The formal proclamation of the Swadeshi Movement was made on 7 August 1905 at:

After Lord Curzon announced the Partition of Bengal in July 1905, protest meetings were held across Bengal. On 7 August 1905, a huge public meeting was held at the Town Hall in Calcutta. At this meeting, the famous Boycott Resolution was passed, calling for the boycott of British goods, especially Manchester cloth and Liverpool salt, until the Partition was withdrawn. This marked the formal proclamation of the Swadeshi Movement.

"Swadeshi" means "of one's own country". The movement encouraged people to use goods made in India and to boycott foreign goods. It was the first major movement in which ordinary people, including students, women and workers, took part on a large scale. 7 August is celebrated as National Handloom Day in India since 2015 to commemorate this movement.

Main features of the Swadeshi Movement:

Boycott of foreign goods: shops selling foreign cloth were picketed, and foreign cloth was burnt in public bonfires.

Promotion of swadeshi goods: Indian enterprises were set up, such as the Bengal Chemicals (by Prafulla Chandra Ray), textile mills, match and soap factories, and banks; V.O. Chidambaram Pillai started the Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company at Tuticorin in 1906.

National education: national schools and colleges were set up, including the Bengal National College (1906), with Aurobindo Ghosh as principal, and the National Council of Education (1906).

Samitis (volunteer groups), such as the Swadesh Bandhab Samiti of Ashwini Kumar Dutta in Barisal, spread the message.

Cultural revival: songs such as Tagore's "Amar Shonar Bangla" and "Vande Mataram" became popular.

The movement spread beyond Bengal to Maharashtra (Tilak), Punjab (Lajpat Rai and Ajit Singh), Delhi (Syed Haider Raza) and Madras (Chidambaram Pillai). In Andhra, it was called the "Vande Mataram Movement".

At the Calcutta session of 1906, presided over by Dadabhai Naoroji, the Congress adopted swadeshi, boycott, national education and swaraj as its goals.

Why not the other options?

• ✗Dacca became the capital of the new province of Eastern Bengal and Assam.
• ✗Bombay and Lahore saw the spread of the movement later.