Which of the following statements correctly explains the impact of Industrial Revolution on India during the first half of the nineteenth century?
Answer & explanation
Answer: (a) Indian handicrafts were ruined.
Britain's machine-made cotton goods flooded India in the early nineteenth century while Indian textiles lost their export markets, so traditional handicrafts, especially weaving, were ruined. Mills, railways and tariff protection came only later or not at all.
- ✓ (a) Piece-goods fell from 33 per cent of India's exports in 1811-12 to about 3 per cent by 1850-51, while cheap British cloth captured the Indian market; artisans lost both markets.
- ✗ (b) Large-scale machine production in Indian textiles began only after the first cotton mill in Bombay in 1854, well after the period in question.
- ✗ (c) India's first railway line opened only in 1853; the network spread in the second half of the century.
- ✗ (d) It was the reverse: Britain taxed Indian cloth entering Britain, while British manufactures entered India with little duty.
Remember · Industrial Revolution's early impact on India: de-industrialisation — ruin of handicrafts and weavers as British machine goods flooded in. Railways (1853) and cotton mills (1854) came later.
📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 10 India and the Contemporary World – II, Ch 4 (practise this chapter) · Class 10 India and the Contemporary World – II, Ch 4 (practise this chapter) · Class 11 Indian Economic Development, Ch 1 (practise this chapter)
Sources
- NCERT Class 10 · India and the Contemporary World – II, Chapter 4 “In 1811-12 piece-goods accounted for 33 per cent of India’s exports; by 1850-51 it was no more than 3 per cent.”
- NCERT Class 10 · India and the Contemporary World – II, Chapter 4 “They pressurised the government to impose import duties on cotton textiles so that Manchester goods could sell in Britain without facing any competition from outside.”
- NCERT Class 11 · Indian Economic Development, Chapter 1 “Even as the country's world famous handicraft industries declined, no corresponding modern industrial base was allowed to come up to take pride of place so long enjoyed by the former.”
Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2020, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). ·