The growth of nationalism in Bengal recieved a sudden boost from an unexpected quarter. On January 1904, the Viceroy, Lord Curzon, announced that Bengal would be partitioned into two provinces. The ostensible reasons for the partition were administrative: Bengal was seen as being too big and too unwieldy to be governed from one administrative centre.

But the move was not seen in this light. On the contrary, educated Bengalis felt that this was Curzon's attempt to nip nationalism in the bud. Also because the Partition divided Bengal along Hindu-Muslim lines, it was seen as a policy of divide and rule. Calcutta broke out in protest against Curzon's partition plan. Petitions, demonstrations and plays were organised to mount popular pressure against the government's policies. Even the poet Rabindranath Tagore, perhaps for the only time in his life, came out into the streets to join the protest. Many of his patriotic songs became the rallying cry of the movement. Ezra Pound was to say later that Tagore had sung Bengal into a nation.

There was another important dimension to the Anti-Partition movement. The movement moved swiftly from petitions and demonstrations to the boycott of foreign goods. Champions of this movement campaigned to convince the people of Bengal to use only goods made in India, and to abandon all commodities that were foreign made. They soon started picketing and burning shops that sold foreign goods. The violent turn to this movement did not stop at attacking shops. Very soon, British officials and ordinary Britons, at times, became targets for young Bengali men eager, to overthrow the British rule through violent means. The cult of the bomb made its debut in the streets of Calcutta during the Swadeshi Movement.