Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Milewski, 1981 Handloom History
Milewski, 1981 Handloom History
Milewski, 1981 Handloom History
N o t e s o n t h e H i s t o r y . of t h e H a n d l o o m W e a v i n g
I n d u s t r y of I n d i a
Mary Milewski
The production and export of cotton l a w which prohibited even the wearing of
cloths has been an important feature of printed or colored calicoes.
Indian history from earliest recorded times. The traditional or pre-modern hand-
Originally the cloth was produced entirely loom industry was organized around the in-
by hand in India, and then sold, both local- dividual family unit and was apparently
ly and in various ports, first on the Red Sea only a part-time occupation for the bulk of
and the Indian Ocean and later, following the the people involved. In the villages it
establishment of the East India Company, to provided clothing, a little income, and
European cities as well. The sale of Indian occupation to agriculturists during the off-
cloths to England was so successful that the season. In the urban areas, weaving was
woolen cloth industry there protested loudly organizea by caste and was hereditary, but
until Parliament enacted a law prohibiting the hereditary nature of occupational sta-
the importation of colored calicoes from India tus did not inhibit individuals from cross-
into England in 1700 and in 1720, and another ing caste lines when the market for cotton
cloths was good (Venkatraman 1 9 4 0 , 12).
Before the appearance of mill-spun
SOUTH ASIA BULLETIN yarn, the preparation of yarn for weaving
VoZ. I. No. 2. was an important function of the weaver's
Swnmer 1981.
15
extended family. Exclusive of the spinning on the decline, the volume of exports from
of the yarn from raw cotton, it has been India carried on by the English totalled
estimated that the preparation of the yarn an estimated 1.5 million pieces of cloth
for weaving cost fifty percent more to do valued at b 2.9 million (Venkataraman 1940,
than the weaving itself. This preparation 14).
includes winding, warping, and sizing of Another factor which affected the
the yarn (Buchanan 1 9 3 4 , 79). The bulk of Indian handloom industry was increased ship-
this preparatory work would have been ac- ments of raw cotton to England which produ-
complished by the women and children of ced a relative shortage in India. A s capi-
the family, some of the work I'put-out'I to tal increasingly took control over India's
widows in the neighborhood, and some of it cotton growing industry, the individual ar-
taken on by the weaver himself as a respite tisan began to lose control over a portion
from the tedious job of operating a loom. of his means of production and finally over
In this pre-modern period, the spe- the labor process itself. The introduction
cialization and delegation of tasks which of British made machine-spun yarn, and in
included the spinning of cotton into yarn 1818, Indian production of machine-spun
by the women (a traditional female chore yarn, undermined the artisan's ability to
in many societies) along with other pre- control access to his primary raw material,
paratory tasks shared by the family as a cotton. It now became increasingly diffi-
whole, and the weaving and the selling of cult for the artisan to survive in his trade
the cloth by the male head of the family without the backing of a local merchant who
who controlled and maintained the means not only provided capital to buy mill-spun
of production, places the weaving family yarn but also monopolized access to this
in the same situation as the peasant agri- yarn and the markets for the finished pro-
culturalist. The produce of the weaver's duct.
family was sold by the weaver directly to D.B. Mitra, in his study of the Bengal
the consumer in the local market. weaving industry, discusses the antagonisms
In the urban areas, this organisation which arose between artisans and merchants
was augmented by a guild system roughly in the period from 1752 to 1837 and descri-
similar to that of medieval European b e s various acts of resistance to this new
guilds. Venkataraman describes this peri- form of exploitation, which could be under-
od just prior to the appearance of British stood as the emergence of class conscious-
manufactured yarn as being characterised ness and class struggle within the cotton
by small-scale production, guild organi- industry in India. Thus, by the middle of
sation, and few intermediaries between the nineteenth century, the handloom weaving
producers and consumers (Venkataraman industry in India had undergone some funda-
1940, 12). mental changes, especially in the social or-
The next stage in the history of ganization of labor, but also in market or-
the Indian handloom industry began when ientation and in the development of a class
the individual artisans began to come structure.
increasingly under the control of mer- By the 1880's, this domestic system had
chants (mahajans, chettis) who provided developed into the system commonly referred
capital and acted as a link between to as the kharkhana system. This involved
producers and consumers. This has been the setting up of small shops with anywhere
called the "domestic system" (Venkataraman upto fifty looms operating in it. The
1940, 12). It seems to have developed as smaller shops were owner-operated with hired
a result of the increased market for Indian weavers to run extra looms or occasional
cotton cloths in the early period, then labor to help prepare the yarn. Women and
the increased demand for Indian cotton to children were still engaged for preparatory
supply the British cotton spinning and help, but in the larger shops, hired labor
later weaving industries. was the norm. It is fairly obvious that the
In the sixteenth century, before average weaver could not afford to organize
exports of Indian cotton t o the Westwere such a shop. Weavers were constantly in
16
17
Editor's Note: It is quite apparent that in connection with the decline of the cotton in-
dustry in Bengal certain aspects need to be researched further: I. There is no available
literature on the pre-colonial cotton industry and the plight of the workers under that
system. Since weavers were often idle and lived in extreme poverty in the 18th century
(Mitra 1978, 217), it is debatable whether the opening up of new and expanded possibilities
like indigo and sugar did not provide employment, however harsh, t o unemployed weavers.
Mere statistics showing decrease in the total number of weavers in the 19th century are
therefore inadequate.
18
11. While the production of luxury cloths certainly decreased after the 19th century in
Bengal, items of daily use for common people continued to be produced by local weavers
(Mitra 1978, 211).
111. The development of the silk industry in Bengal, which not only coincided with the
decline of the cotton industry but also developed in areas previously renowned f o r their
cotton textiles, must have had profound implications for the local economy. It is im-
portant to know whether the export oriented silk industry with higher profits did not
prompt putting-out capitalists to switch their investment to silk rather than cotton.
19