Karatoya: NBU J. Hist. Vol. 6 :111-116 (2013) ISSN: 2229-4880 

The Swadeshi Movement in Contai: Zamindars and Women 

Sankar Kumar Das• 

The Swadeshi Movement of Contai constituted an integral part of the all-Bengal 
Swadeshi Movement. But the issues, dimensions and dynamics of the movement hold 
altogether a new picture, and make it clear that the Contai movement in spite of having 
the all-Bengal characteristics was always to a very great extent Local. 

On December 12, 1903 the partition of Bengal scheme in its embryonic form 
came to be publicly known. Bengal burst into protest against this grievous wrong. Hence 
all cities and towns and market places assumed a new appearance and a new fervour with 
the strong determination to resist the implementation of the partition scheme. Protest 
meetings and protest processions became a regular feature. Newspapers disgorged the 
wounded feelings of the people. Nihar, severely criticized Curzon's divisive scheme 
without thinking of any ire that might come upon it. It writes, "As Curzon Bahadur has 
decided to partition Bengal however ludicrous be the scheme, so it will surely be effected. 
But it is a pity that the Viceroy must have it known that the partition scheme will bring 
about unnecessary changes, and it will unnecessarily disturb the easy and peaceful life of 
the Bengalis".1 

It is evident from the Nihar that Contai was all along aware of the fact that if any 
partition would occur she would be affected more badly than any other region of Bengal.2 

Besides she had the great fear that as a result of any partition her geography would be 
circumscribed, her economy would be crippled much more than it had been during the 
early years of the colonial rule owing to the destruction of her salt-manufacturing 
industry and other cottage industries, and her socio-cultural life would be impoverished 
owing to her arbitrary joining with the culturally impoverished Orissa. That is why 
thinking of this agony of the Contai people the Nihar writes,: "The government thinks 
that India is the play ground of the British national ideas and activities, and it is the 
amphitheatre for the exercise of the prowess of the ruler, and that the subject-people 
should only have the fear of the ruling power, and they can have no sense of liberty".3 In 
this context the Nihar delineating the worst bureaucratic features of the government 
which recklessly disregards the cherished feelings of the people, challenges,: "Does the 
government feel itself so supreme as to make and unmake the land and the people 
according to its own whims and vagaries".4 In this connection it is worth noting that nine 
days before the partition Rabindranath similarly challenged the ru ler: "Are you so strong 
enough to sunder what fate has bound together, do you really th ink that our lives are 
yours to make and break"?5 

• Assistant Professor, Department of History, University of North Bengal. 

11 I 



The partition took effect on October 16, 1905. Mother Bengal was now cut up 
into two halves. All Bengal shivered in an indescribable agony, pain and sotTow. So the 
day was observed as the day of national mourning. To all Bengal October 16 was a day of 
solemn mourning. So the day was observed with two special ceremonies: one was 
Arandhan and the other was Rakhibandhan. Arandhan signified the depth and gravity of 
the sorrow of the Bengalis, and Rakhibandhan asserted the fraternal solidarity and the ... 
unity of the Bengalis. Besides these two ceremonies there were protest processions with 
samkritan parties which sang mournful kritans and patriotic songs. In the Harikatha and 
Kathakatha sittings there were allegmically stressed what great wrong the government 
had done to the people. On the day there was organized a vast meeting in Contai town. 
One local zamindar Sjt. Bipinbihari Sasmal presided over the meeting. He emphatically 
pointed out that all their humble prayers and petitions to the government for not 
partitioning Bengal were brushed aside, so they must have to take resort to other means.6 

Now in place of the moderate, and so long ineffective, techniques of prayers and 
petitions traditiona lly qualified with Vaishnava modesty and humility there came new 
techniques tempered with Tantric ideology. By this time the anti-partition agitation was 
merged into the Boycott and the Swadeshi movement. So in almost all the meetings that 
fol lowed the speakers eloquently explained the meaning and significance of ' boycott ' and 
'swadeshi '. According to their interpretations boycott was not merely the abandonment of 
Briton- goods it was the idea of non-co-operation with the British in every field. In a 
deeper sense it was an act of self-defence, an act of aggression for the sake of self­
preservation. And 'swadeshi' which literally means a sincere and wholehearted love and 
attachment to anything and everything of mother Bengal (and also of India) now 
implicity referred to the newly awakened nationalism of the Bengal is ultimately aiming at 
political regeneration leading India towards 'Swaraj '. 

