The Indian National Movement was most firmly and deeply rooted in an understanding of the nature and character of colonial economic domination and exploitation. Three names stand out who carried out the economic analysis of British rule during 1870-1905, namely Dadabhai Naoroji, the Grand Old Man of India, Justice M.G. Ranade, and Romesh Chandra Dutt, a retired civil servant. These three leaders, along with G.V. Joshi, G.K. Gokhale, G. Subramaniya Iyer, Prithwis Chandra Ray and a host of others, raised basic questions regarding the nature and purpose of British rule. For them, the essence of British imperialism lay in the subordination of the Indian economy to the British economy. They were able to see that colonialism no longer functioned through crude tools of plunder and tribute and mercantilism, but operated through the disguised and complex mechanism of free trade and foreign capital investment, by transforming India into a supplier of foodstuffs and raw material to the metropolis and making India a market for the metropolitan manufacturers. They argued that instead of encouraging Indian capital, foreign capital replaced and suppressed it, which led to the drain of capital from India and further strengthened the British hold over the Indian economy.