India’s resistance to economic domination is embedded in its past and continues to inform its present. Under British rule, thinkers like Dadabhai Naoroji and R. C. Dutt exposed how colonial policies diverted Indian wealth, deindustrialised native industries, and reduced India to raw material provider and captive market.

After independence, India charted a mixed economy. It adopted Five-Year Plans, emphasized state capacity, and heavily regulated trade and industry to reduce dependency. Public investment in heavy industries and import substitution became tools to reclaim control.

Over time, as globalisation pressures mounted, India adapted: economic liberalisation in the 1990s opened doors, but not without safeguards. More recently, India’s stance in trade treaties, its resistance to tariffs and unfair trade practices, show continuity with its historical insistence on red lines that protect sovereign economic interests.

Today, this thread persists: with an external environment that includes shifting tariffs, trade wars, and global supply chain vulnerabilities, India’s leaders frequently invoke this legacy as reason to pace reforms, preserve local industries, and champion competitiveness without surrender. In sum, India has not only survived economic domination attempts, but has also evolved institutions and policies to counter them.