In Contai the zamindars played a significant role in the anti-partition movement. 
In most cases they themselves took the leading in championing boycott and swadeshi. 
They engaged their naibs, gomostas and other amlas to speak to their tenants in favour of 
boycott and swadeshi.7 

It was so heard that in one case or two the zamindars by the 
beating of drums in their estates forbade the shop-keepers to import and sell British 
goods, and they also forbade the buyers to purchase any such goods.8 It is learnt from 
Nihar and Medini Bandhaba, the two local weeklys that in the families of the zam indars 
and also in those of the ir relations the use of British goods particularly salt and sugar was 
totally stopped, and that their deities in temples were served sugar-less oblations.9 

The zam indars of Contai from the very first stage of the anti-partition agitation 
did their best by all means to put pressure on the government for the withdrawal of the 
Partition. They conducted the agitation with reckless hosti li ty towards the cruel design of 
the government, and they tried with every sincerity of purpose to extend and foster the 
boycott and swadeshi. They held regularly protest meetings at their houses, in the 
chandimandaps and in open market places to explain the dire need or protesting against 
the Partition. The participation of the zamindars in the protest processions and picketings 
gave an effective impetus to the movement. The personal presence of the zam indars in 
the processions and picketings and their inflammatory speeches de li , crcd in the meetings 

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attracted the common mass to the movement and inspired them to keep their religion 
deprofaned, to fight against the government design to weaken Bengal and the Bengalees 
and above all to strengthen Bengali nationalism. '0 By virtue of the repeated shoutings of 
Bande Mataram, the singing of patriotic songs and the samkirtan in chorus the Swadeshi 
movement in Contai assumed an air of romance and was transformed into a sort of 
religious festivity. 11 As a result of all these all the processionists and picketers along with 
the leading zamindars were so engrossed in the Swadeshi frenzy that they entered into the 
shops selling Briton cloths and other British goods and destroyed all their articles. It is 
worthwhile to note that on one market day the processionists led by zamindar Digambar 
Nanda of Mugberia threw away all the Liverpool salt packets in the ltaberia canal; they 
also set fire on the British cloths, destroyed sugar and other British goods and glass 
bangles (reshmi churi). 12 The Itaberia incident inflamed the swadeshi fire in Contai. All 
the thanas of the Contai subdivision adroitly took the Itaberia model as the proper method 
of boycottism. To the people Swadeshi-ism now became their only one idea, nay the only 
one weapon of salvation. 

The heroic leading of Digambar Nanda at Itaberia fanned the flames of boycott, 
and incited all the zamindars of Contai to come to the forefront of the movement. 
Henceforth they engaged their am/as to spread the boycott idea among the tenants; they 
prohibited the shop-keepers to sell British salt and sugar. They asked the students to 
extend the agitation to villages and to explain to villagers the boycott ideal and to follow 
the boycott activities whole heartedly as all these would do good for the country and the 
countrymen. The priests of the zamindari estates came forward to foster the boycotting; 
and working on the religious scruples by emphasizing the profanities of salt and sugar 
they carried the boycott into every household.13The zamindars also engaged the 
Harisabha, Dharmasabha and Samkritan parties to heighten the tone of the boycott­
swadeshi move ment. 14 It was thus the Contai movement attained the character of a 
religious reform movement. In this connection it is striking to note that in a meeting held 
in the house of one Sital Prasad Manda! of Chandibheti near Contai some thirty to forty 
Harisabha parties graced the assemblage with an aroma of religiosity. It is evident from 
the Nihar that Harisabha and Samkritan parties were regarded as one cardinal feature of 
the meetings organised in the swadeshi days. 15 From this one may surmise the heightened 
the character of religious nationalism of Contai. 

