Why did industrialists in India begin shifting from yarn to cloth production?

  • When Indian businessmen began setting up industries; they avoided competing with Manchester goods in the Indian market.
  • Since yarn was not imported by British in India, early cotton mills in India started producing coarse cotton yarn rather than fabric.
  • The yarn produced in Indian spinning mills was used by handloom weavers in India or exported to China.
  • As the Swadeshi Movement began, nationalists told people to boycott foreign cloth.
  • Industrial groups organised themselves to protect their collective interests.
  • From 1906, the export of Indian yarn to China declined since produce from the Chinese and Japanese mills flooded the markets.
  • So industrialists in India began shifting from yarn to cloth production.
  • Cotton piece goods production in India almost doubled between 1900 and 1912.