The Decline of Indian Textiles


 
 
Concept Explanation
 

The Decline of Indian Textiles

Indian textile began to decline with the development of cotton industries in Britain and by the beginning of the 19th century, English made cotton textiles successfully ousted Indian goods from their traditional markets in Africa, America and Europe. Indian weavers lost their employment.

The decline of Indian textiles: The development of cotton industries in Britain affected textile producers in India in several ways.

  • Competition: Indian textiles had to compete with British textiles in European and American markets.
  • High duties: Exporting textiles to England became increasingly difficult due to the very high duties imposed on Indian textiles imported into Britian.
  • Capture of foreign markets: By the beginning of the 19th century, English- made cotton textiles from their traditional markets, thereby throwing thousands of Indian weavers out of employment. The English and the European companies stopped buying Indian textiles and their agents no longer gave out advance to weavers to secure supplies.
  • Capture of the Indian markets; By the 1830s, British cotton cloth flooded Indian markets. By the 1880s, two third of all cotton clothes worn by Indians were made of cloth produced in Britain. This greatly affected both the weavers and spinners.
  • The Handloom weaving did not completely die in India

  • The Handloom weaving did not completely die in India, despite the decline of Indian textiles, because the machine made cloths did not have the features of handloom weaving. for example, machines could not produce saris with intricate borders or clothes with traditional woven patterns.
  • Cloths with traditional patterns had great demand in the rich and the middle class.
  • They could not produce very coarse cloths used by the poor people in India.
  • All these factors sustained the handloom weaving in India.

     
     


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