The Corporation That Changed The World

Salim Sahib:

From the old news items that Karl Marx wrote about East India Company. The three residencies in those days were, Calcutta, Madras and Awadh/Bombay (it is not clear). They just did not want the change that would have consolidated the power over them in the hands of Sir Charles Wood for another 20 years. The Manchester School, Marx mentions is all powerful textile robber barrons, who robbed Indias textile industry, and even got thumbs of Dacca weavers hands chopped off.

Afte 1857, that is exactly what happened, the residencies were directly reporting and were managed by the English legislature. Our anscestors, were merely used as pawns, altough there was a period, when the power could have indeed slipped out of the brits.

Mr. Gopalakrishnan,
Thank you for sharing this interesting yet tragic part of Indian history.
Whether it is the Arab conquest of Sind, the Afghan conquest of Delhi, the Mughal invasion of India, or the British plunder of India, we need to accept and learn from these mistakes of our ancestors. Thankfully, modern India has realized what happens when fratricide, appeasement of "superior" foreigners, and neglect of our own poor people by our selfish leaders are allowed for personal gain. Apparently, judging from the murders in NWFP and Islamabad, Mushy has decided to play the role of Mir Jafar and not that of Sirajuddaulah and Tipu Sultan.

imo its incorrect to think of indian textile making as indian "textile industry", specially during the period since the british got their firmans until Swadeshi mills were built. there was little industry..there were karkhanas of weavers who produced cloth and linen for the few big-shots but organised industry was not existant. to organize an industry, you need financing, create a supply chain of raw-materials and develop markets for your goods. an enterprenur class is needed to do these things. india had the labor and craftsman, but lacked the enterpernur class. the bania could provide financing but was highly insecure in all other apsects and therfore limited himself to apportunistic trades. the ashrafia nobility considered such activities below their dignity. the british made feeble attempts to organise weavers etc, but found the task of ensuring the supply chain and quality control (from expport perspective) daunting due to security and corruption situation...even in those days, they considered linen and silks from italy to be far superior and dependable.

regarding firmans..since the days of aurangjeb, the firmans were completely useless..no local afsar would honor them and deman his own fee. complaining to the king was useless..as they said in those days..dilli door ast.

regarding corruption, it was law of the land far before the english came, and king always demanded a personal bribe to conduct any bussiness (at least a token coin was required) and it percolated down to every level.

so while there may have been a few exemplary cotton fabrics from murshidabad or calicut, there was no "textile industry".

HP sahib:

I have been an avid student of that period. Just did not want to shame you, so quite politely published here, a simple news item that he had written, from my personal library.

Please listen, time is again to going to tell you about your analysis upon analysis, and your inabilty to reach conclusions and convictions.

That is about all HP Sahib, there is not need to get excited. BTW, my point is that Karl Marx is not God. I have not only researched him, have in my library. When I got sick of your and Massaddi Mian's naivete that I decided to put something real. If you have something real please bring out, or else don't talk the subject you know least about.

Anil,
I have said this earlier and would repeat this one final time. There are things that are way beyond your limited understanding and knowledge. I am not sure what you wanna prove by posting Marx's article but if you wanna learn what he really said about the East India Company, read the book he wrote after the 1857 mutiny.

Even after writing one of the better analysis of the mutiny, he had to eat a humble pie after a few of his assertions were proven wrong.
He later admitted his limited knowledge of the Indian affairs.

Babu anil,
If you don't have any thing intelligent to say, just stay the hell out of the discussion.

Massaddi Mian & HP Sahib:

Read below just a sample of what Karl Marx wrote about East India Company, three years before, the first war of independence in 1857. Please quit your senseless analysis upon analysis. I am publish here more my good old student days. Very little has changed, when the change must be brought into the society, be it Mohammad's Islam, of British East India Company or Iraq.

I had offered HP Sahib to buy dinner in San Francisco, if it is not Bhutto and Musharraff. Hopefully, if I prevail, HP Sahib, would learn something, that it is not analysis upon analysis. The same applies to Massaddi Mian.

Karl Marx wrote quite a bit on Indian Colonialism.

The East India Company ... Karl Marx saw

“…they shall still retain for themselves and their associates the privilege of plundering India for the space of 20 years.”

The Charter of the East India Company expires in 1854. Lord John Russell has given notice in the House of Commons, that the Government will be enabled to state, through Sir Charles Wood, their views respecting the future government of India, on the 3rd of June. A hint has been thrown out in some ministerial papers, in support of the already credited public rumour, that the Coalition1 have found the means of reducing even this colossal Indian question to almost Lilliputian dimensions. The Observer2 prepares the mind of the English people to undergo a new disenchantment.

Much less even than is supposed, will have to be done by my Lord Russell and Aberdeen.

The leading features of the proposed change appear to consist in two very small items. Firstly, the Board of Directotrs3 will be “refreshed” by additional members, appointed directly by the Crown, and even this new blood will be infused “sparingly at first.” The cure of the old directorial system is thus meant to be applied, so that the portion of blood now infused with “great caution” will have ample time to come to a standstill before another second infusion will be proceeded upon. Secondly, the union of Judge and of Exciseman in one and the same person, will be put an end to, and the judges shall be educated men. Does it not seem, on hearing such propositions, as if one were transported back into the earliest period of the Middle Ages, when the feudal lords began to be replaced as judges, by lawyers who were required, at any rate, to have a knowledge of reading and writing?

