Article Name

De-industrialization : Summary
Alternate View

This article talks about the misconception that during the colonial period of British India, the traditional industry was deteriorating
Tirthankar Roy and that when the modern industry came up, it could not compensate for the loss in employment and income. This essay presents
Author an alternative view that the traditional industry did not decline, but it changed in organization and character.

The essay is divided into 3 sections; definition of de-industrialization, criticism, and alternative thesis.
Economic and Political The first section talks about what the traditional industry was. It included a wide range of work such as spinning, weaving, etc. and
Publisher Weekly these were not machinery-based industries, but family-labour oriented or ‘households’. The modern industry was termed as an
industry which used machinery for its output. The industrial revolution helped the trade between India and the world increase
dramatically. ‘De-industrialization suggests that the net effect was negative for India, and this theory consisted of 4 propositions
that were explained. To sum up, de-industrialization meansa decline in a traditional industry that
Place of Publishing India (a) derived from technological obsolescence; (b) was sustained by colonial policies, and (c) remained uncompensated.

The author brings up a contrast between Britain and India, where Britain was able to compensate for its decline in a traditional
2000 industry with modern industry. After some explanation about the two distinct roots of the concept of de-industrialization, the
Year of Publishing author talks about how it added to rural poverty by pushing many former artisans into agriculture.

In the 2nd section of the essay, the author criticizes the evidence on which de-industrialization is based upon. 3 types of evidence
De-industrialization, that relate to 1. The textile industry, 2. Industrial employment and 3. National income is mentioned and explained. He explained
Key Concepts Commercilization, tradi- that there cannot be de-industrialization if only one case study is generalized, and the evidence for national income increasing
tional industry, industrial between 1900 and 1947 go against what the concept is about. Overall, he says that we need an alternative theory to explain how
industry, average income, employment can decline in a traditional industry and yet there can be a rise in productivity.
technological obsoles-
cence, employment In the 3rd section, he talks about the alternative and explains concepts such as commercialization with examples, one being the
textile industry. He also talks about how the traditional industry declined due to internal competition instead of external. The net
contribution in employment and yet, a rise in total average income was also witnessed and hence, this was called commercializa-
tion.
Keywords decline, poverty, criti-
During the time period of when Suez Canal came into existence and when the great depression happened (1869 to 1929), there was
cism, evidences, alter- rapid commercialization in India.
native, industrializa-
tion, commercializa- In one of the parts he also talked about the participation of women in industry in which, when household industry declined, women
tion, case study, gener- exited their role as the main worker of the family. But now, they are returning to factories due to various factors.
alize, agriculture, tradi- The decline in employment followed from internal competition. But, equally, as a result of internal competition, there emerged
tional, household, segments of growth and capital accumulation. The
machinery, employ- commercialisation story, thus, explains not a one-dimensional decay, but a duality
ment, colonial period, in the experience of traditional industry. machinery. The key process was commercialisation and modernisation of traditional
Britain, India, techno- industry. Such a process was stimulated by long-distance trade, and resulted in capital accumulation. In the course of this transi-
logical, income, manu- tion, there was a persistence of traditional organisations in the short run, and a movement towards the labour market in the long
run. These messages are now well known to historians of early modern Europe and east Asia.
facturing
Hence, many of these alternatives can give an idea of what de-industrialization can look like and what factors affect them to an
extent that it changes the future course of a country’s Industrialization.

Tanya Saini
TD UG20
S2000037
Craft Doc Orientation