Question

how did the British policies lead to urbanisation?​

Answer 1

The British economic policies ruined the Indian artisans and craftsmen.

British purposefully stopped factories from opening in India; Indian entrepreneurs were handicapped through regulations and business malpractices. Hence urbanisation did not happen in India at the same time as it did in the homeland of our colonisers. This misfortune was coupled with the disruption of the village economy of India.

Answer 2

Answer:

The British purposefully stopped factories from opening in India; Indian entrepreneurs were handicapped through regulations and business malpractices. Hence urbanisation did not happen in India at the same time as it did in the homeland of our colonisers. This misfortune was coupled with the disruption of the village economy of India.

Forced plantation of cash crops jeopardised the food security of Indians. The land revenue systems as started by British led to the pauperisation of the Indian farmer. As a British colony, India became an unsuspecting market to its machine-made goods (of the industrial revolution). Their competitive prices backed by lopsided custom duties destroyed the Indian textile industry which was famous around the world for at least a thousand years. Performing arts and myriad other crafts crippled in the absence of the patronage they received from erstwhile Indian aristocrats. British prevented industrialisation in India; hence, there weren’t factories or urban areas to absorb these side-lined artisans and craftsmen who ended up becoming cheap agricultural labour. The Indian masses were pushed back into history, the natural development of a civilisation was forcefully stopped.