The Deindustrialization of colonial indian]

this talks about how the indian textile industry was ruined by the birithsers

1. The Deindustrialisation of India
…and how the British came to dominate world markets

2. Deindustrialization (def.)
•The opposite of industrialization.
•The decline of industries in a region or economy.
HOW DID IT HAPPEN IN COLONIAL INDIA?

3. The Reasons
•India lost its market in Britain due to high tariffs on Indian textiles.
•India lost its existing and potential markets in other colonies around
the world like Americas, central and west Asia, far East, etc.
•Indian handloom textiles had to compete with machine-made cloth
in markets around the world.
•Machine cloth was cheaper.
•Machine cloth was produced in large quantities.
•By the start of the 19
th
century, English made cotton textiles had
removed Indian goods from traditional markets in Africa, America
and Europe.
•Without demand weavers were unemployed.

4. BUT AT THAT TIME TOO, INDIA AND CHINA WERE
THE MOST POPULOUS COUNTRIES.
COULD NOT THE WEAVERS HAVE SURVIVED IF
THEY PRODUCED ONLY FOR THE INDIAN MARKET?
CLICK FOR ANSWER

5. What happened to the Indian Market…
•Mughal court culture that demanded cotton, silk, jute and
woolen finery was disappearing.
•Common Indians were gradually becoming poorer.
•Could they afford the handloom cloth when so much of their
demand had declined?
•By 1830s, British mill-made cloth had flooded Indian market
and 67% of India was wearing machine made cloth.

6. A market for cotton crop?
•Indian weavers did not have textile orders from the world.
•They were rendered jobless.
•Indian spinners did not have orders from the weavers for their
thread.
•They were rendered jobless.
•So what happened to the cotton crop?
CLICK FOR ANSWER

7. A market for cotton? continued…
•America was facing a civil war.
•Cotton supply from America to Britain was stopped.
•Britain decided to purchase raw material (cotton)
from India for its industries.
•In fact, it actively encouraged the production of cotton, indigo
and other cash crops for their own industries.
•Decline of industries for weavers, spinners, etc. meant a
movement back to agriculture as landless labourers.
•They were turned from skilled to unskilled labourers.

8. Two Sides of a Coin
Raw materials were extracted from
the colony and taken to fund British
industrialisation.

9. Connect this with the concept of value
addition…
•Indian economy declined as
goods that were earlier highly
valued throughout the world
became worthless.
•Cotton as a crop in its raw form
and basic price was the only
source of livelihood.

10. Connect this with the concept of value
addition…
•But even agriculture had high
taxes and revenues as you saw
in Theme 3 - A Farmer’s Tale.
Even farming profession was not
safe.
•Primary sector became
overburdened leading to mass
poverty and unemployment.

11. India was reduced from the position of a major
producer and exporter of cotton textiles to an
importer of textiles from England in the 19
th
century.
This destruction of traditional industries was the
deindustrialisation of India.

12.  Other affected industries were jute handloom weaving
of Bengal, woolen manufacturers of Kashmir, silk
manufacturers of Bengal, hand-paper industry, glass
industry, lac, bangles, iron and steel, etc.

13. Why the decline in iron
and steel industry?

14. Resource Extraction
In Theme 2 - Out of Balance, we talked about how
colonialism meant an extraction of resources from the
colony for the coloniser.
Laws like the Forest Act which reserved forests for colonial
government’s use only made sure that resources like iron
ore, wood for burning remained out of the hands of Indians.
Tribes were taken as criminals for doing what they had
been doing for centuries.

15. The only available source of iron and steel now
were the British exports.
Local iron producers declined in demand and lost their
livelihood.

16. The gradual destruction of rural crafts broke the union
between agriculture and domestic industry in the
countryside leading to the destruction of the self-sufficient
village economy.

17. BUT DID NOT THE SAME THING HAPPEN TO
HANDICRAFT INDUSTRIES IN ENGLAND? DID THEY
NOT SUFFER TOO?
CLICK FOR ANSWER

18. Yes, but their fall was supplemented by a rise of
alternate employment opportunities.
In India, the factory system was non-existent in 1850s. The
only possibility of a livelihood was in the increasingly
burdened agriculture.
This caused a situation of extreme poverty.

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