To foster boycott and swadeshi the zamindars organised me/as in their estates. 
The religion-centric melas like Rasmela, Dolmela, Siva-chaturdashi mela and 
Charakmela were by virtue of their organisation transformed into swadeshi melas. 
Students and volunteers paraded up and down the me/as. They sang swadeshi songs and 
lectured on the impurities of the British sugar and salt. Tn the me/as stalls of swadeshi 
goods were opened. In most cases swadeshi melas became centres of the exhibition of 
ingenious swadeshi goods which drew the attention of the people and attracted them to 
the dexterity in their production. This is how the me/as in one sense upheld the 
significance of the swadeshi. 16 

The students and their teachers of the High English and Middle English Schools 
were the life-force of the swadeshi movement of Contai. Practica lly this was so as they 
added a new connotation to nationalism. To them nationalism was now not merely 

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religion, faith and creed. It was solely matri- puja, worship of the motherland Bengal. In 
this puja their mantra was Bandemataram. Now it became the gospel of their new 
nationalism, and as mother-worshippers they were crusaders. Bademataram was their 
war-cry. The running boycott and swadeshi movement was the crusade in which they 
would be laurelled with v ictory. They had the firm conviction that they would surely win, 
and that the government would surely have to reunite Bengal if they would persist in the 
movement.17 

The students threw themselves heart and soul into the movement caring little for 
what punishment might come upon them. They had the only one motto that they would 
make the boycott general and extend it as wide as possible. So they took it as their 
bounden duty to participate in protest processions and picketing at shops selling Briton­
cloths and other British goods, and to organize protest meetings and participate in them. 18 

It was found in most cases their picketings bore the desired results, but in certain cases 
where the shop-keepers did not pay any heed to their protests against the selling of 
imported cloths, they forcib ly entered into the shops and took out all the cloths and set 
them to fire.

19 
Thi s led to police cases and to their flogging and other repressions 

including imprisonment. In such cases the students sang out: "They have no longer any 
fear even a little of the red-capped and black-uniformed police. They will all along 
remain dedicated to adoring the mother land even if the brute force sends them to 
prison".

20 
The students were then the leaders in their own right. They organized street 

meetings in markets on market-days. In the meetings they mostly read aloud leaflets like 
Raja ke, Sonar Bang/a, Mukti Kon Pathe, and then explained how the alien ruler had 
ruined golden Bengal by looting her riches and destroying her industries. They also held 
before them from the Calcutta-published news papers how the movement was extending 
and progressing all over the country.21 

In the Swadeshi movement the women of Contai played a s ignificant role of 
some great historical significance. It is historic in the sense that like Rani Krishnapriya of 
the Tamluk Raj Estate (1781) and Rani Siromani ofKarnagarh of the Chuar days (1 794) 
who heroically raised their heads against the colonial arbitrary rule and economic 
exactions Rani Haripriya of Garh Basudebpur made a direct protest against the colonial 
cruel design of partitioning Bengal for weakening Bengal and Bengali nationalisrri.22 

Raniji decided to protest against this grievous wrong; so she unhesitating ly made a direct 
participation in the running boycott-swadeshi movement in which big zamindars of 
Contai like Digambar Nanda and others had already taken a leading pa1t. In a meeting 
held in her Estate Raniji spoke to her tenants that Bengal was now in a great crisis. Her 
society, economy, culture, religion and above all her nationality were now on the verge of 
ruin. Now it was the duty of all her sons and daughters to stand by her in this her crisis, 
and to undo the wrong they must have to put pressure on the government by using every 
possible means. Raniji fe lt that the boycott and swadeshi would be the effective weapons 
to achieve their desired end i.e. to make the government rescind the Partition orders. She 
asked her people not to use Briton cloth sugar and salt. Raniji along w ith all her relations 
set fire to their valuable bilati cloths and smashed all their dear reshmi bangles.23 All 
these gave imparted a great impetus to the women of her Estate and also to the women of 
Contai. For these her heroic activities the people of her Estate and also of Contai hailed 
her as the Rani Siromoni of Garh Basudebpur. Pa1ticularly in those days Ranij i became a 

11 4 



true role model to women-fighters of all Bengal. And that is why participation of the 
Contai women in the boycott-swadesh movement became a unique episode in the history 
of Midnapore. Again it is unique in the sense that it was the breeding-ground that gave 
birth to the heroines of Lavan Satyagraha of 1930. 

