Sri Aurobindo
Karmayogin
Political Writings and Speeches — 1909-1910
Karmayogin: A Weekly Review
Saturday 14th August 1909 — No.8
Facts and Opinions
Social Boycott
It seems to be especially the Boycott President's able defence of social boycott as opposed to violent constraint that has alarmed the Englishman.
Here also there is nothing new.
The social boycott is a weapon absolutely necessary for the enforcement of the popular will in this matter, the power of using fiscal law for the same purpose being in the hands of authorities who have been publicly declared by Lord Curzon to be active parties in British exploitation of the resources of India.
It means the coercion of a very small minority by a huge majority in the interests of the whole nation; it consists merely in a passive abstinence from all countenance to the offender,— sending him to Coventry, in the English phrase; it is effective and, if properly applied, instantaneously effective; it involves, as the Englishman has been obliged to see, no violence, no disregard of public order, no breach of the peace.
The only weapon the Englishman can 
find against it is deportation, and after all you cannot deport a whole town, village or community.
The Nationalist party have always struggled for and often obtained the recognition of the social boycott at various District Conferences and it has been freely and effectively applied in all parts, though mostly in East Bengal.
It is gratifying to find the most moderate of Bengal Moderate leaders supporting and justifying it in a carefully prepared and responsible utterance on an occasion of the utmost public importance.