CBSE Class 10 Answered

Manchester prior to the Boycott and Swedeshi movements exported cheap cotton textiles to India. However, the beginning of radical wing of the nationalists sparked the Boycott and Swedeshi movements which aimed at using and wearing of indigenous fabrics and clothes. Bon fire of foreign clothes was organized at many places and millions of people in India took the pledge to use swedeshi goods. This severely impacted the British cotton industries, bunch of which were located at Manchester. Several textile mills closed down in Manchester.

Further, the mills in Manchester began to supply goods to the British army fighting the First World War. This created vacuum in Indian textiles markets. This opportunity was seized by many local industrialists who set up their own textile mills in India at several places. Thus, Manchester now lost its markets in India and could not recapture its lost position.