¹ Census of India 1901, Vol. I, Part II, Table I. See also Seal, A., The Emergence of Indian Nationalism: Competition and Collaboration in the later Nineteenth Century (Cambridge, 1968), pp. 36–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

² In Bengal there were 21,790,006 Muslims and 20,544,023 Hindus. Census of India 1901, Vol. VI, Part II, Table VI. At the 1881 census there were 18,432,518 Hindus and 18,212,893 Muslims in the same Bengali-speaking districts. Hunter, W. W., The Imperial Gazetteer of India (2nd edition, London, 1885), Vol. II, pp. 285–6.Google Scholar

³ See, for example, Mukherjee, S. N., ‘Class, Caste and Politics in Calcutta, 1815–1838’, in Leach, E. and Mukherjee, S. N. (eds), Elites in South Asia (Cambridge 1970), pp. 46–50.Google Scholar

⁴ Bengal District Administration Committee, 1913–1914, Report (Calcutta, 1915), p. 176.Google Scholar Quoted in Broomfield, J. H., Elite Conflict in a Plural Society: Twentieth Century Bengal (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1968), p. 15.Google Scholar

⁵ Census of India 1901, Vol. VI, Part II, Table XIII, p. 228. They were most numerous in Mymensingh where there were 110, 180 Kayasths, and within the district they were most densely settled in Netrakona and Kishorganj sub-divisions, ibid., and Sasche, F. A., Mymensingh District Gazetteer (Calcutta, 1917), p. 38.Google Scholar For a description of Kishorganj and life in the town at the turn of the century see Chaudhuri, N. C., Autobiography of an Unknown Indian (London, 1951), pp. 4–48.Google Scholar

⁶ Census of India 1901, Vol. VI, Part II, Table XII, p. 195.Google Scholar

⁷ Ibid., Part II, Table XIII, pp. 195, 204, 228. The largest single group of migrants from the suburban districts to Calcutta were Brahmins and Kayasths. Sinha, P., ‘The Suburban Village in Bengal in the Second Half of the 19th Century—A Study in Social History.’ Bengal Post and Present, Vol. LXXXII, Part II, July–December 1963, p. 141.Google Scholar

⁸ Census of India 1911, Vol. V, Part I, p. 553.Google Scholar

⁹ Mymensingh District Gazetteer, p. 38.Google Scholar

¹⁰ Jack, J. C., Bakarganj District Gazetteer (Calcutta, 1918), p. 94Google Scholar. The following figures show the extent to which high-caste Hindus relied on receipts from land:

¹¹ Memorandum on the Material Condition of the Lower Orders in Bengal. 1881–1882 to 1891–1892 (Calcutta, 1892), p. 13.Google Scholar For the delicate balance maintained between zemindari oppression and peasant rioting see Carstairs, R., The Little World of an Indian District Officer (London, 1912), in passim.Google Scholar

¹² Census of India 1921, Vol. V, Part I, p. 385. Both these increases were three times as great as the increase among the population as a whole during these decades.Google Scholar

¹³ Size of estates in Bengal and Bihar 1882–1883: Area over 20,000 acres—457 estates or 0.41 per cent total; area 500 acres to 20,000 acres—12,304 esataes or 11.1 percent total; area less than 500 acres—97,695 estates or 88.4 per cent total. Baden-Powell, B. H., The Land Systems of British India (Oxford, 1892), Vol. I, p. 441.Google Scholar

¹⁴ Mymensingh: number of estates paying an annual revenue of:

Out of a total annual revenue assessment of Rs 8,75,239, the 108 estates paying more than Rs 1,000 contributed Rs 5,46,872. Mymensingh District Gazetteer, p. 101.

¹⁵ Census of India 1921, Vol. V, Part I, p. 385.Google Scholar

¹⁶ Census of India 1901, Vol. VI, Part I, pp. 305, 309. Excluding Eurasians and Chinese, twelve castes returned a male literacy greater than 40 per cent. They were: Mahesri (70.5 per cent), Oswal (64.9 per cent), Baidya (64.8 per cent), Vaisya (61.5 per cent), Kayasth (56.0 per cent), Agarwala (54.4 per cent), Karan (52.8 per cent), Subarnabanik (51.9 per cent), Gandhabanik (51.0 per cent), Aguri (49.8 per cent), Brahmin (46.7 per cent), and Moghal (41.7 per cent). Ibid., p. 309–10. But while Brahmins, Baidyas and Kayasths totalled 4,208,741 in the entire province the other nine castes together totalled only 616,889. Ibid., Part II, Table XIII, pp. 192, 193, 195, 204, 211, 226, 228, 238, 248, 259, 265, 283. Apart from the Karans who were the Orissan writer caste, and the Moghals who were aristocratic Muslims in west Bengal, the other castes listed were primarily trading and mercantile castes. Again, apart from Eurasians and Chinese, ten castes in the province were returned with a male literacy in English greater than 7 per cent. They were: Baidya (30.39 per cent), Subarnabanik (26.85 per cent), Gandhabanik (17.56 per cent), Kayasth (13.23 percent), Moghal (12.05 per cent), Vaisya (8.35 percent), Kansari (8.11 per cent), Brahmin (7.37 per cent), Khatri (7.36 per cent), Mayra (7.11 per cent). Ibid., Part I, pp. 309–310. The seven other castes in this case totalled only 557,880. Ibid., Part II, Table XIII, pp. 195, 204, 211, 225, 228, 231, 242, 259, 265, 283.

¹⁷ Census of India 1901, Vol. VIs, Part I, p. 302.Google Scholar

¹⁸ Ibid., Part I, p. 303.

¹⁹ Of the 2,185 most senior positions in certain Government Departments in the Lower Provinces, 795 posts were held by Europeans and 11 by Native Christians. Of the remaining 1,379 posts 1,104 (80.2 per cent) were held by Brahmins, Baidyas and Kayasths; 131 (9.5 per cent) by other Hindu castes; 141 (10.3 per cent) by Muslims. The remaining three were held by Paris. Ibid., p. 506. Looked at from the opposite point of view ‘the Rajputs and Khatris, though they number nearly a million and a half, hold only 5 high appointments, and the Babhans with over a million hold none. The Goalas with nearly 4 millions claim but 1 appointment—a subordinate post in the Medical Department. Numerous castes are entirely unrepresented in the higher grades of the Civil Service of the State, amongst whom it will suffice to mention the Rajbansis and Namasudras with an aggregate strength of nearly 4 millions, and the Kurmis and Bagdis, each numbering over a million.’ Ibid., p. 486. Of course, there was no good reason why any of these people should want to become involved in clerical work.

