Highlight the salient features of India's pre-independence occupational structure.

Question

Accepted Answer

The occupational structure, which refers to the distribution of working persons across the primary, secondary and tertiary sectors of the economy, showed little change throughout the British rule. The salient features of India's pre-independence occupational structure are as follows:

1. **Predominance of agriculture**: Under the colonial rule, India was basically an agrarian economy, with nearly 70 to 75 percent of its workforce engaged directly or indirectly in agriculture. Due to massive poverty and widespread illiteracy, a large proportion of the population was engaged in farming and related activities to earn their subsistence. But the agricultural sector suffered from low productivity, and its growth was highly constrained despite employing a significant proportion of the population.

2. **Lack of opportunities in industry**: Only a small proportion of the population was employed in the manufacturing sector, with nearly 10 percent of the total workforce engaged in manufacturing and industrial activities. This was due to the stiff competition that the Indian industries faced from the machine-made cheap goods of Britain. Further, the lack of investment initiatives and the unfavourable tariff structure constrained the industrial sector. Thus, the Indian industrial sector failed to provide significant employment opportunities.

3. **Unequal distribution among sectors**: The three sectors of the Indian economy, namely agricultural, industrial and service, were unequal in terms of occupational structure. While the agricultural sector employed the majority of the workforce, the other two sectors contributed little to employment, with 10 percent of the workforce in industries and 15 to 20 percent in the service sector.

4. **Regional imbalance**: There was a growing regional variation in the occupational structure of India. On the one hand, the then Madras Presidency, Bombay and Bengal experienced a fall in the agricultural workforce and an increase in the share of manufacturing and services. On the other hand, states like Odisha, Rajasthan and Punjab experienced a rise in the agricultural workforce.

Thus, the pre-independence occupational structure revealed the economic backwardness of the country, with an overwhelming dependence on a stagnant agricultural sector and little diversification of employment.