Industrialisation (up to 1947)

Industrialisation (up to 1947) The process of industrialisation and the growth of industrial capitalism in India was integrally connected with the consolidation of British colonial rule and the transformation of India from a feudal into a colonial and semi-feudal country. The fact that India was colonised by Britain made her history proceed along a path different from that of the West. Firstly, industrial capitalism emerged and developed in India in conditions basically different from those in which it had developed in the West. It arose in a dependent country ruled by a foreign power and so was unable to develop along independent lines. Colonial rule transformed the Indian economy into an appendage of the metropolitan economy. Secondly, unlike in Britain, industrial capitalism grew in this country not by defeating feudalism but by adjusting itself to it. In India feudal princes like those of Baroda, Mysore, Indore and Travancore themselves set up factories and encouraged and helped industrialists in various ways. In Bengal too, at the beginning of the twentieth century, zamindars like Manindra Chandra Nandi of kasimbazar, Brajendra Kishore Roy Choudhury of Mymensingh, Bipradas Pal Choudhury of Nadia, Taran Gobinda Choudhury of Pabna and others invested in industrial enterprises.
Thus industrial capitalism did not make its appearance in this country in the course of the normal evolution of industry as it did in the countries of the West. No anti-feudal, bourgeois social revolution, or technological leap had prepared the way for its emergence. On the contrary, it was transplanted from an advanced capitalist country to a dependent feudal country to cater to the imperial needs of the former. This is where India stood in the nineteenth century and Bengal was no exception to this pattern.
The industrial scene in Bengal before colonial rule was dominated by handicrafts encompassing a wide range of industries viz, textiles, pottery, cutlery, tanning and leather, paper, indigenous medicine, oil, bell-metal, brass-metal etc. There were leaps from the stage of handicraft to that of manufactory in some sectors like paper, but that was secondary.
From the eighteenth century major changes had been taking place in the political scenario of Bengal which ushered in broad economic and social changes. The battle of palashi (1757) opened up new opportunities of business and hastened the process of urbanisation, railway construction, the growth of Calcutta port and Barrabazar market. It also encouraged the migration of the marwaris from Rajasthan to Eastern India and the settlement in Calcutta of different business communities other than Bengalis, such as Marwaris, Khetris, Parsis, Gujaratis, Punjabis, Chettiars, armenians, Jews and Europeans. The new situation opened up new opportunities to these business communities to serve as intermediaries in the new export-oriented commerce that the British were developing. Among those Bengali merchants who benefitted were ramdulal de and dwarkanath tagore. While Ramdulal took advantage of the American War of Independence and became the real pioneer of trade with American in Bengal, Dwarkanath had his interests intertwined with the British. He invested in such fields as opium, indigo, sugar, silk, coal, banking and shipping, most of which were done jointly with the Europeans. What is pertinent to note here is that the business they carried on was not along independent lines but in close collaboration with foreign capital.
While colonial rule benefitted a section of Bengali merchants and entrepreneurs who acted as one of its main pillars, there were other social classes that bore the brunt of colonial expansion. The policy of plunder perpetrated during periods of mercantilism and free trade contributed to the destruction of the handicraft industries of Bengal. It was stated in a survey of 1890 that except in woodwork, brassware, mat-work and pottery, the manufacturers of Bengal had almost entirely been superseded by European imports. This de-industrialisation, accompanied with the steady drain of wealth to Britain, evoked a strong reaction from nationalists. The nationalist discourse of the time was articulated through the writings and speeches of such intellectuals as Dadabhai Naoroji, MG Ranade and romesh chunder dutt, who focussed on issues such as the poverty of India, the colonial policy of revenue extraction etc. While nationalist papers like Amrta Bazar Patrika, Bengalee dealt with various issues relating to the impact of colonial rule, Bholanath Chandra in Mookerjee's Magazine advocated the boycott of foreign goods in favour of indigenous ones. satish chandra mukherjee in Dawn and Dawn Society's Magazine and others in periodicals such as Swadeshi and Bande Mataram debated the efficacy of industrialisation in India.