²⁰ Census of India 1901, Vol. VI, Part II, Appendix to Table XVI, pp. 502–6.Google Scholar

²¹ Ibid., Table VI and Table XIII, pp. 195, 204, 228.

²² Memorandum on the Material Condition of the Lower Orders in Bengal during the ten years from 1881–1882 to 1891–1892, p. 15.Google Scholar

²³ Mymensingh District Gazetteer, p. 65. The cost of living was also high in the towns. In Mymensingh no house could be rented for less than ten or fifteen rupees a month, and a Government Officer earning 150 rupees a month might pay up to thirty rupees for satisfactory accommodation. Ibid., p. 62.

²⁴ English High Schools and their pupils in eastern Bengal:

I owe these figures to Dr A. Basu.

²⁵ Memorandum by Sir S. C. Bayley. Enclosure to Govt. India to Secretary of State, 1 November 1893. Parliamentary Papers (1894), Vol. LX, p. 93.Google Scholar

²⁶ One-third of the vacancies in the Lower Provinces Subordinate Executive Service (of which there were about ten a year) were filled by pure competition; one-third were selected from the remaining candidates who got more than one-third of the marks in the examination ‘in such a way as to distribute the appointments fairly among the various divisions, races and creeds of the Province’ and one-third by nomination, usually promotions from the ministerial service—the lowest grade in the administrative hierarchy. Ibid., p. 94.

²⁷ In 1885 the government decided that no special exemption from the tests of suitability could be given to Muslims but that every effort should be made to improve their educational standing, and that they should be employed where consistent with considerations of administrative efficiency. By 1900 progress had been so slow that the government of Bengal issued an order that sub-inspectors of schools should be distributed between Hindus and Muslims in proportion to their respective proportions of the total population. This does not seem to have had much effect. Extract from Proceedings of the Lieutenant-Governor, Eastern Bengal and Assam, 15 February 1907. Home Establishments A, May 1907, 103, NAI. How far the policy was successful is a different question, for the evidence points towards the Hindus retaining their monopolistic position, even in the very lowest ranks of the service. Hindu dominance in posts carrying a salary of Rs 75 a month and over was very clear. In 1904 there were 4,469 such appointments in Bengal. 2,700 were held by Hindus and 302 by Muslims. Statement of Civil Appointments… Part A, General Tables, Government of India … Resolution, 24 May 1904. Home Establishments A, June 1904, 103, NAI. The Government of Eastern Bengal and Assam found that Muslims, although constituting two-thirds of the Province, only held one-sixth of ministerial appointments in divisional, sub-divisional and district offices. Govt. EB & A to Govt. India, 30 November 1906. Home Establishments Deposit, December 1906, 8, NAI.Google Scholar

²⁸ Basu, A., ‘Indian Education and Politics 1898–1920’ (Ph.D. thesis, Cambridge, 1967), pp. 7–92.Google Scholar

²⁹ See the map on the next page. The alterations proposed during the 1890s concerned the hilly frontier between Bengal and Assam. The South Lushai Hills were actually transferred from Bengal to Assam in 1898. This had been urged six years earlier in order to make the task of controlling the Lushai and Chin tribesmen easier. Resolution of the Foreign Department, 25 July 1892. Home Public A, October 1892, 149, NAI.Google Scholar

³⁰ Curzon to Godley, 17 June 1903. Curzon Papers, Mss Eur F 111/162, IOL.Google Scholar

³¹ This was the scheme as proposed in 1903. Govt. India to Govt. Bengal, 3 December 1903, Home Public A, December 1903, 155, NAI.Google Scholar

³² Govt. India to Govt. Bengal, 3 December 1903. Home Public A, December 1903, 155, NAI.Google Scholar

³³ Ibid.

³⁴ The number of posts in other provinces in 1897 was as follows:

³⁵ Govt. India to Govt. Bengal, 3 December 1903. Home Public A, December 1903, 155, NAI. These same arguments had been used to support the proposals of 1896. Govt. Bengal to Govt. India, 13 August 1896. Home Public A, May 1907, 204; Govt. Assam to Govt. Bengal, 25 November 1896. Home Public A, May 1897, 228, NAI.Google Scholar

³⁶ Commissioner of Chittagong to Govt. Bengal, 7 February 1896. Home Public A, May 1897, 205, NAI.Google Scholar

³⁷ Govt. India to Govt. Bengal, 3 December 1903. Home Public A, December 1903, 155, NAI.Google Scholar

³⁸ In 1901 Fraser, as Chief Commissioner of the Central Provinces, had restored Uriya as the court language of Sambalpur district and had requested the Government of India to relieve the Central Provinces of so difficult a charge. Fraser, A. H. L., Among Indian Rajahs and Ryots (London, 1911), pp. 313–16. It was Fraser again, who on promotion to a seat on the Viceroy's executive council, had proposed the grouping of all the Uriya-speaking districts under Calcutta. Note by A. H. L. Fraser, 28 March 1903. Notes, Home Public A, December 1903, 149–160, NAI.Google Scholar

³⁹ Govt. Assam to Govt. India, 24 september 1904. Home Public A, February 1905, 162, NAI.Google Scholar

⁴⁰ Memorials from Chittagong, Govt. Bengal to Govt. India, 13 August 1896. Home Public A, May 1897, 204, NAI.Google Scholar

⁴¹ Registrar, High Court of Judicature at Fort William in Bengal, Appellate Side to Govt. Bengal, 30 June 1896. Home Public A, May 1897, 210, NAI.Google Scholar

⁴² Memorials from Chittagong, Govt. Bengal to Govt. India, 13 August 1896. Home Public A, May 1897, 204, NAI.Google Scholar

⁴³ British Indian Association to Govt. Bengal, 3 February 1896. Home Public A, May 1897, 215, NAI.Google Scholar

⁴⁴ Fraser's enlarged scheme of 1903 added these two districts to the new province because several major zemindars, like Sitanath Roy and his brothers, held land in them as well as in Dacca and Mymensingh. Govt. Bengal to Govt. India, 6 April 1904, Home Public A, February 1905, 157, NAI.Google Scholar

⁴⁵ Bengal Chamber of Commerce to Govt. India. All About Partition (Calcutta, 1906), pp. 103–4.Google Scholar

⁴⁶ Govt. India to Secretary of State, 2 February 1905, Home Public A, February 1905, 166, NAI. At a protest meeting held in Calcutta Town Hall 7 August 1905, the Maharaja of Cassimbazar was concerned that the jurisdiction of Calcutta High Court would not be maintained, despite the Resolution of the Government. ‘I fear that in the course of time a Chief Court will be established in the new province. And then what will become of our High Court? Thus emasculated and shorn of its jurisdiction and of its prestige and dignity it will, I fear, be reduced to the status of a Chief Court,’ All About Partition, p. 90. Curzon did not give his audience at Mymensingh on 20 February 1904 much satisfaction on this point. He said: ‘I have not here or at Dacca said anything about the jurisdiction of the High Court, because it is not proposed to remove the new province from it. To this I observe, it is replied that there is no guarantee that that may not some day be done. No more, I answer, is there now. The jurisdiction of the High Court is as likely to be affected by the congestion of its own business as it is by any administrative arrangement.’ Ibid., p. 45.

