How ‘Made in Germany’ became popular in colonial India

But informally there is a form of colonialism baked into these relationships. There was also a clear power imbalance that the Germans were actively exploiting: Historian Christina Lubinski 15 min readNew DelhiJul 23, 2026 02:54 PM IST First published on: Jul 23, 2026 at 02:51 PM IST In the wake of the 1905 Partition of Bengal, the Swadeshi movement gathered unprecedented momentum. As crowds shouted “Vande Mataram” and called for the boycott of British goods, another label quietly began to acquire new political meaning in Indian bazaars: ‘Made in Germany’. The boycott was never intended to reject all foreign goods. Where Indian industry lacked the capacity to manufacture certain products or access specialised knowledge, nationalists considered it both legitimate and necessary to turn to countries other than Britain.