WEAVERS IRON SMELTERS AND FACTORY OWNERS

Q1. What kind of cloth had a large market in europe?

Ans. Chintz, cossaes or khassa and bandanna.

Q2. What is jamdani?

Ans. Jamdani is a fine muslin on which decorative motifs are woven on the loom.

Q3. What is bandanna?

Ans. Bandanna is a  brightly coloured and printed scarf for the neck or head.

Q4. Who are agarias?

Ans. Groups of men and women carrying basket-loads of iron are known as the agarias?

Q5. Fill in the blanks.

  1. The word chintz comes from the word chhint.
  2. Tipu’s sword was made of wootz steel.
  3. India’s textile exports declined in the 19th  century.

Q6. How do the names of different textiles tell us about their history?

Ans.

  • European traders first saw fine cotton cloth from india carried by arab merchants in mosul in present day iraq, hence they began to refer to all finally woven textiles as muslin.
  • When the portuguese first came to india in search of spices, the cotton textiles which they took back to europe came to be known as calico.
  • The chintz is derived from the hindi word chhint, a cloth with small and colourful flowery designs.

Q7. Why did the wool and silk producers in england protest against the import of indian textiles in the early 18th century?

Ans.

  • Textile industry had just begun to develop in england in the early 18th century.
  • England found themselves unable to compete with indian textiles.
  • They wanted to secure market within the country by preventing the entry of indian textiles.

Q8. How did the development of cotton industries in britain affect textile producers in india?

Ans.

  • Indian textiles now had to compete with british textiles in european and american markets.
  • Exporting textiles to england became increasingly difficult since very high duties were imposed on indian textiles.
  • Thousands of weavers in india became unemployed.
  • By the 1830s british cotton cloth flooded indian markets.

Q9. Why did the indian iron smeltingindustry decline in the 19th century?

Ans.

  • The new forest laws of the colonial government prevented people from entering the reserved forests.
  • In some areas the government did grant access to the forest but the iron smelters had to pay a very high tax to the forest department for every furnace they used.
  • By the late 19th century iron and steel was being imported from britain, this reduced the demand for iron produced by the local smelters.

Q10. What problems did the indian textile industry face in the early years of its development?

Ans.

  • It found difficult to compete it with the cheap textiles imported from britain.
  • The colonial government did not imposed tax on import to protect indian industries.

Q11. What helped tisco expand steel production during the first world war?

Ans.

  • When in 1914 the war broke out steel produced in britain now had to meet the demands of war in europe.
  • As import of steel from britain had declined so indian railways turned to tisco for supply of rails.
  •  the colonial government bought 90%  of the steel manufactured by tisco. At that time tisco became the biggest steel industry within the british empire.