Weaver Iron Smelter And Factory Owners - Class 8 History - Extra Questions

As the East India Company established political power, It asserted its monopoly right to trade in India. The restrictions were as follows.
(i) The British Government developed a system of management and control that would eliminate competition and restrict the space within which Indian merchants could function.
(ii) Indian merchants were barred from trading with Europe in manufactured goods. 
(iii) Indian merchants had to export mostly raw materials like raw cotton, opium, wheat and Indigo required by the British. They were also gradually edged out of the shipping business.

To resist colonial control, weavers and merchants migrated to other places.

Under the system of advances the weavers had to weave cloth which was already promised to European agents. Weavers no longer had the liberty of selling their own cloth or weaving their own patterns. Instead, they had to reproduce the designs supplied to them by the company agents.

 The Indian textiles were in great demand in the European markets. As a result, the English began to make attempts to control the Indian craftspersons by appointing Indian traders as their agents. They introduced the system of advances under which the weavers had to weave cloth which was already promised to European agents. Weavers no longer had the liberty of selling their own cloth or weaving their own patterns. Instead, they had to reproduce the designs supplied to them by the company agents. This system snatched the freedom of the Indian weavers. They began to be guided by someone else.

The industrialization of Britain had a close connection with the conquest and colonization of India. The English East India Company’s interest in trade led to occupation of territory in India, and the pattern of trade changed over the decades. In the late eighteenth century, the Company bought goods in India and exported them to England and Europe, making profit through this sale. With the growth of industrial production, British industrialists saw India as a vast market for their industrial products, and over time manufactured goods from Britain began flooding India. This affected Indian crafts and industries.

Chintz was a variety of printed cotton cloth with small and colorful flowery designs. The word Chintz is derived from the Hindi word chhint.

Jamdani is a fine muslin on which decorative motifs are woven on the loom, typically in grey and white. Often a mixture of cotton and gold thread was used for Jamdani work.

The first stage of production was spinning. The charkha and the takli were household spinning instruments. The thread was spun on the charkha and rolled on the takli. When the spinning was over, the thread was woven into cloth by the weaver. And at last, for coloured textiles, the thread was dyed by the dyer, known as rangrez. For printed cloth, the weavers needed the help of specialist block printers known as chhipigars. After cloth printing, it was ready for sale in the market.

Indian textiles continued to dominate world trade till the end of the eighteenth century. European trading companies purchased cotton and silk textiles in India by importing silver. But when the English East India Company gained political power in Bengal, it no longer had to import precious metals to buy Indian goods. Instead, they collected revenues from peasants and zamindars in India and used this revenue to buy Indian textiles. Thus the inflow of silver had stopped by the late 18th century.

Weavers often belonged to communities that specialized in weaving. Their skills were passed on from one generation to the next. The Tanti weavers of Bengal, the Julahas or Momin weavers of North India, Sale and Kaikollar, and Devangs of South India were some of the communities famous for weaving in 18th century India.

In the early eighteenth century, worried by the popularity of Indian textiles, wool and silk makers in England began protesting against the import of Indian cotton textiles. Thus, in 1720, the British government enacted legislation banning the use of printed cotton textiles i.e. chintz, in England. This Act was known as the Calico Act.

Masulipatnam, Petaboli, Madras, Pondicherry, Negapatam were the famous cotton-weaving centers along the Coromandel coast in 18th century India.

New cotton mills were established in cities like Bombay, Ahmedabad, Sholapur, Nagpur and Kanpur.

Hand loom weaving did not completely die in India. This was because some types of clothes could not be supplied by machines. Machines cannot produce saris with intricate borders or cloths with traditional woven patterns. These had a wide demand not only amongst the rich but also amongst the middle classes. The textile manufacturers in Britain also did not produce the very coarse cloths used by the poor people in India. Therefore, there was still some room available for the hand loom industries of India.

There was a spurt in the establishment of the cotton mills in India from the mid-nineteen century. But, in the first few decades of its existence, the textile industry in India faced many problems. It was found difficult to compete with the cheap textiles imported from Britain. In most countries, governments supported industrialization by imposing heavy duties on imports. This eliminated competition and protected infant industries. The colonial government in India refused such protection to local industries.

As the Indian textile sector was in ruin due to competition from the cheap British textile, Indian weavers and spinners faced difficulties in continuing their craftsmanship. Many weavers became agricultural laborers. Some migrated to cities in search of work, and yet others went out of the country to work in plantations in Africa and South America. Some of these handloom weavers also found work in the new cotton mills that were established in Bombay, Ahmedabad, Sholapur, Nagpur, and Kanpur.

Mahatma Gandhi, during the national struggle, urged people to boycott imported textiles and use Indian hand-spun and hand-woven cloth.

Iron smelters had to pay a very high tax to the forest department for every furnace they used. This reduced their income.

Tipu Sultan's legendary sword is now part of the valuable collections in a museum in England.

The swords and armor-making industry in India died with the conquest of India by the British, and imports of iron and steel from England displaced the iron and steel produced by craftspeople in India. Thus, the conquest of India by the British and the imports of iron and steel were the main reasons behind the decline of iron and steel crafts in India.

The Wootz steel sword of Tipu Sultan had an incredibly hard and sharp edge. This quality of the sword came from a special type of high carbon steel called Wootz which was produced all over south India. Wootz steel when made into swords produced a very sharp edge with a flowing water pattern. This pattern came from very small carbon crystals embedded in the iron.

The first major spurt in the development of cotton factory production in India was during the First World War when textile imports from Britain declined and Indian factories were called upon to produce cloth for military supplies.