India Since Independence

III

Indian Capitalists and the Freedom Struggle

We can no more separate our politics from our economics. Indian commerce and industry are intimately associated with and are indeed an integral part of the national movement—growing with its growth and strengthening with its strength.

—Sir Purshottamdas Thakurdas, in his presidential address to the second annual session of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry [FICCI], 1928

The national struggle for independence cannot be reduced, in any way, to merely an expression of the self-serving agenda of the Indian capitalist class. Similarly, the Indian National Congress (INC) was not an organisation that represented only the interests of the national bourgeoisie. As we have seen ...