⁴⁷ Imperial Gazetteer of India (new ed., London, 1908), Vol. VIII, p. 220.Google Scholar Bikrampur pargana contained the ancient capital of the Hindu kings of Bengal. The increase percentage calculated by comparing the average of the first four quarters with that of the second four. Para. 29, Ibid.

⁴⁸ Memorial from the People's Association and the Landholder's Association, Dacca, 4 March 1904. Enclosure 8 in Govt. Bengal to Govt. India, 6 April 1904. Home Public A, February 1905, 157, NAI. The Subordinate Service contained the high posts not reserved for the Covenanted Service, so the proportion given here does not contradict that given in the Imperial Gazetteer, which includes all Government posts.Google Scholar

⁴⁹ There were Assamese protests against the partition also. The administration of Assam had once been almost monopolized by immigrants from Dacca and Mymensingh, but since the separation of Assam from Bengal in 1874, education had made better progress and the people of Assam were ‘beginning to gather a substantial share of the loaves and fishes of office’. (Govt. Assam to Govt. India, 6 April, 1904. Home Public A, February 1905, 156, NAI.) If a new province was created including most of eastern Bengal, Assam would be ‘overflooded with Dacca graduates and undergraduates, and the appointements at the disposal of the Administration will be more than insufficient to meet the demand’. (Note by Rai Dulal Chandra Deb, Chairman, Municipal Committee, Sylhet, 22 March 1904. Enclosure B,Ibid.) One petitioner was prepared to countenance the new province provided 80 per cent of all posts were reserved for local inhabitants. (Note by Manik Chandra Barna, 27 February 1904. Enclosure 7,Ibid.) The government of Assam really only wanted to take over Chittagong division, but the government of India considered the fear that the change would in effect be ‘rather the annexation of Assam by Eastern Bengal than the transfer of Eastern Bengal to Assam’ was ‘if not exaggerated, at any rate not formidable’. Govt. India to Govt. Bengal, 3 December 1903. Home Public A, December 1903, 155, NAI.

⁵⁰ Memorial from the Tripora Hitasadhini Sabha to the Govt. Bengal, 16 January 1896. Home Public A, May 1897, 211, NAI. See also similar memorials from Tippera, Chittagong, Noakhali, the Indian Association and others in the same file.Google Scholar

⁵¹ ‘The middle class population of Dacca is composed of numerous small land holders who have to supplement their income from land from other sources, and, consequently, from the earliest times they have had recourse to service and especially to employment under Government. The descendants of the industrial classes, whose industries have died out on account of competition with the Western nations, have also fallen to service as their vocation. In order to fit them for Government service, these people give them the best education available in the country. Thus the educated men of this district have always supplied large contingents to all Departments of Government Service, whether Judicial, Executive, or Ministerial. It has always been recongnized by Government that the District of Dacca has supplied it with numbers of intelligent, able and faithful servants in all its Departments. Your Memorialists understand that the people of this district alone hold more than one tenth of the posts in the Subordinate, Judicial and Executive services in the 48 Districts in Bengal, Begar and Orissa which form the Administration of the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, not to speak of the innumerable Ministerial appointments they hold in all these Districts. By the intended separation the young men of this District would be deprived in future of their claims to appointments not only in the remainder of the territories under the rule of the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, but also in Assam.’ The People's Association and the Landholder's Association, Dacca, to Govt. Bengal, 4 March 1904. Enclosure 8 in Govt. Bengal to Govt. India, 6 April 1904. Home Public A, February 1905, 157, NAI.Google Scholar

⁵² Collector Bakarganj to Commissioner Dacca Division, 1 February 1904. Enclosure in Enclosure 19,ibid.; Collector Tippera to Commissioner Chittagong Division, 4 February 1904. Enclosure in Enclosure 20,Ibid.

⁵³ Commissioner Dacca Division to Govt. EB & A, — July 1907. Enclosure, Govt. EB & A to Govt. India, 17 August 1907. Home Political A, December 1907, 58, NAI.Google Scholar

⁵⁴ Commissioner Chittagong Division to Govt. Bengal, 7 February 1896. Home Public A, May 1897, 205, NAI.Google Scholar

⁵⁵ Curzon to Brodrick, 23 February 1904. Curzon Papers. Mss Eur F 111/168, IOL.Google Scholar

⁵⁶ Govt. Assam to Govt. India, 24 September 1904. Home Public A, February 1905, 162, NAI.Google Scholar

⁵⁷ Note by Risley, 5 December 1906. Notes, Home Establishments Deposit, December 1906, 6–9, NAI.Google Scholar

⁵⁸ Curzon to Brodrick, 2 February 1905. Curzon Papers. Mss Eur F 111/168, IOL.Google Scholar

⁵⁹ The partition proposals encountered a great deal of criticism from the India Council in London. The Under-Secretary of State consoled Curzon ‘the opposition of the Congress Party will of course help matters considerably, so far as our Council is concerned’. Godley to Curzon, 26 January 1905, Ibid.

⁶⁰ Curzon to Brodrick, 15 June 1905, Ibid.

⁶¹ Note by C. J. Stevenson-Moore, 2 December 1905, Notes, Home Public A, June 1906, 169–86, NAI. Bagal, J. C., History of the Indian Association, 1876–1951 (Calcutta, 1953), p. 164.Google Scholar

⁶² ‘The leaders of the Indian Association and those of the new school sat together for days to thrash out the best means of guiding this national determination and popular upheaval into proper channels.’ J. C. Bagal, History of the Indian Association, p. 165.Google Scholar

⁶³ Banerjea, S. N., A Nation in Making (2nd ed., Calcutta, 1963), p. 174–75.Google Scholar

⁶⁴ All about Partition, p. 86.Google Scholar

⁶⁵ Ibid., p. 87.