While there was a lively response to the new situation, swadeshi economic ventures started developing from the late nineteenth century. Swadeshi industries got an impetus during the political campaign against the partition of bengal in 1905 when the cry for the boycott of foreign goods was added to the general propaganda in favour of the manufacture and use of indigenous products. Bande Mataram held that boycott and swadeshi would "mutually stimulate" each other, the former creating a market for the latter.
Despite strong public opinion in favour of swadeshi, there was no homogenous character to the industrial enterprises of Bengal. The expatriate British capitalists invested in jute, tea, paper and other industries and were busy extracting as much profit as possible for export to Britain in collaboration with Indian middlemen. The Indian big bourgeoisie, consisting primarily of Marwaris, invested mainly in cotton textiles and jute; and set up such jute mills as the Birla Jute Mills (1919), Hukumchand Jute Mills (1919), and Hanuman Jute Mills (1928) and cotton textile mills such as the Mathurdas Mills (1921) owned by HG Dalmia and the two cotton mills (1916, 1927) owned by ST Goenka.
The Indian big bourgeoisie and a section of the middle bourgeoisie such as those represented, among others, by Rajendra Nath Mukherjee, had their economic and political interests tied up with the British Raj and were generally unmoved by the swadeshi movement of the time. The small and other sections of the middle bourgeoisie of Bengal, on the other hand, pursued a policy not of collaboration with the Raj but of self-reliance, and strove to bring about industrialisation along national lines. These swadeshi entrepreneurs drew sustenance from the anti-partition movement and strove to create and capture the domestic market, primarily by the production of consumer goods, and secondarily by technological inventions and development of the means of productions for commercial purposes whenever possible. It was this trend which gave swadeshi industrial enterprises a national content and colour.
From the late 19th to the mid-20th century, there were different strands within indigenous industrial activity. The first was promotion of technical education by formulating a science curriculum in the university syllabus, and by setting up a separate technical institute and a society for the development of Indian industries. With this end in view, the Indian Industrial Association was founded in 1891 by Promothanath Bose and the Association for the Advancement of Scientific & Industrial Education of Indians was established in 1904 by Jogendrachandra Ghosh. The latter provided scholarships to young men so that they could go abroad to get technical education and join indigenous companies as experts after their return. The second objective was the promotion of swadeshi sales through exhibitions, swadeshi shops, and cost price hawking by volunteers.
The third important strand, which made swadeshi a viable proposition in Bengal, was the revival of traditional handicrafts. This was noticeable in cotton spinning and weaving in Presidency, Burdwan, Dhaka, Chittagong and Rajshahi Divisions; silk weaving in its traditional centres at Murshidabad and Malda; cutlery manufacture at Burdwan, Howrah, Noakhali and Barisal; brass and bell-metal wares in North Midnapore which replaced imported enamelled goods; nib manufacture in Barisal, Purulia, Comilla, Calcutta and other districts; paper manufacture in Dhaka, Hughli, Howrah, and Murshidabad; and conch-bangles in Dhaka, Sylhet, Murshidabad and Chittagong.
The fourth strand, the building up of modern industries with features that gave them a real swadeshi content, accompanied the revival of handicrafts. These were cotton textiles, drugs and pharmaceuticals, iron foundries, matches, cigarettes, leather, paper, pottery, chemicals, waterproof materials, glass, oil, ink, perfumes, disc records, pen, pencil, penholder, electric lamp, comb, button, hurricane lantern, fan, flash-light, battery and types, to name only a few.
Cotton Textiles A number of weaving, hosiery and cotton mills were set up in the face of foreign competition. To the first category belonged the Pioneer Weaving Mill (1906) of Jalpaiguri, the Calcutta Weaving Co (1906) of Calcutta and others formed with nominal capital, ranging from Rs 20,000 to Rs 50,000. The hosiery mills were more conspicuous by their presence, both numerically and in the volume of business. The Oriental Hosiery Mfg Co (1893), later known as the Bengal Hosiery Co, The Student Economic Hosiery (1908), the Tollygunj Hosiery Factory of Calcutta, Gupta & Co's Hosiery Factory (1904) of Patuatully, Dhaka, and Pabna Silpa Sanjibani Co (1906) of Pabna, to name only a few, made cotton vests and cotton and woollen socks of different varieties in the face of Japanese and British competition. To the third category belonged the Kamala Mills (1906) and Sreenath Mill (1906) of Calcutta, the Bangalakshmi Cotton Mills (1906) of Hughli, the Mohini Mills (1906) of Kushtia and many others which produced fancy cotton goods, dhoties, sarees, bed-sheets, markins, twills, and hospital requisites such as bandages, and gauge cloths, as also grey and coloured yarns, many of which had a large demand in Bengal and outside.
