Partition of Bengal, Swadeshi Movement & the Extremists

Why This Chapter Matters

This chapter covers the years 1899 to 1911, from Curzon's arrival to the annulment of the Bengal partition. For SSC and RRB, this is one of the highest-yield stretches of the freedom struggle. Expect 1 to 2 questions from this zone in almost every SSC CGL or CHSL shift, and RRB NTPC has repeatedly asked the date of the partition, the founding of the Muslim League, and the Surat Split. Banking exams pick from the same pool when they touch history.

The sub-topics that repeat most: the exact dates of the partition (announcement and enforcement), Lal-Bal-Pal and their newspapers, the Calcutta session of 1906 and its four resolutions, the Surat Split of 1907, the foundation of the Muslim League at Dacca in 1906, and the features of the Morley-Minto Reforms of 1909. Learn the newspapers-and-founders pairs cold; match-the-pair questions from this chapter are a fixed habit of SSC paper setters.

1. Curzon's Administration (1899–1905)

Lord Curzon became Viceroy in 1899 and stayed till 1905. Exams treat his tenure as a checklist of acts and commissions. Learn each item with its year.

Year	Measure under Curzon	Key point
1899	Calcutta Corporation Act	Reduced elected Indian members; officialised the corporation
1901	Creation of the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP)	Carved out to manage the tribal frontier
1902	Police Commission under Andrew Fraser	Led to creation of the CID
1902	Universities Commission under Thomas Raleigh	Its report produced the 1904 Act
1904	Indian Universities Act	Tightened official control over universities; nationalists called it an attack on higher education
1904	Ancient Monuments Preservation Act	Basis of the Archaeological Survey's protection work
1904	Official Secrets Act	Curbed the press further
1905	Partition of Bengal enforced	The trigger for the Swadeshi Movement

Curzon also set up a separate Department of Commerce and Industry and an Imperial Agricultural Research Institute at Pusa (Bihar). He famously dismissed the Congress as a body "tottering to its fall" and hoped to assist it "to a peaceful demise". The partition proved him completely wrong.

2. The Partition of Bengal (1905)

The official reason and the real reason

Bengal Presidency in 1905 was a huge unit of about 78 million people, covering present-day West Bengal, Bangladesh, Bihar and Odisha. The government's stated reason for splitting it was administrative convenience. The real motive, as nationalists read it and as Home Secretary H.H. Risley's notes confirmed, was divide and rule: separating the Muslim-majority east from the Hindu-majority west and cutting the Bengali-speaking population into two units where they would be a minority in each. Risley wrote plainly that "Bengal united is a power; Bengal divided will pull in several different ways."

Dates and the new province

• Partition announced: 19/20 July 1905 (decision made public in July 1905).
• Partition came into effect: 16 October 1905.
• New province: Eastern Bengal and Assam, capital Dacca, with Bampfylde Fuller as its first Lieutenant-Governor. Fuller's openly pro-Muslim, repressive administration made him notorious; he resigned in 1906.
• The remaining province of Bengal kept Calcutta as capital and included Bihar and Odisha.

The day of mourning

16 October 1905 was observed across Bengal as a day of mourning. On Rabindranath Tagore's suggestion, it was celebrated as Raksha Bandhan day: Hindus and Muslims tied rakhis on each other's wrists as a mark of unity. People walked barefoot to the Ganga, fasted, and sang "Amar Sonar Bangla", written by Tagore for this movement (later the national anthem of Bangladesh). The foundation of a Federation Hall was laid in Calcutta on the same day to symbolise the unity of the two Bengals; Ananda Mohan Bose presided over the ceremony.

3. The Swadeshi and Boycott Movement

The formal launch

The Boycott Resolution was passed at a massive meeting in the Calcutta Town Hall on 7 August 1905. This date is treated as the formal launch of the Swadeshi Movement. Swadeshi meant using Indian-made goods; Boycott meant refusing British goods, especially Manchester cloth and Liverpool salt. The two worked as one weapon: boycott created the demand that swadeshi production filled.

Even before August 1905, moderate-run campaigns of petitions and press criticism (through papers like the Hitabadi, Sanjibani and Bengalee) had opposed the partition proposal since 1903. Krishna Kumar Mitra's journal Sanjibani was among the first to call for boycott in 1905.

