WEAVERS, IRON SMELTERS AND

FACTORY OWNERS

HISTORY
CHAPTER 6
1. For what purpose English East India Company came to
India?

2. How the pattern of trade changed over the decades?

This chapter tells the story of craft and industries of India focussing on

Iron and steel

Textiles
Industry
 Mechanised production of
cotton textiles made Britain
the foremost industrial
nation Iron and steel industry
started growing from the
1850s,

Britain came to be known

as the “workshop of the
world”.
 With the growth of industrial production,

British industrialists began to see India as a vast market for their industrial products

over time manufactured goods from Britain began flooding India.

How did this affect Indian crafts and industries?

 Indian Textiles and the World Market

Around 1750,
British
conquered Memories of trade and
Bengal craftmanship of Indian
world’s largest weavers preserved in
producer of English and other
cotton textile language
From the 16th century,
Europe an trading
companies began
buying Indian textiles
for sale in Europe
 Words tell us histories
Muslin
Cotton cloth in
India carried by
Arab merchants
In Mosul

Calico
Derived from Calicut
 In the year 1730 the English East India Company 5,89,0000 pieces of cloth of 98
varieties were cotton and silk cloths
A few varieties were -
Chintz derived From the 1680s, there
from Hindi word started a craze for
chhint- A cloth printed Indian cotton
with small and textiles in England.
colourful flowery
designs

Bandanna derived
Others were from from Bandhna-
the place of origin- Brightly coloured and
Kasimbazar , printed scarf
Patna, Calcutta
 Indian Textiles in European
Markets

Wool and Silk maker in

England began
protesting against
import of Indian cotton
textiles British
Government
banned use of
chintz

Known as
Calico Act
 Calico printing Under the
industry grew protection of
Government

Indian design White muslin

were imitated or plain
and printed unbleached
Indian cloths
were used .
Competition with Indian textiles also led to a search for technological
innovation in England.

Increased the
productivity of
the traditional
In 1764 Spinning
spindles.
Jenny was invented

John Kaye
invention of the revolutionised
steam engine by cotton textile
Richard Arkwright in weaving.
1786
 Indian textiles companies
continued to purchased cotton
dominate world and silk textiles
trade till the end in India by They collected
of the eighteenth importing silver revenues from
The Dutch, the
century. peasants and
French and the But when English zamindars
English – made EIC gained power
enormous in Bengal , they no
profits longer import
precious metal
 Who were the
weavers???
belonged to
communities
that specialised skills were Julahas-
in weaving. passed on from North
India
one generation Tanti-
Bengal Sale-
to the next. south
India
 First Stage- Spinning

Done by
women

Charkha and Takli

were used
The thread was spun
the thread was woven into on charkha and
cloth by the weaver. rolled on the takli.

Done mostly by men

 Rangrez
For coloured textile-

the thread was dyed by the dyer

Chhipigars -specialist block printers were

used for printed cloth
 Decline of Indian textiles

Affect on Indian textile producer due to Cotton Industries of Britain

Exporting textiles to
European market
compete with Britain
became difficult due to
textiles in European and
high duties imposed on
American Markets
Indian textiles imported
into Britain

Many weavers lost their jobs due to this

 By 1830, British cloth Flooded Indian Markets

By 1880’s 2/3 of cloth worn by Indians were produced by Britain

Thousand of weavers and spinners were jobless

 So, did Handloom
weaving completely
die in India ?????

British producer
did not produce
coarse cloth
some types of worn by poor .
cloths could not
be supplied by Saris with intricate
machines. borders or cloths with
traditional woven
patterns could not be
produced
Sholapur and
Madura
became
important Promoted
weaving Mahatma
Gandhi urged Khadi
centres
to boycott Charkha came
imported to represent
clothes India
 What happened to
the weavers and
spinners who lost
their livelihood?
Migrated New
to cities cotton
mills
Plantation work
in Africa and
Agricultural
South America
labourers
 Cotton Mills come up
By 1900, over
84 mills
started
operating in
Bombay. The first mill in
First cotton Ahmedabad
Mill in India was started in
was in 1861
Bombay (1854) A year later a
mill was
Peasants , established in
artisans Kanpur, in the
moved to United
cities to work Provinces.
in mill
 Problem faced by
Indian textile
factories

Competing with No protection by

cheap textiles of local government
Britain due to heavy duties

The Major spurt in cotton textile happened during First World War
 Do you all
remember the
great Tipu
He fought four Sultan???
battles with British
and died fighting
with the sword in his
hand.
Do you know his
sword is kept in
Museum in
England.
 Wootz steel when made
Why sword was into swords produced a
so special????? very sharp edge with a
flowing water pattern.

It was made up of a
carbon steel called
Wootz.
 How Wootz steel was made ???

Made in smelting furnace in

Mysore

Through an
Iron mixed with intricate control
charcoal Put inside small of temperatures
clay pots the smelters
produced steel
ingots
 However, the Wootz steel
making process, was
completely lost by the mid-
nineteenth century. Why
???

The swords and armour making industry died

with the conquest of India by the British and
imports of iron and steel from England.
Wootz steel required The furnaces were
specialised technique most often built of
of refining iron clay and sun-dried
bricks.

The smelting was

done by men women worked the
bellows, pumping air
that kept the charcoal
burning.
 Why the amount of iron produce came
down????

New forest laws

Iron smelters had to
came
pay high tax to Iron and steel was
smelters being imported
from Britain
 Iron and Steel factories came up in
India

Lets hear the Story how,

Dorabji Tata Tisco was set up in
Jamshedpur

Jamsetji Tata
 Iron and Steel factories came up in
India

In 1904, an American geologist Charles Weld and Dorabji Tata, the eldest son of Jamsetji Tata
saw Agaria tribe people who were carrying basketloads of iron ore from a hill. They were
the Rajhara hills. Though it was one of the finest ores, but it was difficult to setup a steel plant
there because of the non availability of water.
Finally, a place with the help of agarias was found and a plant known as Bhilai Steel Plant was
set up there. After few years, a large forest area was cleared on the banks of river
Subarnarekha and a factory was setup with an Industrial Township known as Jamshedpur. The
Tata Iron and Steel Company started producing steel here in 1912. Though in the initial years
of the Company, the Britishers were not purchasing steel from it as they preferred British steel
and were not sure about the quality of Indian steel, but during the First World War, to meet
the needs of Indian railways, steel of TISCO came into demand.
TISCO was set up in Import of steel from
opportune time Britain decline

By 1919 ,
In 1914 First world Government bought
war broke out 90% of the steel
manufactured by
TISCO
Indian Railways
turned to TISCO for
supply
In the case of iron and steel, as in the case of
cotton textiles, industrial expansion occurred
only when British imports into India declined
and the market for Indian industrial goods
increased.