'The National Movement' review: Indian nationalism and its contentions

Dr Habib dates the start of the independence struggle from the 1857 uprising, highlighting its socio-economic origins

The author begins this deeply researched assessment of the first phase of the Indian national movement, the 30th in the People’s History of India series, by refuting the popular claim that India was ruled by “foreigners” for 1,000 years, a reference that clubs the Mughals with the British. 

“There was actually no ‘foreign rule’ over India before the British conquest,” he writes, and quotes Adam Smith to underline the deleterious impact of British rule. In 1778, Smith wrote, “unlike the preceding Indian rulers the English East India Company by its control over trade… was tending to ‘degrade the cultivation of