Drugs & Pharmaceuticals The system of Ayurveda which served as the basis of Indian pharmacopaeoa right from the ancient period declined when the allopathic system of the West got an ascendancy with the patronage of the colonial state. Chemicals and patent medicines, mainly of the allopathic, and partially of the homeopathic variety coming from UK, Japan, Italy, USA and Hong Kong got a strong foothold at least in urban areas. Foreign companies set up their units in India and hawked their wares everywhere. Of those, the major companies were D Waldie & Co, Bathgate & Co, Wilkinson, Smith Stanistreet & Co, R Scott Thomson & Co, King & Co and Hahneman Home.
The swadeshi response to this challenge took two forms: one was the regeneration of ayurvedic medicine, and the other was the introduction of swadeshi allopathy in the form of an admixture of eastern and western systems of medicine. Notable among the ayurvedic companies were the Haran Ayurvediya Aushadhalaya (1865) of Bankura, Kalpataru Ayurvedic Works (1914) and CK Sen & Co (1878) of Calcutta, Sakti Aushadhalaya (1901), Sadhana Aushadhalaya (1914) and Dacca Ayurvediya Pharmacy Ltd (1919) of Dhaka. The most notable of the sawadeshi allopathic companies were the Bengal Chemical & Pharmaceutical Works (1892) and the Bengal Immunity Co (1919) of Calcutta, which made original research and manufactured, among other things, patent medicines covering a wide range of diseases such as liver disorders, female diseases, cough and cold, diabetes, amoebic dysentery, skin diseases, diphtheria etc. Despite strong foreign competition and hurdles put up by the government in the form of high railway freight, these two companies spread their market network in many parts of the country and generated considerable employment opportunities.
Iron Foundry For a long time the ironsmiths of Bengal used to produce articles of daily use in rural and urban centres. However, with the introduction and expansion of the railways and the gradual rise in the quantity of imported iron and steel under colonial rule, indigenous industry had been on the wane. European hard iron was more suitable for industrial establishments than the indigenous iron of the maleable type. Despite these limitations, indigenous smiths and entrepreneurs continued their manufacture through indigenous process as also by the adoption of western technology and methods during the swadeshi period. The products included agricultural implements, knives, razors, scissors, nut-crackers, daggers, steel trunks, iron-safes, despatch-boxes, dustbins, tubes, lock and key, surgical instruments, sugarcane-crushers and machines of different types.
The major centres in the rural zone were Kanchannagar of Burdwan; Lohani of Kushtia; bhagawangola, Shimulia, Ziaganj and Dhulian of murshidabad; Jagatballavpur, Panchla and Makardah of Howrah; Siuli Union, Nimta, Deolia, Khamarpara and Sodepur of 24-Parganas; Senhat in Nadia; Kalikutcha and Brahmanbaria of Tripura and some areas of Chittagong. The urban firms that excelled in this branch of manufacturing were, among others, Sikdar & Co, Subal Factory, India Cutlery Mfg Co, Bhowani Eng Works, Maya Eng Works and Betjan & Co of Calcutta; House of Labourers and Pioneer Iron Works of Comilla; the Great Eastern Galvanising Works and Ghatak Iron Works of 24-Parganas; KL Mukherjee, Hind Machineries (sic) Ltd and the India Machinery Co of Howrah. These firms manufactured a variety of machines on their own, viz, wood-cutting, peeling, dipping, splint-levelling, various match-making machines, drilling, milling, grinding, lathe presses, shearing, printing, weighing, machines for cotton and jute mills, planing and many others.
