Was there an earlier time when the Indian independence proponents were more business types, merchants, more open to a market economy rather than socialistic?
[Was there an earlier time when the Indian independence proponents were more business types, merchants, more open to a market economy rather than socialistic?]
I have no doubt there were plenty of business backers for pro-independence politicians. As with aspiring ruling cliques everywhere, they would have been promised all kinds of things (i.e. special treatment in the form of monopolies) after the demise of the ancien regime. A pro market economy businessman doesn’t care about the skin color or creed of the people in charge, and would probably have seen British rule as fairly good, given all the infrastructure improvements during their rule, vs a past where Indian rulers mainly constructed monuments to their own vanity (e.g. the Taj Mahal and any number of white elephants that are beautiful to look at, but not particularly useful for the plebeian masses).