The sacerdotal class i.e. the purohits, goswamis and pundits played a lot in 
fostering the boycott movement. The pundits of Contai-tols following the dictates of the 
Nawadwip and Bhatpara pundits condemned the use of sugar and salt in worshipping 
gods and offering oblations to the forefathers as these two articles were clarified with the 
blood and bones of cows and pigs, and therefore these two articles would grievously 
impair Hindu religion. All the family priests took up the matter readily and carried the 
boycott into every household of their Yajmans.24 

In fostering boycott and swadeshi Hari- Katha and Kathakata sittings played a 
very significant role. To the Contai people the Kathak- thakur 's Ravana, Duryodhana and 
Kamsa and their inhuman and cruel wrong-doings seemed to be the true personifications 
of the demoniac actions of the alien rulers. All these deeply impressed the emotionally 
fevered Contai people, so in every evening they thronged to these sittings.25 

By the middle of 1907 it became perceptibly clear that the anti-partition 
movement was gradually declining and by the middle of 1908 it was clear that the 
boycott programme could not achieve the desired end. The leaders of the agitation were 
now trying hard to keep the movement alive. But they could not stir up the former 
enthusiasm of the people. It was found that by this time the zamindars had got dispirited. 
The pressure of the government circulars drew the students to schools. Practically this 
time they had lost their fighting zeal and nationalist enthusiasm. The cry of Bande 
Mataram was almost stopped. The agricultural class now questioned what benefit was 
there in boycotting British goods as the bilati goods were much cheaper than country­
made goods particularly cotton-cloths. Besides, it became clear to all that there was no 
possibility of a united Bengal. Contai as well as Bengal was now getting totally changed. 
The Contai of 1905 and 1906 was now almost a dream. Now all over the country their 
prevailed an amazing silence. In Aurobindo's words ---- "A hush had fallen on the 
country". Yet the leading agitators of Contai hoped against the hope that though the first 
upsurge of the movement was gone, the nationalist sentiment of the Contai people did not 
disappear. True, the stream of swadeshi had lost its life-force in the desert of failure and 
frustration; at the same time it was also true that the stream would again flow with all 
vehemence and forcefulness in proper times. Practically and historically this became a 
reality during the enthusiastic and heroic participation of the Contai people in the Non­
co-operation Movement of 1920-21, in the historic Lavan Satyagraha of 1930 and also in 
the Quit India Movement ( 1942). 

References: 

(I) Nihar, July 5, 1904, Y-3, N-45. 

(2) Ibid, December 22, 1903, V-3, N-17. 

(3) Ibid. 

115 



(4) Ibid, July 5, 1904, V-3, N-45. 

(5) Rabindra Nath Tagore, Gitabitan on 21 Aswin 1312 (Oct.7, 1905), Visva-Bharati, 1358 B.S., 
p.266. 

(6) Nihar, October 24, 1905, V-5, N-9. 

(7) Ibid, September 12, 1905, V-5, N-5 & October 24, 1905, V-5, N-9. 

(8) Ibid, October 24, 1905, V-5, N-9. 

(9) Ibid, September 12, 1905, V-5, N-5 & October 24, 1905, V-5, N-9 & June 5, 1906, V-5, N-41. 

(I0)Jbid, October 24, 1905, V-5, N-9 & March 20, 1906, V-5, N-30 & June 5, 1906, V-5, N-41. 

(1 l )Ibid, October 24, 1905, V-5, N-9 & Basanta Kumar Das, Swadhinata Sangrame Medinipur, 
Vol.-I, Medinipur Swadhinata Sangram ltihas Samiti, Kolkata, 1980, p.94._ 

(12)/bid, Vol.-I, p. l 16. 

(13)Nihar, October 3, 1905, V-5, N-8. 

(14)/bid, October 24, 1905, V-5, N-9. 

(15)/bid, May 29, 1906, V-5, N-40. 

(16)lbid, October 29, 1907, V-7, N-9. 

(17)/bid, March 20, 1906, V-5, N-30. 

( 18)/bid, October 24, 1905, V-5, N-9 & November 7, 1905, V-5, N-4 & December 12, 1905, V-5, 
N-16. 

(19) /bid, October 9, 1906, V-6, N-6 & October 30, 1906, V-6, N-9. 

(20)Basanta Kumar Das, Swadhinata Sangrame Medinipur, Vol.-I, Medinipur Swadhinata 
Sangram ftihas Samiti, Kolkata, I 980, p.110. 

(2 1)Nihar, December 12, 1905, V-5, N-16. 

(22) /bid, October 24, 1905, V-5, N-9. 

(23)/bid. 

(24)/bid, October 24, 1905, V-5, N-9 & June 5, 1906, V-5, N-4 1 & October 9, 1906, V-6, N-7. 

(25) /bid, October 24, 1905, V-5, N-9 & June 5, 1906, V-5, N-41. 

116