Q. Who of the following was/were economic critic/critics of colonialism in India?

Dadabhai Naoroji
G.Subramania Iyer
R.C. Dutt

Select the correct answer using the code given below.

1 only
1 and 2 only
2 and 3 only
1, 2 and 3

Answer: (d) 1, 2 and 3

Notes:

Most significant historical contribution of moderates was that they offered an economic critique of colonialism.
This economic nationalism, as it is often referred to, became a major theme that developed further during the subsequent period of nationalist movement and to a large extent influenced the economic policies of the Congress government in independent India.
The early nationalists took note of all three forms of contemporary colonial economic exploitation, namely, through trade, industry and finance. They grasped that the essence of British economic imperialism lay in the subordination of the Indian economy to the British economy.
Names important to remember in this respect:
- Dinshaw Wacha, Dadabhai Naoroji, a successful businessman,
- Justice M.G. Ranade (Essays in Indian Economics, 1898) and
- R.C Dutt, a retired ICS officer, who published The Economic History of India in two volumes (1901-1903).
Early nationalists complained of India’s growing poverty and economic backwardness, the failure of modern industry and agriculture to grow and put blame on British economic exploitation.
Dadabhao Naoroji, RC Dutt, G.V. Joshi, G. Subramaniya Iyer, G.K. Gokhale, Prithwis Chandra Ray, and hundreds of other political workers and journalists analyzed every aspect of the economy and subjected the entire range of economic issues and colonial economic policies to minute scrutiny.
Main thrust of this economic nationalism was on Indian poverty created by the application of the classical economic theory of free trade their main argument was that British colonialism had transformed itself in the 19^th century by jettisoning the older and direct modes of extraction through plunder, tribute and mercantilism in favour of more sophisticated and less visible methods of exploitation through free trade and foreign capital investment.
Dadabhai Naoroji in his ‘Indian Poverty and Un-British Rule in India’ laid his Drain of Wealth Theory. He showed how India’s wealth was going away to England in the form of salaries, savings, pensions, payments to British troops in India and, profits from British companies.

Dadabhai Naoroji:

Dadabhai Naoroji, known in the pre-Gandhian era as the Grand Old Man of India.
Born in 1825, he became a successful businessman but devoted his entire life and wealth to the creation of a national movement in India.
Work: Poverty and Un-British Rule in India
The Drain Theory was established by him.

Romesh Chandra Dutt:

Romesh Chandra Dutt, a retired ICS officer, published The Economic History of India at the beginning of the 20th century in which he examined in minute detail the entire economic record of colonial rule since 1757.