Match The safety matches we use today were the products of the West. The import of matches to India started roughly from the mid-19th century. The main exporting countries were Sweden, Norway, Germany, Belgium, Japan and UK. Of them, Sweden and Japan became dominant exporters in later years. After World War I, giant monopolies came to be formed and one of them - the WIMCO (Western India Match Co)-the Indian unit of the Swedish-American match combines (Svenska Tandsticks Aktiebolaget) - attempted was out to monopolise the Indian market and, in the process, crush the indigenous industries.
The swadeshi entrepreneurs met the challenge from the West by setting up, with whatever resources available at hand, workshops both on the factory and cottage scale in the 1890s. The failure of two of the earliest ventures, namely the Bengal Safety Match Mfg Co (1892) and the Indian Match Factory Ltd (1892) of Calcutta due to foreign competition and non-availability of wood, was followed, during the heyday of the swadesi, by the formation of a number of new swadesi companies. To the category of those operating on factory lines belonged the New Sunderban Match Factory Ltd (1923) of Khulna; the Prasanna Match Factory (1921) of Dhaka; the Bhagirathi Match Factory (1926) and the Pioneer Match Factory of 24-Parganas; the Bande Mataram Match Factory (1907), the Oriental Match Mfg Co (1906) and the Calcutta Match Factory (1911) of Calcutta; the Santosh Match Factory of Purulia and many others. Of the small-sized factories we can name Bangiya Diasalai Karjalaya (1925), Annapurna Match Factory and Shaikh Gaffur Mia's Factory of Calcutta; the Jalpaiguri Industries Ltd (1925) of Jalpaiguri; Kishoreganj Match Factory (1921) of Mymensingh; Bharat Match Factory (1923) of Burdwan; Lucifer Ltd (1924) of Faridpur and others. The products of these, though of varying quality, gained a strong foothold in the Bengal market and gave employment to thousands of workers.
In the 1940s, Indian big capital started taking an active interest in this industry. World War II brought about a dislocation of trade and an opportunity to mint money. The large home market must have attracted Indian capitalists to this sector. The result was the setting up of the Northern India Match Co Ltd (1946) in North Bengal as a joint Bengali-Marwari enterprise with CK Goenka on the Board of Directors.
Tobacco Although tobacco had been fairly well-known in India for a long time, the British east india company, with the object of increasing its exports to Europe took the initiative from 1829 to extend tobacco cultivation in Bengal, Madras and Burma. One of the elements of this economic penetration was the conversion from the mid-19th century of parts of Bihar by such private firms as Begg, Dunlop & Co and the Peninsular Tobacco Co into tobacco-producing zones. The second part was played by the government, which opened a tobacco station for experimental purposes near Rangpur. The districts tobacco was reputed to be the best in the market. Foreign companies from Turkey, Britain and USA, which exported cigars and cigarettes in huge quantity to Bengal and other parts of India, played the third part. The swadeshi bourgeoisie responded by setting up factories which made cigarettes, cigars, bidis (tobacco wrapped up in a leaf-a typical swadeshi product), snuff etc and thereby added to the list of traditional tobacco products viz, khaini (chewable tobacco) and zarda (addendum to betel-leaf).
The companies which attained a fair measure of prosperity included the Rangpur Tobacco Co (1907) of Rangpur; the India Cigarette Mfg Co Ltd of Murshidabad; the Naidu Cigarette Co of Howrah; AC Dutt & Co of Nadia; the Globe Cigarette Co, the Bengal Cigarette Co, the National Tobacco Co and the East India Cigarette Mfg Co (1908) of Calcutta. The interesting fact about Rangpur Tobacco Co is that when the majority of banks refused to give it loans, the company started its own bank, named Rangpur Loan Office, and thereby brought about a merging of swadesi industrial capital with swadesi banking capital.
Leather In Bengal the leather industry grew on a cottage scale and its products consisted of footwear, buckets, water-bags, straps, harness and saddlery as also bands of instrumental musicians. The initial efforts of Dutch merchants to organise trade in Indian hides in the 19th century was followed later by the participation of a large number of German and British firms in this field. Tanneries were owned by Indians, Europeans and Chinese, the principal centres of leather production being Calcutta and its suburbs, Dhaka, Pabna, Noakhali, Khulna and Jessore. The number of tanners and curriers exceeded 5000 in 1901.
