Knowledgeable Internationalism and the Swadeshi Movement, 1903-1921

The swadeshi movement has been classically studied in terms of its social constructiveness and its ultural productivity. But a view of the intellectual dimensions of productive nationalism is also needed. Taking the perspective of intellectual history, this article explores the travelling and connective intellectual dimensions of the swadeshi movement. Internationalist projects in knowledge production and acquisition for nationalist ends were its major features. In its Tagorean and Asutoshian approaches, it sought both to assert indigenous autonomy from the British empire and to establish knowledgeable affiliations beyond empire, on the world stage.