Indian Bourgeoisie

David Lockwood is associate professor of History at Flinders University in South Australia. He teaches Russian, Chinese and Indian history together with topics in world history. He is especially interested in the role of the bourgeoisie in historical development. He combines this with work in the broad areas of the role of the state in economic development; the transition from state-controlled to market economies; and the effects of globalisation on national states. His most recent book was a monograph on the bourgeois revolution in Russia.

• Acknowledgements – viIntroduction – 1Chapter One: Industry and Industrialists before 1914 – 8Chapter Two: The Great War – 30Chapter Three: Industrialisation Abandoned – 52Chapter Four: Empire – 73Chapter Five: Protection and Development: State and Bourgeoisie in the Inter-War Period – 93Chapter Six: Congress and the Bourgeoisie: Inter-War Politics – 126Chapter Seven: The Second World War – 149Chapter Eight: Planning and Partition – 174Conclusion – 195Notes – 199Bibliography – 292Index – 310

'It is very surprising that this exciting topic has not received greater academic and research attention in the past, and Professor Lockwood is to be warmly commended for identifying this peculiar gap in the literature. It is a most important thread in the story of the invention of modern India. Furthermore, the topic is becoming increasingly important as economic globalization forces scholars to explore the meaning of a world of separate nationalities, the processes by which they were created and the imperatives driving the outcome. The Indian Bourgeoisie shows the tormented process through which Indian business slowly separated itself from its British colleagues and came to the extraordinary decision (for such a conservative social group) to embrace the revolutionary cause of creating a separate state and rejecting its close association with the British Empire. The story involves multiple and changing tensions (through a tumultuous period in British history) between Indian business, the Raj, the British government, British business and the movement for Indian independence. Professor Lockwood is masterly in telling this complex story. The text is clear and vivid. Along with his earlier account of Tsarist Russia, this book could well launch a genre for the history of business classes in many different countries allowing broader generalizations on the advent of capitalism and its political and sociological implications. -Nigel Harris, Emeritus Professor of the Economics of the City, University College London