C is for...Crucial ... n ... Change

 

All this month I am writing about aspects of Indian textiles, a quick but captivating dive into the saree specifically, a garment worn by Indians for five millennia. Come with me into the colourful, complex and utterly fascinating world of yarn and thread, of skills and techniques of dyeing and printing and embroidery, traditions unchanged for centuries. Of sumptuous finished fabrics that not only make a fashion statement, but also constitute our cultural and political identity. 

C is for Company 

There are several types of sarees that one could pick for C - Chanderi for one, Chettinad for another. One could talk about the textile hubs such as Coimbatore, the 'Manchester of South India' or Calicut. But...nope, not going there.   

Instead, let's talk about a slightly different C. The company above is the Company Bahadur a k a The East India Company. C is for Colonialism, the struggle for independence and how Indian Cloth was at the Centre of an avalanche of Change.

 

In 1608, when the first trading ship of EIC docked at the west coast of India, this country was a manufacturing hub of world class textiles. India had 25% of the global exports of textiles, profits from which made the Indian Emperor Jehangir the wealthiest monarch in the world. Britain at the time had about 2-3% of the textiles market worldwide. 

The Company introduced calico and chintz to Britain, initially as a sideline from its main trade in spices. However, by the late 1600s, textile goods had overtaken them in importance. Indian textiles proved to be wildly popular in Britain threatening the domestic weavers and leading to the first of the Calico Acts in 1700 - a ban on the import of finished cotton fabrics. 

...also for Clive...n... the Charkha

Image credit

Robert Clive established Company rule in India in 1757 by winning the Battle of Plassey, defeating Nawab Siraj-ud-daula of Bengal. And meanwhile, on the other side in Britain, the Industrial Revolution took shape and the first British textile mills came to be established in the 1770s. With the invention of the 'spinning Jenny,' the power loom etc, the growth of cloth production was scaled up manifold from a cottage industry to commercial levels. 

Beyond the Atlantic, the American Revolutionary War meant that the source of raw cotton dried up. The British needed both raw materials to keep the mills fed and a large overseas market to sell the finished textile goods.  So naturally, they continued to block the import of finished textiles and instead scooped up raw cotton bales from India to process and flooded the Indian market with cheaper mill made fabrics. 

Throughout colonial rule, British policies kept the local Indian industries shackled. Mill made British cloth was taxed at absurdly low rates whereas indigenous cloth was exorbitantly taxed. Skilled Indian weavers, in the trade for generations, lost their livelihood and were pushed into abject poverty. The entire Indian textile industry was crippled. And so India's millennia long domination of the global textiles market, from the days of Ancient Rome and Egypt, practically vanished in the short space of a century and a half. 

Consequently, the Indian political aspirations for independence - the Swadeshi (swa - self, desh -country; native-made), Swaraj (raj - rule) and Quit India movements, crystallised around the boycott of foreign goods, including mill made British textiles. 

The early 1920s saw huge political rallies in Bombay and Calcutta where symbolical bonfires of foreign textiles were lit as part of civil disobedience protests. The spinning and wearing of 'Khadi'  a coarse, handspun, handwoven Indian fabric, as well as spinning and weaving hubs set up throughout rural India,  characterised the Swadeshi movement and the drive towards economic self sufficiency. The spinning wheel or charkha was the symbol of Swaraj or self-rule, spinning/weaving/wearing Khadi an act of nonviolent rebellion.  In other words, Indian handspun handloom cloth became the face of the Indian freedom struggle. Coarse handspun was weaponised to a tool of political resistance.

Image credit. This was adopted as the national flag in 1933
 and incorporated the spinning wheel. It was replaced by the
 Ashoka Chakra in July 1947 and hoisted on Independence
Day on 15th August of the same year.

When the long march to freedom ended in August 1947, the first Prime Minister of an independent India hoisted the Indian flag in Delhi. It was made of Khadi, the Indian handspun, handloom cotton cloth, its historical weight far exceeding its mere grammage.

