The Emergence and Development of Iron and Steel Industry in Colonial South India: A Case Study of the Mysore Iron and Steel Works [1918-1947]

The present article wishes to explore the emergence and development of iron and steel industry in colonial south India through projecting the evolution of the Mysore Iron and Steel Works of Bhadravati. In other words, the article wishes to examine the emergence and development of the Mysore Iron and Steel Works during the colonial period, especially from 1918 to 1947. The article also deals with the early attempts to set up an iron works in south India as the emergence of iron industry in south India during the colonial period. After several attempts—such as at Porto Novo (on Madras Coast), Beypore (Malabar Coast)— and failure throughout the 19th century, it was in the first quarter of the 20th century, the plan for a small charcoal furnace at Bhadravati put into effect in the post-First World War phase. Thus, the construction of the Mysore Iron Works was begun in 1918 and production commenced in 1923. The works made good profit in the late 1920s, and during the mid-1930s the plant was modified and a steel plant was added in 1936 and the Mysore Iron Works was renamed as the Mysore Iron and Steel Works (MISW). The early 1940s witnessed further modification specially in the steel section, thus, MISW added appreciably to the country´s production of saleable steel. The present article, thus, is an evolutionary documentation of the Mysore Iron and Steel Works in order to trace the emergence and development of iron and steel industry in colonial south India.