Pre-independent India had many opportunities to contact with European sericulture technologies. Thus modern silk-reeling technology with the filature system was transplanted into Bengal in the early 19th century, and into Kashmir and Mysore at the end of the century. These transplanted technologies, however, died out soon or were fossilized without any development and diffusion.
This paper aims at finding the causes of such failures of those technology transfers. While disadvantages of multivoltine silkworms due to meteorological conditions were emphasized so far, our analysis uncovers the following social conditions as more serious factors: (1) lack of quality consciousness; (2) shortage of R&D activities; and (3) insufficiency of sericultural education in the India sericulture industry.
