Economic nationalism in motion: Steel, auto, and software industries in India

Abstract

ABSTRACT With increasing economic interdependence, the scholarly treatment as well as the practice of economic nationalism is either seen as theoretically redundant or practically impossible. Contrary to this conclusion, I argue that economic nationalism is not inconsistent with globalization. States are not only active participants in globalization but they continue to strategically express nationalism in new global settings by supporting national firms and citizens overseas. By redefining economic nationalism from protectionism to the leveraging of national resources to secure economic benefits from the world economy, this paper provides an alternative view of economic nationalism. This paper analyzes economic nationalism as a dynamic concept. Empirically, it takes up three Indian industries (steel, auto, software) since 1950 to understand how nationalism was practiced and how it has changed under globalization. The paper establishes India's pursuit of economic nationalism under globalization through its support of Indian businesses and citizens abroad. Though the coherence of nationalism may be weak, it can still be expressed in looser forms of national ‘presence’ abroad.