come up with fresh means to vent public displeasure.

 

•    Aurobindo Ghosh and Bipin Chandra Pal had left active politics by 1908, and the majority of the movement's leaders had either been jailed or expelled.

 

•    Ajit Singh and Lajpat Rai of the Punjab were expelled, Tilak was given a six-year prison term, and Chidambaram Pillai was placed under arrest.

 

•    It was a "leap forward" in several different ways. Participants included formerly excluded urban and rural citizens, students, women, and workers.

 

•    All of the key national movement trends from conservative moderation to political radicalism, from revolutionary activity to early socialism, from petitions and prayers to passive opposition and non-cooperation emerged during the Swadeshi Movement.

 

•    The movement was extremely diverse, encompassing not only politics but also the arts, literature, sciences, and business.

 

•    People were roused from their slumber, and they discovered how to engage in new types of political work and take daring political positions.

 

•    The Swadeshi campaign opposed the dominance of colonial institutions and ideals.

 

•    The experience gained would be crucial in the upcoming battle.

 

The Bengali middle class, unlike its British equivalent, which had ties to capitalist industry and agriculture, led the movement. Only their exposure to Western education and subsequent commitment to nationalist ideas set apart the early nationalist leadership. Thus, despite the fact that they were largely wealthy, the term of bhadralok was more of a social one that applied to educated men as a whole than it did to a particular class. Their nationalist philosophy attempted to appeal to the masses, but due to the limitations imposed by their social standing, the movement failed.