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Traditional Industry in the Economy of Colonial India. By TIRTHANKAR Roy. Cambridge Studies in Indian History and Society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. ix, 252 pp. $64.95 (cloth).
This important new book tackles an old question-whether colonialism stimulated or dampened industrial development in India-with some new insights drawn from India's often overlooked handicraft industries. Engaging the period from the 1870s to the 1930s, Tirthankar Roy argues that under colonialism, specifically with the introduction of long-distance trade, traditional industries (defined as tool-- based, informally organized, and of precolonial origin) underwent substantial reorganization and growth. These changes were not unlike what happened in early modern Europe, raising the inevitable question of why economic development did not continue in India as it had done in the West.
Roy is not the first to criticize the popular view that colonialism destroyed India's burgeoning industrial potential. But he does so in a novel way, examining the various fortunes, not just of the textile industries that are the most celebrate victims of imperialism, but also of some of the region's other traditional industries, namely gold thread, brassware, leather, and carpets. The resulting picture is rich and enlightening, for the decline of certain products, places, and forms of production occurred simultaneously with...