🏭 The Age of Industrialisation — Class 10

Industrial Revolution in Britain, factories, child labour, Indian textile industry, and Manchester vs India

1. Before the Industrial Revolution

Industrialisation did not happen overnight. Before factories, goods were produced through a well-organised system called the proto-industrial system, also known as the "putting-out system."

📖 The Proto-Industrial System

Merchants in towns supplied raw materials and received finished goods from rural craftsmen working in their own homes. The craftsmen were paid per piece — but controlled their own time and pace.

This was widespread in Europe before factories and allowed merchants to expand production without building workshops.

2. The Coming of the Factory

📖 Why Factories Emerged

The first factories in Britain emerged in the 1730s–1780s. Reasons:

• New technology: Steam engine (James Watt, 1769) powered machines → faster production

• Need for control: Factory owners could supervise workers, control pace and quality

• New machines: Spinning jenny, power loom, cotton gin → mass production of textiles

• Coal and iron: Abundant in Britain → powered factories and made machines

🌟 Not Everyone Welcomed Machines!

When machines were introduced, many skilled craftsmen (especially weavers) feared losing their jobs. The Luddites (early 19th century Britain) were groups of workers who smashed textile machines in protest.

The same fear exists today — will AI and automation take our jobs? History shows new industries create new jobs even as old ones disappear — but the transition can be painful!

2.1 The Early Worker in Factories

Most early factory workers came from the countryside — driven by enclosure (landlords fencing off common lands)
Women and children were preferred workers — cheaper, "more manageable," flexible fingers for cotton work
Working conditions: 14–16 hour days, dangerous machines, no safety regulations, child workers as young as 5
Living in cramped, smoky industrial towns like Manchester and Birmingham
Gradually, labour laws were passed (Factory Acts 1833, 1844) restricting child labour

3. Industrialisation in India

⚡ The Peculiar Indian Situation

India's industrialisation happened under British colonial rule, which created contradictions:

• British wanted India as a market for British goods and a supplier of raw materials

• They discouraged Indian industrialisation that would compete with British factories

• Heavy import duties on Indian goods in Britain; no protection for Indian manufacturers

3.1 The Indian Textiles Industry

📖 Manchester Comes to India

From the 1850s, cheap machine-made cloth from Manchester flooded Indian markets. Effects:

• Indian handloom weavers (especially in Bengal and Deccan) lost their livelihoods

• Surat's weavers, who had supplied goods to Central Asia, lost business

• Weavers became agricultural labourers — deskilling and pauperisation

But not all Indian textiles died — coarser cloth for poor people continued to be woven locally.

3.2 Indian Entrepreneurs and Factories

💡 Indian-Owned Cotton Mills

Despite British dominance, Indian entrepreneurs set up cotton mills, especially in Bombay:

• 1854: First cotton mill in Bombay by Cowasjee Nanabhoy Davar

• 1860s onward: Many Gujarati and Parsi entrepreneurs started mills

• Jute mills concentrated in Bengal — around Calcutta

Indian mills initially produced coarse yarn (exported to China) and coarse cloth (for Indian poor) — the finer cloth market was dominated by Manchester.

3.3 The Swadeshi Effect

📖 Nationalism Boosts Industry

The partition of Bengal (1905) and the Swadeshi movement boosted Indian industries:

• Boycott of British goods → demand for Indian-made goods soared

• Congress leaders appealed to use Indian products — khadi, Indian soap, Indian textiles

• This gave a boost to mills in Ahmedabad, Bombay, and Calcutta

4. Peculiarities of Indian Industrialisation

Labour supply: India had abundant cheap labour — so labour-saving machines less necessary than in Britain
Jobbers: Old factory workers who recruited new workers from their villages — acted as middlemen between workers and management
Seasonal work: Many factory workers returned to villages during harvest season — not fully "industrial" workers
Slow growth: Heavy industry (steel, chemicals) developed late — TISCO (Tata Iron and Steel Co.) started 1907
WWI boost: When British goods couldn't be imported during war (1914–18) → Indian mills expanded rapidly

🔑 Key Terms to Remember

Proto-industrialisation: Pre-factory domestic production system
Enclosure movement: British landlords fenced common land → rural poor migrated to cities
Luddites: Workers who smashed machines in early 19th-century Britain
Jobbers: Recruiter-supervisors in Indian factories
Swadeshi: "Own country" — movement to use Indian goods, boycott British
Sepoys: Indian soldiers — not relevant here; don't confuse with "Jobbers"