Rise and growth of economic nationalism India

If the political ideas of a people are shaped by the economic realities that surround them, then, the histories of the Indian national movement published hitherto cannot quite be regarded as either satisfactory or complete. A study of the economic policies of the Indian national leadership is therefore imperative to the understanding of the basis of the national movement and its development in the forma tive stages.

The present work is probably the first major attempt to study the gradual development over the period 1880-1905 of the nationalist under standing of the economic basis and policies of British imperialism in India and the evolution of an alternative nationalist programme for the development of an independent national eco nomy. It also provides an insight into the quality of the intellect and of the political and intellectual integrity of such pioneers of the national movement as Dadabhai Naoroji, Gokhale, Tilak, Subramanya Iyer, et al.