Congress and the movement

• Banaras session, 1905 — President Gopal Krishna Gokhale. The Congress supported the Swadeshi and Boycott programme for Bengal. The Extremists wanted it extended to all of India; the Moderates did not.
• Calcutta session, 1906 — President Dadabhai Naoroji. To avoid a split, both wings accepted the veteran Naoroji as president. The session passed four famous resolutions on Swadeshi, Boycott, National Education and Self-Government (Swaraj). Naoroji declared from the Congress platform that the goal was "Swaraj like that of the United Kingdom or the Colonies". This was the first time the Congress officially used the word Swaraj.

Spread beyond Bengal

The movement travelled outside Bengal:

• Punjab — Lala Lajpat Rai and Ajit Singh (uncle of Bhagat Singh). Both were deported to Mandalay in 1907 after agrarian unrest in Punjab.
• Madras — Chidambaram Pillai; Andhra (the deltas) saw the movement as the Vandemataram movement.
• Maharashtra — Tilak carried the message through Kesari.
• Delhi — Syed Haider Raza.

New forms of struggle

The Swadeshi Movement invented techniques that Gandhi later scaled up:

1. Boycott of foreign cloth and goods, public bonfires of Manchester cloth, and social boycott of those who bought foreign goods.
2. Volunteer corps (samitis) — the most famous was the Swadesh Bandhab Samiti of Ashwini Kumar Dutt in Barisal, which built a network across the district.
3. Use of festivals and popular culture — Tilak's Ganapati festival (started 1893) and Shivaji festival (started 1895) became vehicles of political education; in Bengal, jatras (folk theatre) and patriotic songs spread the message.
4. National education — after the government's Carlyle Circular (1905) threatened students who joined politics, the Anti-Circular Society was formed by Sachindra Prasad Bose. The National Council of Education was set up on 15 August 1906, and the Bengal National College opened with Aurobindo Ghosh as its principal. A Bengal Technical Institute was also founded; it is the ancestor of Jadavpur University's engineering wing.
5. Swadeshi enterprise — Indian-owned industry as patriotism in practice.

Swadeshi enterprises to memorise

Enterprise	Founder / Person	Year & place
Bengal Chemicals (Bengal Chemical and Pharmaceutical Works)	Acharya Prafulla Chandra Ray	1901 (earlier venture, became the model swadeshi factory), Calcutta
Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company	V.O. Chidambaram Pillai	1906, Tuticorin — ran ships against the British India Steam Navigation Company
Tata Iron and Steel Company (TISCO)	Jamsetji Tata's house; registered under Dorabji Tata	1907, Sakchi (Jamshedpur)
National Fund / swadeshi textile mills, match and soap factories	Various	1905–08 across Bengal and Bombay

SSC likes V.O. Chidambaram Pillai. Remember: "Kappalottiya Tamizhan" (the Tamil who launched ships) is his title.

Cultural side

• Rabindranath Tagore — "Amar Sonar Bangla".
• Rajanikanta Sen, Dwijendralal Ray, Mukunda Das — patriotic songs.
• Abanindranath Tagore — painting of Bharat Mata; broke the dominance of Victorian art styles.
• Jagadish Chandra Bose and P.C. Ray — science as national pride.

Why the movement declined by 1908

• Severe government repression: bans on meetings, press prosecutions, lathi charges on students, the Barisal Conference broken up by police (April 1906).
• Leadership removed: Tilak jailed (1908), Lajpat Rai and Ajit Singh deported (1907), Bipin Chandra Pal retired from active politics for a period, Aurobindo withdrew to Pondicherry (1910).
• The Surat Split (1907) left the movement without a united organisation.
• It remained largely urban and middle-class; it could not hold peasants for long, and it lacked an all-India organisation to sustain mass struggle.

Even so, the movement's gains were real: Indian industry got a push, national education institutions appeared, and an entire generation of revolutionaries (Chapter 13) came out of the samitis.

4. The Extremists (Garam Dal)

Why Extremism rose

• The Moderates' politics of petitions had visibly failed; the partition went through despite two years of protest.
• Famines of 1896–1900 and the plague, and the racist handling of both, angered the educated class.
• International events punctured the myth of European invincibility: Abyssinia (Ethiopia) defeated Italy in 1896, and Japan defeated Russia in 1905.
• Curzon's measures (Calcutta Corporation Act, Universities Act, partition) supplied the immediate provocation.

