(i) The origins of economic nationalism can be traced back to the second half of the 19th century when Indian leaders like Dadabhai Naoroji, Mahadev Govind Ranade and R.C. Dutt among others began realising that the British rule was economically exploiting India and that it was largely responsible for keeping India under extreme poverty.

(ii) These leaders emphasised that colonial rule was economically exploiting India in a variety of ways. Initially this exploitation was combined to heavy taxation of the peasantry and the unequal trade with India.

(iii) It was an unequal trade because the British East India Company bought Indian goods very cheaply and sold British manufactured goods to India at a very expensive rate. This resulted in India's wealth going to England. It also destroyed the traditional handicraft industries of India.

(iv) In the 19th century, along with this form of economic exploitation, new and more complex form of exploitation came into being. Now the colonial rulers exploited India as a supplier of raw material for their industries and a market where the goods produced in the British industries could be sold.

(v) India was made to cultivate those raw materials which were required by British industries. The impact of this was that India's wealth, which could have been utilised for India's industrialization and economic development, was utilised instead for Britain's economic development. The Indian nationalist leaders learnt these vital facts and propagated them at the same time.

(vi) The early nationalist leaders argued that the British colonial rule, in a variety of ways, completely subordinated the Indian economy to the economy of Great Britain.

(vii) In their view the direction of the Indian economy was being geared to suit the needs of the British economy.

(viii) They demanded an end to the flow of England and the Indian wealth to England and the industrialization of India with the help of Indian capital only, so that it would benefit India and Indian people.

(ix) In order to achieve this, the nationalist leaders demanded self-rule, or self-government or Swaraj for their country.