The “Sir Charles Wood”, who as President of the Board of Control,4 will bring forward this sensible piece of reform, is the same timber who, under the late Whig Administration, displayed such eminent capacities of mind, that the Coalition were at a dreadful loss what to do with him, till they hit upon the idea of making him over to India. Richard the Third offered a kingdom for a horse; - the Coalition offers an ass for a kingdom. Indeed, if the president official idiocy of an oligarchical government be the expression of what England can do now, the time of England’s ruling the world must have passed away.

On former occasions we have seen that the Coalition had invariably some fitting reason for postponing every, even the smaller measure. Now, with respect to India their postponing propensities are supported by public opinion of two worlds. The people of England and the people of India simultaneously demand the postponement of all the legislation on Indian affairs, until the voice of the natives shall have been heard, the necessary materials collected, the pending inquires completed. Petitions have already reached Downing Street, from the three Presidencies,5 deprecating precipitate legislation. The Manchester School have formed an “Indian Society,”6 which they will put immediately into motion, to get up public meetings in the metropolis and throughout the country, for the purpose of opposing any legislation on the subject for this session. Besides, two Parliamentary Committees are now sitting with a view to report respecting the state of affairs in the Indian Government. But this time the Coalition Ministry is inexorable. It will not wait for the publication of any Committee’s advice. It wants to legislate instantly and directly for 150 millions of people, and to legislate for 20 years at once. Sir Charles Wood is anxious to establish him claim as the modern Manu. Whence, of a sudden, this precipitate legislative rush of our “cautious” political valetudinarians?

They want to renew the old Indian Charter for a period of 20 years. They avail themselves of the eternal pretext of reform. Why? The English oligarchy have a presentiment of the approaching end of their days of glory, and they have a very justifiable desire to conclude such a treaty with English legislation, that even in the case of England’s escaping soon from their weak and rapacious hands, they shall still retain for themselves and their associates the privilege of plundering India for the space of 20 years.

Written on May 24, 1853
By Karl Marx

Published in the
New-York Daily Tribune
No. 3790, June 9, 1853
[Printed according to the text of the newspaper]

HP "Numbers from the 16th and 17th century don’t mean much. The agrarian economy dominated the world then."

Yes but the "value" in their meaning is that the world was almost equally developed unlike the haphazard "caucasian only" development we see today with the mitigating factor in between being colonization

Re: # 32 masadi,

Chowk staff owes you a thank you for debugging this problem. Looks like they have fixed it.

Does the book factor in the human cost in terms of famine affecting Bengal in particular during the rule of the EIC?

#31 Posted by masadi
"An estimate by Cambridge University historian Angus Maddison reveals that India's share of the world income fell from 22.6% in 1700, comparable to Europe's share of 23.3%, to a low of 3.8% in 1952"

Numbers from the 16th and 17th century don’t mean much. The agrarian economy dominated the world then. With huge number of acreages available and the ability to cultivate crops year round, both Indian and Chinese economies certainly looked better in numbers but that did lessen poverty in both countries.

The numbers in 1952 reflect the true state of affairs with industrial economies doing a bulk of production. Indian or Chinese agricultural economies actually made progress in their agricultural output but their overall numbers fell from the highs in the 17th century to lows in the 20th centuries proportionally.

Each handmade sari is sold for lakhs of rupees!

AS for textiles, Indian subcontient reached zenith in clothes, tepestry and all kinds of textiles.

If anbody read Ancient India by Romila Thaper -

The textiles arrived from India are paraded in the streets of Rome and the consignments are sold in no time.

(The above one is reproduced based on my memory)

Lets look at the ol ol art of clothe making. There are known stories of clothe made from silk (though the raw material was imported from China), gold, silver, ivory (??) and cotton. There still some families in Patan (Gujarat) who make sarees made from some exotic fibres. Each handmade sari is sold in lakhs!

If we look at the present strength of India (since the expiry of Muli-Fibre Agreement), Pakistan and Bangladesh in textile exports this is nothing but the story of continuity of the ol history of Indian domination of textile markets in the world. Though we dont dominate but have considerable presence.

Chowk editors are deliberately CENSORING my Chowk interact archives by altering the URL for every page except the first so that it leads to a blank dead page

The URL is posted as http://chowk.com/interacts/u//40823/1/0/8

Whereas it should be http://chowk.com/interacts/u/40823/1/0/8

Please take note, they will try all kinds of bs to censor...


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As Al Pacino said, "....you trying to sharpshoot me punk" ?

HP #28, India before the East India Company appeared on the scene was the leading producer and exporter of textiles in the world.

Here is something different (to my post) from the Wiki that is worth noting: "An estimate by Cambridge University historian Angus Maddison reveals that India's share of the world income fell from 22.6% in 1700, comparable to Europe's share of 23.3%, to a low of 3.8% in 1952"

#29 Harami ..Industrial revolution in England might have come much later than but British did layed the tracks for railways and mined he coals for steel productions in Bengal specially It mkay have been towards the end of the Raj but who iknew at that time indpendence of India wsould be soner and total...

