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History Optional PYQ Master Pack · Model answer

“India had been for hundreds of years the Lancashire of the Eastern world.” Critically examine this view.

  • UPSC 2014
  • Economy and Society in the 16th and 17th Centuries

The comparison casts pre-colonial India as the industrial-textile powerhouse of Asia in the way Lancashire became for Europe after the Industrial Revolution — a claim that is broadly defensible in terms of scale and reach, but needs sharpening once the two economies are compared on their own terms.

You are reading the opening of the model answer. The full answer is part of the History Optional PYQ Master Pack.

What the full answer covers

  • The Basis for the "Lancashire of the East" Claim
  • Scale and Geographic Spread of Production
  • Dominance of Export Markets
  • Sophistication of the Production System
  • Where the Analogy Breaks Down

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