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The New Spirit of India

The New Spirit of India

Henry W. Nevison, the correspondent of the Manchester Guardian toured India in 1907-8. In his writings Nevison captured the new spirit of India as seen by him.
Following are the excerpts from his book, "The New Spirit of India".
“…In reviewing the English exports in cotton piece-goods for May, 1907, the Times remarked: "India took less by 42, 492, 500 yards;" and sitting by her mother, a child of Eastern Bengal was heard to ask, "Mother, is this an English or a Swadeshi Mosquito?" "Swadeshi," the mother answered. "Then I won't kill it," said the child.
Such was the movement which I had found speeding up the eighty or ninety cotton mills in Mumbai, because, work as they might, they could not keep pace with the demand from Bengal. It is true that English manufacturers were said to be adopting the simple device of stamping their Manchester stuff with the Swadeshi mark, but I did not discover how far their deceit was successful.
The movement was spreading to all kinds of merchandise besides cotton. In Calcutta they had started a Swadeshi match-factory, in Dacca soap-works and tanneries. In all Indian towns you will now find Swadeshi shops where you may buy native biscuits, cigarettes, scents, toys, woollens, boots, and all manner of things formerly imported. Nearly all the trade advertisements in Indian papers are now Swadeshi. The officials whom I consulted, from the Governor of Bombay and the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal downwards, professed sympathy and admiration for the Swadeshi movement. It would be almost impossible for them to do anything else, considering the economic salvation it may bring to India if it is maintained. Their interest in this economic development is quite genuine, and I am told that, though under official management, the Swadeshi stalls from Eastern Bengal during the Calcutta Congress of 1906 were the success of the exhibition. But the officials are in a very difficult position. With all their love for India, they do not like to stand by and see British trade ruined neither does the word "boycott" delight the official mind…”


“…Swadeshi is now so strong that it would probably hold its own even if all political grievances were removed. But its true origin was political, and hitherto it has been impossible to separate it from its political motive—the protest against the Partition of Bengal.
In any case, it was the political motive which spread the Swadeshi vow like a beacon light through Eastern Bengal. In towns and villages young men formed themselves into associations to preach Swadeshi and the boycott. Shops that continued the sale of foreign goods were surrounded by youths who implored customers for the sake of their country to depart without purchasing. Boys threw themselves prostrate in supplication before the customers' feet. This form of picketing was never violent, and I think it was not often prosecuted. It is true the officials regarded it with disfavour, and at Barisal Sir Bampfylde Fuller personally compelled the leading men of the town to withdraw a Swadeshi appeal they were issuing to the villages (November 16, 1905), and through the District Magistrate and Police he broke up a Provincial Conference which was being held in the same town (April 15, 1906).
But in some places the boycott took the form of destroying British goods, especially "Liverpool salt," and the goods were not always paid for first, In one case, four youths, destroyed foreign sugar, valued at 1s. 2d., and were sentenced to three and four months imprisonment, with heavy fines. As is usual when political offences are savegely punished, the victims triumphed as heroes in the popular mind…”
Of course, some one has to pay for Swadeshi, and it is not always the British merchant who suffers for Lord Curzon's error. Late one night, as I sat on a river steamer after two crowded days in a strongly Swadeshi town, five or six dark forms were dimly seen to gather round me with gestures of secrecy and peril. In other countries I should have thought them asssassins thirsting for blood, but they were only Hindu merchants with an interest in Manchester piece-goods. Of these they had a large store, I have forgotten how many thousand pounds' worth, laid up in their warehouses; and, in consequence, they were shunned by their kind. Barbers would not shave them, milkmen would not bring them milk, friends would not come to their daughters' marraiges, acquaintances would not say good-morning. Such treatment was distressing and inconvenient. Would I please use my influence with the Home Government, and set everything right again? They refused to throw in their lot with the swadeshi movement; their goods were too valuable to be sacrificed, and they preferred to stand and die as martyrs in the cause of British commerce. I had no doubt their statement was true, but what hope could I hold out to them? —I, who had no influence with the Home Government, and, if I had been an Indian, would have done my utmost to dissuade my conuntrymen from buying any foreign goods at till all grievances had been redressed.

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