Industrialists:
During the First World War, Indian merchants and industrialists had made huge profits and become powerful .
Keen on expanding their business, they now reacted against colonial policies that restricted business activities.
They wanted protection against imports of foreign goods, and a rupee-sterling foreign exchange ratio that would discourage imports
. To organise business interests, they formed the Indian Industrial and Commercial Congress in 1920 and the Federation of the Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industries (FICCI) in 1927.
Led by prominent industrialists like Purshottamdas Thakurdas and G. D. Birla, the industrialists attacked colonial control over the Indian economy, and supported the Civil Disobedience Movement when it was first launched.
They gave financial assistance and refused to buy or sell imported goods.
Most businessmen came to see swaraj as a time when colonial restrictions on business would no longer exist and trade and industry would flourish without constraints
Industrial workers:
The industrial working classes did not participate in the Civil Disobedience Movement in large numbers, except in the Nagpur region.
As the industrialists came closer to the Congress, workers stayed aloof.
But some workers did participate in the Civil Disobedience Movement, selectively adopting some ideas of the Gandhian programme, like boycott of foreign goods, as part of their own movements against low wages and poor working conditions.
There were strikes by railway workers in 1930 and dockworkers in 1932.
In 1930 thousands of workers in Chotanagpur tin mines wore Gandhi caps and participated in protest rallies and boycott campaigns