Causes Of De-Industrialization Of India

1439 Words6 Pages
The issue of the de-industrialization of India has frequently been discussed over the time, and it gave rise to different opinions about the causes of this phenomenon. The core result of this process can be realized looking at the shift of the position of India in the world economy, from being a net exporter to a net importer of its manufactured goods, especially in its commercial relationship with Britain. To address to which extent the cause of the de-industrialization of India can be imputed to Britain, as Ray (2016) states in its work, firstly there is the need to define the term ‘de-industrialization’, collocating its occurrence and, finally, explaining it in its entirety. One definition of the phenomenon is based on the existence of…show more content…
The phenomenon was later strengthened by the modification of the East India Company monopoly charter in 1793 and by the end of the charter on India trade in 1813, and it culminated with the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846 and the Navigation Laws in 1849. The origin of the debate about the deindustrialization of India can be found in the writings of Marx and his description of the Indian society. As reported by Ray (2016), this economy, according to the philosopher, was based on an agricultural sector dependent on the government and an industrial area consisting of a cotton textile industry. Being the latter the generator of most of the country’s revenues, its decline would have caused the deterioration of the whole society. Due to its export-based nature, the disruption of this sector can be explained as a consequence of the British trade policies (Ray, 2016). Different subsequent nationalist scholars based their further studies on the theory above, blaming the British rule and competition as the primary cause of the Indian…show more content…
The movement of raw cotton cost in the last decades of the phase established the primate of Lancashire, whose product slowly replaced the Indian domestically produced products traded until then. The development of the transportation sector in India is crucial for the analysis of the deindustrialization of the country. Bandyopadhyay and Prof. Deb (2017) reported the Idea od Marx (1853) about the purpose of railways in India, which, for the philosopher, had been implemented for the Welfare of the British capitalists. As the authors point out, British railways followed a policy of “monopolistic pricing and discriminatory freight policies”. Due to the fluctuating rates, Indian manufacturers faced higher charges concerning their foreign competitors, making the competition “one-sided” and causing the fall of India’s industries, whose growth was also retained by double taxation. Another district involved in the process of deindustrialization of the country is the handicraft one, strongly influenced by the imperialistic government of the British domain (Meena,

More about Causes Of De-Industrialization Of India

Open Document