 I am Chanika Roy from the discipline of English, Krishnakanta Handik State Open University and I welcome you all to this video lecture on the topic industrialism and its impact. As students of literature, first and foremost, we need to develop a clear picture of the socio-cultural history in order to understand, relate and appreciate the literary texts of the period in a better way. This video shall chiefly deal with industrialism that swept across the world in the 18th and 19th centuries. It is one of the most significant phenomena contributing immensely to the making of the modern world. The major objectives of this video are to explain the concept of industrialism to trace the history of pre-industrial times. Let us first try to understand what does industrialism mean. The word industrialism first came into walk in the year 1831. The word refers to an economic and social system based on the development of large scale industries marked by the production of large quantities of manufactured goods and the concentration of employment in urban factories. Before moving on to discuss the pre-industrial times, a glance at the important definition of industrialism by Gordon Marshall will be helpful. In his A Dictionary of Sociology, industrialism is defined in terms of the transition in methods of production which have been responsible for the vastly increased wealth that changed modern societies. He adds that although industrialization is generally thought of as something affecting the manufacture of goods, it is reasonable and necessary to apply the term to the modern methods of raising productivity in agriculture and other indicated sectors. England was a rural agricultural nation consisting mostly of villages and a few major cities and towns like London, Beth and York in the 16th and 17th centuries prior to industrialism. The primary occupations of the people then were agriculture and dairy farming. However, in the next 50 years, this self-sustained rural and agricultural economy changed drastically and was replaced by an urban and mechanical population. In this respect, two major forces that changed the social life of England are firstly, enclosure of the common fields that put an end to the strip farming system that had given every small farmer the right to cultivate on his own plot of land. The enclosure of the common fields deprived the small farmers of their land and drove them away from the farms to the mills. Secondly, the introduction of power-driven machinery that put a permanent end to domestic or household labour industry in cloth, spinning and wool. The era of handloom and hand-spun goods soon vanished, giving way to machine-spun and machine-made goods and products. By the year 1775, the industrial revolution was already gaining momentum in England. It was in that year that King George IV conferred knighthood upon two scientists and inventors, namely Frederick William Hurscal, the astronomer and Humphrey Davy, the chemist and inventor of the safety lab. Interestingly, they were among those scientists instrumental in bringing about the great social and economic transformation known as the Industrial Revolution. It was a transformation that brought about the birth of workshops and factories of slum and poor houses, tall chimneys puffing out black smoke over the surrounding areas. Some of the developments that contributed towards the Industrial Revolution are James Hargreaves had invented the spinning frame. Richard Orkwright had set up his own spinning machines in his large factories. Henry Codd had revolutionized the manufacture of iron. Edmund Kurtwright had invented the power loom. So, it can be summed up that the invention of the spinning frame, spinning machines, power loom, steam engines, etc., were the reasons that led England to become a world leader in industry and technology. This led to the growth in trade and commerce. In development of towns, developments in cotton, wool, coal, iron industry, run by steam power, developments in roadways, railways and canals, transport and communications and so forth. In other words, it was an onwards march towards progress and modernization. Summing up, the typical features of industrialism would refer to mechanized methods of working within a factory setting, division of labour, application of scientific methods for problem solving, time and discipline, bureaucracy and administrative rules, a socially and geographically mobile labour force, etc. After watching this video, we have been acquainted with the concept of industrialism, which relates to an economic and social system based on industrial development and marked by the production of manufactured goods, gradually which got associated with the social phenomena called industrial revolution. We have also discussed the major changes that affected England in the 18th and 19th centuries. We also got an idea of pre-industrial England, which was basically agrarian. Apart from agriculture, dairy farming was also an important occupation. England was also famous for its wool and cottage industries. I hope you have got a fair idea about industrialism in this video. In the next video, we shall discuss industrial revolution in England. Thank you.