I think i would have to dig deep into this. I am actually now more curious to know what happened to them.
This information is not new for me. We were taught about this in school in history class. But it was a long back. It remained only as a memory. As far as i remember this fueled anger against the British. I will have to check.
If we look at current times. Now we have a lot of employment sources. If we achieve a 100% literacy rate and provide alternate employment then definitely the shift to new technology will become easy.
I just wrote a reply to this here:
https://steemit.com/bitcoin/@dwarrilow2002/a-reply-to-a-reply-on-embracing-technology