ABSTRACT
British rule in India was for less than 400 years. In this span a synergy of colonial policies and actions propelled an epidemic of demise. This is evident from a comparison of the number and variety of place goods that flourished at the time of British arrival and the status of these by the time British had to leave India. To gain an insight into the process of destruction, it is worth its while to focus on the traditional textile weaving industry. The place goods were destroyed because of a variety of reasons: machine-made goods and demand for handcrafted goods declined; the royal patronage which protected the goods was withdrawn, cheap substitutes flooded the market, the wages of the karigar or artisans became so low that they were forced to abandon this work, and most important no one cared to understand that these were not mere products or objects for sale but the life.
