HISTORY (VIII)-LESSON-6 WEAVERS, IRON SMELTERS AND FACTORY OWNERS (LESSON NOTES)

 

HISTORY (VIII)-LESSON-6

WEAVERS, IRON SMELTERS AND

FACTORY OWNERS

(LESSON NOTES)

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v INTRODUCTION

Ø This chapter tells the story of the crafts and industries of India during British rule by focusing on two industries, namely, textiles and iron and steel. These industries are very crucial for the industrial revolution which occurred in Britain in late 18^th century. The industrialisation of Britain had a close connection with the conquest and colonisation of India.

v PATTERN OF INDIAN TRADE WITH BRITAIN

Ø Form 16^th century many European trading companies reached India from 16^th century.

Ø They buy Indian textiles or spices in return of Gold and silver and make profit by selling in Europe.

Ø When East India Company got Diwani rights they financed these goods from the revenue they collected.

Ø After Industrialisation, British manufactured reached in India in vast quantity which destroyed the Indian crafting and handloom. Britain came to be known as the “workshop of the world”.

v INDIAN TEXTILES AND THE WORLD MARKET

Ø Before 1760 India was world’s largest producer of cotton textiles. Indian textiles were very popular for their fine quality and exquisite craftsmanship. It has large demand in Southeast Asia (Java, Sumatra and Penang) and West and Central Asia, Europe. In Europe it was known by different names: -

§  MUSLIN:- The word muslin come from the city Mosul presently In Iraq. As the European traders purchased the fine quality of the Indian textile from Arab merchants form the city Mosul. So Indian textile got its name In Europe.

 

§  CALICO:- The word calico for Indian textile derived from the city Calicut as Portuguese traders took back Indian textile to Europe, from Calicut along with the spices.

 

v DIFFERENT VARIETIES OR DESIZNS OF INDIAN CLOTH

Ø Indian clothes were highly demanded in European market due to its fine quality and crafting.  They have to book Indian textile even in the advance of two years. There are varieties of designs of Indian clothes popular in Europe

Ø CHINTZ:- Printed cotton clothes were called chintz, cossies or khassa. The word Chintz derived from the Hindi word chhint, means a cloth with small and colourful flowery designs.

Ø BANDANNA:- The word bandanna now refers to any brightly coloured and printed scarf for the neck or head. Originally, the term derived from the word bandhna” (Hindi for tying), and referred to a variety of brightly coloured cloth produced through a method of tying and dying.

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Ø JAMDANI :- It is a fine muslin on which decorative motifs are woven on the loom, typically in grey and white. Often a mixture of cotton and gold thread was used. Decca and Lucknow were the centre of Jamdani.

Ø PATOLA:- Patola is a double ikat woven sari, usually made from silk, made in Patan, Gujarat, India.

Ø CLOTHES ON THE NAME OF PLACES:- The clothes also known by their place of origin: Kasimbazar, Patna, Calcutta, Orissa, Charpoore.

v STAGES OF MAKING CLOTHES

Ø In India clothes were made by hand known as Handloom. There are different stages of making clothes: -

Ø SPINNING:- This work was done mostly by women. The charkha and the takli were household spinning instruments. The thread was spun on the charkha and rolled on the takli.

Ø WEAVING:- Thread was woven into cloth by specilised weavermostly Men.They were known by different names in different regions:-

§  Tanti weavers of Bengal

§  Julahas or momin weavers of north India

§  Sale and Kaikollar and Devangs of south India

Ø DYEING :-For coloured textiles, the thread was dyed by the dyer, known as rangrez.

Ø PRINTING:- For printed cloth the weavers needed the help of specialist block printers known as chhipigars.

v INDIAN TEXTILES IN EUROPEAN MARKETS

Ø Indian textiles were very popular in Britain. The British textile industries were not able to compete. So, they wanted the secure market.

Ø  To protect their own textile industries, the British Parliament passed an act which banned the import of Indian clothes in Britain, it was known as Calico act.

Ø The competition with Indian clothes also led to new innovation in this field.

§  In 1764, the spinning jenny was invented by John Kaye which increased the productivity of the traditional spindles.

§  The invention of the steam engine by Richard Arkwright in 1786 revolutionised cotton textile weaving.

§  By these innovations’ cloth could now be woven in immense quantities and cheaply too. Though Indian textiles continued to dominate world trade till the end of the eighteenth century.

v THE DECLINE OF INDIAN TEXTILES

Ø The development of cotton industries in Britain affected textile producers in India in several ways.

Ø First: Indian textiles now had to compete with British textiles in the

Ø European and American markets.

Ø Second: exporting textiles to England also became increasingly difficult since very high duties were imposed on Indian textiles imported into Britain.

Ø So, English made cotton textiles successfully ousted Indian goods from their traditional markets in Africa, America and Europe.

