Analyse the role of merchants and industrialists in the Civil Disobedience Movement.
- MERCHANTS and industrialists reacted against colonial policies that restricted business activities.
- They wanted protection against imports of foreign goods and rupee-sterling foreign exchange ratio that would discourage imports.
- They formed the Indian Industrial and Commercial Congress in 1920 and Federation of the Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industries [FICCI] in 1927 to organise business and their interests.
- They attacked colonial control over the Indian economy and supported the Civil Disobedience Movement.
- They refused to buy and sell imported goods.
- They gave financial assistance to the movement.
- Most businessmen came to see Swaraj as a time when colonial restrictions on business would no longer exist and trade and industiy would flourish without constraints.