Page 22 - Science India August 2022

COLLECTOR’S EDITION 2.0
Swatantrata ka Amrut Mahotsava
Image Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons
Silk sarees woven at Kanchipuram, Tamil Nadu, are world renowned. The silk trade in Kanchipuram began under Raja Raja Chola I in the 10th-11th centuries
machine industry. But in India, the ruin
was attributed to colonial rule which led to the drain of wealth and prosperity of of the millions of artisans and craftsmen
was not accompanied by any alternative
India. Noted writer, poet and national- growth of new industrial forms. This led
ist RC Dutt also noted: ‘Taxation raised by the king is like the moisture sucked to a massive loss of jobs.
up by the sun to be returned to earth as The economic policies of the East
Image Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons
India Company and later that of the Crown rule were meant only to trans- form India into a consumer of British goods and in turn, to benefit the econo- my of Britain alone.
PRE INDEPENDENCE: KHADI -
‘A FABRIC OF INDIAN INDEPENDENCE’ In 1867, Dadabhai Naoroji, ‘The Grand Old Man of India’, put forth the eco- nomic drain theory in his book, Poverty and Un-British Rule in India. He sought to prove that abysmal poverty in India was not a result of internal factors but
fertilising rain; but the moisture raised from the Indian soil now descends as fertilising rain largely on other lands, not in India.’
In 1867, Dadabhai Naoroji noted that India’s abysmal poverty was not the result of internal factors but the colonial rule which led to drain of India’s wealth
The Priest King or Bearded Man found in Mohenjodaro (2200-1900 BCE) wears a shawl with trefoil pattern, giving an idea of textiles used by ancient Indians
22 SCIENCE INDIA AUGUST 2022