Reason for End of Swadeshi Movement
- Severe government repression.
- Failed to create an effective organisation or party structure.
- Rendered leaderless with most leaders either arrested or deported by 1908 and Aurobindo Ghosh and Bipin Chandra Pal retiring from active politics.
- Internal squabbles among leaders, magnified by Surat split (1907), harmed the movement.
- Aroused the people but did not know how to tap the newly released energy or how to find new forms to give expression to popular resentment.
- Largely remained confined to the upper and middle classes along with zamindars and failed to reach the masses—especially peasantry.
- Non-cooperation and passive resistance remained mere ideas.
Significance
- Leap forward towards freedom: Hitherto untouched sections—students, women, sections of urban and rural population—participated. All major trends of national movement, from conservative moderation to political extremism, from revolutionary terrorism to incipient socialism, from petitions and prayers to passive resistance and non-cooperation, emerged during Swadeshi Movement.
- Encompassed art, literature, science & industry also.
- People were aroused from slumber and now they learned to take bold political positions and participate in new forms of political work.
- Future struggle was to draw heavily from its experience.
- Students, Women, Workers, Urban and rural population participated in this movement.
- The trend of the national movement moved from conservative moderation to political extremism, from revolutionary activities to incipient socialism emerged during this movement.
