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24

After the Barisal Conference

The Swadeshi vow deserves a word of mention. It played an important part in the Swadeshi movement. The inspiration for the vow came from me. I was its author. The idea struck me while I was addressing a Swadeshi meeting in a village close to Magra on the East Indian Railway line. The meeting was held in the courtyard of a Hindu temple, with the image of the god right in front of me. The atmosphere of the place was religious. Swadeshism had evoked the fervour of a religious movement. It had become part of our Dharma. Priests refused to officiate at ceremonies where foreign goods found a place. Foreign articles of clothing and of food, foreign sugar and salt, were eschewed with almost religious scrupulousness. The sentiment of religion is with us so all-pervading as to colour and dominate our activities even beyond its legitimate sphere. The Swadeshi sentiment had thus come to assume a religious hue. As I spoke and had my eyes fixed upon the temple and the image, and my mind was full of the associations of the place, in a moment of sudden impulse I appealed to the audience to stand up and to take a solemn vow in the presence of the god of their worship. I administered the vow, and the whole audience, standing, repeated the words after me. The words were in Bengalee and the speech was in Bengalee; the vow may be translated as follows:

'Invoking God Almighty to be our Witness, and standing in the presence of after-generations, we take this solemn vow that, so far as practicable, we shall use home-made articles and abstain from the use of foreign articles. So help us God.'

I had never before thought of this vow. It was a sudden inspiration prompted by the surroundings of the place; and the effect, may be better imagined than described, when a vast audience of, say, ten or fifteen thousand people rose up with one impulse, and repeated in one voice the solemn words of the vow. For a time