⁶⁶ Ibid.

⁶⁷ ‘It would have been impossible to have found among the ranks of the Bengali leaders one who by his moderation and patriotism was so well qualified for the task.’ S. N. Banerjea, A Nation in Making, p. 179.Google Scholar

⁶⁸ All about Partition, p. 87.Google Scholar

⁶⁹ Ibid., p. 102.

⁷⁰ Note by C. J. Stenvenson-Moore, 2 December 1905. Notes, Home Public A, June 1960, 169–86, NAI.Google Scholar

⁷¹ The most populous town in Nadia district, on the river Hooghly; a celebrated bathing place.Google Scholar

⁷² Town in 24-Parganas, famous as a seat of Sanskrit learning.Google Scholar

⁷³ Kalighat was the largest Hindu temple in Calcutta, ‘a place of great sanctity for Hindus, and numbers go there every day to bathe in Tolly's Nullah. The temple … about 300 years old, has 194 acres of land assigned to its maintenance.’ Imperial Gazetteer of India, Vol. IX, p. 274.Google Scholar

⁷⁴ Note by C. J. Stevenson-Moore, 2 December 1905. Notes, Home Public A, June 1906, 169–86, NAI.Google Scholar

⁷⁵ Chief of Police, Calcutta, to Govt. Bengal, 21 September 1905. Notes, Home Public B, October 1905, 114–15, NAI.Google Scholar

⁷⁶ Ibid.

⁷⁷ This was one of the largest fish markets. It was owned by Babu Jotindra Nath Chaudhuri. Note by H. A. Stuart, 10 November 1906. Notes, Home Public A, December 1906, 310–11, NAI.Google Scholar

⁷⁸ Ibid.

⁷⁹ FR Bengal, 17 September 1906. Home Public B, October 1906, 13, NAI.Google Scholar

⁸⁰ FR Bengal, 8 October 1906. Home Public A, December 1906, 144, NAI.Google Scholar

⁸¹ FR Bengal, 17 September 1906. Home Public B, October 1906, 13, NAI. In a marginal note H. H. Risley wrote ‘the Biharis hate the Bengalis who for years have held many appointments in Bihar and had an undue share of the leading practice in the courts.’Google Scholar

⁸² Note by H. A. Stuart, 10 November 1906. Notes, Home Public A, December 1906, 310–11, NAI.Google Scholar

⁸³ The value in crores of rupees of certain commodities imported through Calcutta 1903–1904 to 1907–1908:

The figures show that between 1905–1906 and 1906–1907 there was a 13 per cent decline in imports of cotton manufactures, 41 per cent decline in imports of boots and shoes; 5 per cent decline in imports of tobacco; 14 per cent decline in imports of brandy; and 17 per cent decline in imports of whisky. The figures are quoted in Sarkar, S., ‘Trends in Bengal's Swadeshi Movement (1903–1908)’, Bengal Past and Present, Vol. LXXXIV, Part II, July–December 1965, p. 151.Google Scholar

⁸⁴ The reason why import figures alone offered no sure guide was that ‘imports alone might show an apparently healthy growth, while an investigation of stocks might disclose the fact that the increment was not passing into commerce but was accumulating in the merchants' warehouses’. Director-General of Commercial Intelligence to Govt. India, 5 October 1906, para. 2. Home Public Deposit, December 1906, 38, NAI.Google Scholar

⁸⁵ The enquiry was carried out by investigating the stocks of the four largest importers. The figures obtained showed that on average for the years between 1901 and 1905 the total stock in hand on 31 August represented 29.42 per cent of the total arrivals over the previous twelve months, and that of these stocks the average percentage remaining unsold was 18.2 per cent. On 31 August 1906 the total stock in hand amounted to 34 per cent of the imports for the year, and the amount of this remaining unsold was 31.22 per cent. paras. 4–6, Ibid.

⁸⁶ Para. 10, Ibid.

⁸⁷ Paras. 10–24, Ibid.

⁸⁸ For example, exports of rice, the staple for most of Bengal, shrank by 13 per cent in quantity, although only 4.9 per cent in value, the difference between these percentages indicating that there was no such decline in export price as would in itself account for the falling off. Imports of rice increased by 52.8 per cent during 1905–06 on the previous year, while production of rice in Bengal fell short by only 1 per cent on the figures of the previous year, a record year, but well in excess of the average production over the previous five years. Yet the retail price of rice was reckoned to have increased in 1906 by 23.1 per cent on the average for the previous five years. Paras. 32–44, Ibid.

⁸⁹ The average price increase of seventeen different descriptions of imported foreign cottons between 1904–1905 and 1905–1906 was 24.75 per cent. Paras. 13, 30, Ibid.

⁹⁰ Statement of value of imports arriving at Calcutta 1904–1906

. Para. 29, Ibid.

⁹¹ ‘Bombay has a great destiny before her in connection with the Swadeshi Movement. The inspiration may have come from Bengal, but the consummation lies with you, the people of Bombay. You can make or mar the fortunes of this movement.’ Speech by Surendranath Banerjea, December 1906. Banerjea, S. N. (ed.) Speeches and Writings of Hon. Surendranath Banerjea (Madras, no date), p. 291. He went on to chide the Bombay mill owners for having increased their prices in the autumn of 1905.Google Scholar

⁹² Statement of monthly average variations in the maximum prices of eighteen descriptions of Indian fabric, the mean for the year ending August 1905 being taken as 100:

⁹³ Statement of value of imports arriving at Calcutta 1904–1906.

The increase percentage calculated by comparing the average of the first four quarters with that of the second four. Para. 29, Ibid.

⁹⁴ FR Bengal, 6 September 1907. Home Political A, October 1907, 50, NAI.Google Scholar

⁹⁵ Para. 29, Home Public Deposit, December 1906, 38, NAI.Google Scholar

⁹⁶ ‘A feature of the year's trade in Bombay has been the increase in the imports of dhooties of the Bengal type. Taking the eight months January to August these imports have amounted to 10,533 bales as against an average of 6,000 in the same period of each of the previous three years. This suggests…that there is truth in the statement that unstamped dhooties are imported at Bombay and there imprinted with Swadeshi marks conducing to their sale as Indian goods.’ Para. 55, Ibid.

