The Story of Indian Manufacturing: Encounters with the Mughal and British Empires (1498–1947) PDF
Preview The Story of Indian Manufacturing: Encounters with the Mughal and British Empires (1498–1947)
Vijay K. Seth a n u facturin M g n a di n The Sto r y o f I Encounters with the Mughal and British Empires (1498–1947) The Story of Indian Manufacturing Vijay K. Seth The Story of Indian Manufacturing Encounters with the Mughal and British Empires – (1498 1947) VijayK.Seth FacultyofManagementStudies UniversityofDelhi NewDelhi,India InternationalManagementInstitute NewDelhi,India ISBN978-981-10-5573-7 ISBN978-981-10-5574-4 (eBook) DOI10.1007/978-981-10-5574-4 LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2017951616 ©TheEditor(s)(ifapplicable)andTheAuthor(s)2018 Thisworkissubjecttocopyright.AllrightsaresolelyandexclusivelylicensedbythePublisher, whetherthewholeorpartofthematerialisconcerned,specificallytherightsoftranslation, reprinting,reuseofillustrations,recitation,broadcasting,reproductiononmicrofilmsorinany otherphysicalway,andtransmissionorinformationstorageandretrieval,electronicadaptation, computersoftware,orbysimilarordissimilarmethodologynowknownorhereafterdeveloped. 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The registered company address is: 152 Beach Road, #21-01/04 Gateway East, Singapore 189721,Singapore Totheprincessofthestoryofmylife,Arpita P REFACE Historyinformsusthatmostoftheeconomiesoftheworldthatwereableto sustain long-term and consistent higher rates of growth, and were able to transformthemselvesfromthestatusofunderdevelopedtodevelopedecon- omies,haveexperiencedrevolutionintheirmanufacturingsector.Therevo- lutionary changes that occurred took place during what is known as the Industrial Revolution. Development in the manufacturing sector provides conditions,wheneconomiesdevelopcapabilitytocreateunlimitedamounts ofwealth.Themanufacturingsectoralsofacilitatesthetransferofmanpower fromfarmingtomanufacturing.Thetransferofmanpowerresultsinhigher standards of living. It is now being increasingly realized that the nature of development and efficiency of other sectors also depends on the level of growth of the manufacturing sector of the economy. It is due to these importanthistoricalfacts,thatintheliteratureoneconomicsofdevelopment, industrializationanddevelopmenthavebecomecoterminous. The process of this kind of transformation initially occurred in Britain, and then it spread to different economies of Europe and America. After World War I, it spread to the U.S.S.R. In the recent past, this kind of transformation has been experienced by the economies of Japan, South Korea and China. However, the Indian economy has yet to receive the gainsfromthiskindoftransformation. It is quite an important historical fact that even before the birth of the IndustrialRevolution,Indiaproducedaroundtwenty-fivepercentofglob- allytradedmanufacturedgoods.Thistoowiththehelpofsmallhousehold workshops, where craftsmen worked with hand tools. India experienced vii viii PREFACE de-industrialization after 1750. Since then, India has never been able to achievethestatusofanimportantmanufacturingnationoftheworld.This has happened, despite the fact, that it has a well-diversified manufacturing sector. The Indian economy has in fact deviated from the empirically accepted path of development, which has been established by several scholars. This historical paradox motivated me to explore the puzzle of how a country that produced high quality handicrafts, which were traded inexchangeofbullion,losttheraceofbecominganimportantmanufactur- ing nation of the world. It was quite obvious to me that the roots of this paradoxlieinthepast. The present work is an outcome of my intellectual journey, which I undertook to seek an answer to the problem. My journey was made quite comfortablebythepathclearedbythescholars,whohavemadecontribu- tionintheareasofhistory,historyofbusiness,economichistory,historyof technology,sociologyandeconomictheory.Thisscholarprovidedmewith awell-laidpath,withenoughlighttoguidemetomydestination. However, so many times I felt I was walking alone in darkness. The isolationsometimescreateddoubtinmymindastowhetherIwasfollowing acorrectpathornot.Insuchsituations,toknowtheappropriatenessofmy path, I shared my ideas with other scholars by writing about my under- standing about different issues in professional journals. In the course of writing the present work, I published three papers, which were based on