What Is De-Industrialization?

INTRODUCTION
In Indian economic history, the term ‘de-industrialisation’ refers to the process of the destruction of Indian handicraft industries due to competing British manufactured products during the 19th century. The abolition of East India Company’s trade monopoly between India and England led to the increasing British exports entering India freely, that gradually edged out Indian handicrafts from local markets. With the subsequent construction of railways, this grew at accelerated rates . India’s share of world manufacturing output is attributed this to the immense increase in manufacturing output by Western countries due to the adoption of modern methods of industrial production as well as absolute decline in Indian manufacturing output

In 1835, jute manufacturing was undertaken by Dundee in Scotland, that steadily pulled the external market from Bengal handlooms. Jute mills were established in and around Calcutta with machinery bought from Dundee. Unlike Bombay’s cotton mills, the jute mills barely had Indian owners/managers. They were built using European capital that was largely generated in India, mostly from the jute trade (already controlled by European firms). The Indian Jute Mills Association, established in 1885 and practically a European body, started exercising control upon the hours of work in order to prevent excess production in the interest of retaining monopoly profits. In the 1860s, jute factory owners at Dundee protested against the increasing competition from Calcutta mills owned by fellow Scots. The duty on jute goods that were imported to India was completely removed. However, due to its close proximity to the chief-jute producing region of the world, the Calcutta jute industry continued to prosper with high profits, capital investments and levels of

The first and the third phases was the most affected by the effects of de-industrialisation.
Hand weaving also grew despite the large decline in hand spinning. Moreover, the growth of cloth mill production matched the growth of imports. Cloth imports could not recover their market after their peak and marked decline during the first World War due to two reasons : imposition of protective tariffs in India and the nationalist Swadeshi movement. Factory production of cloth continued to rise after surpassing both hand weaving and imports and Indian re-established herself finally as a net exporter of cotton textiles in the