How Mahatma Gandhi wove the fabric of our nation’s identity | Research News
Mahatma Gandhi was born on October 2, 1869. As we remember his contributions to India’s independence, it is also important to reflect on the lasting influence of his khadi movement, promoting hand-spun, hand-woven fabric as a symbol of self-reliance and resistance.
The rise and fall of India’s cotton industry
In the 17th and 18th centuries, India was the top exporter of cotton — both raw fibre and manufactured fabric. This was largely due to the quality and diversity of cloth that Indian cotton manufacturers produced, including vibrant patterns and colours, especially the calico print.
However, in the year 1721, the British Government introduced the ‘Calico Act’, banning the use of chintz or printed cotton textiles in England. It dealt a blow to India’s cotton industry. English producers, wanting to secure their domestic market, also copied Indian designs and reproduced them on white muslin that was in turn imported from India.
In 1730, the British East India Company ordered 5,89,000 pieces of cloth from as many as 98 varieties of cotton and silk material. Indian textiles became so popular in England that it led to a protest against imports by local wool and silk makers.
The Industrial Revolution led to the rise of mechanised inventions like James Hargreaves’ spinning jenny, Samuel Cromption’s mule and Richard Arkwright’s water-powered frame. These inventions weakened India’s cotton industry. Factories in England could now produce more cloth with less labour, and at a cheaper price. As Britain became the leading industrial power, it helped consolidate the East India Company’s hold over the subcontinent.
Impact of American imports on India’s cotton industry
The East India Company developed a system to eliminate competition and ensure a regular supply of raw cotton and silk goods. They appointed ‘gomasthas’ or paid servants to supervise the Company’s weavers, procure their material and stop them from dealing with other buyers. Also, high duties were imposed on finished Indian textiles imported into Britain. These measures destroyed the local industry, leaving thousands of weavers across India unemployed.
By the early 1800s, Britain began importing large quantities of cotton from America as the length of the fibres were longer, more durable and well-suited for their new machines. American cotton was also cheaper, largely because of slave labour. This cotton was shipped to textile mills in Lancashire and the finished piece goods then exported to India. It made for very profitable operations of the East India Company.
By the 1830s, British-made textiles had flooded the Indian market. By 1850, two-thirds of the cotton clothing worn by Indians was produced in Manchester and Lancashire. Thus, India, once the centre of cotton trade and the world’s leading exporter, was pushed to the margins and turned into an importer. To quote Karl Marx: “It was the British intruder who broke up the Indian hand-loom and destroyed the spinning-wheel…it inundated the very mother country of cotton with cottons. From 1818 to 1836 the export of twist from Great Britain to India rose in the proportion of 1 to 5,200. In 1824 the export of British muslins to India hardly amounted to 1,000,000 yards, while in 1837 it surpassed 64,000,000 of yards. But at the same time the population of Dacca decreased from 150,000 inhabitants to 20,000.”
Fortunes turned for India in 1861 when the Civil War broke out between the northern and southern states of the US. Since Britain relied heavily on cheap cotton from the slave-worked plantations in the South — enabled by another famous western invention, Eli Whitney’s cotton gin that could quickly separate seeds from the cotton fibre — the war caused a disruption in supplies, and an exponential rise in prices. It provided an opportunity for cotton merchants in Bombay to make hay by exporting cotton to England.
The war lasted four years, and this period established Bombay as a wealthy and well-developed city: railways, docks, bridges, banks and insurance companies were set up all over the islands. It also led to the founding of the Bombay Spinning and Weaving Company by a Parsi merchant, Cowaszee Nanabhoy Davar, in 1854. Over the next 75 years or so, India regained its position in the global textile and cotton trade. Multiple textile mills came up in Bombay, Ahmedabad, Coimbatore and Kanpur, established by businessmen from diverse communities: Parsis, Gujarati Bhatias and Jains, Marwaris and Kamma Naidus. Some of these were integrated spinning-and-weaving mills; the others only produced yarn for supplying to handloom weavers.
The Swadeshi movement
The Swadeshi movement played a significant role in reviving the local industry. Mahatma Gandhi wanted India to become self-reliant and prevent Indian money from being diverted to Britain. At the same time, he was not enamoured by mass production, which is what textile mills, even Indian-owned, were. He was a proponent of production by the masses, instead. He encouraged Indians to spin and weave their own clothes. Khadi, for him, was a symbol of the people of India reclaiming their resources and using these to produce their needs locally. It was also a symbol of freedom, similar to the movement against the British government’s tax and monopoly on salt production.
As part of the Swadeshi and Civil Disobedience movements, British goods were boycotted and even destroyed, while Indian-made products were promoted. For Gandhi, khadi was not just a cloth; he referred to it as a “Livery of Freedom”. These movements led to the revival of small-scale and cottage industries, with the production of cotton goods in India doubling between 1900 and 1912. Meanwhile, the Indian Mills gained momentum during the first World War (1914-1918). They supplied essential war items like army uniforms, jute bags, leather boots and tents. During this time, India also developed trade links with Persia, Turkey, Africa and Ceylon. As a result, India’s textile industry started to recover and expand to a wider market.
Enduring legacy of Gandhi
Even as the Indian textile industry began to make its mark on the global stage, the local, home-spun khadi became a symbol of resistance against colonial rule. For Gandhi, khadi was not just a cloth but a symbol of self-respect and self-reliance. The act of spinning and weaving khadi became an ideology of self-reliance and self-governance. Clothing was used as a metaphor for unity, empowerment and liberation from imperial subjugation.
Mahatma Gandhi’s unwavering determination to envision swaraj is an unforgettable and integral part of India’s history. As we reflect on India’s status 77 years after Independence, Gandhi’s charkha and the legacy of self-reliance remains as poignant today as it was then.
Gandhi’s influence on Indian textiles is indelible. His promotion of khadi and commitment to sustainability have left an enduring legacy. This movement played a crucial role in restoring India’s past glory as a large player in the global cotton trade. The khadi movement continues to inspire the textile industry and individuals alike to make responsible choices that honour India’s heritage and contribute to a more sustainable future.
