What do Donald Trump and the British Empire have in common? India’s textile sector knows

President Donald Trump’s 50% tariff on Indian textiles has sparked fears of economic fallout — but the move draws eerie parallels to a much older playbook: the British Empire’s systematic dismantling of India’s textile dominance through colonial-era tariffs and trade restrictions.

As modern India grapples with a fresh blow to its textile exports — this time from a US administration — historians and industry watchers are drawing comparisons to a colonial past that once crippled the very same industry under the guise of protectionist trade policy.

Tiruppur, Tamil Nadu’s knitwear hub, now fears losses of up to ₹6,000 crore in exports to the US, according to Tiruppur Exporters’ Association president K M Subramanian. But the anxiety in India’s textile corridors echoes a deeper wound: the 18th and 19th-century British strategy that strangled India’s global textile supremacy.

Before colonization, India was a textile powerhouse. Cities like Dhaka, Surat, and Murshidabad produced world-famous cotton and silk fabrics. A single length of Dhaka muslin, so fine it could pass through a ring, symbolized Indian craftsmanship. But with the rise of Britain’s Industrial Revolution, the narrative shifted violently.

To protect their mills, British policymakers deployed brutal trade weapons: tariffs as high as 70-80% on Indian textiles entering England, while allowing British textiles into India virtually tax-free. American historian Will Durant described it as a deliberate act of economic sabotage: “British goods were forced upon [India] without paying any duty, while the hand-wrought manufactures of Bengal and Behar… had heavy and almost prohibitive duties imposed on their importation into England.”

The infamous Calico Act of 1721 had already banned Indian cotton fabrics in England altogether, in the name of shielding domestic industry. India was turned from a world supplier into a raw material colony and dumping ground for British goods.

Fast forward to 2025, and the sudden imposition of steep US tariffs on Indian textiles feels hauntingly familiar. While driven by modern geopolitics and economic nationalism, the outcome — a targeted blow to a vulnerable export sector — mirrors strategies once used to stifle Indian industry under colonial rule.

The tools may have changed, but the impact rings a colonial bell.