From the late 19th century, foreign boots and shoes were marketed through foreign concerns such as Cuthbertson & Harper's, Watts & Co, Whiteaway Laidlaw & Co-all of Calcutta with branches in other places. In response, swadeshi entrepreneurs set up leather factories, introduced chrome tanning, and competed successfully with their foreign counterparts. The major swadeshi factories were: Nadia Tannery (1906) of Nadia; Boot & Equipment Factory Co (1908), Swadeshi Leather Works, National Tannery (1905) of Calcutta; Bankura Boot & Shoe Co of Bankura; Tanning Co (1910) of Pabna; Dacca Tannery Works of Dhaka; Swadeshi Shoe Co of Barisal; and the Berhampore Leather Mfg Co (1910) of Murshidabad.
Waterproof In a territory like Bangla, which experiences heavy rainfall every year, there was a genuine need for waterproofs or canvas goods. Such goods imported from Europe and Japan in increasing quantity were either very expensive or inferior in quality, and generally not suitable for prevailing weather conditions. The Bengal Waterproof Works Ltd (1920), the maker of 'Duckback' products, met this long-standing need to a large extent almost single-handedly. It manufactured waterproofs and waterproof goods of different varieties.
It has to be pointed out hore that the rise of a particular industry helps in the promotion of certain other ancillary industries. This was true of Bengal Chemicals which manufactured, among other things, tanning materials required by the National Tannery and other tanning and leather works. The same was true of BWWL. The special kind of cloth needed by Duckback, which was manufactured earlier on a small scale by the Indian textile mills when the demand was small, was now being produced on a large scale due to a remarkable increase in the demand for Duckback waterproofs. As the demand flourished, the demand for other goods connected with it viz buttons, brass eyelets, nails, rope, cotton-rope buckles etc also increased. The BWWL thus directly supported swadeshi industries such as the button industry for which Dhaka was well known; the brass and nickel workers of Behala and Bhowanipur of Calcutta supplied the other goods. There can be no denying the fact that the BWWL occupied the pride of place in this industrial sector not only in undivided Bengal, but also in undivided India.
Miscellaneous industries These include pottery, glass, oil, paper, brick, tiles, mortar, ink, perfumes, hair oil, soap, pen, pencil, penholder, nib, hurricane lantern, kerosene lamp, electric lamp, fan, flashlight, battery, comb, button, umbrella as also dried prawn, condiments etc. The major companies engaged in the production these items were: the Calcutta Pottery Works (1907), later known as Bengal Potteries Ltd (1919), Bengal Pottery Works Ltd (1906) of Calcutta, and B C Pual & Sons of 24-Paraganas in pottery; the Pioneer Glass Mfg Co, Indian Glass Co, and the Bengal Glass Co of 24-Parganas in glass; the Barisal National Oil Mill (1908) of Barisal, Sambhu Oil Mill of Murshidabad, and PK Sen Oil Mill (1920) of Chittagong in oil; Tajarat Envelope Mfg Co of Mymensingh, City Paper & Straw Board Mills Ltd of Calcutta, and Jhargram Paper Mills Ltd of Midnapore in paper; Birbhum Firebrick & Pottery Works of Birbhum, Jessore Soorkey & Oil Mills Ltd (1912) of Jessore, and Dacca Brick & Tiles Mfg & Trading Co Ltd of Dhaka in bricks, tiles and mortar; Sulekha Works of Calcutta in ink; H Bose & Co (early 1890s) of Calcutta in perfumes; CK Sen & Co and Bengal Chemical of Calcutta in hair oil; Boolbool Soap Factory (1903) of Dhaka, National Soap Factory and Oriental Soap Factory of Calcutta in soap; FN Guptu & Co (1905) and the Small Industries Development Co Ltd (1908) of Calcutta and Golbadan Swadeshi Factory (1904-1905) of Dhaka in pens, pencils, penholders, and nibs; Oriental Metal Industries Ltd of Calcutta and India Industrial Works Ltd of Howrah in hurricane lanterns; SC Roy & Co of Calcutta in kerosene lamps; Bengal Electric Lamp Works (1932) of Calcutta in electric lamps; Calcutta Fan Works Ltd (1930s) of Calcutta in fans; India Flashlight Mfg Co Ltd (1933) of Calcutta in flashlights and batteries; Jessore Comb, Button & Mat Mfg Co Ltd (1909) of Jessore, Dacca Button Mfg Co Ltd (1919) of Dhaka, and Bengal Button Factory of Calcutta in combs and buttons; Sukea Mfg Co (1895) and Mohendra Nath Dutt's firm of Calcutta in umbrellas; various centres of dried prawn in Khulna and Sreekissen Dutt & Co of Calcutta in condiments. In addition to these companies, there was PM Bagchi & Co (1883) which produced a large variety of goods such as ink, almanacs, books, hair oil, perfumes, allopathic and ayurvedic medicines, rubber stamps, types and fruit syrups.
