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History Optional PYQ Master Pack · Model answer

Trace the gradual decline of the Indian town handicrafts between 1757 and 1880. In what way did it contribute to the economic unification of India?

  • UPSC 1987
  • Economic Impact of British Colonial Rule

At the outset of British rule India was a major manufacturing and exporting economy, supplying, by some estimates, close to a quarter of world manufactured output; by 1880 it had been reduced to a supplier of raw materials and a captive market for British goods.

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What the full answer covers

  • Phase One (1757–1813): Company Monopoly and Coercive Extraction
  • Phase Two (1813–1880): Free Trade and Industrial Competition
  • Consequences of the Decline
  • Contribution to Economic Unification

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