Friday, September 09, 2016

Indian Industrialists attitude towards Indian National Congress in Pre Independence Era

The Indian capitalist class emerged in the later half of the 19th century and developed its attitude towards the Indian National Congress which can be analysed in three phases.

The first phase, may be taken to be the period between 1855 and 1905. During this period, being the member of the Indian National Congress, the industrialist class supported some of the demands of the Congress like -

1. Stopping the drain of wealth from Indian to British.
2. Use of indigenous capital instead of foreign capital etc.

It is because of the cooperation of this class with the Congress that Swadeshi Movement, by and large became successful.

The second phase, starting from 1905, extended till late 1930's. During this phase, the industrialist class, by and large supported Gandhiji led Non-Cooperation Movement, because -

1. It was during this phase that the rupee-pound sterling ration was fixed arbitrarily fixed to their disadvantage.

2. Gandhiji's Non Violent Movement gave no emphasis over any radical and revolutionary tendencies and consequent destruction of properties.

In the third phase, that spanned from late 1930s till 1947, much support was secured from the class, as was seen in its non involvement in Quit India Movement and post war upsurges.

However, the class made noticeable contributions to the efforts of the Congress of which may be cited the idea of 'Bombay Plan' which tended to support the state led industrialisation.

1 comment:

Add a Comment or Query