The "Swadeshi Movement" in Bengal heralded a new Age in our national history. Swadeshi was instantly identified as the highest form of patriotism and "Swadeshism" became the cradle of New India. It was an intensely spiritual movement and aimed at the emancipation of India in every sense, of every Indian. With fervent national calls for the boycott of British goods, schools, courts and administration came stirring appeals for embracing "Swadeshi" in all spheres of life, indigenous manufactures, national education, language, literature and above all "Swaraj" or political freedom became the life breath of the nation.
The Swadeshi Movement was not just a political movement or an economic movement. It was a movement for total emancipation of every Indian in all walks of life political, economic, social, cultural and above all spiritual. The nation would not from the very beginning have raised the cry of "BANDE MATARAM" all the way in that context and in that connection and thrown itself into the "Swadeshi Movement" with such feverish energy, passion, impetuosity and vigorous enthusiasm if that movement had not embraced all aspects of national life. In every sense of the word it was "A Total Revolution" the kind of revolution which Jayaprakash Narain wanted to create after the imposition of emergency by Indira Gandhi in 1975. "Bande Mataram" was on the lips of every revolutionary and every freedom fighter after the partition of Bengal. "Swadeshi", "British Boycott" and "Bande Mataram" all became vital, vigorous and vibrant inter-changeable watchwords of all freedom fighters in India.