5 Important Movements of India's Independence

Swadeshi Movement

The Swadeshi movement commenced on 7^th August, 1905 in Calcutta post the announcement of partition of Bengal by Lord Curzon. The reason stated for the partition was the huge population that led to difficulty in administrations, but in reality the Viceroy was aware of the Bengal’s political strength, which was the core of Indian Nationalism, hence announced its partition to weaken Bengal. While this turned into a boycott movement as Indians protested the foreign goods and initiated ‘Make in India’ campaign to oppose the partition. Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Bipin Chandra Pal, Lala Lajpat Rai, Aurobindo Ghosh, VO Chidambaram Pillai and Babu Genu were the key persons behind the Swadeshi movement.

This movement paved way for the demand of local products and the foreign goods were heaped and burnt. The growing demand led to the set up of several swadeshi enterprises like textiles, mills, manufacturing factories and so on. The trouble further spread to education, where teachers and students boycotted English schools and demanded national education, as a result independent system of national education was started and regional languages where used for communication. This movement majorly damaged the British economy, on the other hand, improved Indian economy.