Question

Q. With reference to the Swadeshi Movement, which of the following statements is/are incorrect?

Select the correct answer using the codes given below:

• A. 1 only
• B. 2 only
• C. Both 1 and 2
• D. Neither 1 and 2

Answer 1

The correct option is D Neither 1 and 2

Explanation:

Statement 1 is correct: The moderates began to criticise the partition scheme ever since it was announced in 1903. Assuming that the British would be amenable to arguments, through prayers, petitions and public meetings they sought to revise the scheme in its formative stage. But when they failed to do so and the partition was announced in 1905, they took the first initiative to transform the narrow agitation into a wider swadeshi movement. For the first time, they went beyond their conventional political methods and Surendranath Banerjea at a meeting in Calcutta on 17 July 1905 gave a call for the boycott of British goods and institutions.

Statement 2 is correct: In a mass meeting at Calcutta Town Hall on 7 August, a formal boycott resolution was passed, which marked the beginning of the swadeshi movement. This was also the first time that the moderates tried to mobilise other than the literate section of the population. some of them participated in the national education movement. some of them even got involved in labour strikes. But their political philosophy remained the same, as they only sought to pressurise British parliament to secure an annulment of partition and could not conceptualise boycott as a step towards the regeneration of the national economy or start a full-scale passive resistance.