The peasants, artisans, craftsmen and plantation workers all were victims of British imperialism. The workers in modern industries had a new social outlook. They were concentrated in factories and cities. They lived and worked under highly unsatisfactory conditions. The average worker lived below the margin of existence while conditions in the tea and coffee plantations were also worse. The planters kept the workers on the plantations as virtual slaves. The Government gave them full help to enable them to keep the plantation workers under oppressive subjugation. The planters also frequently tortured them physically.
In course of time the working class joined the peasants, the craftsmen and the artisans in the struggle against imperialist exploitation. The status of the middle and the lower middle-classes were also miserable. In the first half of the 19th century the British government recruited a large number of educated Indians as petty government servants. Later some more found employment in schools and law courts. The number of merchants increased along with the trade expansion. But by the end of the 19th century even those few who were educated could not find employment. All these who constituted the middle and lower-middle classes of society realized that only a country that was economically developing and culturally and socially modern could provide them economic and cultural opportunities to lead a worthwhile and meaningful life.
The Indian industrial capitalist class, which developed after 1858, had to face the competition of the British capitalists. It realized that the official trade, tariff, transport and financial policies of the Government checked its growth. After 1918 the giant British industrial corporations began to invest in Indian industries in order to take advantage of the tariff protection. This was granted during 1920`s and 1930`s. Thus the Indian capitalists realized that they needed a government favorable to them. This could be only a national government.