certainportionsofthechaptersofthepresentbook.Thesepapersappeared in the Journal of Management Research and Global Business Review. The feedbackthatIreceivedfromfellowtravellersgavemeconfidencethatIam followingthecorrectcourse. I do not claim that I have created an original account of the story of Indian manufacturing. What I have attempted here is to place the facts aboutIndianmanufacturing,whichwerespreadacrossdifferentdisciplines ofthesocialsciences,intooneplace,inaframeworktodevelopthestoryof Indianmanufacturing.Nowthebookisinyourhands,andIhopeyouwill enjoyreadingit. New Delhi, India VijayK.Seth A CKNOWLEDGEMENTS I have been working on this book for almost seven years. In the course of writingthebook,Ihavebenefitedimmenselyfromthewritingsofsomeof the great scholars. Their writings have both stimulated new thoughts and understanding, and have provided a new direction to my work. Here, I would like to mention the writings of Professors E. J. Hobsbawn, David Landes, Maxine Berg, William Lazonick, C. F. Sabel, M. J. Priore and AndreGunderFrank. Iwillalsoliketoplaceonrecordthecontributionofmyteachersatthe Delhi School of Economics, Professors Dharma Kumar, J. Krishnamurthy and Om Prakash, whose writings and lectures on economic history have provided initial advantage to my exploration on the subject. I have also learnt a great deal from the writings of economic and business historians, whohavemadesignificantcontributionstotheliteratureonIndia.Writings of some of these scholars have impacted my study significantly. These scholars are Professors Burton Stein, C. A. Bayly, Morris David Morris, Irfan Habib, Sanjay Sumbramanyan, Rajat Kanta Ray, Trithankar Ray, PrasannanParthasarthiandDwizendraTripathi. Thequalityoftheworkimprovedsubstantiallyfrommyinteractionswith ProfessorsK.L.Krishna,J.P.S.Ubroi,B.N.GoldarandRaghavGaiha. IwouldalsoliketoacknowledgethebenefitsofvaluablecommentsthatI received from my colleagues at the Faculty of Management Studies of the University of Delhi, where I completed a major part of my study. Here I wouldliketomentionthenamesofProfessorsJoyMitraandVivekSuneja, DrsHarshVardhanVerma,AmitBandhanandPankajSinha.Iwouldalso ix x ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS liketoplaceonrecordthecontinuousencouragementandmotivationthatI receivedfromPadmaShrirecipient,ProfBakulDholakia,DirectorGeneral ofIMI,whereIamworkingatpresent. I am also grateful to the librarians of the Ratan Tata Library of Delhi School of Economics; the Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi; Central LibraryoftheUniversityofDelhi;JawaharlalNehruUniversity;Facultyof Management Studies, University of Delhi; and International Management Institute,NewDelhi. I am also indebted to my brother-in law, the late Prof B. B. L. Sharma whokeptonmotivatingmetofinishthebookassoonaspossible.Maybehe knewthatduetodelaysinwritingofthisbook,hemightnothavebeenable to read it before he went on his heavenly journey. I would also like to mentionthecontributionofmynephewMrPankajVianayakSharma,who quietlylistenedtovariousfactsthatIhavementionedinthebookregarding variousaspectsoftheeconomy,societyandpolityofIndia. I will fail in my duty if I do not mention the name of my doctoral students, Bharat Singh, Ritu Solanki, Lubina Zaidi and Prushottam Arya, whohelpedmeinseveralways. Finally,Iwouldliketomention that despitethe availability ofallafore- mentioned resources , this book would not have been completed without the quiet contribution made by my wife, Meera Seth. I am also equally grateful to my daughter, Arpita Seth, who not only brought immense happinessinmylife,butalsogavepurposetomyexistence.Iamdedicating thisbooktoherbecauseitisonlyrecentlythatIhavebeguntorealizeher importanceinmylifewhensheleftmyhouseholdtolivewithherhusband VishalSaxena. VijayK.Seth C ONTENTS 1 Introduction 1 1.1 TraditionalFlexibleManufacturing:BeginningtheStory ofIndianManufacturing 4 1.2 TraditionalFlexibleManufacturingandtheMughal Empire 7 1.3 TransformationofTraditionalFlexibleManufacturinginto ModernManufacturing 10 1.4 TraditionalFlexibleManufacturingandtheEastIndia Company 12 1.5 SpatialSpreadofModernManufacturing 15 1.6 AlternativePathstoDevelopModernManufacturing 20 Bibliography 27 2 TraditionalFlexibleManufacturingandtheMughalEmpire 31 2.1 EconomicEnvironmentofManufacturingDuringthe MughalEmpire 35 2.2 CompositionofManufacturingDuringtheMughalEmpire 45 2.3 TraditionalFlexibleManufacturingDuringtheMughal Empire 52 Bibliography 67 xi
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