NCERT Solutions Class 8 History Chapter 7 - Weavers, Iron Smelters and Factory Owners

The problems faced by the Indian textile industry are given below.

a. Competition – They had to face large British industries that were already present in the market.

b. Export – It was a challenge for them to export to England due to the huge export prices.

c. Failure – English cotton textiles ousted Indian textiles from its parent markets like America, Africa and Europe.

d. No Buyers – Europeans started avoiding the weavers of Bengal and did not buy from them, which made the Bengal weavers the worst hit.

The following reasons led to TISCO’s expansion:

a. World War-I – The war demanded a huge amount of iron and steel for the production of ammunition, which was a demand that Britain had to entertain.

b. Indian markets turned to TISCO for rail work to supply iron and steel.

c. TISCO built shells and carriage wheels for World War-I.

d. By 1919, the British government started buying 90 per cent of the steel manufactured by the TISCO.

A group of men and women who formed a community of iron smelters is known as Agaria.

The following reasons led to the decline of the iron smelting industry in the nineteenth century:

a. Indian smelters could not get charcoal due to the forest laws imposed on them. Charcoal is an essential ingredient in the iron smelting process, and the industry could not thrive without its supply. The forest laws banned their movement in the reserved forests.

b. Iron smelters were asked to pay high taxes to the forest authorities.

c. Post-1950s, the English started importing iron from England to India. This discouraged Indian iron smelters from pursuing the same profession.

d. In the late nineteenth century, many famines destroyed dry tracts for iron smelters.

e. Iron industries posed the biggest challenge for the local iron smelters, who were not able to compete with the big industries.

Cotton and silk had a large market in Europe. Different varieties of Indian textiles were sold in European markets.

1. Chintz

2. Cossaes or Khasa

3. Bandanna

4. Jamdani

Indian printed cotton textiles were also famous in England for their exquisite floral designs, fine textures and inexpensiveness.

Jamdani is a fine muslin on which decorative motifs are woven on the loom, typically in grey and white. Often a mixture of cotton and gold thread was used, as in the cloth in the picture. The most important centres of jamdani weaving were Dacca in Bengal and Lucknow in the United Provinces.

Bandannas are brightly coloured and printed scarf for the neck or head. Originally, the term derived from the word “bandhna” (Hindi word for tying) and referred to a variety of brightly coloured cloth produced through a method of tying and dying.

(a) The word chintz comes from the word chhint.

(b) Tipu’s sword was made of wootz steel.

(c) India’s textile exports declined in the nineteenth century.

The different textiles like ‘muslin’, ‘chintz’, ‘calico’ and ‘bandanna’ have a history to their names.

a. Muslin – The cloth was named after the European traders who saw five types of cotton textiles carried by the Arab traders in Mosul. They named all woven textiles ‘muslin’ after that.

b. Chintz – This name is derived from a Hindi name called ‘Chhint’, which is a small piece of cloth with floral designs.

c. Calico – The Portuguese came to Calicut first in search of spices. However, the cotton textile they took back from Calicut to Spain was called Calico.

d. Bandanna – The term was derived from the Hindi word ‘Bandhna’. It is a scarf with prints made for the head or neck.

The wool and silk producers in England protested against the import of Indian textiles in the early eighteenth century because, due to the fame of Indian textiles in the European markets, owing to their designs and their prices, they were unable to compete with them. The English wool and silk producers wanted a ban on Indian textiles so that they could grow in England. Following this, the spinning jenny was also introduced in the European markets.

There were several challenges for textile produces in India:

a. They had to compete with English cotton industries both in England and India

b. British cotton industries expanded, which led to the shrinkage of Indian textile producers.

c. Thousands of Indian textile producers were out of employment because the British took over the market with their industries.