MANUFACTURES OF INDIA.—The manufactures of India fall into two entirely different categories. Some are carried on by methods which have been practised by the people from time immemorial, either in their own homes or in small workshops, while others are followed in factories planned on European lines. In some cases, the two systems are independent of one another, but in others they are in keen competition.
The group of industries connected with the preparation and supply of food is the largest and most widely distributed. These generally belong to the first of the two categories, but a few are of recent origin and are found where geographical conditions are favourable to their localisation. They include the preparation of tea in Assam, flour-milling in Northern India, and rice-milling in Burma.
The manufacture of textiles ranks second with regard to the number of people employed, and here the competition between the old and new systems is keener. All over India cotton goods are made, frequently but by no means always, as a subsidiary employment of the people engaged in the industry. Different parts of the country have their characteristic products, the quality of many of which is exceedingly good. But along with this ancient industry there now exists the modern cotton mill, whose situation is mainly determined by the facilities for obtaining raw material. These mills are engaged in the production of yarn (Egyptian cotton being imported for the higher counts, the output of which is steadily increasing), and of woven goods, grey unbleached cotton being the most important item under this head. In British India in 1910-11 there were 226 mills, with 79,000 looms, and nearly 6,000,000 spindles. These gave employment to about 214,000 people on a daily average ; but at the census of 1901 the number of cotton weavers, exclusive of those employed in the mills, was returned at 2,670,000.
The silk industry comes next in importance to that of cotton. The raw material is obtained partly at home, different varieties of the silkworm being raised throughout the country, and partly from abroad, China being the chief source of supply. The modern steam-power mills are situated at Bombay and Calcutta, through which ports Chinese silk enters the country. The handloom factories are mainly in Bengal, which is the chief producer of the home supply of raw silk, while all over India weavers, working either alone or along with their families, are engaged in the production of silk fabrics.
The manufacture of woollen goods is general throughout the country, and is followed, as a rule, in small handloom factories.
The articles produced are usually of a coarse description, except in Northern India, where the weaving of carpets and shawls has been carried to a high pitch of perfection, the Punjab being noted for the former and Kashmir for the latter. The great demand from
Europe for Indian carpets has led to the production of cheap and inferior articles, but within recent years there have been signs of improvement in this respect. In 1911 there were only five steam power woollen mills in the country, and these gave employment to 3,600 people, while over 150,000 are probably engaged in the native industry at the present time.
Although the manufacture of jute had previously been carried on to some extent as a village industry, it was not till the Russian supplies of hemp and flax were stopped during the Crimean war that its cultivation and manufacture on a large scale began. Calcutta, with its neighbourhood, is now the centre of this important industry which gives employment to over 200,000 operatives. The jute presses, which prepare the raw material for export, also employ a considerable number of workmen.
MINERALS.-With a population of 315,000,000 India has on an average only 150,000 people engaged in mining pursuits. The influence of its mineral wealth upon the economic development of any one of its natural regions is therefore very slight, and for this reason it has been deemed advisable to reserve for a separate section an account of the mineral products of the country. In 1911 the value of these was estimated at £7,000,000, gold and coal between them accounting for over two-thirds of the total amount. The greater part of the gold produced (0,200,000 in 1911) comes from the Kolar field in Mysore, where it is worked to a depth of 3,000 feet below the surface. Alluvial deposits are washed in many parts of the country, but the output is small and is generally obtained by people mainly engaged in other pursuits. The production of coal in the same year amounted to over 12,000,000 tons, valued at £2,500,000. Of this all but 5 per cent. came from the Gondwana deposits in peninsular India, the most important being those in the basin of the Damodar where the fields of Raniganj, Jherria, and Giridih are situated, the first two being the largest producers in India, while the third is noted for its steam coal. Coal is also found in the Gondwana deposits in the basin of the Son, where it has recently been worked at Daltonganj, and in the basin of the Godavari, where an immense store has been merely tapped at Warora and Singareni. Outside of peninsular India, coal occurs in the Tertiary rocks of Sind, Rajputana, Baluchistan, Assam, and Burma. The greatest output at present is from Assam, but the Burmese fields will probably prove of considerable value to the railways in that country. The development of the coal resources of India has been of great economic advantage to the country. The native supply is now more than sufficient to meet the home demand, a somewhat larger amount being sent to ports on the Indian Ocean than is imported from abroad.