Page 34 - SST Class 08

Crafts and
q Industrialisation and de-industrialisation in India q Decline of Indian handicrafts
q Growth of industry in twentieth century
q Major industries
Introduction
Before the arrival of the Europeans, India was
famous for three industries—textile industry,
leather industry and metal industry. The other
flourishing industries included jewellery, cutting and
polishing of precious stones, ivory and sandalwood.
Many industrial cities had come up, such as
,
Moradabad and Banaras for brass copper and
bronze utensils; Nasik, Poona and Hyderabad for
metal industry ; Kutch, Sindh and Punjab for arms ;
and Kolhapur, Satara, Gorakhpur, Agra, Chittor and
Palaghat for glass industry . In addition to these,
many towns thrived on other industries, such as
cotton textiles in Surat and Ahmedabad; silk textiles
in Banaras and Tanjore etc. The finished goods were
exported to other countries using large cargo ships.
INDUSTRIALISATION AND
DE-INDUSTRIALISATION IN INDIA
By industrialisation we mean that the existing
industries flourish while new industries are being
set up. By de-industrialisation we mean that the
existing industries become stagnant due to
unfavourable conditions while it is not suitable to
establish new industries.
As we can see that industrialisation in India had
occurred on a limited scale in different towns and
cities; the scale of production was small because
goods were produced using small tools. The
arrival of the British, however, resulted in the total
decline of traditional industries of India. However,
this encouraged Indians to compete against the
British goods, so a new process of industrialisation
started in India. The establishment of the TISCO
Contemporary Social Science-8
34
Industries 5
q Role of railways and telegraph
(Tata Iron and Steel Company) and some cotton
mills in Mumbai is the evidence that the Indians
showed will power to compete against the
superior British goods, despite all odds and
unfavourable conditions against them.
Info Bits
Info Bits
The Company officials were so ruthless and cruel
with the Indian weavers that they cut off the
thumbs of the weavers if they refused to work for
them.
DECLINE OF INDIAN HANDICRAFTS
Things underwent a change with the arrival of the
British. The European trading companies started to
arrive in India from sixteenth to eighteenth
century. The chief purpose of their arrival here
was trade, though they developed political
ambitions later. They wanted to exploit the riches
and prosperity of India to their advantage. When
they perceived the lack of national unity and
weakness of Indian rulers, they became political
masters here. Since their primary motive was
profit, they least cared for the development of
industries here. Rather, they created such
conditions which were detrimental to the
development of Indian industries, which were
chiefly handicrafts.
Just Think!
What are/is the famous handicraft(s) of your state?