.
Before discussing the capitalist class's position vis-a-vis imperialism and the course of the anti-imperialist movement, we need to look at the emergence of the class as a political entity – a 'class for itself.' Since the early 1920s, efforts were made by various early capitalists like G.D. Birla and Purshottamdas Thakurdas to establish a national level organization of Indian commercial, industrial and financial interests to be able to effectively lobby with the colonial government. This effort culminated in the formation of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) in 1927, with a large and rapidly increasing representation from all parts of India. The leaders of the capitalist class saw the role of the FICCI as 'national guardians of trade, commerce and industry', performing in the economic sphere in colonial India the functions of a national government. In the process Indian capitalists developed a fairly comprehensive economic critique of imperialism. The leaders of the capitalist class saw the necessity of, and felt strong enough for, the class to effectively intervene in politics. .
The Indian capitalist class had its own notions of how the anti-imperialist struggle ought to be waged. It was always in favour of not completely abandoning the constitutional path and the negotiating table and generally preferred to put its weight behind constitutional forms of struggle as opposed to mass civil disobedience.
Therefore scholars have accused the capitalists of not supporting the devices of national movements like Swadeshi and Boycott and lead them as being loyal to the Raj. A.P. Kannangara is one such scholar who in his article 'Indian Mill Owners And Indian Nationalism Before 1914'( Past And Present, 40, 1968) wrote: "the mill owners neither initiated nor gave much support to Swadeshi; that they gave none at all to the boycott; that they neither gained nor stood to gain much from either of these movements; and that what their interests as a class made them do in the first decade of this century was remain absolutely loyal to the British Raj.
