CBSE Class 10 Answered

The pattern of industrialisation in an imperial country like Britain and a colony like India was quite different.

Industrialisation in Britain was initiated by the setting up of the factories from the 1730s. As the cotton industry boomed and inventions like the cotton mill improved the process of production, factories became an intimate part of the English landscape. This first phase of industrialisation was led by the cotton industry whereas the latter part was dominated by the growth in the iron and steel industry. However, the new industries did not completely overshadow the old industries in the form of domestic units and many seemingly ordinary and small innovations still kept them in business. The technological changes also were not received without glitches. The machines were expensive, and once they broke down, the repairs were costly. As a result, for a long amount of time, the industrialists were apprehensive about large scale machine deployment. In Victorian Britain, there was no shortage of human labour. As a result, large scale machine based production came at its own time. As industrialisation picked up pace, especially in the urban parts of Britain, migrants in search of work flocked at the cities in huge numbers. They had to face a great number of difficulties in terms of low pay, pathetic living conditions, poverty, etc. However, through the different phases of industrialisation; most important of which the 'colonial' phase of industrialisation, the industry and the industrial workers continued to prosper gradually.

The pattern of industrialisation in a colony like India was conditioned by that in the colonizer, in this case Britain. As Britain gained and consolidated political power in India, the indigenous industries; most importantly textile and arts and crafts, were calculatingly destroyed and the Indian markets were gradually brought under the control of Britain based manufacturing industries. However, Indian traders had amassed huge amount of wealth in their China trade. As profits decreased in that sector, the capital was redirected towards industrial production in India. However, here too, there were severe restrictions put up by the colonial administration over Indian entrepreneurs. It was not until the American Civil War did the first textile factories started dotting the landscape of the city of Bombay. Then too, their area of operation remained limited until the onset of the First World War. The War made British imports to India difficult and hence the colonial administration turned to the Indian producers for supplies. This boosted Indian industries to a great extent. Especially in the textile sector, the British textile manufacturers could never regain their earlier dominant position after the war. However, this did not completely decimate the traditional textile industry which continued to exist by taking advantage of minor technological changes in the process of production.