POLITICAL ECONOMY OF BRITISH SOUTH INDIA 101 traders' and industrialists' dissatisfaction with British paramountcy and European hegemony, and the inability of educated people to find the place in society which they regarded as justly theirs. It was ultimately used to serve the interests of some classes and groups more than others. But to identify the strivings of some groups for what appear to be narrow, ends does not explain the phenomenon away; nor docs it in itself invalidate the puisuit of ends such as the securing of jobs, just because it was often expressed in the language of nationalism. (It would be almost as logical to argue that the British desire to hold on to the Empire was entirely due to the desire of the officers of the imperial services and the army to hold on to their jobs.) With all their much-vaunted drive towards educating and civilizing the Indians, mainly in their own interest, the British government had succeeded in imparting education of any kind to only a tiny fraction of the population. And then, because of the dictates of imperial power, they had to discriminate against Indians, including this tiny ^enlightened9 group, in all important appointments in government, technical organizations and private European firms. India remained industrially backward, oven suffering de^indus-trialization in important respects, and'Madi^^tts^n^oft^cSmx&st backward r^iom of all. One result was thaiwu?A^ploy(Hfct»ri^ moneylenders, traders, industri^^^lR^antfl ^li^^i^^a^lrit^ and even pdch^p^dSArfts and workers—under the banner of nationalism. The evcr-pr^s^nt repressive apparatus, wielded by the senior gods • r. o ^il l ^V i ^'i >1 ^5^^-^<^^\^'L yi^d.iihic^/ ^ Jd,, in Fort St George and the little gods in the snapc oT Collectors ^^districts, succeeded in splitting the nationalist movements ag^ii)^^ ^g^in; the contradictions among the indigenous classes themselves hetp?(UheiTi in such activitS^/BBIf^^M^tf^f^^^hi^GS^rftfai^ 'ad^ht^ated the contradictions of the capitalist imperial system as a whole, and at the same time provided opportunities for traders or financiers turned industrialists to advance. The prices of agricultuial exports crashed, thus imperilling the fortunes of traders and moneylenders, and ruining millions of peasants. Baker emphasizes that moneylenders wanted some arrangement for settlement of the debts farmers owed them, but he