The leaders — Lal, Bal, Pal and Aurobindo

Leader	Region	Newspapers / journals	Key facts
Lala Lajpat Rai ("Punjab Kesari", Lal)	Punjab	The Punjabee, later Young India and The People	Deported to Mandalay 1907; died 1928 after lathi blows (Chapter 17)
Bal Gangadhar Tilak ("Lokmanya", Bal)	Maharashtra	Kesari (Marathi), Mahratta (English), both from 1881	"Swaraj is my birthright and I shall have it"; started Ganapati (1893) and Shivaji (1895) festivals; sedition trial 1908, six years in Mandalay jail, where he wrote Gita Rahasya
Bipin Chandra Pal (Pal)	Bengal	New India (weekly), associated with Bande Mataram	Called the "father of revolutionary thought" in popular usage; toured Madras in 1907 spreading Extremism
Aurobindo Ghosh	Bengal	Bande Mataram (English daily)	Wrote Bhawani Mandir and the articles later titled The Doctrine of Passive Resistance; principal, Bengal National College; acquitted in the Alipore Bomb Case (1909), defended by C.R. Das; left for Pondicherry, 1910

Note the standard exam pair: Tilak was earlier prosecuted for sedition in 1897 too (Kesari articles after the plague-officer Rand's murder), getting 18 months. The 1908 trial gave him six years.

Extremist ideology and method

• Goal: Swaraj, not mere administrative reforms. For Tilak, Swaraj meant self-rule; Aurobindo pushed it towards complete independence.
• Method: passive resistance — boycott of foreign goods, government schools, courts and titles; national education; swadeshi enterprise. No begging, no "political mendicancy" (their taunt at the Moderates).
• Faith in the masses, not just the English-educated; use of religion and festivals to reach them (which also, as a side effect, kept many Muslims away).

5. The Surat Split (1907)

Tension between Moderates and Extremists had been rising since 1905. At Calcutta 1906 a split was avoided by making Naoroji president. In 1907 the session was shifted from Nagpur (an Extremist stronghold) to Surat, on the Tapti river, in the Moderate-dominated Bombay Presidency.

• The Extremists wanted Lala Lajpat Rai as president; the Moderates put up Rash Behari Ghose. Lajpat Rai himself declined to be a rival candidate, but the atmosphere had already turned poisonous.
• The Extremists also feared the Moderates would drop the four Calcutta resolutions (Swadeshi, Boycott, National Education, Self-Government).
• The session (26–27 December 1907) broke up in chaos, with a shoe hurled on the dais, and the police clearing the pandal. The Congress split.
• The Moderates, meeting separately, kept control of the Congress and adopted a constitution ("creed") in 1908 that limited the goal to self-government within the Empire by constitutional means, effectively shutting the Extremists out.

The government struck at the Extremists immediately afterwards: the Newspapers (Incitement to Offences) Act 1908, the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1908 (banning samitis), Tilak's conviction in 1908. With the Extremists suppressed and the Moderates isolated, national politics went quiet till 1916, when the two wings reunited at the Lucknow session (Chapter 14).

6. Foundation of the Muslim League (1906)

Simla Deputation, October 1906

On 1 October 1906, a 35-member Muslim delegation led by the Aga Khan met Viceroy Lord Minto at Simla. It demanded separate electorates for Muslims and representation beyond their population share, citing their "political importance". Minto welcomed the demands. Nationalists later called the deputation a "command performance" arranged with official blessing.

Dacca, 30 December 1906

The All-India Muslim League was founded at Dacca on 30 December 1906, at the annual session of the Muhammadan Educational Conference, hosted by Nawab Salimullah of Dacca. Nawab Viqar-ul-Mulk chaired the founding meeting; the Aga Khan became the League's first (permanent) president. Early objectives: loyalty to the British government, protection of Muslim political rights, and preventing hostility towards other communities. The League supported the partition of Bengal and opposed the Swadeshi agitation. Its politics changed only around 1913, when it adopted self-government as a goal, opening the way to the Lucknow Pact of 1916.

