ABSTRACT
Scholars of modernization, dependency, and world system theories maintain the primary role for western capitalism either in initiating industrialization in colonial economies,1 or in maintaining those economies as dependent economies unable to opt out of the world capitalist system.2 They view the indigenous capitalist class in colonial societies as collaborators or ‘sell outs’ to imperial forces, thus, ignoring the tensions and conflicts between imperial and indigenous capitalists. The scholars of colonialism and nationalism, especially in the context of colonial India, recognize such conflicts and, therefore, see a somewhat closer connection between the rising nationalist movement and the indigenous capitalists including industrialists drawn especially from the cotton textile industry.3 However, this connection is seen as a response of ‘Big Business’ either to rising ‘political nationalism’,4 or to the forces of imperialism and colonialism.5 Thus, the indigenous capitalists are regarded primarily as antiimperialist rather than nationalist, and are therefore seen as marginal
to the rise of the nationalist movement. The case of Ghanshyam Das Birla (1894-1983), a pioneer industrialist and founder of one of the largest business houses in colonial India, does not fit with such interpretations. Birla’s struggle against foreign capital and his efforts to Indianize the jute industry under colonial control on the one hand, and his collaboration with the leaders of the nationalist movement, on the other, offer us important insights into the role of indigenous capitalists in industrialization and nationalism in colonial India.
