Swadeshi and Information Panic: Functions and Malfunctions of the Information Order, c. 1900–12

Abstract

The swadeshi and boycott movement,1 and the revolutionary movement were a part of the Information Empire in which the telegraph was an essential factor. The particular moment and nature of articulation of swadeshi was the product of rapid informational change. Telegraph rates and press rates were crucial to its rise. This chapter shows how imperialism created the technological environment which facilitated the growth of its opposite: nationalism. The telegraph strike was as much a political crisis for the government as was the swadeshi and subsequent revolutionary movements. Both were part of a global information order, though each claimed independence from each other. The international representation of Indian nationalism was followed by its articulation in India. The lowering of telegraph rates and the loosening of Reuters grip over Indian news facilitated this nationalism. For nearly a century British India was ‘destined to play a central and highly profitable part in the Reuters empire within the British Empire’.2 Reuters monopolised the supply of news to both English and vernacular papers3 until further reductions in rates allowed more regional news reporting to emerge. Traditional historiography is discussed in this chapter to show how fresh insights can be gained by analysing communication systems and the information order.