7. Morley-Minto Reforms — Indian Councils Act, 1909

Named after John Morley (Secretary of State for India) and Lord Minto (Viceroy, 1905–1910). The government's aim was to win back the Moderates and reward Muslim loyalty after the Simla Deputation.

Main features:

1. Separate electorates for Muslims — Muslims voted in exclusive constituencies for Muslim members. This is why Minto is called the "Father of Communal Electorates". The communal principle introduced here ran straight through 1916, 1932 and 1947.
2. Legislative councils enlarged — the Imperial Legislative Council went from 16 to 60 additional members. Non-official majorities were allowed in provincial councils, but an official majority stayed in the Imperial (Central) Legislative Council.
3. Members could discuss the budget, move resolutions and ask supplementary questions.
4. An Indian entered the Viceroy's Executive Council for the first time: Satyendra Prasad Sinha became the Law Member (1909). (Two Indians were also appointed to the Secretary of State's India Council.)
5. Elections were indirect, the franchise tiny and skewed by income qualifications that favoured Muslims.

The reforms satisfied no nationalist demand for responsible government. Morley said openly that he had no intention of introducing parliamentary government in India. Exams frame this as: 1909 = separate electorates + first Indian in Viceroy's Executive Council.

8. Annulment of the Partition (1911)

The boycott and the revolutionary violence born of the Swadeshi years convinced the government the partition was a liability. At the Delhi Durbar of 12 December 1911, held for King George V and Queen Mary, Viceroy Lord Hardinge II announced:

• Annulment of the Partition of Bengal — Bengal reunited (effective 1912).
• Bihar and Orissa separated from Bengal as a new province (1912); Assam became a separate province again.
• Transfer of the capital from Calcutta to Delhi (announced 1911; the shift took effect in 1912).

The Muslim League felt betrayed by the annulment; the resentment fed its shift towards nationalist politics after 1912. In 1912, revolutionaries led by Rash Behari Bose threw a bomb at Hardinge during his state entry into Delhi (details in Chapter 13).

Quick Revision — One-Line Facts

• Curzon was Viceroy from 1899 to 1905.
• NWFP was created by Curzon in 1901.
• The Indian Universities Act and the Ancient Monuments Preservation Act both came in 1904.
• The Police Commission of 1902 was headed by Andrew Fraser; the Universities Commission of 1902 by Thomas Raleigh.
• Partition of Bengal was announced in July 1905 and enforced on 16 October 1905.
• The new province Eastern Bengal and Assam had its capital at Dacca; first Lt-Governor: Bampfylde Fuller.
• H.H. Risley, Home Secretary, drafted the divide-and-rule logic of the partition.
• The Boycott Resolution was passed at Calcutta Town Hall on 7 August 1905.
• Tagore suggested observing 16 October 1905 as Raksha Bandhan day and wrote "Amar Sonar Bangla".
• Sanjibani (Krishna Kumar Mitra) first proposed boycott in 1905.
• Congress Banaras session 1905: president G.K. Gokhale.
• Congress Calcutta session 1906: president Dadabhai Naoroji; first official use of the word Swaraj.
• The four Calcutta (1906) resolutions: Swadeshi, Boycott, National Education, Self-Government.
• National Council of Education: founded 15 August 1906; Bengal National College principal: Aurobindo Ghosh.
• Anti-Circular Society (against the Carlyle Circular): Sachindra Prasad Bose.
• Swadesh Bandhab Samiti, Barisal: Ashwini Kumar Dutt.
• Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company (1906, Tuticorin): V.O. Chidambaram Pillai.
• Bengal Chemicals: Acharya P.C. Ray; TISCO registered in 1907.
• Bharat Mata painting: Abanindranath Tagore.
• Tilak's papers: Kesari (Marathi) and Mahratta (English); festivals: Ganapati 1893, Shivaji 1895.
• "Swaraj is my birthright and I shall have it" — Tilak.
• Tilak's 1908 sedition sentence: six years in Mandalay, where he wrote Gita Rahasya.
• Bande Mataram (English daily) was edited by Aurobindo Ghosh; he wrote Bhawani Mandir.
• Lajpat Rai and Ajit Singh were deported to Mandalay in 1907.
• Surat Split: December 1907; Congress president at Surat: Rash Behari Ghose.
• Simla Deputation: 1 October 1906, led by the Aga Khan, met Lord Minto.
• Muslim League founded: 30 December 1906, Dacca; host: Nawab Salimullah.
• Morley-Minto Reforms (Indian Councils Act) 1909 introduced separate electorates; Minto is the "Father of Communal Electorates".
• Satyendra Prasad Sinha was the first Indian in the Viceroy's Executive Council (1909, Law Member).
• Partition annulled at the Delhi Durbar, 12 December 1911, by Lord Hardinge II; capital moved from Calcutta to Delhi (1911–12).

