AI-generated practice question — model-generated for extra practice, not a previous-year CBSE board question.
The common narrative presents industrialisation as a story of continuous progress, but this view ignores several serious consequences.
Displacement of traditional workers: Industrialisation severely affected craftspeople and artisans. Hand-loom weavers, spinners, and other skilled workers lost their livelihoods as machine-made goods replaced handmade products. Workers were forced into factories under harsh conditions for low wages, destroying traditional skill-based occupations.
Environmental degradation: Factories, especially in cotton and iron-steel industries, filled industrial towns with smoke and pollution. As seen in industrial Manchester (1857), chimneys billowing smoke transformed the landscape, harming public health and the environment.
Persistence of poverty: Even by the late nineteenth century, less than 20% of the workforce was in advanced industrial sectors, while the majority remained in poorly paid, insecure traditional occupations — meaning prosperity was far from universal.
Source: Chapter 4 — The Age of Industrialisation, Sections 1.2 and Conclusion
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