⁹⁷ Para. 47, Ibid.

⁹⁸ ‘…the importation of a preparation of tobacco into a country where tobacco can so well be grown represents an unnatural condition which it is not even desirable to maintain.’ Para, 47, Ibid.

⁹⁹ Though even here there had been other influences. The leather trade the world over had suffered from a rise in price. In 1905 Britain's imports of leather goods increased in value by £29,000 while declining in quantity by 13,500 cwts. Further, India was increasing her own production of leather goods, having plenty of her own raw hide. ‘It is in the nature of things that a country that exports raw hides and skins to a value of Rs 1,000 lakhs and tanned hides and skins to a value of Rs 360 lakhs should cease to take large quantities of leather goods from abroad.’ Para. 47, Ibid.

¹⁰⁰ Para. 47, Ibid.

¹⁰¹ FR Bengal, 4 July 1908. Home Political A, August 1908, 130, NAI.Google Scholar

¹⁰² For example, in the fervour of the swadeshi movement students refused to write examinations on foreign paper and Hindu gentry reverted to using the thicker, stuffier native cloth for mosquito nets. S. N. Banerjea, A Nation in Making, p. 182; Allen, B. C., Dacca District Gazetteer (Allahabad, 1912), p. 86.Google Scholar

¹⁰³ In Dacca waterways provided the main avenues of communication. In 1912 there were only eight and a half miles of metalled road outside municipal areas in the district. Dacca District Gazetteer, p. 135. Examination of a large-scale map of Bakarganj shows it laced with waterways. The district had no railway and by 1918 it had 387 miles of road, of which only twelve were metalled. Bakarganj District Gazetteer, p. 85.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁴ Marriott, M., Caste Ranking and Community Structure in Five Regions of India and Pakistan (Reprint, Poona, 1965), p. 72.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁵ Ibid., p. 72–3.

¹⁰⁶ Ibid., p. 75.

¹⁰⁷ Ibid., p. 74–5. J. C. Jack wrote: ‘The most characteristic feature of Bakarganj life is the absence of the gregarious instinct. The urban population shows no signs of growing and lives in widely separated homesteads. The big bazaars and markets outside the towns do not attract a residential population, while there is no such thing as a village site in the whole of Bakarganj. Ordinarily each family lives on an ample plot of land which is surrounded by a deep moat and by a thick belt of trees and usually the homestead is not flanked by another homestead, but is further separated by paddy land from the nearest habitation.’ Bakarganj District: Gazetteer, p. 37–8. For Faridpur see Jack, J. C., The Economic Life of a Bengal District: A Study (Oxford, 1916), p. 18–19.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁸ Marriott, M., Caste Ranking and Community Structure in Five Regions of India and Pakistan, p. 72.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁹ The crops in Bengal were severely damaged by monsoon and flood in 1905 and 1906. Prices and Wages in India, 29th Issue (Calcutta, 1912), p. 2.Google Scholar In Dacca district between 1899 and 1904 the average price for rice was 15.26 seers for one rupee. In 1906 and 1907 the average price was 8.11 and 8.06 seers for one rupee. The highest previous price reached in Dacca was in 1897 when it was 9.6 seers for one rupee. Dacca District Gazetteer, p. 84. In Mymensingh prices of food showed a similar over-all rise:

Mymensingh District Gazetteer, p. 67. These figures should be taken simply as a rough indication of the rise of prices, and unrelated as they are to other economic data it is mpossible to interpret their real significance. The overall trend upward in the prices of foodstuffs was encouraged in Dacca by the increasing population, and the yield per acre fell during these years as poorer soil was brought under cultivation. The extension of jute growing also displaced areas previously used for rice. The success of jute brought a great amount of wealth into the district (in 1906 the Dacca crop brought in 450 lakhs of rupees—Dacca District Gazetteer, p. 96) and increased the power of the consumer to pay. Ibid., p. 84. In 1906 in Faridpur ‘the moneylender was sucked so dry that no money was available for loan to cultivators with even the best security’. J. C. Jack, The Economic Life of a Bengal District, p. 103–4.

¹¹⁰ Note by the District Magistrate, Mymensingh on incidents at Jamalpur in connection with the Boycott, 17 June 1907. Enclosure 2 in Enclosure in Govt. EB & A to Govt. India, 17 August 1907. Home Political A, December 1907, 58, NAI.Google Scholar

¹¹¹ The whole problem of communal rioting in eastern Bengal generally has been very well treated by Sarkar, Sumit, ‘Hindu–Muslim relations in Swadeshi Bengal, 1903–1908’, in Indian Economic and Social History Review, Vol. IX, Part II (June 1972), pp. 161–216.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

¹¹² Commissioner, Dacca to Govt. EB & A, — July 1907. Enclosure in Govt. EB & A to Govt. India, 17 August 1907. Home Political A, December 1907, 58, NAI.Google Scholar

¹¹³ The Jainalpur mela was started in 1883 by Sub-divisional officer Nunda Krishna Bose. It drew cattle merchants because they crossed the river Jamuna on their trek from Bihar at a ferry just south of Dewanganj. A fine grove of mangoes made a splendid centre for the mela, while grassy chars north of the town provided cheap fodder. The income from the mela at 10 annas per animal could well exceed Rs 9,000, and between 1909 and 1914 the mela made an annual profit of between Rs 7,000 and Rs 10,460. Mymensingh District Gazelteer, p. 148 and pp. 89–90.Google Scholar

¹¹⁴ The most important of these estates was that of Gauripore. The estate yielded about 4 lakhs of revenue a year, and most of the land was situated in the Jamalpur and Sadar sub-divisions of Mymensingh. The zemindary was divided between Babu Brajendra Kishore Roy Choudhuri and his mother in the proportion 75 per cent to 25 per cent, expressed more commonly in Indian terms as a 12 anna share and a 4 anna share. The estate was not partitioned, but mother and son collected their rents separately. Both were absentees, the son living in Calcutta and the mother in the famous health resort, Deogarh, in Santhal Parganas. Commissioner, Dacca to Govt. EB & A, 13 October 1907. Enclosure in Govt. EB & A to Govt. India, 6 January 1908. Home Political A, December 1907, 58, NAI.Google Scholar

¹¹⁵ Ibid.