Memory Tables

Table 1: Year → Event (1899–1911)

Year	Event
1899	Curzon becomes Viceroy; Calcutta Corporation Act
1901	NWFP created
1902	Raleigh (Universities) Commission; Fraser (Police) Commission
1904	Indian Universities Act; Ancient Monuments Preservation Act; Official Secrets Act
7 Aug 1905	Boycott Resolution, Calcutta Town Hall
16 Oct 1905	Partition of Bengal enforced; Raksha Bandhan day observed
Dec 1905	Banaras Congress session (Gokhale)
1 Oct 1906	Simla Deputation meets Minto
15 Aug 1906	National Council of Education founded
30 Dec 1906	Muslim League founded at Dacca
Dec 1906	Calcutta Congress session (Naoroji); Swaraj declared as goal
1907	Surat Split; Lajpat Rai & Ajit Singh deported; TISCO registered
1908	Tilak's sedition trial, 6 years Mandalay; repressive press and criminal law acts
1909	Morley-Minto Reforms; Alipore case verdict (Aurobindo acquitted)
1910	Aurobindo leaves for Pondicherry
12 Dec 1911	Delhi Durbar: partition annulled, capital shifted to Delhi

Table 2: Person → Contribution

Person	Contribution
Lord Curzon	Partition of Bengal; Universities Act 1904; NWFP 1901
H.H. Risley	Official brain behind the divide-and-rule partition scheme
Rabindranath Tagore	Amar Sonar Bangla; Raksha Bandhan idea
Bal Gangadhar Tilak	Kesari, Mahratta; Ganapati & Shivaji festivals; Gita Rahasya
Bipin Chandra Pal	New India; spread Extremism to Madras
Lala Lajpat Rai	The Punjabee; Punjab agitation; deported 1907
Aurobindo Ghosh	Bande Mataram daily; Bhawani Mandir; Bengal National College
Ashwini Kumar Dutt	Swadesh Bandhab Samiti, Barisal
V.O. Chidambaram Pillai	Swadeshi Steam Navigation Co., Tuticorin (1906)
Acharya P.C. Ray	Bengal Chemicals
Abanindranath Tagore	Bharat Mata painting
Sachindra Prasad Bose	Anti-Circular Society
Nawab Salimullah	Host of Muslim League's founding, Dacca 1906
Aga Khan	Led Simla Deputation; first League president
Satyendra Prasad Sinha	First Indian in Viceroy's Executive Council (1909)
Lord Hardinge II	Annulled partition; shifted capital to Delhi (1911)

Table 3: Newspaper/Journal → Founder-Editor

Paper	Person	Language
Kesari	B.G. Tilak	Marathi
Mahratta	B.G. Tilak	English
Bande Mataram	Aurobindo Ghosh	English
New India	Bipin Chandra Pal	English
The Punjabee	Lala Lajpat Rai (associated)	English
Sanjibani	Krishna Kumar Mitra	Bengali
Sandhya	Brahmabandhab Upadhyay	Bengali
Yugantar	Barindra Kumar Ghosh & associates	Bengali

Practice MCQs

Q1. The Partition of Bengal came into effect on which date? (a) 7 August 1905 (b) 16 October 1905 (c) 30 December 1906 (d) 19 July 1906

Q2. Who was the Viceroy of India when the Partition of Bengal was annulled? (a) Lord Minto (b) Lord Curzon (c) Lord Hardinge II (d) Lord Chelmsford

Q3. The Boycott Resolution of 7 August 1905 was passed at: (a) Federation Hall, Dacca (b) Town Hall, Calcutta (c) Congress session, Banaras (d) Town Hall, Bombay

Q4. Match the pairs:

