64 Kalas And Their Contribution To India’s High World Gdp Share For 1500 Years

By Author: Chaitanya Kumari
Total Articles: 222
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The 64 kalas of Indian heritage were not simply a form of our country’s cultural ornamentation. From the 1st century AD onwards for 1800 years, the 64 Kalas enabled India to solidify its position as a global manufacturing powerhouse. This was the reason for the industrial and economic prosperity of India. The 64 kala artisans in the various traditional arts, crafts, and vocational skills have served as the country’s economic backbone for more than 1,500 years.

The much-respected economic historian Angus Maddison in his report has after much research and based on data confirmed that between AD 1 and 1000, India constituted around 30% of the global GDP. This was reduced to 25% by the time India came under British rule. This achievement was made possible through the 64 Kalas. The 64 Kalas included skills like weaving, metallurgy, shipbuilding, sculpture, dyeing, pottery, perfumery, architecture, and music. Such skills made every part of India a major economic hub in its own right, coming up with high-value industrial goods made by artisans that could be sold and traded to buyers across the world.

Throughout most ...
... of the 1st century AD until the middle period of the 18th century, India produced almost 25% of the global industrial output. Indian textiles were considered highly valuable in the Roman Empire, Southeast Asia, Africa, and later in Europe. Carpets made in Kashmir, muslin fabric from Bengal, and combined with intricate metalwork crafted in South India showcased India’s extensive artisanal skills and industrial organization. Likewise, Indian steel was a material used expansively for making armaments and tools universally. All of these operate in a decentralized manner, which makes them extremely resilient. These skills were also entrenched and rooted firmly within the local communities.

These 64 kalās were vocational skills tied to village and urban guild systems, which ensured employment opportunities, skill transfer, and social dignity for millions of artisans across multiple generations. The kalas were not just isolated crafts; they were intertwined deeply with India’s trade networks, temple economies, and merchant guilds. It made India a prevailing magnet in the worldwide economic system, contributing to its high GDP and a self-sufficient, and robust economy.

This sole and vivacious industrial culture entranced traders and entrepreneurs from across the globe to the shores of India for millennia. There was high demand and prices paid for Indian manufactured products across the world. Many foreign merchants from Europe, China, Africa, and the Arabian areas came to India to trade in textiles, indigo, spices, precious stones, and fine arts. This thriving global exports trading ecosystem with small-scale arts and craft manufacturing was the essence of India’s economic prowess at that time.

India gained Independence in 1947 after World War II from British rule. By this time, its share in global GDP had fallen steeply to just around 4 percent. Such a big decline was not because of any inherent weakness in India’s traditional industries. Rather, it was a direct result of systematic de-industrialization under colonial practices and policies.

British colonial rule shattered India’s artisanal industry by inundating the market with mass-produced goods while taxing and restricting high-quality Indian crafts. Traditional banking methods were discouraged and formal banking channels did not support the artisans. The prosperous 64 kalas that contributed to India’s industrial growth and global trade domination for 1500 years were neglected and systematically shut down. The Indian economy was pushed down to become a lower value-added economy unlike in the past, to become an agricultural economy plus a mere supplier of raw materials for British industries. It is high time that the 64 Kalas are encouraged and restored to their former glory as an attempt toward an economic, cultural, and industrial renaissance for India that also helps with employment generation.

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