From early political associations through the Moderate phase, Militant Nationalism, to the Swadeshi & Boycott Movement against the Partition of Bengal.
Educated Indians came to see colonial rule itself as the root of the country's economic backwardness — British policy served British interests, not Indian ones. Several forces fed this awakening:
Early bodies were small, regional and elite-run, demanding administrative reform, greater Indian involvement in governance, and wider access to education.
| Association | Founder / Leader | Significance |
|---|---|---|
| Bangabhasha Prakasika Sabha, 1836 | Associates of Rammohan Roy | Drew British attention to Indian grievances |
| Landholders' Society, 1838 | Bengal intelligentsia & landlords | India's first organised political body |
| Bengal British India Society, 1843 | Cross-section of scholars | Pushed for a separate, popularly constituted legislature |
| British Indian Association, 1851 | Merger of the above two | Demands fed into the Charter Act, 1853 |
| East India Association, 1866 | Dadabhai Naoroji | First nationalist body set up on English soil |
| Indian League, 1875 | Sisir Kumar Ghosh | Precursor to the INC |
| Indian Association of Calcutta, 1876 | Surendranath Banerjee & Ananda Mohan Bose | Hosted the first All-India conference (1883); absorbed into INC in 1886 |
| Poona Sarvajanik Sabha, 1867 | Chiplunkar, Joshi, M.G. Ranade | Championed peasant rights from 1873 |
| Bombay Presidency Association, 1885 | Tyabji, Mehta, Telang | Carried the nationalist message across the South and Bombay |
| Madras Mahajana Sabha, 1884 | Viraraghavachari, Subramaniya Aiyer, Anandacharlu | Built awareness of political entitlements |
Pre-Congress campaigns included opposition to Lytton's Afghan misadventure, resistance to the Arms Act and Vernacular Press Act (both 1878), backing for the Ilbert Bill, and — carried forward nationwide by the Indian Association — opposition to lowering the maximum age for the ICS exam.
Prominent Moderates included Dadabhai Naoroji, M.G. Ranade, Gopal Krishna Gokhale, W.C. Banerjee, S.N. Banerjee and Pherozeshah Mehta. Their economic critique of British rule rested on three planks: the Drain Theory, a critique of railway policy, and the deindustrialisation of India. Romesh Chandra Dutt, a retired ICS officer, published The Economic History of India, tracing the colonial economic record back to 1757. Justice M.G. Ranade argued India's poverty was a direct consequence of British economic policy. Dadabhai Naoroji — the "Grand Old Man of India," dubbed the "Gladstone of India" by Gokhale — was the leading voice behind the Drain Theory and authored Poverty and Un-British Rule in India.
The Moderates built a sustained economic case against imperialism, secured the Indian Councils Act, 1892 (enlarging legislative councils and raising non-official membership), planted early nationalist sentiment, and spread values of democracy and liberty — several, like Gokhale and Ranade, doubled as social reformers campaigning against child marriage and enforced widowhood. But they kept the wider masses out of the movement, never sought full independence, and leaned heavily on Western political frameworks — their toolkit of prayer, petition, representation, deputation and persuasion was later dismissed by critics as "political mendicancy."
Militant nationalism stirred in the 1890s and hardened into a defined movement by 1905. It was fuelled by disillusionment as the famines of 1896 and 1900 claimed over 90 lakh lives and bubonic plague swept the Deccan; by a new confidence built by Tilak, Aurobindo and Bipin Chandra Pal; by the paradox of spreading education producing unemployed, newly aware graduates; by events abroad (Japan's rise after 1868, Italy's defeat by Ethiopia in 1896, British reverses in the Boer Wars, Russia's 1905 loss to Japan) that shattered the myth of European invincibility; and by pushback against over-Westernisation led by Vivekananda, Dayananda Saraswati (who coined "India for Indians") and Bankim Chandra Chatterjee. Growing impatience with the Moderates' "3 Ps" (petition, prayer, protest) and Curzon's high-handedness (denying India was a nation, the Indian Universities Act, Official Secrets Act, Calcutta Corporation Act) sharpened the mood further.
A militant strand — Raj Narain Bose, A.K. Dutta, Aurobindo Ghosh and Bipin Chandra Pal in Bengal; Chiplunkar, Tilak and Lala Lajpat Rai elsewhere — rejected foreign rule outright, set Swaraj as the goal, preferred direct political action, and expected personal sacrifice from every genuine nationalist.
The Partition of Bengal (1903) split the province into Western Bengal/Bihar/Orissa and Eastern Bengal/Assam, officially to ease administration of a 78-million population and aid Assam's development. The real motive was to fracture the nationalist movement along linguistic lines (making Bengalis a minority in their own redrawn province) and religious lines (a Hindu-majority west, Muslim-majority east).
The Moderate-led anti-partition campaign (1903–05) — Surendranath Banerjea, K.K. Mitra, Prithwish Chandra Ray — petitioned, held meetings and used newspapers like Hitabadi, Sanjibani and Bengalee. When the partition was confirmed in July 1905 anyway, a boycott resolution was adopted on 7 August 1905 at Calcutta Town Hall, formally launching the Swadeshi movement. Partition took effect on 16 October 1905, marked as a day of mourning — Tagore's Amar Sonar Bangla and Bande Mataram were sung, and rakhis tied as a gesture of unity. The movement spread beyond Bengal: Tilak in Poona/Bombay, Lala Lajpat Rai & Ajit Singh in Punjab, Syed Haider Raza in Delhi, and Chidambaram Pillai in Madras. The INC's 1905 session (Gokhale presiding) condemned the partition; the 1906 Calcutta session under Dadabhai Naoroji defined the goal as "self-government or swaraj like the United Kingdom or the colonies."
Under Extremist leadership, tactics broadened: boycotting foreign goods, volunteer corps ("samitis") offering physical/moral training and famine relief, and repurposing festivals as propaganda — Tilak turned the Ganapati and Shivaji festivals into swadeshi platforms, while Bengal used folk theatre. The Bengal National College was founded with Aurobindo Ghosh as Principal, and 15 August 1906 saw the formation of the National Council of Education; the Bengal Institute of Technology followed. Swadeshi enterprise flourished — textile mills, soap and match factories, banks, and V.O. Chidambaram Pillai's Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company at Tuticorin. Participation drew in students (especially in Bengal, Maharashtra and South India), women in marches and picketing, and labour unions organising strikes — though the Muslim upper and middle classes largely stayed away, many backing partition under Nawab Salimullah of Dacca.
The partition was ultimately reversed chiefly to check the growing tide of revolutionary extremism it had unintentionally fuelled — with the capital's shift to Delhi in 1911 offered as a partial sop to disappointed Muslim leaders, and Assam carved out as a separate province.
