The Age of Industrialisation- 5 Flashcards
what did european managing agencies do in europe//?
European Managing Agencies, which dominated industrial
production in India, were interested in certain kinds of products.
They established tea and coffee plantations, acquiring land at cheap
rates from the colonial government; and they invested in mining,
indigo and jute. Most of these were products required primarily for
export trade and not for sale in India.
what happened as Indians set up the industries? did they try to compete with britian?
When Indian businessmen began setting up industries in the late
nineteenth century, they avoided competing with Manchester goods
in the Indian market. Since yarn was not an important part of British
imports into India, the early cotton mills in India produced coarse
cotton yarn (thread) rather than fabric. When yarn was imported it
was only of the superior variety. The yarn produced in Indian spinning
mills was used by handloom weavers in India or exported to China.
what were the sweepign changes that took place in industrialisation inindia?
By the first decade of the twentieth century a series of changes
affected the pattern of industrialisation. As the swadeshi movement
gathered momentum, nationalists mobilised people to boycott foreign
cloth. Industrial groups organised themselves to protect their collective
interests, pressurising the government to increase tariff protection
and grant other concessions. From 1906, moreover, the export of
Indian yarn to China declined since produce from Chinese and
Japanese mills flooded the Chinese market.
So industrialists in India began shifting from
yarn to cloth production. Cotton piecegoods production in India doubled between
1900 and 1912.
why was the industrial growth slow till the WWI? were there any changes in indian indsutrial production?
till the First World War, industrial growth
was slow. The war created a dramatically
new situation. With British mills busy with
war production to meet the needs of the
army, Manchester imports into India
declined. Suddenly, Indian mills had a vast
home market to supply. As the war
prolonged, Indian factories were called
upon to supply war needs: jute bags, cloth
for army uniforms, tents and leather boots,
horse and mule saddles and a host of other
items. New factories were set up and old ones ran multiple shifts. Many new workers were employed and
everyone was made to work longer hours. Over the war years
industrial production boomed.
after the rapid growth of indian industries during war years, were manchester goods able to reclaim their positinon
After the war, Manchester could never recapture its old position in
the Indian market. Unable to modernise and compete with the US,
Germany and Japan, the economy of Britain crumbled after the
war. Cotton production collapsed and exports of cotton cloth from
Britain fell dramatically. Within the colonies, local industrialists
gradually consolidated their position, substituting foreign
manufactures and capturing the home market.
how did the industries constitute the economy in the coming years?
While factory industries grew steadily after the war, large industries
formed only a small segment of the economy. Most of them –
about 67 per cent in 1911 – were located in Bengal and Bombay.
Over the rest of the country, small-scale production continued to
predominate. Only a small proportion of the total industrial labour
force worked in registered factories: 5 per cent in 1911 and 10 per
cent in 1931. The rest worked in small workshops and household
units, often located in alleys and bylanes, invisible to the passer-by.
did handicraft production increase?
In fact, in some instances, handicrafts production actually expanded
in the twentieth century. This is true even in the case of the handloom
sector that we have discussed. While cheap machine-made thread
wiped out the spinning industry in the nineteenth century, the weavers
survived, despite problems. In the twentieth century, handloom
cloth production expanded steadily: almost trebling between 1900
and 1940.
why and how did the handicraft production increase so mcuh?
This was partly because of technological changes. Handicrafts people
adopt new technology if that helps them improve production
without excessively pushing up costs. So, by the second decade of
the twentieth century we find weavers using looms with a fly shuttle.
This increased productivity per worker, speeded up production and
reduced labour demand. By 1941, over 35 per cent of handlooms
in India were fitted with fly shuttles: in regions like Travancore,
Madras, Mysore, Cochin, Bengal the proportion was 70 to 80 per
cent. There were several other small innovations that helped weavers
improve their productivity and compete with the mill sector.
were all weavers in the same position to survive competition
Certain groups of weavers were in a better position than others to
survive the competition with mill industries. Amongst weavers some
produced coarse cloth while others wove finer varieties. The coarser
cloth was bought by the poor and its demand fluctuated violently.
In times of bad harvests and famines, when the rural poor had little
to eat, and their cash income disappeared, they could not possibly
buy cloth. The demand for the finer varieties bought by the
well-to-do was more stable. The rich could buy these even when the
poor starved. Famines did not affect the sale of Banarasi or
Baluchari saris.
could mills imitate the finer variaties
mills could not imitate
specialised weaves. Saris with woven borders, or the famous lungis
and handkerchiefs of Madras, could not be easily displaced by
mill production.
were the weavers really earning a lot and prosper?
Weavers and other craftspeople who continued to expand
production through the twentieth century, did not necessarily prosper.
They lived hard lives and worked long hours. Very often the entire
household – including all the women and children – had to work at
various stages of the production process. But they were not simply
remnants of past times in the age of factories. Their life and labour
was integral to the process of industrialisation.
what isa fly shuttle
It is a mechanical device used for
weaving, moved by means of ropes and pullies.
It places the horizontal threads ( called the weft)
into the verticle threads (called the warp). The
invention of the fly shuttle made it possible
for weavers to operate large looms and weave
wide pieces of cloth.
