Learning Objectives To acquaint ourselves with Changes in agrarian conditions and import of British manufactures ruin Indian handicrafts and the artisanal class Periodical outbreak of famines force landless labourers and jobless artisans to emigrate Introduction of Western education and birth of national awakening. Other contributory factors for the rise of Nationalism in India Modern Indian intelligentsia lays the foundation of Indian National Congress Early Nationalists and their contribution, especially of Naoroji and his Drain Theory Nationalism: Broadly, nationalism means loyalty and devotion to a nation. It is a consciousness or tendency to exalt and place one nation above all others, emphasising promotion of its culture and interests as opposed to those of other nations. Q.R.Code Rise of Nationalism in India The finished products made from those raw materials were then transported back to the Indian markets.
Mass production with the help of technological advancement enabled them to flood the Indian market with their goods. It was available at a comparatively cheaper price than the Indian handloom cloth. Prior to the arrival of the British, India was known for its handloom products and handicrafts. It commanded a good world market.
However, as a result of the colonial policy, gradually Indian handloom products and handicrafts lost there market, domestic as well as international. Import of English articles into India threw the weavers, the cotton dressers, the carpenters, the blacksmiths and the shoemakers out of employment. India became a procurement area for the raw material and the farmers were forced to produce industrial crops like indigo and other cash crops like cotton for use in British factories. Due to this shift, subsistence agriculture, which was the mainstay for several hundred years, suffered leading to food scarcity.
Indigo cultivation without any regard to various contingencies, such as failure of crops, fall in prices and droughts or floods. Moreover, the practice of sale in settlement of debt encouraged money lenders to advance money to landholders and resorting to every kind of trickery to rob them of their property. There were also two other major