Which of the following industries was most affected by the 'deindustrialisation' of India in the 19th century?
- A.Silk manufacture
- B.Cotton textiles
- C.Iron and steel
- D.Woolen manufacture
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is B, Cotton textiles. Handloom cotton weaving was India's largest industry, and it suffered most when British rule opened India to machine-made cloth. Before the 19th century, Indian muslins, calicoes and chintz from Bengal, Gujarat and the Coromandel coast were sold across the world. After the Industrial Revolution, cheap cloth from the mills of Lancashire and Manchester flooded Indian markets almost free of duty, while Indian cloth faced high tariffs in Britain. The East India Company's trade monopoly ended in 1813, and India turned into an exporter of raw cotton and an importer of finished cloth. Dhaka, once famous for its muslin, shrank, and lakhs of weavers and spinners were pushed back onto the land. Option A is wrong because silk weaving declined too, but it was a far smaller industry. Option C is wrong because there was no modern iron and steel industry to destroy; TISCO began only in 1907. Option D is wrong because woollen work was small and regional. Exam tip: deindustrialisation means the ruin of handloom cotton weaving by Manchester cloth.
Practice Questions
View allWhich among the following struggles, based on Gandhi's philosophy of Satyagraha, involved the industrial working class?
- A.Champaran
- B.Kheda
- C.Ahmedabad
- D.Bardoli
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The Ahmedabad mill strike of 1918 was Gandhi's satyagraha for industrial workers. A dispute arose between the cotton mill owners and the workers over the plague bonus, which the owners wanted to withdraw.
Read the full explanation →Which one of the following Harappan sites was a specialised centre for making shell objects?
- A.Lothal
- B.Balakot
- C.Amri
- D.Kot Diji
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Balakot, along with Nageshwar in Gujarat, is described as a specialised centre for making shell objects. Both settlements lay near the coast, where shells were easy to collect, and excavations there have found large amounts of shell waste, unfinished pieces and finished items.
Read the full explanation →With reference to the Indo-Roman trade in ancient India, the term 'aurei' refers to :
- A.Perfume
- B.Wine
- C.Black Pepper
- D.Coins
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Aurei (singular aureus) were the gold coins of the Roman Empire, and large numbers of them reached India in payment for Indian goods.
Read the full explanation →Which European traveller had observed, "A Hindu woman can go anywhere alone, even in the most crowded places, and she need never fear the impertinent looks and jokes of idle loungers"?
- A.Francois Bernier
- B.Jean-Baptiste Tavernier
- C.Thomas Roe
- D.Abbe J. A. Dubois
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The remark comes from Abbé Jean-Antoine Dubois, a French Catholic missionary who lived in south India, mostly in Mysore, from 1792 to 1823.
Read the full explanation →Which one of the following scholars of Akbar's court translated Bhaskaracharya's Lilavati into Persian?
- A.Abul Fazl
- B.Faizi
- C.Fathullah Shirazi
- D.Ataullah Rashidi
Show answer
Faizi, Akbar's poet laureate and the elder brother of Abul Fazl, translated the Lilavati into Persian in 1587. The Lilavati is the arithmetic part of the Siddhanta Shiromani, written by the mathematician Bhaskaracharya (Bhaskara II) in the twelfth century, and it covers numbers, fractions, progressions and measurement.
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