NCERT 8 HISTORY CHAPTER 6

6. Weavers, Iron Smelters and Factory Owners

Cotton textile Industries made Britain the foremost industrial nation
With the growth of Iron and Steel Industries, the Britain came to be known as "Workshop of the World"
In the beginning, the British bought goods in India and exported them to England.
Later with the industrial development, they saw India as a vast market to sale their manufactured goods and products. This affected Indian crafts and industries
Before the British conquest of Bengal, India was the largest producer of cotton textiles (well known for its quality and craftsmanship), traded in South East Asia(Java, Sumatra and Penang)

WORDS TELL US HISTORIES

Muslin - fine cotton cloth from India by Arab merchants in Mosul(Iraq)
Calico - Portuguese took back cotton cloths along with spices from Calicut on the Kerala coast
The British ordered 5,98,000 pieces of cloth which showed the popularity of Indian textiles in Western markets
The order book contains different varieties of cloth(98 varieties of cotton and silk cloths).
Some of them were as follows:
Chintz(derived from Hindi word "Chhint"- a cloth with small and colourful flowery designs) produced in Masulipatnam, Andhra Pradesh

Jamdani weave - fine muslin(grey and white), Important centres were Dacca in Bengal and Lucknow

Bandanna design - ("Bandhna" Hindi for tying) brightly coloured and printed, produced of tying and dying in Gujarat and Rajasthan

By 18 CE, Wool and Silk makers in England protested against the import of Indian textiles
By Calico Act in 1720 - the British banned the Chintz in England.
Then they started Calico Printing Industry in England (Indian designs were imitated and printed)
In 1764, the invention of spinning jenny(machine by which single worker can operate multiple spindles)by John Kaye and invention of steam engine in 1786 revolutionised weaving
As we saw earlier, the British initially used imported metal for buying goods and later on they began to use the revenue from peasants and zamindars

WEAVERS

Weavers - a community who specialised in weaving(from generation to generation)
Weaving communities - The tanti weavers of Bengal, the julahas or momin weavers of north India, sale and kaikollar and Devangs of south India
Spinning mostly done by women, the Charkha and the Takli were spinning instruments
Weaving was mostly done by men
Rangrez - the dyer who dye for coloured textiles
Chhipigars - specialist block printers

THE DECLINE OF INDIAN TEXTILES

Imported Indian textiles were imposed heavy duties in Britain
Also the competition with imported British textiles in India affected the textile producers in India
By 1830, British textiles flooded Indian markets and by 1880s, 2/3 of all the cotton clothes in India were from Britain
This drastically affected the Indian spinners and weavers
But the handloom weaving remain flourished (machines cannot replace)
Sholapur in western India and Madura in south India emerged as new centres of weaving
During National Movement, Mahatma Gandhi asked people to boycott imported clothes and encouraged khadi(symbol of nationalism)
The charkha represented in tricolour flag of Indian National Congress in 1931
But many weavers became agricultural labourers and some migrated to work for plantations in Africa and South America

COTTON MILLS COME UP

The cotton mill established in Bombay in 1854, followed by mills in Ahmedabad and Kanpur.
Over 84 mills started in Bombay by Parsi and Gujarati businessman in 1900
Growth of cotton mills led to the demand of labour
In contrast with India, the fear of foreign conquest promoted Industrialisation in Japan, they encouraged the growth of Industries
However, the Indian cotton textile industries developed during the first world war, when the imports from Britain declined

THE SWORD OF TIPU SULTAN AND WOOTZ STEEL

These swords were made from high carbon steel called wootz, which had hard and sharp edge, produced from south India
Account of Francis Buchanan in 1800 showed that wootz steel was produced in smelting furnaces, where iron was mixed with charcoal and put inside small clay pots
Wootz is an anglicised version of [ukku(kanada), hukku(telugu), urukku(tamil and malayalam) - meaning steel]
Michael Faraday (the discoverer of electricity and electromagnetism) spent four years to study about the properties of Indian wootz
Wootz steel required a high technique of refining iron. Iron smelting was extremely common. In Bihar and Central India, smelters used local deposits of ore to produce iron
The furnaces were made of clay and sun-dried bricks, men did the smelting work while the women pumped the air(equipment - Bellows) for charcoal burning
With the reserved forests, the British prevented the people entering forests. Hence, no wood for charcoal burning
The British imports of Iron and Steel led to the decline wootz steel making process

IRON AND STEEL FACTORIES COME UP IN INDIA

In 1904, Charles Weld, an American geologist and Darabji Tata, the eldest son of Jamsetji Tata, went in search of iron ore deposits
With the help of Agarias(a community who specialised in the craft of iron smelting), they found Rajhara Hills(one of the finest ores in the world) which later supply the Bhilai Steel Plant. Problem for running the factory there was the shortage of water
Later, large forest area cleared on the banks of Subarnarekha to set up a factory - Jamshedpur(an industrial township)
The Tata Iron and Steel Company began producing steel in 1912
Imports of British steel declined during First World War, then the Indian Railways turned to TISCO for supply of rails
TISCO became the biggest steel industry in the British empire, the colonial government depended 90% on TISCO steel by 1919
Both the cotton textile industry and Iron and Steel industry flourished well in India when the Britain imports were declined during World War I and after.

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