The Industrial Evolution Of India In Recent Times

THE INDUSTRIAL EVOLUTION OF INDIA IN RECENT TIMES BY 1. R. GADGIL M. A.. M. Litt. PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION Only a few changes, mostly of an unimportant character, have been made in the reprinting of the first edition. I have omitted the Bibliography as it was already disproportionately long and would have become much longer if I had tried to bring it to date. It was necessary in bringing out a second edition to continue this sketch of Indian Industrial Evolution to the present and I have done this by adding a new chapter dealing with all aspects of the period after 1914. I have chosen this course, as to incorporate the new material at various places in the old chapter would have entailed too great an overhauling of the original text. The extent, then, of the modification of conclu sions, etc., necessitated by the events of the War and post-War periods, is indicated in the new additional chapter, the main body of the work being still a sketch of evolution up to 1914. I have to thank many friends for help in the preparation and printing of this edition amongst these, I must make par ticular mention of Mr. S. R. Deshpande, B. Litt. Oxon, of the Bombay Labour Office. He has rendered me invaluable service by bringing to my notice various publications and by making many valuable suggestions and criticisms. PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION The work now published was first written as a thesis for the degree of Master of Letters of Cambridge University. It is printed here except for a few verbal alterations almost in the same form as the thesis. What has been attempted in the Vi THE INDUSTRIAL EVOLUTION OF INDIA following pages is a sketch of the economic history of India from the fifties ofthe last century to the beginning of the War in 1914. I have not brought this sketch up to date, mainly because of the fact that the shock imparted by the War to the economic equilibrium of the world has been very great and the conditions obtaining even to-day are not normal enough to enable us to measure accurately the effects of the events of the last decade. The subject is a wide one and yet the only dramatic event in this economic transition is, perhaps, the decline of the old handicrafts. The collapse of these was indeed sudden and complete. In other respects the events move on with a slow pace and a dull monotony. The most considerable change has been in the scope and methods of commerce a change brought about by the great development of the methods of transport, especially since the fifties of the last century. This great deve lopment of transport facilities during the latter half of the nine teenth century has, indeed, been put forward as a reason for the slow and one-sided progress of the industrial revolution in India. It might well be argued that a less rapid spread of the means of communication might have given a breathing-space to the old handicrafts in which to readjust their organization and their methods to the new conditions. On the other hand, it might be said that this would have meant only stagnation. In the domain of agriculture the most considerable change has been the com mercialization of agriculture. But the really serious aspect of the question is the problem of population...