India was a major player in the world export market for textiles in the early 18th century, but by the middle of the 19th century it had lost all of its export market and much of its domestic market.
At the beginning of Industrial revolution cotton industries developed in England, industrial groups in England began worrying about imports from other countries. They pressurised the government to impose import duties on cotton textiles so that Manchester goods could sell in Britain without facing any competition from outside.
Thus, Indian products found it more and more difficult to penetrate the European markets. Tariffs of nearly 80 per cent were imposed on Indian textiles so that Indian cloth could no longer be cheap. After 1820, European markets were virtually closed to Indian exports.
At the same time industrialists in England persuaded the East India Company to sell British manufactures in Indian markets as well. Exports of British cotton goods increased dramatically in the early nineteenth century.
Cheap British-made cloth flooded the Indian market. The newly introduced rail network helped the European products to reach the remotest corners of the country.
Produced by machines at lower costs, the imported cotton goods were so cheap that weavers could not
easily compete with them. Cotton weavers in India thus faced two problems at the same time: their export market collapsed, and the local market shrank, being glutted with Manchester imports.
By the 1850s, reports from most weaving regions of India narrated stories of decline and desolation. From being a net exporter, India became a net importer.
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PRACTICE QUESTIONS
QUES . Which of the following statements correctly explain the impact of Industrial Revolution on India during the first half of the nineteenth century? UPSC 2020
(a) Indian handicrafts were ruined.
(b) Machines were introduced in the Indian textile industry in large numbers.
(c) Railway lines were laid in many parts of the country.
(d) Heavy duties were imposed on the imports of British manufactures.
Ans (a)