Indian flag 1947-present. Till 2021, the
flag was mandatorily made of Khadi,
handspun, handwoven cotton or silk. 

~~~

Did you know about the crass protectionism practised by the Western colonial governments? Something to consider, isn't it? - when contemporary Western nations complain about Indian markets being restrictive and Indian tariffs preventing foreign goods being sold freely in India! 

Do you think WTO should take into account the wrongs of colonialism and the destruction of thriving industries due to shamelessly unfair tax/tariff regimens of the past centuries? Should sectors like the handloom industry in India be compensated for the havoc that colonial governments wreaked and if so, how? 

Thank you for reading. And happy A-Zing to you if you are participating in the challenge. 

A-Z Challenge 2025

Y is for...Yalla bina!...and...Yellow...and Youthful

is for

Yalla bina!

is an expression that translates “hurry up” or “C’mon, let’s go”, yalla not to be confused with Ya Allah, which literally means “O God” and is used as an invocation to God. 

Ykhalili Albak 

by Najwa Karam, the phenomenally popular, multi-platinum artiste from Lebanon. Najwa has been singing for almost three decades, and has sold millions of records. 

And here is a brand new Middle Eastern star Faia Younan – amazingly expressive voice! Some quality in her voice reminds me of Fairouz. She rose to stardom after this video, created by her and her sister, went viral. She has subsequently released an album and performed at many events in Europe and in MENA. Read more about her at her site. 

Yellow


Time for some random snaps and random facts!

Yellow limes on the Yellow Alley - Darb al
Asfar. This area of the old city was restored 
in the 90's. The vendor was a woman, she did 
not permit me to photograph her. So I got her
basket instead. 2011, Islamic Cairo. Egypt.

Middle-Eastern munchies.  Arabs snack on a wide range of roasted 

nuts and seeds - sunflower, pumpkin, pine nuts, peanuts, etc. Many 
local dishes use nuts as ingredients as well. Display in a shop near 
the Archaeological Park. 2013, Madaba, Jordan.

Bahrain National Theatre. The metal clad roof was specially treated
with a closely guarded proprietary substance to achieve the golden
yellow colour. 2014, Manama, Bahrain.

Embroidered Coptic Cross on velvet drapery at St 
Anthony's Monastery, one of the oldest in the world.
Some of these desert monasteries have been continually 
functional for around 1500 years, given a special dispensation 
of protection by Prophet Mohammed personally when the Arab 
armies conquered Egypt. St Anthony's Monastery. 2012, 
Zafarana, Egypt.

Tanoura performer in yellow. Wikala al Ghouri. Al Azhar Street,
Cairo. 2014, Egypt.

Tableau depicting Bahraini society of times past. Dates and
coffee are still an important part of Arab culture. Bahrain
National Museum. 2015, Manama, Bahrain.

Youthful

The profile of the Arablands is youthful.  First off, the demographics in these countries – the population is overwhelmingly young. Arabs are a tender young bunch, the median age in the Arab countries varies from a low of 19 years to a high of 29 years. 

Secondly, most of the 22 countries which make up the Arab League, are themselves quite young - they have become self-governing nations only a few decades ago. Except for Oman, all countries in the MENA became independent in the 20th century. All Arablands, except Oman, are less than a century old.

Many of the conflicts and challenges that these countries face can be at least partially laid at the door of foreign occupiers. Let me make it clear here - I'm totally not in favour of former colonies/protectorates looking back and forever playing the victim card, pick yourselves up and get a move on, folks! But equally we must be aware of facts.

The general public outside the Arablands knows or cares little about the origins of Arab problems and what role the Europeans have played here. I wonder if European/Western teenagers learn about the Sykes-Picot agreement in their history classes? Or about the history of colonialism of their respective motherlands? About the past roles of their governments in slavery or Apartheid? The Holocaust is shocking beyond words and we must never ever forget its lessons, but it is regrettably not the only huge injustice perpetrated in history! 'Those who do not remember the past are doomed to repeat it.' 


Is the new generation being made aware of peoples/nations who've been grievously wronged apart from the Jews?

Posted for the A-Z Challenge 2017  

Dinshaway, 27th June 1906

I’ve never been to Dinshaway, some places

are like that, unvisited, widely unknown;

but when their names are taken, a line of faces

hovers over memory, as if they’re my own.

Perhaps I was among the flock of pigeons

which took the bullets for the soldiers’ sport;

I was the burnt grain; the trailing smidgen 

of smoke, the shock at the sentence of the court.

Maybe I was the wood that got hammered -

unwillingly nailed into the scaffold;

the mother’s final lament; the child’s last word;

the crowd’s last gasp at the rope’s stranglehold.

Not the key, nevertheless, a witness;

I was there when the bodies twitched, lifeless.

This is, in a way, a response poem to Cavafy's 27th June, 2 p.m. In another, it's a response to an old news story that feels like a recollection, dredged up from the deepest layers of deja vu-ness.  An 'incident' that sowed the seeds of a different Brexit. It slotted into me like a missing link of memory the first time I heard it; and it continues to move me, no doubt because there are very similar tales from pre-independent India.  I mean, that must be the rational explanation.