Question

Read the excerpt given below and answer the questions that follow:

Rabindranath Tagore endorsed the Swadeshi movement through his songs and poems. There was a change in his attitude as noted by Sumit Sarkar in his book, Swadeshi Movement in Bengal. He says: “[From] trying in vain to placate the foreign ruler and talking big in a foreign tongue, he (Tagore) urges volunteers to the villages instead, spreading social and political enlightenment in the melas and through magic lantern lectures, and, above all, to revive our traditional samaj, channelling all constructive work through it once again.”

1. What was the impact of the Anti-Partition Movement?
2. How did the people react to the Partition of Bengal?
3. What was Lord Curzon’s argument in favour of the Partition of Bengal? How did the nationalists interpret Lord Curzon’s motives?

Answer 1

1. Impact of the Anti‑Partition Movement:
   1. It became the first large mass movement in modern India, involving all classes (zamindars, merchants, lawyers, students, women, workers) and greatly widened the social base of the national movement.
   2. It gave rise to organised Swadeshi and Boycott campaigns (picketing shops, bonfires of foreign cloth, setting up national mills, banks, schools), which boosted Indian industries and promoted national institutions.
   3. The movement politicised broad sections of society, stimulated volunteer work and local organisation, and helped produce a more assertive nationalist outlook.
2. The people reacted to the Partition of Bengal:
   1. Widespread anger and protest: mass meetings, processions, picketing of foreign goods, public bonfires, and oaths to boycott British goods. Students and women played active roles.
   2. Organised volunteer activity (melas, lectures, local samaj work) and creation of national institutions to replace British goods/services. Large sums were collected to support the movement.
   3. The nationalists declared 16 October 1905 a “Day of Mourning”; leaders and activists faced repression (arrests, bans), but the movement accelerated the national struggle.
3. Lord Curzon’s argument and how nationalists interpreted his motives:
   1. Curzon’s official argument: the partition was an administrative readjustment to make Bengal easier to govern (a mere readjustment of administrative boundaries).
   2. Nationalists’ interpretation: they saw the real motive as political to weaken and divide Bengal’s strong nationalist movement, to reduce Bengali influence by splitting populations, and to create a Muslim‑majority province (thereby driving a wedge between Hindus and Muslims). They regarded the partition as a deliberate attempt to crush nationalism and to demonstrate the strength of the Raj.