By Krishna Jha
The Slogan of “Quit India Movement”, initiated on August 8, 1942, has been acquiring an added significance on its eighty-first anniversary. It was a slogan against the British rulers that had ruled over India for more than a century, and when they decided to leave, the country was by then bleached white. It was the neo-colonialism that has been ushered in as its new Avtaar. They are selective in their choices.
After all these years, in many of its ventures, the Tariff issue was its new threat, coming from the United States.
The tariff structure on Indian goods combines a baseline with 10 percent duty with a 25 percent reciprocal tariff, which was announced by the US President Donald Trump on April 2, 2025, and an additional 25 percent tariff, effective 21 days after August 7, 2025. Unlike China, which faces a 30 percent tariff, or Vietnam and the Philippines at 20 percent , India and Brazil face the highest rate of 50 percent. It was a repeat, with a new base line. It was shackles for economy. With running political content, to enslave the country. Once again, the Call came, asking to Quit India in August this year, the nation’s economic independence has come under the shadows of economic imperialism in a new form that was rehearsed by the United States.
Quit India movement was the final call given eight decades and three years ago on August 8, 1942, for complete independence. It placed the demand for independence on the immediate agenda of the national movement. The Quit India Movement marked a crucial turning point in India’s struggle for independence. Despite the repression by British authorities, the movement galvanised widespread public support, leading to mass protests and parallel governments. The Quit India Movement intensified the demand for freedom, ultimately hastening the end of British colonial rule in India.
Since gaining independence in 1947, India’s economy, despite the continual presence of the Right, representing the monopoly capitalism, its inbuilt exploitation, gradually evolved to become one of the largest and independent economies in the world. Public sector undertakings played the most significant role in it. The PSUs have been at the forefront of India’s industrialization and economic independence. With more than 400 diversified units across various sectors, they make significant contributions to GDP growth, employment opportunities, and foreign exchange earnings.
Despite massive onslaught by the NDA government on these government-owned companies, they are still leading in critical sectors such as infrastructure, power, banking, and technology. Their contribution extends far beyond the economic indicator—they are the top and first driving force behind industrialization, technological development, and employment generation. Additionally, these businesses provide socio-economic stability through mass-level employment generation, especially in rural and backward regions.
These undertakings also created the ground for the growth of privately-owned enterprises throughout the country. However, the hard-earned economic freedom of the country is now facing the threat of neocolonialism led by the United States.
As it is, the US, which already imposed 25 per cent tariff on Indian goods, has now decided to double it, calling it India’s additional punishment for importing Russian oil. This is nothing short of a sanction on India if it continues to use its independence of decision to import crude oil from Russia.
Will the Narendra Modi government show the courage to stand up against the neo colonial overtures by the US? Already, the state-owned Indian refineries are pulling back from the Russian trade.
Faced with a similar situation, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who has also been handed penal tariff of 50 percent, floated a trial balloon: a joint response by BRICS, marshalling a unified front to challenge Trump’s neocolonial overreach. But can Modi, in order to maintain India’s economic independence, take a confrontationist position against the United States?
Brazil’s biggest export market is China, with whom it has a 49 billion dollar trade surplus. India, on the other hand, sells just about 32 billion dollar annually to Brazil, Russia and China — combined. The US buys nearly three times as much from it, in addition to providing tens of thousands of work visas each year to Indian techies. Washington also controls the student-visa pipeline for — amongst others — children of local politicians, bureaucrats, tycoons and bankers. Would the Modi government go on a collision course with Trump to protect India’s economic independence or bow down to him to protect his industrialist friends — Adani and Ambani – and the interests of the elites that surround him?
Under the NDA government, India’s economy has been declining on a regular basis. On an average, there has been a constant slowdown, with key indicators showing a deceleration across various sectors. This slowdown is marked by an unprecedented fall in employment situation, a decline in bank credit growth, subdued export growth, stagnation in agriculture and a slowdown in almost all major sectors of industries. These declines are not cyclical in nature. They are caused by structural weaknesses created by the Modi government’s policy decisions which are aimed at benefiting big corporate like Adani and Ambani at the cost of small and medium industries and agriculture.
This decline has a direct bearing on the purchasing capacity of Indians. A recent report has indicated that a significant portion of the Indian population, approximately 90 percent, may lack the financial means to spend on discretionary goods and services. This suggests a decline in purchasing capacity, driven by factors like growing unemployment, inflation, rising cost of living, and stagnant wages, particularly impacting the middle class.
Again, the policy decisions of the NDA government are directly responsible for creating this crisis for Indians. In the past, India’s market used to be Indian economy’s major bargaining strength vis-à-vis the foreign countries. With the fall in purchasing power of Indians, the present government has practically destroyed this trump card too. It is this uncertainty which is inhibiting us. Shall we be able to sustain the threat to our economic independence or make a choice for easy compromise? (IPA Service)
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