¹¹⁶ The festival at Jamalpur was the Vasanti Puja, in honour of the Goddess Durga. For a Hindu reaction to the news of the desecration, N. C. Chaudhuri, Autobiography of an Unknown Indian, p. 240.Google Scholar

¹¹⁷ Commissioner Dacca to Govt. EB & A, — July 1907. Enclosure in Govt. EB & A to Govt. India, 17 August 1907. Home Political A, December 1907, 58, NAI.Google Scholar

¹¹⁸ The people of Mymensingh had tried to get a special train to run volunteers to Jamalpur, but their request had been refused. When the magistrate went to Jamalpur on 22 April he stopped some twenty youths travelling in his train, but sixteen arrived in the town by the evening train. Ibid.

¹¹⁹ To the north of the town the Muslim peasants were low-caste cultivators, called shandars, who were prone to acts of violence and dacoity. The Muslim peasants to the south and west of the town were of relatively higher caste and more peaceable. Ibid.

¹²⁰ Ibid.

¹²¹ Ibid.

¹²² Ibid.

¹²³ Prakash Chandra Dutta's brother-in-law was one of the respectable pleaders fined Rs 1,000 for his part in the disturbances of 21 April. Ibid.

¹²⁴ Commissioner, Dacca to Govt. EB & A, 6 June 1906. Home Police B, September 1906, 67, NAI.Google Scholar

¹²⁵ At the height of the agitation in 1907 the district magistrate wrote that Aswini Kumar Dutt was ‘a very respectable man and has a great reputation for beneficent and unselfish work on behalf of the people’. Diary of the district magistrate, 3 August 1907. Enclosure in Govt. EB & A to Govt. India, 13 August 1907. Home Political B, August 1907, 242, NAI. A sympathetic portrait of A. K. Dutt is to be found in Pal, B. C., Character Sketches (Calcutta, 1957), p. 45 f.Google Scholar

¹²⁶ Quoted in Mukherjee, H. & U., India's Fight for Freedom, or the Swadeshi Movement, 1905–1906 (Calcutta, 1958), pp. 112–13.Google Scholar

¹²⁷ Between September 1905 and May 1907 A. K. Dutt addressed 33 meetings in Barisal and 10 in the mofussil, that have been recorded in Police Abstracts. Enclosure 2 in Memorandum on A. K. Dutt, 20 June 1907. Enclosure in Govt. EB & A to Govt. India, 3 July 1907. Home Political A, August 1907, 106, NAI.Google Scholar

¹²⁸ Ibid. Aswini's speeches also drew attention because unlike those of other Bengal agitators they were not ‘characterized by the same violence and virulent hatred’. It was never possible to attempt to prosecute him for seditious speech. Memorandum on A. K. Dutt, Section A,Ibid.

¹²⁹ Quoted in H. & U. Mukherjee, India's Fight for Freedom, p. 113.Google Scholar

¹³⁰ Memorandum on the National Volunteer Movement, 11 September 1907. Home Political Deposit, October 1907, 19, NAI.Google Scholar

¹³¹ Babu Broja Mohan Dutt founded the school in 1884 and the institution became a first-grade college in 1898. Bakarganj District Gazetteer, p. 117.Google Scholar

¹³² Thus losing the right to send candidates for the matriculation examination which was the minimum qualification for government servants at the Englishspeaking level.Google Scholar

¹³³ Commissioner, Dacca to Govt. EB & A, 14 December 1908. Home Political A, May 1909, 135, NAI.Google Scholar

¹³⁴ Diary of the district magistrate for January 1908. Enclosure in Govt. EB & A to Govt. India, 24 February 1908. Home Political A, April 1908, 24, NAI.Google Scholar

¹³⁵ Memorandum on the National Volunteer Movement, 11 September 1907. Home Political Deposit, October 1907, 19, NAI.Google Scholar

¹³⁶ Since there were no large zemindars in Bakarganj they did not exercise the same importance in the agitation as in Mymensingh, but Upendra Nath Sen of Basanda and the Dasses of Bansbumia, and zemindars at Baufal and Kalaskati did employ their amla to enforce boycott of British goods. Diary of the district magistrate for January 1908. Enclosure in Govt. EB & A to Govt. India, 24 February 1908. Home Political A, April 1908, 24, NAI.Google Scholar

¹³⁷ Petition from Sri Brindaban Chandra, Krishan Chandra Shaha and others, Barisal, 18 February 1907. Home Public B, June 1907, 81, NAI.Google Scholar

¹³⁸ Magistrate Bakarganj to Commissioner, Dacca, 2 May 1907, Ibid.

¹³⁹ Ibid.

¹⁴⁰ Ibid.

¹⁴¹ Ibid.

¹⁴² Hughes-Buller does not disclose his source, but wrote about ‘reliable figures I have obtained, enabling me to compare their imports of piece goods from Calcutta with those of the corresponding period last year’. The firms imported 3,1903 maunds in the 6 months of the first period and 3,609 in the second period. Ibid.

¹⁴³ The Rowlatt Commission considered an attempted dacoity at Rangpur in August 1906 to be the first manifestation of Bengal terrorism. See the chronological statements of revolutionary crimes, Sedition Committee 1918 Report (Calcutta, 1918), in passim.Google Scholar

¹⁴⁴ Up to 1914 there were 28 incidents in Dacca, 17 in Mymensingh, 10 in Faridpur 10 in Tippera. There were 13 in 24-Parganas and 5 in Calcutta. Ibid.

¹⁴⁵ Ibid., p. 226. The total number of convictions given comes to 176 in the table classifying by age, but 186 in that by caste. 68 of the 186 convicted or who were killed in commission of a revolution crime, were students.

¹⁴⁶ See N. Chaudhuri, Autobiography of an Unknown Indian, p. 44f. Even in 1920 when staying at Kishorganj in Mymensingh, his birthplace, Nirad Chaudhuri ‘went out for my evening walks with a hatchet under my shawl, and never felt ashamed of this act of stupidity’. Ibid., p. 46.

¹⁴⁷ FR EB & A, 25 October 1907. Home Political A, November 1907, 18, NAI.Google Scholar

¹⁴⁸ Ibid.

¹⁴⁹ Sedition Committee Report, p. 219.Google Scholar

¹⁵⁰ Sub-inspector of Police to Superintendent of Police Dacca, 12 October 1907. Enclosure A in Enclosure 2 in Govt. EB & A to Govt. India, 28 November 1907. Home Political A, February 1908, 70, NAI.Google Scholar

¹⁵¹ There were twelve instructors in the samiti who taught drill, the use of lathis, daggers, knives, bamboo spears, swords and gulailbash (a kind of cross-bow for projecting a clay bullet baked in the sun). Ibid.

