Chapter : 2. The Age of Industrialisation
Small-Scale Industries
Small-Scale Industries Predominate :
(i) While factory industries grew steadily after the war, large industries formed only a small segment of the economy. Small-scale production continued to predominate. Only a small proportion of the total industrial labour force worked in registered factories. The rest worked in small workshops and household units often located in alleys and bylane, invisible to the passer by.
(ii) Handicrafts production actually expanded in the twentieth century. While cheap machine-made thread wiped out the spinning industry in the nineteenth century, handloom cloth production expanded steadily almost trebling between 1900 and 1940.
(iii) Handicrafts people adopted new technology as that helped them improving production without excessively pushing up costs. By the second decade of the twentieth century weavers were using looms with fly shuttle, which increased productivity per worker, speeded up production and reduced labour demand.
(iv) Certain groups of weavers were in better position than others to survive the competition with mill industries. The coarser cloth was bought by the poor and its demand fluctuated violently. The demand for the finer varieties bought by the well-to-do was more stable. Famines did not affect the sale of Banarasi or Baluchari saris. Moreover, mills could not imitate specialised weaves. Saris with woven borders, or the famous lungis and handkerchiefs of Madras, could not be easily displaced by mill production.
(v) Weavers and other craftspeople who continued to expand production through the twentieth century, did not necessarily prosper. They lived hard lives and worked long hours. But they were not simply remnants of past times in the age of factories. Their life and labour was integral to the process of industrialisation.
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