How Indian textile manufacturing was the world's dominant industry for centuries — and how the British deliberately destroyed it to protect Lancashire mills. Dalrymple follows the cotton thread from Mughal looms to the Industrial Revolution.
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Highlights
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The Industrial Revolution was partly built on destroying Indian industry
British tariffs, import bans, and colonial policy systematically destroyed India's textile industry — then used the resulting poverty as evidence that India needed colonial modernization.
Deindustrialization is as important as industrialization — and much less studied
India was deindustrialized by colonial policy before Europe was industrialized. The destruction of Indian manufacturing is the suppressed other half of the Industrial Revolution story.