NCERT Pointer History Class-10 Chapter-5

NCERT History Summary Class-10 Chapter-5: The Age of Industrialisation

Key Concepts:

• An association of craftsmen or merchants following same craft to protect the members interest and supervise the standard of the work.
• Tanning. Convert raw hide into leather by soaking in liquid containing tannic acid.
• Food processing. Technique of chopping and mixing food for making jam, juices, etc.
• Victorian Britain. Britain during the reign of Queen Victoria.
• Brewery. A place where beer etc. is brewed commercially. Brewing is a process of infusion, boiling and fermentation.
• Vagrant. A person without a settled home or regular work.
• Bourgeois. The upper middle class.
• Gomastha. An Indian word meaning an agent, a middle man between the merchant and weavers.
• Stapler. A person who staples or sorts wool according to its fiber.

Industrialisation:

● Production of goods with the help of machines in factories. The first industrialized Nation-Britain.

Features:

● Handmade goods to machine made goods in factories, cottage to factory, large scale production, started in England in later parts of 18th Century. In course of time, it affected all systems of production.

Before Industrial Revolution:

● Proto-Industrialisation:

• Production in 17th century, artisans worked for merchants to produce goods, artisans took raw material from merchants for production. Their cottages functioned as a factory.
• Association of producers, trained craft people maintained control over production, restricted entry of new traders. This period saw the coming of factories.

Coming up of factories:

• Early factories in England came up by the 1730s.
• First symbol of new era-cotton mill
• Many factories sprang up in England
• A series of inventions took place in the form of carding, twisting, spinning and rolling.

The pace of Industrial change:

• Cotton and iron and steel industries were the most dynamic industries.
• New industries could not displace traditional ones.
• Technological changes occurred slowly.
• Steam engine invented by James Watt had no buyers for years.
• New technologies were slow to be accepted.

Hand labor and stream power:

• In Victorian Britain there was no shortage of human labor.
• In many industries the demand for labor was seasonal.
• Range of products could be produced only with hand labor.
• There was a demand for intricate designs.
• Upper classes preferred things produced by hand.

Life of the worker:

• Abundance of labor affected the life of workers badly.
• Labour was seasonal.
• Fear of unemployment made workers hostile to new technology.
• Women labors protested against the introduction of the Spinning Jenny.
• Introduction of railways opened greater opportunities.

Industrialisation in the colonies:

• Textile industry was the center of industrialization in India.

Age of Indian textiles:

• Finer varieties of cotton from India were exported.
• A vibrant sea trade operated through pre-colonial ports.

What happened to weavers?

• East India Company appointed “gomasthas” to collect supply from weavers.
• Weavers lost bargaining power and lost lands for settling loans.

Gomasthas:

● The Gomasthas were paid servants whose job was to supervise weavers, collect supplies and examine the quality of cloth.

• The aim of the East India Company behind appointing gomasthas was to work out a system of management and control that would eliminate competition, control costs and ensure regular supplies of cotton and silk.
• Soon there were clashes between the weavers and the gomasthas who began ill-treating the weavers.
• They did not allow the company weavers to sell their produce to other buyers. Once an order was placed, the weavers were given loans to purchase the raw material. Weavers who had accepted loans from the company had to hand over the cloth they produced to the gomasthas only.
• The weavers were forced to sell their goods to company’s officials. When the American Civil War broke out and cotton supplies from the US were cut off, Britain’s demand for raw cotton from India increased.

Manchester comes to India:

• By 1950s, India began to import Manchester cotton from Britain.
• With the rise in Manchester imports, Indian export and local market declined.
• Supply of raw cotton in India decreased.
• Weavers were forced to buy cotton at high prices.

Factories come up:

• Industries were set up in different regions.
• First cotton mill came in Bombay in 1854.
• The first jute mill came up in Bengal in 1855.
• 1830s-1840s—Dwarakanath Tagore setup six-joint stock companies in Bengal.
• Capital was accumulated through other trade networks.
• Till the First World War European managing agencies in fact controlled large sectors of Indian industries.

Where did the workers come from?

• Most of the workers came from Indian villages.

Peculiarities of industrial growth:

• Early Indian cotton mills made coarse cotton yam.
• During the First World War Manchester imports to India declined.
• Indian factories supplied goods for war needs.

Small scale industries predominated:

• Most of the Industries were located in Bengal and Bombay.
• A small portion of total industrial labor worked in factories.
• Use of fly shuttle increased handicraft.

Market for goods:

● Advertisements helps in creating new consumers.

• When Manchester industrialists began selling cloth in India, they put labels on the cloth bundles, to make the place of manufacture and the name of the company familiar to the buyer. When buyers saw ‘Made in Manchester’, written in bold on the label, they felt confident to buy the cloth.
• The labels carried images and were beautifully illustrated with images of Indian gods and goddesses. The printed image of Krishna or Saraswati was also intended to make the manufacture from a foreign land, appear familiar to Indians.
• Manufacturers also printed calendars to popularize their products.
• When Indian manufacturers advertised, the nationalist message was clear and loud. If you care for the nation, then buy only ‘Indian’ products.
• Advertisements became a vehicle of the nationalist message of Swadeshi.