¹⁵² Ibid.

¹⁵³ Commissioner Dacca to Govt. EB & A, 14 December 1908. Enclosure in Govt. EB & A to Govt. India, 19 December 1908. Home Political A, May 1909, 135, NAI.Google Scholar

¹⁵⁴ 16 branches were in Dacca city; 18 in Dacca Sadar; 21 in Narayanganj, 41 in Munshiganj and 23 in Manikganj sub-division. Ibid.

¹⁵⁵ Each cell had an adhyaksha, or chief; sampadak, or secretary; dalpati, who was leader of a dal or band of ten members; each dal had a sikshak or instructor and all full members were styled sabhya. Report by M. H. L. Salkeld on the Anusilan Samiti in Dacca, Vol. 1, p. 1. Home Political Deposit, August 1909, 21, NAI.Google Scholar

¹⁵⁶ A system of inspection was employed to keep up standards. Ibid., p. 9. The Samiti was notorious, however (as indeed were other terrorist organizations in Bengal), for its internal factionalism.

¹⁵⁷ Note by J. C. Ker, undated. Notes, Home Political Deposit, August 1909, 21, NAI.Google Scholar

¹⁵⁸ Report by M. H. L. Salkeld on the Anusilan Samiti in Dacca, Vol. 1, p. 35. Home Political Deposit, August 1909, 21, NAI.Google Scholar

¹⁵⁹ Ibid., p. 36.

¹⁶⁰ This was a special vow taken by the innermost core of members. Ibid., p. 44.

¹⁶¹ Note by J. C. Ker. Notes, Home Political Deposit, August 1909, 21, NAI.Google Scholar

¹⁶² Report by M. H. L. Salkeld on the Anusilan Samiti at Dacca, Vol. 1, p. 46. Home Political Deposit, August 1909, 21, NAI. ‘That the evil was not merely feared but actually existed witin the Samiti can be proved from papers found within its walls.’ Ibid., and see actual examples pp. 47–8.

¹⁶³ Note by J. C. Ker. Notes, Home Political Deposit, August 1909, 21, NAI. Salkeld reported that the discipline ‘enforced within the Samiti was extremely severe and calculated to ruin the constitution of young boys.’ Report by M. H. L. Salkeld on the Anusilan Samiti at Dacca, Vol. 1, p. 46. As an example he cited a case where for misconduct a boy had to take boilsed rice without salt for 15 days without talking to anyone, and had to keep watch from 2 am to 5 am for 8 days and for the whole night for 7 days.Google Scholar

¹⁶⁴ WR DCI, 26 September 1908, Home Political B, October 1908, 7, NAI.Google Scholar

¹⁶⁵ Ibid.

¹⁶⁶ Memorandum on the discoveries made in Calcutta concerning the Anarchist society of Barindra Kumar Ghose. Notes, Home Political A, May 1908, 112–50, NAI.Google Scholar

¹⁶⁷ 5 came from Hooghly District, 4 from Jessore, 3 from Khulna, 2 from Nadia, and one each from Faridpur, Rajshahi, French Chandernagore, Tippera, Dacca, and Malda. Note by DCI, 18 May 1908. Home Political Deposit, May 1908, 17, NAI.Google Scholar

¹⁶⁸ Sedition Committee Report, pp. 19–20.Google Scholar

¹⁶⁹ The daily routine was: rise at 4 am, wash at 4.30 am, meditate until 5.30 am. 5.30 am–6 am physical exercises; 6 am–9 am study, 9 am–11 am target practice and cooking; 11–11.30, bath; meditation from 11.30 to noon, after which they ate and rested until 3 pm, when 1½ hours of study in class followed with more exercises and meditation. 6 pm–7 pm was spent in private study, and 7–9 pm was spent cooking. Supper was held at 9 pm followed by conversation and singing, and finally, at 10 pm, sleep. Note by the DCI, 18 May 1908. Home Political Deposit, 17, NAI.Google Scholar

¹⁷⁰ Govt. Bengal to Govt. India, 13 May 1908. Notes, Home Political A, May 1908, 112–50, NAI. The relations of religion and political action of the terrorist type was well illustrated by a speech of Aurobindo Ghose where he justified murder by Khatriyas, although not Brahmins, to further the happiness of mankind even if by so doing ‘your duty to your family seems to conflict with your duty to society, that of society to the nation and that of the nation to mankind.’ Aurobindo's exposition of the Gita was construed by the Government as ‘provided a man works himself up into a sufficiently fanatical frame of mind he may commit without blame any crime including murder, and further that according to the Hindu religion it is Brahmins alone who are prohibited from taking life.’ WR DCI, 10 July 1909. Home Political B, August 1909, 122, NAI.Google Scholar

¹⁷¹ Note by DCI, 18 May 1908. Notes, Home Political Deposit, May 1908, 17, NAI.Google Scholar

¹⁷² ‘From the outset we judged all political action by the criterion of insurrection. We took it as an axiom that only military power, actual or potential, could drive out the English. This idea obtained a lodgment not only in the minds of us, the young, but, fantastic as it may sound, in those of our elders as well.’ N. Chaudhuri, Autobiography of an Unknown Indian, pp. 250–1.Google Scholar

¹⁷³ District Magistrate to Commissioner, Dacca, 21 October 1907. Enclosure 2 in Govt. EB & A to Govt. India, 28 November 1908. Home Political A, February 1908, 70, NAI.Google Scholar

¹⁷⁴ WR DCI, 7 March 1908. Home Political B, April 1908, 44, NAI.Google Scholar

¹⁷⁵ Note by H. H. Risley, 21 January 1908. Notes, Home Political A, February 1908, 70–1, NAI.Google Scholar

¹⁷⁶ Sedition Committee Report, p. 32.Google Scholar

¹⁷⁷ Paras. 10–24, Director-General of Commercial Intelligence to Govt. India, 5 October 1906. Home Public Deposit, December 1906, 38, NAI.Google Scholar

¹⁷⁸ WR DCI, 17 August 1907. Home Political B, August 1907, 141, NAI.Google Scholar

¹⁷⁹ In the House of Commons on 26 February 1906. Parliamentary Debates, Fourth Series, Vol. CLII, col. 844.Google Scholar

¹⁸⁰ Minor breaches of the peace in November 1905 had resulted in the stationing of Gurkas in Barisal. Majumdar, R. C., History of the Freedom Movement in India (Calcutta, 1962), Vol. II, p. 94f.Google Scholar

