THE INDIAN NATIONAL QUESTION 63 couple of centuries before the British conquest and, why, having emerged as distinct social-cultural entities, these communities failed to develop into nationalities or nations as they did in Europe. It is one thing to object to the way in which the emergence of the "regionalised communities of culture" of thepre-British days was confused with "nations in the making", as was done in the 1952 book on Kerala. It is quite another to fail to note the integral connection between the earlier "communities of culture" and the later nationalities or nations in the making. Professor Guha fails to go into this question and therefore his study of the development of nationalities in India is inadequate for a proper understanding of the question. This inadequacy arises from the fact that Professor Guha does not examine the development of capitalism in india in its historical context. It would appear as if there was no capitalism at all before the British conquest, as if it is a product purely of British rule. Connected with this, it seems to the writer, is a mechanical understanding of the link between the development of capitalist economy and the emergence of nationalities and nations. The assumption seems to be that linguistic-cultural development can be ignored as a fact in the development of the national movement until the economic forces of capitalism attain maturity. This assumption is neglected by the very refence made by Professor Guha to Lenin's writing, where Lenin points out that at least in one country (Poland), the nationalism of the gentry precedes that of the bourgeoisie and finally becomes the nationalism of the peasant masses. India's own national movement travelled the same path: (I) Nationalism of the gentry beginning with the Velu Thampy revolt in Travancore and similar revolts in other regions ending with the Mutiny and Revolt of 1857 in Delhi, U P, etc; (2) Nationalism of the bourgeoisie expressing itself in the liberal politics of the Congress up to 1906-07; (3) Nationalism of the peasantry beginning with the 'extremist' politics of the pre-First World War years and developing with the Gandhi-Nehru era. It should however be noted that the very gentry who revolted against the alien rulers after they established themselves, had earlier collaborated with the Portugese, Dutch, French, and English companies when they were fighting among themselves. There are, in fact, cases in which the same persons who had earlier collaborated with the foreign powers as allies in the struggle against their local rivals, took up the banner of revolt after the foreigners established themselves as rulers. No study of the growth of nationalities in India would be complete and correct unless the objective forces working towards the earlier collaboration and the subsequent revolt of the gentry in the period of foreign conquest are studied, This means relating the