India had been the world leader in the field of hand spun and hand woven yarn and cloth for many centuries. Many nationalist and Marxist critiques considered that the British dominion deliberately shattered the traditional and world-famous handicrafts of India. Comment.

Answer:

Pre-colonial India was a global leader in textiles and handicrafts. Nationalist and Marxist writers argued that British policy deliberately destroyed these crafts — the thesis of "de-industrialisation".

The De-industrialisation Thesis

Colonial trade policy:

• Discriminatory tariffs — heavy duties on Indian textiles in Britain and near free entry for British goods into India.
• Machine-made Manchester cloth flooded Indian markets after the Industrial Revolution.
• Loss of court patronage as Indian states declined removed demand for fine crafts.

Nationalist critique:

• Dadabhai Naoroji and R.C. Dutt linked craft ruin to the "drain of wealth" and India's transformation into a supplier of raw materials and a market for finished goods.

Consequences

• Ruin of weavers and artisans, especially in centres like Dhaka and Murshidabad.
• "Ruralisation" — displaced artisans fell back on agriculture, increasing pressure on land.

A Balanced View

• Some historians (Morris D. Morris) question the extent, citing regional variation and continued rural craft.
• Yet the overall trend of decline of traditional urban crafts under colonial trade policy is widely accepted.

Therefore, while the destruction may not have been uniformly "deliberate", colonial trade and tariff policies, together with industrial competition, did shatter India's world-famous handicrafts and reshaped its economy in Britain's favour.