Shipping It was in the field of shipping, which constitutes the fifth strand, that foreign competition was the strongest. The destruction of the boat-building and shipping industries by regulations and cutthroat competition was accompanied by the introduction of steam-driven iron vessels, which put another nail on the coffin of the Indian merchant marine. The British India Steam Navigation Co, the Peninsular & Oriental Co, and the Asiatic Steam Navigation Co did much to crush swadeshi challenges by forming shipping rings, and through the introduction of rate war and the deferred rebate system.
The revival of shipping in Bengal no doubt paralleled the revival of handicrafts and the setting up of modern industries. The problem before the swadeshi entrepreneurs was to make the country commercially independent. To do so, as it was argued in Dawn & Dawn Society's Magazine, what was needed was to develop three departments, viz, creation of manufactures, controlling retail supply, and ensuring security of carriage from the place of manufacture to the place of supply. Of the three the third was the most important because the first two would become useless if the enemies of swadesi were in control of the means of carriage. Since the railway was state-controlled, and since the control of steam services was exercised by foreign companies in East Bengal, the import of indigenous goods from Calcutta was made all the more difficult. Swadeshi entrepreneurs knew well that they would not be able to control the means of carriage by land without shaking off colonial rule; the only thing they thought they could expect to do then was to get hold of that part of communication by water so that in case the government used the railways against them, they could at least use the waterways as a weapon both for self-defense and to counter British shipping interests. This was the essential background leading to the formation of Inland River Steam Service Ltd (1884), Bengal Steam Navigation Co (1907), East Bengal Mahajan Flotilla Co Ltd (1908), Cooperative Navigation Ltd (1908), East Bengal River Steam Service Ltd (1897) and many other enterprises which carried passengers and cargo connecting many parts of India and Burma.
However, the competition from the foreign shipping rings was too strong to be withstood for long. There were as many as eight methods applied against the swadesi concerns. The first of these was rate-cutting competition in complete knowledge of the fact that the Indian enterprises had no large capital to fall back upon. The second included influencing government officers, adopting various tricks and encouraging litigation to put swadesi entrepreneurs in various difficulties. Third, experts, auditors and other European officials were sometimes actually forbidden to act on behalf of Indian shipping companies. Fourth, the European community as a whole started non-cooperation with indigenous firms engaged in the shipping line. Fifth, sometimes a section of the Anglo-Indian press discredited Indian firms by the deliberate omission of news which went to their credit. Sixth, the Anglo-Indian press also refused to advertise swadesi companies. Seventh, the deferred rebate system was introduced to enforce loyalty of customers. Eighth, attempts were made to damage or disable Indian vessels through deliberate collision with foreign vessels. The result was the demise of a large number of swadesi navigation companies by the early 1920s.
Banking and Insurance These, in some form or other, existed in Bengal for a long time before the commencement of colonial rule. The roles played by the Subarnabanik caste from the ancient period and later by the house of jagat sheth are well-known. The Union Bank (1829) set up by dwarkanath tagore was a joint Anglo-Indian enterprise developed along modern lines. A large number of banking and loan companies were floated from the second half of the 19th century and in particular, during the heyday of the Swadeshi; the most notable of these was Bengal National Bank Ltd (1907) of Calcutta. In the field of insurance, Hindusthan Co-operative Insurance Society Ltd (1907) occupied pride of place.