1. Kesari — A. Aurobindo Ghosh
2. Bande Mataram — B. Bipin Chandra Pal
3. New India — C. B.G. Tilak (a) 1-C, 2-A, 3-B (b) 1-A, 2-B, 3-C (c) 1-C, 2-B, 3-A (d) 1-B, 2-A, 3-C

Q5. Who presided over the Calcutta session of the Congress (1906), where Swaraj was declared the goal for the first time? (a) G.K. Gokhale (b) Rash Behari Ghose (c) Dadabhai Naoroji (d) Surendranath Banerjee

Q6. The All-India Muslim League was founded in 1906 at: (a) Aligarh (b) Lahore (c) Simla (d) Dacca

Q7. Who among the following suggested observing 16 October 1905 as Raksha Bandhan day? (a) Aurobindo Ghosh (b) Rabindranath Tagore (c) Surendranath Banerjee (d) Ashwini Kumar Dutt

Q8. The Indian Universities Act was passed in which year? (a) 1902 (b) 1904 (c) 1905 (d) 1909

Q9. The Surat Split of the Congress took place in the year: (a) 1905 (b) 1906 (c) 1907 (d) 1908

Q10. Who founded the Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company at Tuticorin in 1906? (a) Subramania Bharati (b) V.O. Chidambaram Pillai (c) C. Rajagopalachari (d) G. Subramania Iyer

Q11. Under the Morley-Minto Reforms of 1909, who became the first Indian member of the Viceroy's Executive Council? (a) Satyendra Prasad Sinha (b) Surendranath Banerjee (c) Romesh Chandra Dutt (d) Womesh Chandra Bonnerjee

Q12. Arrange the following in correct chronological order:

1. Foundation of the Muslim League
2. Boycott Resolution at Calcutta Town Hall
3. Surat Split
4. Morley-Minto Reforms (a) 2, 1, 3, 4 (b) 1, 2, 3, 4 (c) 2, 3, 1, 4 (d) 1, 2, 4, 3

Q13. During his six-year imprisonment at Mandalay (1908–1914), Bal Gangadhar Tilak wrote: (a) Bhawani Mandir (b) Gita Rahasya (c) The Indian War of Independence (d) Poverty and Un-British Rule in India

Q14. Consider the following statements about the Congress Surat session of 1907:

1. Rash Behari Ghose was elected president.
2. It was held on the banks of the river Tapti.
3. The Extremists retained control of the Congress after the split. Which of the statements is/are correct? (a) 1 and 2 only (b) 2 and 3 only (c) 1 and 3 only (d) 1, 2 and 3

Q15. The Anti-Circular Society, formed in 1905 to support students punished for joining the Swadeshi agitation, was founded by: (a) Ashwini Kumar Dutt (b) Krishna Kumar Mitra (c) Sachindra Prasad Bose (d) Barindra Kumar Ghosh

Answer Key

Q	Answer	One-line reason
1	(b)	Partition was enforced on 16 October 1905; 7 August is the Boycott Resolution date
2	(c)	Hardinge II announced the annulment at the Delhi Durbar, 12 December 1911
3	(b)	The formal launch of Swadeshi-Boycott was at Calcutta Town Hall, 7 August 1905
4	(a)	Kesari = Tilak, Bande Mataram = Aurobindo, New India = B.C. Pal
5	(c)	Dadabhai Naoroji presided at Calcutta 1906 and declared Swaraj the goal
6	(d)	Founded at Dacca on 30 December 1906, hosted by Nawab Salimullah
7	(b)	Tagore proposed rakhi-tying as a symbol of Hindu-Muslim unity
8	(b)	Curzon's Universities Act came in 1904, based on the Raleigh Commission
9	(c)	The Congress split at Surat in December 1907
10	(b)	V.O. Chidambaram Pillai ran swadeshi ships against a British company
11	(a)	S.P. Sinha joined as Law Member in 1909
12	(a)	Boycott Resolution (Aug 1905) → Muslim League (Dec 1906) → Surat Split (Dec 1907) → Morley-Minto (1909)
13	(b)	Tilak wrote Gita Rahasya in Mandalay jail
14	(a)	Ghose was president and Surat is on the Tapti; the Moderates, not Extremists, kept the Congress
15	(c)	Sachindra Prasad Bose formed it against the Carlyle Circular