Nevertheless, there were powerful forces at work that inhibited the growth of science and technology in India and prevented Indian manufacturing from entering the industrial era on it's own terms.
Perhaps the most important of these factors was the relative prosperity that India enjoyed vis-a-vis the rest of the world. A mild climate meant that the peasantry and working class could survive relatively cheaply. And the huge trade surplus the country enjoyed enabled the nobility and the middle classes to live lives of relative luxury and comfort. There was little incentive to bring about revolutionary changes and the forces of parasitism and conservatism prevailed quite easily over more radical forces. Harry Verelst (Senior Officer of the East India Company) described Bengal before Plassey quite succintly: "The farmer was easy, the artisan encouraged, the merchant enriched and the prince satisfied".
But in Europe, virtually all classes had an interest in bringing about revolutionary changes that could improve their lives. Long and harsh winters meant that even the peasantry and working class needed more items of personal consumption just to survive, let alone live comfortably. The demand for cheap manufactured goods for mass consumption was initially far greater in Europe than in the warmer parts of the globe. The short days in the long and harsh winters created a much more compelling need for breakthrough inventions like the light bulb or electric heater or piped hot water and indoor toilets.
But need alone was an insufficient factor in securing technological breakthroughs. Europe also needed important social changes to create a climate where scientific study and technological innovation could flourish. For centuries, the catholic church in Europe had preached the idealogy of worldly renunciation and taught it's followers to accept their earthly suffering in exchange for a promise of redemption in the next world. Rational and scientific thinking was routinely condemned as sacriligious or heresy. It was then little wonder that Europe had slipped into a period of intense stagnation and became inordinately dependant on imports from the more developed nations of Asia.
But it was precisely this backwardness and internal oppression that lead to mass radicalization and calls for revolution or reform. The protestant movements were the first in a series of movements calling for greater democracy and radical improvements in social conditions for the masses. At the same time, the European intelligentsia was no longer willing to wait for redemption after death but wanted to enjoy the good life right here on earth. Secular and rational challenges to Christian orthodoxy grew and science and philosophy were gradually liberated from the strangulating influences of the church. The knowledge of the East was translated into the European languages and found it's way into university curriculums. Scientific research and investigation began to thrive and technological innovations followed. All the social ingredients for the industrial revolution were beginning to fall into place.
But at first, Europe still lacked a vital ingredient for the industrial revolution to take off and succeed - and that was capital. For centuries, Europe had to fund it's negative trade balance (vis-a-vis Asia) by exporting gold, silver and other precious metals. To make matters worse, exports from India (which made up an important share of European imports) were heavily marked up by various intermediaries in the Middle East and later by the Venetians. By the 15th century, this burden was becoming almost impossible for the royal houses of Western Europe to bear. It was in response to this crisis that voyages to discover a new route to India were funded, and eventually led to the creation of the East India Companies. {The pillage and plunder of the Americas (and later Africa as well) played a significant role in financing these voyages.}
While this made imports from India more affordable, it did not eliminate the negative trade balance. European banks were initially in little position to fund the new inventions that were waiting to find industrial sponsors. Colonization provided the answer. Europe thus embarked on a complex transition where within it's borders it followed a path of progress and radical reform, but externally, it raped and pillaged without mercy.
This occurred at a time when the rest of the world was largely ill-equipped at dealing with such a wily and complex enemy. In much of the world, large sections of society were moving in the opposite direction - and particularly so in the Islamic world. Madrasahs resisted numerous attempts at introducing anything resembling science and reason in the curriculum. This was also true in India. In spite of repeated attempts by Akbar to introduce a secular curriculum in the nation's Madrasahs, the conservative clergy successfully resisted all attempts at change. Similiar processes were at work in many of the Buddhist monasteries and the Hindu Gurukuls who had succumbed to the influence of orthodox Vedantism. In extreme versions of the Vedantic world-view the real world was more an illusion, and hence all efforts at changing it or transforming it were deemed unimportant.
Even in schools that escaped Vedantic influences, and where science and logic remained a part of the curriculum, religious instruction often took precedence. In addition, Brahminical notions of purity created a needless divide between the mental and physical creating obstacles to experimentation and transfer of theoretical knowledge to practical applications. The fixation on astrology and other such superstitions also served to distract sections of the intelligentsia from more scientific pursuits.
So just as Europe was preparing itself to meet the challenges of the industrial revolution, significant sections of society in Africa and Asia were becoming more resistant to studying science. This made the process of colonization much easier as those who resisted colonization were technologically outmatched and outwitted.
Once colonization had taken hold of a nations economy, educational options became further limited. Often, the few who were keen to pursue a career in the sciences could only do so under the auspices of their colonial masters. But for the colonial powers, teaching science and technology to the colonized was not necessarily a benevolent act. The western educated individual played an important role in the colonial process - either as a manager or engineer in a company that produced cheap raw materials (or industrial goods) for export from the colony to the master nation, or as a representative of an import agency that imported expensive manufactured goods and machinery into the colony.
So great was this contradiction in some nations that science and technology almost came to be associated with treachery and religious obscurantism became synonymous with patriotism. As a result the masses were often denied the opportunity to deal with an industrializing Europe on anything even remotely resembling equality.
Like other colonized nations, India was dragged into the industrial era on terms that were not of it's own choosing and many of the technological developments that have since taken place in India have been geared more towards the export market than bringing about all-round improvements in the quality of life for the Indian masses.
For that reason, it cannot yet be said that India has fully entered the modern industrial era. Only when India is able to harness the power of technology and modern industry towards improving the quality of life for the vast majority of it's people will that be the case. That will require not only major advances in the Indian education system but radical social changes that have yet to take place in a systematic way. Above all, the forces of religious fundamentalism, religious obscurantism and social backwardness will have to be pushed back and defeated. That is the real lesson of the Industrial Revolution that has yet to sink in completely in India.