From Swadeshi to Hindutva: The corporation as ancient guild in the history of Indian economic thought

This article traces the evolution of the analogy between modern corporations and ancient merchant or craft guilds in Indian economic thought from the early twentieth to the early twenty first century. During the nationalist Swadeshi movement, historians and sociologists such as R.C. Majumdar and Benoy Kumar Sarkar introduced this analogy in order to mediate India's integration into an uneven global capitalist system with stabilising appeals to a deep civilisational past. After Independence, guilds were selectively invoked by advocates and critics of the Nehruvian planning regime, including Hindutva ideologues such as Dattopant Thengadi and M.G. Bokare. Finally, the guild analogy has proliferated in post-liberalisation economics and management literature, revealing both the adaptability of the Hindutva project and its foundational contradictions. Neither a coherent synthesis nor an opportunistic guise, Hindutva economic ideology is best understood as part of a long history of conceptualising the corporation in modern India.