Explanation

The deindustrialisation of India in the 19th century most severely affected the cotton textile industry. Cheap machine-made cotton goods from Britain flooded the Indian market while discriminatory tariffs and policies ruined indigenous handloom weaving centres such as Dhaka and Murshidabad. Silk, iron and steel, and woollen manufacture were far less central to the deindustrialisation thesis. The answer is (B).