Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-kw2vx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-06T15:39:45.994Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

3 - From Handlooms to Modern Industry and the Emergence of a Planned Economy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 February 2025

Bishnupriya Gupta
Affiliation:
University of Warwick
Get access

Summary

Chapter 3 is about industry. The decline of the traditional textile industry is analysed in the context of competition from the new technology of the British industrial revolution. This sector was small part of the economy. A modern industrial sector developed from the middle of the nineteenth century, which was more productive than the traditional sector and it grew rapidly. In 1947, the shares of the modern and the traditional sectors were roughly the same. Entrepreneurship and capital for the modern import substituting cotton textile industry came from the Indian trading communities. British investment in industry was in the exporting sectors, such as tea and jute. After 1947, India adopted a strategy of intermediate and capital goods led industrialization. The process of industrialization was led by the public sector with highly interventionist policies towards trade and industrial location. The role of the private sector was constrained. Yet, the industrial conglomerates owned by family based enterprises prospered and dominated the industrial sector in second half of the twentieth century.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2025

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×