its old position in the Indian market. Unable to modernise and compete with the US, Germany and Japan, the economy of Britain crumbled after the war. Cotton production collapsed and exports of cotton cloth from Britain fell dramatically. Within the colonies, local industrialists gradually consolidated their position, substituting foreign manufactures and capturing the home market.
. Small-scale Industries Predominate While factory industries grew steadily after the war, large industries formed only a small segment of the economy. Most of them – about per cent in – were located in Bengal and Bombay. Over the rest of the country, small-scale production continued to predominate.
Only a small proportion of the total industrial labour force worked in registered factories: per cent in and per cent in . The rest worked in small workshops and household units, often located in alleys and bylanes, invisible to the passer-by. In fact, in some instances, handicrafts production actually expanded in the twentieth century. This is true even in the case of the handloom sector that we have discussed.
While cheap machine-made thread wiped out the spinning industry in the nineteenth century, the weavers survived, despite problems. In the twentieth century, handloom cloth production expanded steadily: almost trebling between and . How did this happen? This was partly because of technological changes.
Handicrafts people adopt new technology if that helps them improve production without excessively pushing up costs. So, by the second decade of the twentieth century we find weavers using looms with a fly shuttle. This increased productivity per worker, speeded up production and reduced labour demand. By , over per cent of handlooms in India were fitted with fly shuttles: in regions like Travancore, Madras, Mysore, Cochin, Bengal the proportion was to per cent.
There were several other small innovations that helped weavers improve their productivity and compete with the mill sector. Fig. – A Hand-woven Cloth. The intricate designs of hand-woven cloth could not be easily copied by the mills.
New words Fly shuttle – It is a mechanical device used for weaving, moved