The Swadeshi bourgeoisie came from a variety of social groups and classes such as the professional middle class, artisans, zamindars and peasants. The middle class consisted of a large number of people viz, physicians (eg Nilratan Sarkar of National Tannery and Mohendra Nath Nandi of Pioneer Iron Works), professors (Prafulla Chandra Ray of Bengal Chemical and Jogesh Chandra Ghosh of Sadhana Aushadhalaya), lawyers (Uday Kumar Das of the Sreenath Mill), teachers (Mathura Mohan Chakraborty of Sakti Aushadhalaya), engineers (three unnamed engineers of Silpapith) as also clerks, government pensioners, and others who had purchased shares of swadesi companies such as Bengal Chemical. The importance of artisans-turned-into-small entrepreneurs is that they themselves were directly associated with the process of production. Investments were also made and initiatives taken by zamindars such as Taran Gobinda Choudhury, the proprietor of Pabna Silpa Sanjibani Co, Karuna Kishore Kargupta, founder of Betjan & Co etc. The most notable example of a peasant-turned-entrepreneur was Alamohan Das of Howrah, the founder of India Machinery Co.
The problems faced by the Swadeshi bourgeoisie in course of their participation in the industrialisation of Bengal were varied in nature. First of course was foreign competition. In addition navigation and tobacco where competition was particularly sharp, competition was also strongly felt in such fields as cotton goods, medicines, perfumes, soap, cigarettes, potteries, matches, locks and keys, iron safes, leather goods, dairy products, banking, insurance, paper, waterproof, machineries etc. Second, paucity of capital was a problem faced by almost all Swadeshi companies. Third, railway freight charges were so high that demands were raised by the Bengal Chemical before the Drugs Enquiry Committee of 1930-31 that the government should introduce a reduced special tariff for the movement of their products from one place to another. Fourth, another feature was the lack of expert management for which Pioneer Weaving Mill and others suffered. Fifth, government excise duty of a discriminatory nature was also detrimental to the growth of Swadeshi industries. One of the worst victims was the hosiery industry when the government imposed a levy of excise duty on its products despite the fact that Bengal hosiery factories already paid import duty for yarns imported from Britain. Moreover, Mohini Mills had to pay a 5% customs duty on the ad valorem rate of yarn imported from Manchester, the weight of tubes also being included along with the weight of the yarn, so that the import duty paid by them was more than 5%. To add to this list, the Bande Mataram Match Factory was forced to close down its business due to the non-cooperation of the government in supplying timber to the company at moderate rates from reserve forests. Sixth, over and above all, the general unfavourable attitude of the state and racial discrimination also intensified the problems of swadesi entrepreneurs. Although in the industrialisation of Bengal both the big and small and middle bourgeoisie played their respective roles, they differed from one another in many respects. These are as follows:
Social origin While the Indian big bourgeoisie originated from traders, bankers, middlemen, brokers, speculators and gamblers, the small and middle bourgeoisie came from professors, physicians, zamindars, artisans and peasants.
Ways of primary accumulation While the big bourgeoisie profiled by acting as traders, middlemen, gamblers etc the small and middle bourgeoisie moved in other directions. PC Ray saved something from his academic profession and literally went from door to door to raise money for BCPW. Nilratan Sarkar raised the seed capital for his National Tannery probably out of his savings from the medical profession.
Knowledge of production processes/original research Unlike the big bourgeoisie which, in general, did not either have any knowledge whatsoever of the process of production, the small and middle (ie, the swadesi bourgeoisie) gained some experience in this sector. P C Ray has described in detail how in the formative period of BCPW, he experimented on sajimati and bone ash to prepare fine carbonate of soda and phosphate of soda crystals through an elaborate chemical process. PM Bagchi & Co carried out research on indigenous plants and herbs and prepared patented allopathic medicines.
Selection of sites and building plans While the big companies depended on foreign exports even for the selection of sites for mills and plans for buildings, small and middle entrepreneurs depended on themselves. MM Chakraborty drew up the entire plan for the Mohini Mills on his own. The sites for Prasanna Match Factory, Bhagirathi Match Factory and Jalpaiguri Industries Ltd were selected by the proprietors because of their proximity to the sources of timber, cheap labour, electricity or market places.
