The main reasons of decline of cottage industries in India are given below :
1. End of Local Kingdoms of India: A number of Indian kingdoms were annexed by the British. That’s why cottage industries suffered a great loss because the things made by cottage industries were used by family members and kings of local kingdoms.
2. Expensive goods of Indian cottage industries: Goods made by the Indian cottage industries were more expensive because more labour was required to manufacture those products. On the other hand, goods made by machines were very cheap. That’s why the sale of goods made by cottage industries was declined. It lead to decline of Indian cottage industries.
3. Quality of machine-made goods: The quality of machine-made goods of the British ‘ industries was much better than the goods made by local cottage industries. That’s why the machine-made goods were liked by most of the Indians. This thing also led to decline of Indian cottage industries.
4. Interests of people of new classes: People of new classes were under the impact of western culture. With this, the things made by machines were of much better quality as compared to the local goods. That’s why the local goods were not ljked by the people of new generation.
5. Sending Indian raw material to England: Industrial Revolution came in Europe in 18th century. That’s why large industries were established over there. Lot of raw material was required to make goods in such industries. But England itself was unable to fulfill needs of its industries. That’s why the British rulers in India started to send raw material from India to England. It led to the shortage of raw material for the Indian manufacturers. So Indian industries started declining.
