Students in the Swadeshi Movement

The Swadeshi Movement (1905–1911) marked the entry of student youth into active Indian politics. Prior to 1905, student participation remained restricted to literary societies and campus debates. Lord Curzon’s partition of Bengal transformed academic institutions into centers of political resistance. Students formed the core corps of volunteers across Bengal, Bihar, Assam, and Maharashtra. They organized boycott drives, picketed shops selling foreign goods, and spread national consciousness in rural areas. Their participation transformed a elite protest into a broader public struggle.

Colonial Repression and Student Resistance

The colonial administration reacted sharply to youth participation in anti-partition agitation. It passed restrictive circulars to suppress student involvement.

The Carlyle Circular and Repressive Measures

• Chief Secretary to the Government of Bengal, R.W. Carlyle, issued the Carlyle Circular on October 10, 1905.
• The circular prohibited students from participating in political meetings, demonstrations, or boycott rallies.
• It threatened schools and colleges with withdrawal of government grants, cancellation of university affiliation, and disqualification from scholarship competitions if their students joined political agitation.
• Subsequent measures included the Pedler Circular and the Lyon Circular, which targeted student activists in Eastern Bengal and Assam.
• Authorities expelled hundreds of students, suspended scholarships, and fined educational institutions that refused to discipline their students.

The Anti-Circular Society

• Sachindra Prasad Bose, a student leader at City College in Calcutta, established the Anti-Circular Society on November 4, 1905.
• Krishna Kumar Mitra served as the president of the society.
• The society arranged alternative education for students expelled from government-aided institutions.
• It organized student volunteers to sell Swadeshi goods, including home-spun cloth, matches, and soap, at reasonable prices.
• The society established its own manufacturing units to produce national commodities and supply them to rural markets.

Student Initiatives and National Education

The repression of students triggered the National Education Movement. Leaders realized the need for an educational system free from colonial control.

Rise of National Educational Institutions

• Satish Chandra Mukherjee laid the foundation through the Dawn Society in 1902, which trained youth in indigenous industries and moral values.
• Rabindranath Tagore established the Brahmacharyasrama at Santiniketan in 1901 to impart education rooted in Indian tradition.
• The National Council of Education (NCE) formed on August 15, 1906, with Rashbehari Ghosh as its first president.
• The NCE established the Bengal National College and School on August 15, 1906, with Aurobindo Ghosh as its first principal.
• Taraknath Palit set up the Society for the Promotion of Technical Education, which established the Bengal Technical Institute in 1906 (later developing into Jadavpur University).
• Similar national schools emerged across Bengal, including Bihar National College in Patna and national schools in Dacca, Mymensingh, and Rangpur.

Key Educational Initiatives of the Swadeshi Era

Modes of Student Mobilisation and Outreach

Students used varied techniques to spread the Swadeshi message across urban centers and villages.

• Picketing: Student groups stood outside markets and shops to dissuade customers from buying imported cloth, Liverpool salt, and foreign sugar.
• Bonfires of Foreign Goods: Students collected foreign clothes, footwear, and consumer items from households and burned them in public squares.
• Messengers of Swadeshi: Youth groups toured rural districts singing patriotic songs composed by Rabindranath Tagore, Dwijendralal Ray, and Mukunda Das.
• Volunteer Service: Students formed the backbone of regional Samitis, such as the Swadesh Bandhab Samiti in Barisal and the Anushilan Samiti in Calcutta and Dacca.
• Transition to Revolutionary Activity: As open political action faced severe suppression after 1907, many student activists joined underground revolutionary groups like the Jugantar Party and Anushilan Samiti.

Essential Facts on Student Participation

The Rangpur National School, established on November 8, 1905, was the first national school founded during the Swadeshi Movement. It opened after the magistrate fined and expelled students for chanting Vande Mataram in public. The phrase Vande Mataram, taken from Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay’s 1882 novel Anandamath, became the national slogan for student protesters. The British government banned the public chanting of Vande Mataram in several districts of Eastern Bengal. Aurobindo Ghosh resigned from his lucrative position as Vice-Principal of the Baroda College to move to Calcutta and become the first Principal of Bengal National College on a nominal salary. Outside Bengal, student mobilization spread to other parts of India. In Maharashtra, students led by Vinayak Damodar Savarkar formed the Abhinav Bharat Society in 1904 and organized bonfires of foreign cloth in Pune. In Madras, Chidambaram Pillai’s lectures inspired students at Presidency College to launch boycott drives across the Tamil coastline.