Merits and Demerits of Industrial Revolution

“Industrial Revolution was a mixed blessing” – this can be justified on the basis of merits and demerits of Industrial Revolution. These are as follows:

Merits

Firstly, Industrial revolution led to mechanised production. This, in turn, increased production much more than before. Thus, it resulted in improved production, both in quality and in quantity. This was true of both agriculture and industry. Mass production of goods inaugurated an era of plenty. Secondly, agriculture was to benefit immensely out of industrial revolution. New tools and machines such as steel plough and harrow for tilling, the mechanical drill for planting of seeds and machines for thrashing, reaping and cultivating mechanised agricultural production made harvests become bumper and production increased by leaps and bounds with the use of chemical fertilizers. Thirdly, mass production of goods and articles gave an encouragement to trade and commerce. Transport and communication systems improved with the network of roads and railways. Water-transport did not lag behind. Travelling and transportation of goods were revolutionised. Europe became one big trading village, with this conquest of man over time and distance. Human mode of life became fashionable and more comfortable with the production of articles of basic and conventional necessities. Life was pleasant and comfortable, with man’s needs being satisfied more fundamentally and easily. Fourthly, exploration of markets abroad and beyond the shores of Europe started more seriously. Better ships and navigation helped the process. International trade improved. Fifthly, industrialisation brought urbanisation. Towns and cities grew up in industrial centres. The difficulties and inadequacies of village-life came to be done with in the new urban life. Workers lived as neighbours and gradually demanded political rights. Trade-union of workers came up to successfully work for protection of workers’ rights. Sixthly, industrial revolution resulted in a contrast. While it came to strengthen capitalism, it also gave birth to communism as propagated by Karl Marx. Seventhly, growth of science and technology continued unabated. The industrial revolution was the greatest blessing for mankind in this regard. Conquest of time brought more leisure, which came to be used for creative purposes.

Demerits

Demerits of Industrial Revolution were as follows. Firstly, it broke the back of the self-sufficient rural life. Old life-style was replaced by a new economic system that brought a virtual end to traditional society. In this transition, artisans of village-industry and the peasants came to forfeit their hereditary means of livelihood. Farmers became landless labourers, and artisans gave up their ancestral profession to seek means of livelihood in industrial centres. In summary, the industrial revolution broke the link with the past. People found it difficult to adjust to this transition.

Secondly, rural unemployment led to over-crowding of cities and industrial centres. As such, unemployment in the cities grew. Not everybody can get a job in an industry because the industry would not absorb any labourer over its needs. Increased unemployment led the people to frustration. More availability of labour led to lesser wages. As such the gulf between the rich and the poor widened. This led to class-rivalry between the capitalists or the rich or the ‘Haves’ and the labourers or the poor or the ‘Have-nots’.  Thus, industrial revolution made class-wars inevitable. Fourthly, industrial revolution led to capitalism inside countries; but at the international stage, it brought competition, imperialism and war among the nations. Fifthly, industrial revolution made the life of the workers and labourers wretched. Miserable life in slums of the cities, with no sanitation or hygienic living conditions and exposure to smoke and gas pollution brought diseases. No grant of leave, no insurance against death by diseases or by accident and the burdens of poverty made their life hell. Sixthly, industrialisation brought the political ideology of imperialism into focus at the international stage and made war inevitable. From an economic and political point of view it brought capitalism and communism face to face. It also led to Europe’s colonial and commercial hold over the rest of the world. Thus as a result of industrial revolution, human civilization came to have a past and materialism came to have a future. The victim was humanism.