Ø It affected the livelihood of thousands of weavers in India. They were now thrown out of employment. Bengal weavers were the worst hit.

v COTTON MILLS COME UP IN INDIA

Ø In India first cotton mill was established in 1854 by Parsis and Gujarati business men in Mumbai. It became important centre of textile production because of important port, availability of raw material cotton due to black soil and moisture climate.

Ø After that many mills established in different cities as Ahmedabad (1861), Kanpur (1862), Chennai, etc.

v PROBLEM FACED BY THESE INDUSTRIES

Ø In the starting time Indian textile industry faced many problems.

Ø It was difficult to compete with the cheap textiles imported from Britain.

Ø The colonial government in India did not provide the protection to local industries.

Ø So these Industries have the chance to develop during the first during the First World War when textile imports from Britain declined and Indian factories were called upon to produce cloth for military supplies.

v IRON AND STEEL PRODUCTION IN INDIA

v THE SWORD OF TIPU SULTAN AND WOOTZ STEEL

Ø Indian Iron also very peculiar even from ancient time. Do you Know about Iron Pillar, which is not rusted even after 1600 years ago. In the same way Tipu Sultan’s sword is also made up of fine quality of iron ore who ruled over Mysore till 1799. This sword is so special because: -

§  It is made up of high corban steel which is called as Wootz or ukku in Kannada, hukku in Telugu and urukku in Tamil and Malayalam – meaning steel.

 

§  The sword had an incredibly hard and sharp edge that could easily rip through the opponent’s armour.

§  It has sharp edge with a flowing water pattern which came from very small carbon crystals embedded in the iron.

v PRODUCTION OF WOOTZ STEEL IN SOUTH INDIA

Ø The East India come to know about the technique of making wootz steel by the account of Francis Buchanan who wrote an account of his travel.

Ø He told that there were lot of smelting furnaces where steel was produced by mixing iron with charcoal.

 

Ø The furnaces were most often built of clay and sun-dried bricks. The

Ø smelting was done by men while women worked on bellows to pumping air that kept the charcoal burning. The Agaris community were very popular to produced steel.

Ø European scientists Michael Faraday who discover electricity and electromagnetism, spent four years to studying the properties of Indian Wootz (1818-22).

v  DECLINE OF IRON SMELTING

Ø European scientists were fascinated towards Wootz steel but it was completely lost by the mid- 19th century because of these reasons: -

§  New forest laws of colonial government prevented these people to get wood and iron ore from the forest.

§  To excess in the forests, they have to pay a very high tax to the forest department for every furnace they used, so they looked other means of livelihood.

§  The imports of iron and steel from England began to displace the iron and steel produced by the crafts people in India.

v IRON AND STEEL FACTORIES COME UP IN INDIA

Ø In the first decade of 20^th century Indian Industrialist Dorabji Tata, the eldest son of Jamsedji Tata with American geologist Charles weld travelled in search of Iron ore to established the Iron industries.

Ø Finally, they found the iron ore in Rajhara hills (Presently Bhilai Steel Plant) with the help of Agaris but there is shortage of water there.

Ø Finally, he established the industries (TISCO) in 1907 in Jamshedpur near Subarnarekha river in Jharkhand. It began producing steel in 1912.

v EFFECT OF WORLD WAR

Ø In the initially time Britishers don’t want to take the steel from TISCO but first word war(1914-1919) creates the situation to flourish.

Ø Due to world war imports of British steel into India declined to meet the demands of war in Europe.

Ø So, the Indian Railways turned to TISCO for supply of rails.

Ø The war dragged on for several years and TISCO had to produce shells and carriage wheels for the war also.

Ø By 1919 the colonial government was buying 90% of the steel manufactured by TISCO.

Ø Over time TISCO became the biggest steel industry within the British empire.

v IMPORTANT TERMS AND TIME LINE

Ø Spinning Jenny: A machine by which a single worker could operate several spindles on to which thread was spun. When the wheel was turned all the spindles rotated.

Ø Charkha and takli: Household spinning instruments. The thread was spun on the charkha and rolled on the takli.

Ø Aurang: A Persian term for a warehouse—a place where goods are collected before being sold.

Ø Smelting: The process of obtaining a metal from rock or soil by heating it to a very high temperature, or of melting objects made from metal in order to use the metal to make something new.

Ø Bellows: A device or equipment that can pump air.

Ø Slag heaps: The waste left when smelting metal.

Ø 1720 – The British government enacted legislation banning the use of printed cotton textiles—chintz.

Ø 1764 – Spinning Jenny was invented.

Ø 1786 – Steam engine was invented.

Ø 1854 – The first cotton mill in India was established in Bombay.

Ø 1912 – The Tata Iron and Steel Company (TISCO) began producing steel.