Development of industries
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The extensive growth of railways in the country led to the development of the iron and steel industry. In 1870, James Erskine set up the Bengal Iron Works. It was also known as Barakar Iron Works. Some sources attribute the development to Hoare Miller and Co. of Kolkata. It is possible that James Erskine was an employee of that company. The first blast furnace using coal instead of charcoal went into production at Kulti in 1875. In those days, the place was more easily identified as Kendwa. Kulti was a smaller village than Kendwa. It utilised low-grade iron ore available locally. It was in 1901 that the country’s first iron ore mine was developed at Pansiraburu in Singhbhum district (then in Bengal, now in Jharkhand), as part of Manoharpur Ore Mines and linked to Kulti. In 1904, Kulti is credited with having produced steel from open hearth furnaces. However, with stiff competition from imported material, the steelmaking facilities were closed down. The ownership of the pioneering plant changed hands many times. The farsighted control of the plant by Sir Rajendranath Mookerjee, who had founded Martin & Co. with Sir Acquin Martin, kept it going.


IISCO Steel Plant at BurnpurBurn & Co promoted The Indian Iron and Steel Co. Ltd. in 1918. G.H.Fairhurst is credited with having founded the plant at Burnpur (then better known as Hirapur). Sir Rajendranath Mookerjee and T.Leslie Martin were also associated with it. Sir Biren Mookerjee joined a little later and played a major role in the development of the plant. Iron production started at Burnpur in 1922. Kulti Works of Bengal Iron was merged with IISCO in 1936. Steel Corporation of Bengal (SCOB) set up the steelmaking facilities at Burnpur in 1939. SCOB was merged with IISCO in 1952 and Martin Burn was then the managing agent of the company. Indian Standard Wagon (ISW) (later renamed Burn Standard) set up its wagon factory at Burnpur.

Another major development of the colonial culture was the establishment of clubs. The British are credited with the formation of such leading clubs as Asansol Club, Burnpur Club, Kulti Club and Dishergarh Club. In its initial days, these clubs did not admit Indians, who had their own organisations such as Hirapur Indian Association (later renamed Bharati Bhaban). Subsequently, Indians gained admission into the British clubs.

The growth and development of trade unions was a corollary of industrial development. Labour wages were low but the conditions of the rural areas were so pitiable that the area witnessed considerable influx of population not only from the neighbouring districts but also from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh (then the United Provinces). The countryside was weighed down by excessive land revenue and lack of development. Famines were a regular feature.


Independence and industrial boom
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The independence of the country in 1947 ushered in the next major change in scenario.

Damodar Valley Corporation, the first multipurpose river valley project in the country, had a major presence in the periphery of the area with two dams at Maithon and Panchet (at both places the river forms the border with Jharkhand). The artificial lakes behind the dams have added considerably to the natural beauty of the area and are centres of picnicking.

With the nationalisation of the railways East Indian Railway became Eastern Railway and Bengal Nagpur Railway became South Eastern Railway. Asansol became divisional head quarters of Eastern Railway. Andal has the largest marshalling yard in Asia. While the diesel loco shed at Andal can accommodate 101 locomotives, the electric locomotive shed at Asansol can accommodate 118 locomotives.

Chittaranjan Locomotive Works (CLW) was the first locomotive workshop in India. It has been named after the great freedom fighter, leader and statesman Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das. It initially produced steam locmotives. The production activity started on 26th January, 1950 the day when India became a Republic. The first steam locomotive Deshbandhu was dedicated to the nation by Dr. Rajendra Prasad, the first President of India. With the roll out of first CLW built WAG-9 electric locomotive Navyug on 14th November 1998, India joined the select club of five countries which can manufacture electric locomotives with 3-phase technology. In 2006, CLW produced Dr Silver, a 6000 HP three-phase locomotive with remote diagnostic system.[2] Until 31st March 2006 CLW has produced 3380 electric locomotives.

Sen Raleigh Industries started production in their cycle factory at Kanyapur, near Asansol, in 1949. Pilkington set up a glass factory at Asansol. The Jaykay group established an aluminium plant at Jaykaynagar, near Asansol. The Dhakeswari textile mill was set up at Suryanagar on the banks of the Damodar. Bengal Paper Mill was established at Ballabhpur, Ranigunj. Hindustan Cables Ltd. set up their plant at Rupnarayanpur.

The steel industry was expanded in a big way. A new plant was set up in neighbouring Durgapur. The plant at Burnpur was expanded. There also was considerable expansion of townships and other facilities. Nehru Park (formerly Lahmeyer Park) was built utilising the natural contour of the terrain on the banks of the Damodar. The airstrip at Burnpur can handle small aircraft.

Along with the expansion of the steel plant at Burnpur the outdated open top blast furnaces of Kulti were closed and the Kulti Works emerged as the pioneer and later as the largest producer of spun pipes in the country. It also produced a wide range of foundry products.