FICCI and Freedom Struggle

National movement encompassed all classes of people including the capitalists some of whom were also active congressmen who suffered hardships like everyone else, while some capitalists without joining the congress financially supported the national movement. 

• Some individual capitalists who joined the Congress and fully identified with the movement, went to jails and accepted the hardships were Jamnalal Bajaj, Vadilal Lallubhai Mehta, Samuel Aaron, Lala Shankar Lal, and others.
• There were other individual capitalists who did not join the Congress but readily gave financial and other help to the movement. People like G.D. Birla, Ambalal Sarabhai and Walchand Hirachand, fall into this category.

The Indian capitalist class had its own notions of how the anti-imperialist struggle should be waged. It was always in favor of not completely abandoning the constitutional path without compromising on its needs.

The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) is an association of business organizations in India.

• It was established in 1927, on the advice of Mahatma Gandhi by GD Birla and Purushottam Das Thakurdas, it is the largest, oldest and the apex business organisation in India.
• Soon after the establishment, the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) ,a national level body of trade with Indian interests in mind was recognized by the British government as well as the Indian public in general, as a body representing the Indian capitalist class.
• FICCI refused to negotiate with the British Government, on constitutional as well as economic issues, without the participation of the congress or at least its approval.
• In 1930, the FICCI advised its members to boycott the Round Table Conference (RTC) stating that ‘no conference convened for the purpose of discussing the problem of Indian constitutional advance can come to a solution unless such a conference is attended by Mahatma Gandhi, as a free man, or has at least his approval.’

View of Capitalist Class on Freedom Struggle:-

The capitalists were unwilling to support a prolonged all-out hostility to the government of the day as it prevented the continuing of day-to-day business and threatened the very existence of the class. 

So they used constitutional means as a forum for maintaining an effective opposition fearing backlash from the colonial government which could severely affect the Indian economy and the capitalist class.

While, on the one hand, they were afraid of protracted mass civil disobedience, on the other hand, they clearly saw the utility, even necessity of civil disobedience in getting crucial concessions for their class and the nation.