Management/ Experts/Directors Unlike the big bourgeoisie, which relied to a large extent on foreigners for management, services of experts, and formation of the boards of directors, the small and middle depended on themselves, in these areas.
Machinery One of the major features of industrialisation is the importation of foreign machinery on a large scale. This was due neither to the fact that Indian artisans lacked in technical skill nor because there was no development of indigenous technical know-how, but because colonial rule had destroyed indigenous industries along with their know-hows and had transplanted the Western system to the Indian soil. The big bourgeoisie, in general, installed imported machines, introduced foreign technology in their factories, and paid no attention to the task of producing the means of production.
This dependence was also noticeable partly among the middle bourgeoisie, eg, in cotton textiles, cigarettes, matches etc. However, there were also many among the small and middle sections who made their own machines in their workshops. Swadesi companies such as Sreenath Mill, BCPW etc made their machines in their own workshops for their own use. Machines were made on a commercial scale by Bhowani Eng & Trading Co, Maya Eng Works, India Machinery Co and many others. Various technological innovations were initiated in such diverse fields as candle-stands, padlocks, flutes, looms, machine-fans, raider's alarms, cash-boxes, cookers, iron buckets, electrical devices, pumps, chimneys, stoves, Plaster of Paris, various chemical improvements, harmoniums, watch-bands, luni-solar calendars, tiles, lactometers, sugarcane-mills, trains, safety-locks, thrashing machines, lanterns, match-machines, cisterns, warping machines, water-lifts, tyres, electric water-heaters, coke-kilns, cement, fountain-pens, food products, rural filter, etc. These swadeshi engineers and entrepreneurs of Bengal set a tradition which was totally alien to the representatives of Indian big capital enterprises such as the Birlas, Goenkas and others.
Market Unlike the big bourgeoisie, which depended on foreigners-even for marketing, the small and middle sections sold their products mainly through deshi shops which sprang up in all parts of Bengal viz, India Stores Ltd of Calcutta, Jadumani Printing Works of Assam, Datta Bros of Sylhet, Chowdhury Bros & Co of Barisal and Fecto of Dhaka, to name only a few.
Political attitude Unlike the big bourgeoisie, which was without exception politically tied up to the British, a number of swadeshi entrepreneurs either took part in anti-colonial revolutionary activities directly or secretly gave all possible help to the revolutionary cause. Hirendranath Dattagupta of East India Pharmaceuticals of Calcutta was a member of the underground Jugantar political group and was imprisoned by the British. The same was the case with the political background of Surendra Mohan Basu of Bengal Waterproof Works of Calcutta. However, Gopal Hosiery of Calcutta took the most admirable stand. Contrary to many swadeshi capitalists, not to speak of the big bourgeoisie, which served the British during the two world wars either by supplying their war needs or by handing over their mills to the government to manufacture war materials needed by the British troops, this swadeshi firm refused to supply vests to the troops during World War II even at the risk of suffering not only heavy financial losses but also political imprisonment.
The example set by the Gopal Hosiery is, however, not unique. There were cases of collaboration with the British among this section also. PC Ray, for example, was knighted by the British during World War I for his support, in sharp contrast to the stand taken by Gopal Hosiery. In the industrialisation of Bengal, two different strands were thus clearly discernible. One was the path of collaboration with the Raj as pursued by the big bourgeoisie; the other was the path of self-reliance as followed by the small and middle bourgeoisie. These two opposite paths coexisted with each other and influenced the course of industrialisation of Bengal in their own ways. [Amit Bhattacharyya]
Bibliography Iftikhar-ul Awwal, The Industrial Development of Bengal 1900-1939, New Delhi, 1982; Amit Bhattacharyya, Swadeshi Enterprise in Bengal 1900-1920, Calcutta, 1986; Amit Bhattacharyya, Swadeshi Enterprise in Bengal 1921-1947 The Second Phase, Calcutta, 1995; SK Ghosh, The Indian Big Bourgeoisie Its Genesis, Growth and Character, 2nd edition Revised & enlarged ed., Calcutta, 2000.