¹⁸¹ Commissioner, Dacca to Govt. EB & A, 18, April 1906. Enclosure in Govt. EB & A, to Govt. India, 25 April 1906. Home Public A, June 1906, 165, NAI.Google Scholar

¹⁸² S. N. Banerjea, A Nation in Making, pp. 204–5.Google Scholar

¹⁸³ Report on the Barisal Conference, 17 April 1906. Enclosure in Govt. EB & A to Govt. India, 25 April 1906. Home Public A, June 1906, 165, NAI.Google Scholar

¹⁸⁴ S. N. Banerjea, A Nation in Making, p. 206.Google Scholar

¹⁸⁵ Commissioner, Dacca to Govt. EB & A 18 April 1906, Enclosure in Govt. EB & A to Govt. India, 25 April 1906. Home Public A, June 1906, 165, NAI. The Anti-Circular society was formed by students to protest against the Government of Bengal's circular forbidding the participation of students in politics.Google Scholar

¹⁸⁶ Report on the Barisal Conference, 17 April 1906. Ibid.

¹⁸⁷ Note by A. T. Arundel, 24 April 1906. Notes, Home Public A, June 1906, 152–68, NAI.Google Scholar

¹⁸⁸ Minto to Morley, 19 March 1907. Quoted in Mary, , Countess of Minto, India Minto and Morley, 1905–1910 (London, 1934), pp. 108–9.Google Scholar

¹⁸⁹ DR DCI, 16 July 1907. Home Political B, August 1907, 59, NAI.Google Scholar

¹⁹⁰ The Indian Association, for example, split in 1909 over the question whether to stand for the new legislative councils. A majority, including Surendranath, agreed not to do so until the province was re-united. When they did enter the election campaigns in 1903, many of them were defeated by the sitting candidates. Broomfield, J. H., ‘The vote and the Transfer of Power: a study of the Bengal General Election, 1912–1913’, Journal of Asian Studies, vol. XXI, no. 2 (1962), pp. 172–3.Google Scholar

¹⁹¹ Mukherjee, H. & U., Sri Aurobindo and the New Thought in Indian Politics (Calcutta, 1964), in passim;Google ScholarMukherjee, H. & U., Bipin Chandra Pal and India's Struggle for Swaraj (Calcutta, 1958), in passim.Google Scholar

¹⁹² See the disparaging remarks made by C. J. Stevenson-Moore, 15 October 1909. Notes, Home Political B, November 1909, 103–4, NAI.Google Scholar

¹⁹³ Resolution IX of the 1903 Congress; Resolution XIV of the 1904 Congress.Google Scholar

¹⁹⁴ Resolution XII of the Congress.

¹⁹⁵ Gokhale to Natesan, 10 May 1906 and 6 July 1906. Gokhale Papers, Reel 4, NAI; Gokhale to Krishnaswami Iyer, 27 July 1906. Ibid., Reel 5.

¹⁹⁶ Gokhale to Krishnaswami Iyer, 29 September 1906. Ibid.

¹⁹⁷ Banerjea to Naoroji, 12 July 1906. Naoroji Papers, NAI.Google Scholar

¹⁹⁸ Bose to Gokhale, 16 December 1906. Gokhale Papers, Reel 2, NAI.Google Scholar

¹⁹⁹ G. S. Khaparde, Diary, 31 December 1906. Khaparde Papers, NAI.Google Scholar

²⁰⁰ Report of the … Indian National Congress … 1906 [INC 1906], p. 72.Google Scholar

²⁰¹ Khaparde, Diary, 31 December 1906, Khaparde Papers, NAI.Google Scholar

²⁰² Ibid.

²⁰³ The resolution finally read: ‘This Congress accords its most cordial support to the Swadeshi movement and calls upon the people of the country to labour for its success by making earnest and sustained efforts to promote the growth of indigenous industries and to stimulate the production of indigenous articles by giving them preference over imported commodities even at some sacrifice.’ Resolution VIII, INC 1906.Google Scholar

²⁰⁴ Ibid., p. 107.

²⁰⁵ Ibid., p. 111.

²⁰⁶ ‘That this Congress records its earnest and emphatic protest against the repressive measures which have been adopted by the authorities in Bengal after the people there had been compelled to resort to the boycott of foreign goods as a last protest and perhaps the only constitutional and effective means left to them of drawing the attention of the British public to the action of the Government of India in persisting in their determination to partition Bengal in utter disregard of the universal prayers and protests of the people.’ Resolution XIII, 1905 Congress.Google Scholar

²⁰⁷ INC 1906, pp. 81–3.Google Scholar

²⁰⁸ Resolution VII, INC 1906.Google Scholar

²⁰⁹ Ibid., p. 83.

²¹⁰ Ibid., p. 83.

²¹¹ Ibid., p. 84.

²¹² Ibid., p. 86.

²¹³ Ibid. At this point there were cries of ‘no, no’ ‘not all’ from the Madras delegates. Raghava Iyer went on: ‘Those of you who were in the Subjects Committee last night must have recognized that even in Madras there is difference of opinion (voices: “There is”). But he will be a bold man who will contradict me when I say that the general body of opinion in Madras is decidedly in favour of the view that I put forward. Gentlemen, I simply say that what we mean by this resolution, is, as I understand it, that is exactly the same as was done at last year's Congress in Benares.’

²¹⁴ He said, ‘We want you to say that Bengal was right and we want you to adopt this resolution simply with regard to Bengal. We all express the pious hope, every one of us, that if and when circumstances make it necessary, the other Provinces in their own time will adopt it.’ Ibid., p. 87.

²¹⁵ Ibid., pp. 87–8.

²¹⁶ Ibid., p. 88.

²¹⁷ Ibid., p. 89. Gokhale went on to say ‘Beyond this, if any of you want to go, go by all means but do not go in the name of the Congress. You go forward as individuals; you have every right to do that; we do not question that by any means, but do not drag the rest who do not want to go with you.’ Ibid.

²¹⁸ Ibid., p. 89.

²¹⁹ Ibid., Resolution IX. Most of these demands had, in some form or other, found a place in Congress resolutions from the very earliest meetings.

²²⁰ Ibid., p. 139.

²²¹ Mahratta, 6 January 1907.Google Scholar

²²² Johnson, G., Provincial Politics and Indian Nationalism: Bombay and the Indian National Congress 1880 to 1915 (Cambridge, 1973), Chapter IV.Google Scholar