Swadeshi movement
The Swadeshi (Bengali: স্বদেশী, Hindi: स्वदेशी) movement, part of the Indian independence movement, was a successful economic strategy to remove the British Empire from power and improve economic conditions in India through following principles of swadeshi (self-sufficiency). Strategies of the swadeshi movement involved boycotting British products and the revival of domestic-made products and production techniques.
Swadeshi Movement emanated from the partition of Bengal, 1905 and continued up to 1908. It was the most successful of the pre-Gandhian movements. Chief architects were Aurobindo Ghosh, Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Bipin Chandra Pal and Lala Lajpat Rai. Swadeshi, as a strategy, was a key focus of Mahatma Gandhi who described it as the soul of Swaraj (self rule). However there is no corroborative evidence to support that Swadeshi was successful at punishing the British.
Etymology
The word Swadeshi derives from Sanskrit and is a Sandhi or conjunction of two Sanskrit words. Swa means "self" or "own" and Desh means country, so Swadesh would be "own country", and Swadeshi, the adjectival form, would mean "of one's own country". The Opposite of Swadeshi in Sanskrit is Videshi or "not of one's country". Another Example of Sandhi or Conjunction in Sanskrit is Swaraj. Swa is Self (related to Latin reflexive root "su-") and Raj is "rule" (related to English "rich", Latin "rex", and German "Reich").
Influences
- Leo Tolstoy, the Russian author and pacifist, corresponded with Gandhi on the subject of nonviolence[1]
- E. F. Schumacher, author of Small is Beautiful, was influenced by Gandhi's concept of Swadeshi when he wrote his article on Buddhist economics[2]
- Satish Kumar, editor of Resurgence, has promoted the concept of Swadeshi in his writing and teaching, including a section in his book You Are, Therefore I Am (2002).