The Industrial History of India

[Suraj]

This thread is a new effort to collect knowledge and information on historical Indian industrial entities, places, and groups. Towards the start of the modern era as the Industrial Revolution began, India had a thriving technological industrial base across a range of fields - textiles, low, medium and heavy industry, and more. For example, Wadia Shipbuilders were the source of several well known ocean going vessels that played a role in colonial events, including the founding of the United States of America.

Many of these industries were deliberately taken apart by the British, or were throttled from their historical avenues of trade as British mercantile policy controlled their traditional trade routes. This thread intends to analyze what happened to these industries, and their markets, as well as trade routes.

This is NOT meant to serve as a place to lament about something that was lost. Such posts will be deleted and posters warned. The thread is meant to build a repository of knowledge about what, where, who and why of the decline of what was previously a thriving trading and mercantilist nation.

[arshyam]

Dharampal's first book in his five-part series on Indian history has extensive information about this topic. It's called:

Indian Science and Technology in the 18th century

Lots of data points, will share the topics he discussed in the book tomorrow.

[vsunder]

Another important town along the Ganga between Kanpur and Delhi is Kannauj. Most know it if at all as Kanyakubja, the capital of Harsha the king associated with Xuanzwang. But it has another importance. For more than a thousand years and even earlier it has been the center of the manufacture of essential oils in India. The equipment and machinery is still 19th century, but they have been able to extract the perfume of rain on earth.
https://www.theatlantic.com/internation ... in/391011/

Jasmine, rose and many other essential oils are extracted here. These at one time were exported to Grasse and other leading centers to provide the basis for some of the most expensive perfumes in the world. However in the 1980's a body blow was delivered to this industry as perfume makers in France and US etc started to use chromatography and analyse scents and then manufacture via synthetic process various scents. Essential oils are making a slow comeback in yoga studios and natural products places which are marketing scents and fragrances that are natural. Currently Kannauj relies principally on a domestic market and a market in the Middle East among the rich sheikhdoms. But many of the small companies that manufactured essential oils have folded up.

https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/eco ... nauj-52184

The potential for tourism is very high but never exploited by successive CMs of UP as Kannauj also hosts nearby at Sankissa a famous site of Buddha's miracle. Chacha was once asked what is the most isolated Buddhist site and he instantly named this place. It is Buddha's descent after staying in heaven. It is an event celebrated all over SE Asia and even adorns a panel instantly recognizable at Sanchi as I observed this January at the stupa there. Even today it is a little difficult to go there even though all of this (Kannauj and Buddhist sites) is within 90 km from Kanpur which is a major city of UP with air and good road and rail connections with the rest of India. Kannauj is on the Grand Trunk rd. leave Kanpur go on the GT rd past IIT and keep driving to Kannauj.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sankassa

The panel at Sanchi stupa Northern gate depicting the miracle at Sankissa

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sankassa# ... ateway.jpg

The perfume industry certainly needs help and recognition and modernization to compete. much of this is reminiscent to what happened to indigo and dyes another product for which India was famous for. Then Perkin discovered synthetic napthol dyes based on aniline and coal tar derivatives and that ended Indian dyes. Bonded labor to manufacture Indigo was kept alive by the British in North Bihar and we have the Motihari and Champaran andolan by Gandhi.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Henry_Perkin

[vsunder]

Since we are talking of industry and I mentioned perfumes, it may be pertinent to mention a story with a BRF connection. At the beginning of the last century the Maharaja of Mysore, Krishnarajendra Wodiyar a far sighted man who was ably assisted by his Diwans: Sir M.Visveswaraya and Sir Mirza Ismail(who was instrumental in starting Mysore Electricals) decided to make Sandal soap. Visveswaraya picked a bright young man then studying chemistry in IISc one Sosale Sastry, grandfather of our own Shiv and sent him off to England to learn industrial chemistry and return post haste to start a sandalwood soap factory. This Sosale Sastry did. Not only that but he took great care in the packaging of the soap in tissue paper to remind one of the tissue paper used to wrap jewellery. The oval shape of this iconic soap was his idea too. Sadly it is a crime in KA to let sandalwood grow in ones property and measures such as this has destroyed sandalwood so that India has to import it nowadays. Regarding Shiv's grandfather and the fascinating story of the sandal soap industry here is this article:

https://www.thebetterindia.com/117267/h ... a-shastry/

I am told that Shiv's grandfather went by the name of Soap Sastry.

[Haresh]

The Birth Of A Giant

In the post-war years, JRD Tata saw the opportunity to create an engineering giant the like of which the country did not yet have.

https://www.tata.com/newsroom/heritage/ ... ata-motors