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PROGRESS OF INDUSTRIES India became independent, industrial develop-
Industrial development in India was very slow ment was one of the top priorities for the Indian
and erratic during British rule. No steps were government.
taken by the British to protect the nascent Indian WE ARE ALL EQUALLY AFFECTED BY
industries. A policy of free trade was followed THE INDUSTRIAL GROWTH?
and the import duty levied on foreign goods was Though, the introduction of machine-made cloth
very low. Thus, indigenous goods had to face stiff adversly affected the weavers, but some groups
competition from the machine-made British of weavers were in a better position than others.
goods. It was only during the period of the First The weaver community was roughly divided into
World War (1914-1918), when British industries
two groups :
were busy meeting the demands of the military,
1. Weavers who Produced Coarse Cloth
that industries in India received major orders,
The coarse cloth was produced for the poor.
both from the domestic and the export market.
The demand of coarse cloth fluctuated
Most industries in India were owned by the
violently.
British who utilised the profits for the develop-
In times of bad harvests and famines, when
ment of their own native land. There was also no
the rural poor had little to eat and their cash
effort to develop industries in India in a uniform
income disappeared, they could not possi-
and sustained manner. While sporadic progress
bly buy cloth. So, the demand of coarse
was witnessed in some areas, other regions
cloth was dependent on nature.
remained largely backward.
2. Weavers who Produced Finer Varieties
Dadabhai Naoroji wrote
in his book ‘Poverty and The finer variety of cloth was used by the
Un-British Rule in India’ rich and elite class. The demand for the
that throughout the British finer varieties bought by the rich and noble
rule, there was continuous class was more stable. The rich could buy
drain of wealth from India these even when the poor starved. for
to Great Britain. This example, famines did not affect the sale of
Banarasi or Baluchary saris. Moreover, mills
drain of wealth took many
could not imitate specialised weaves. Saris
forms, one of them being
with woven borders, or the famous lungis
the profits earned by the
British-owned industries and handkerchiefs of Madras, could not be
Dadabhai Naoroji
in India. easily displaced by mill production.
During the early twentieth century, an important Weavers and other crafts people who
agenda before the nationalist leaders was the continued to expand production through
popularisation of cloth produced in India. the twentieth century, did not necessarily
Mahatma Gandhi, in particular, asked the people prosper. They lived hard lives and worked
to boycott British cloth and use hand-woven for long hours. Most of the times, the entire
cloth instead. This was an attempt to revive the household-including all the women and
children-had to work at various stages of the
dying textile industry in India. During the
production process.
national movement also, the British were forced
to give some protection to Indian industries. After
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