Fig. 2 Motifs typical of muslin on goddess Durga.
Our Story SAIFUL ISLAM
Fig. 3 Muslin sari, circa late 18th century.
6 MUSLIN Our Story
Message Bangladesh is often known as a young country with an ancient history and culture. It is less than fifty years since we gained our independence and yet we are privileged to own a rich, diverse and complex history that goes centuries back, blending with the origins of the Indian subcontinent. Collecting, preserving and building public awareness of a nation’s history and culture is at the best of times a very challenging responsibility, especially when resources are low and archiving efforts in the past have suffered from natural and historical disasters, during the successive partition and liberation of Bangladesh. We are proud of the fact that we have a growing collection, increasing audiences and robust programs in place. These are designed to enhance and increase our archive, improve visitor interaction and ensure that our museum plays a leading role in educating the nation on its rich legacy of events and artefacts. One of key legacies is muslin, a fine, cotton fabric that was legendary across the world from before the Common Era to well into the nineteenth century, before its demise at the hands of the East India Company (EIC). It was the prime source of the EIC’s wealth for a number of years and led to many imitations, which exist even today. And yet, the glory and fame, even the artefacts, have bypassed our country. A cloth whose cotton was grown on our river banks and shipped from Dhaka to far away countries has unfortunately not been adequately represented in our nation’s history either through documentation or exhibits. Most artefacts have ended up in foreign museums and its records are also available more in Britain then in Bangladesh. I am delighted that we have an opportunity to rectify this vital and missing part of our collection and cultural history. Drik, an agency famed for its visual collection and innovative programs, has initiated a program to record and hopefully retrieve the story of muslin and present it through an exhibition, film show and quality publication. This publication is one of those activities that I believe will be the first step in a journey of reclaiming our heritage and building pride in our identity as a nation. Our plans are to engage with the general public through this project and lead to a permanent display of muslin in the BNM. It is not a task that we can perform on its own, but we are proud to be the lead partner in this journey and give this effort the support that it fully deserves. Faizul Latif Chowdhury Director General Bangladesh National Museum
MUSLIN Our Story
7
12 MUSLIN Our Story
Acknowledgements As Graham Greene memorably said, a story is born in the ‘kitchen of the unconscious’ almost surreptitiously, like a secret too rare to share, a love too precious to speak of, a dream that vanished before the end of sleep. In this case, the idea had been marinating in the background and when I felt a compilation, i.e., a book, was a good idea, it was easier to serve this dish. The journey started unknowingly in end-2013, in East London with the Stepney Trust, to bring their work on muslin to Bangladesh. From an initial urge to do ‘some homework,’ it ballooned into a full-fledged enquiry for the missing chapters in muslin’s glittering life. In essence, I was drawn into the center of muslin’s void; the non-existence of actual muslin in its birth land, the non-recognition of the skilled class and the marginalisation of our country’s role in the narrative of others. It appeared that muslin had entered a ‘not guilty’ plea and been condemned to die in an English court, in the absence of an attorney, in the silence of a solitary cell. Initially, I only wished to gain a deeper understanding of muslin’s biography, to make the trip into the land of the extinct and return to tell the tale of its connection to Bangladesh. This was the first phase. Later, came the desire to up the odds and remove the tombstone, to breathe life into the legend, create textiles with today’s weavers that replicated muslin, allowing it another chance at a revival. This second phase was more intense and completely new ground for us. It involved searches for seeds, hunting for spinners, and learning about weavers. It strained the team, and our relationships, at times reaching levels of coercion. In the end, we have been very fortunate to receive the response and results that we did. Our ambitions as a team also evolved. Our reach became more than our grasp. Muslin was the tangible product, the central character whose story we wished to tell, in our voice, whose wounds we wanted to wash, with our caring hands. In the process, our goals were to create historical accuracy, generate awareness, enshrine its contribution and explore its potential. Sadly, there are few credible records on muslin by Bangladeshis. One out-of-print book by Professor Abdul Karim and some articles (several of them are excellent) do not do justice to this part of our past, least of all on an international level. Of the few habits one should emulate from Europeans, observing and noting down facts for posterity is the best one. On a more contemporary level, our past achievement in textiles has been subsumed by the unprecedented growth of the RMG (Ready Made Garments) sector, and its accompanying adverse publicity. Given the prodigious effort required for its manufacture, it is doubtful whether muslin will ever be high volume — though it can be high value, serving as a role model in the top end of the clothing market, rather than a regular runner as everyday wear. It could be a brand Fig. 4 Muslin’s history in
ambassador, adding its image to our identity.
embroidery.
MUSLIN Our Story
13
Fig. 5 The lines of a weaver’s palm visible through muslin being woven.
16 MUSLIN Our Story
The cloth is like the light vapours of dawn. Yuan Chwang 629-45 CE, Chinese traveller visiting India
MUSLIN Our Story
17
CONTENTS
Bangladesh National Museum
7
Aarong 8 Foreword by Rosemary Crill
9
Introduction by Shahidul Alam
10
Acknowledgements 13
PROLOGUE 21 ‘WHITE GOLD’: SEARCHING FOR ROOTS
24
Cotton: Clothing the World
35
Gossypium arboreum: The Legendary Plant
39
Conditions: Land, Water and Fleece
48
BENGAL’S GENIUS: FROM FABLES TO FABRIC
58
Crafting Muslin 71 Embarrassment of Riches
84
The Heroes Behind the Fables
97
MUSLIN’S PEAK: POMP AND CIRCUMSTANCE
106
Usage: From Tribute to Trade
116
Value: Bulging Coffers 123 Versions: Exploiting the Brand
130
MUSLIN’S DECLINE: DEATH IN THE DELTA
146
Strangling the Yarn 151
18 MUSLIN Our Story
The East India Company: Merchants of the Empire
159
Bengal: Silence of the Looms
165
TODAY’S MUSLIN: THE SECOND COMING
174
The Resurgence of Jamdani
185
India’s Offering
194
The World at Large
200
EPILOGUE
207
Notes
211
Figure captions
224
Glossary
233
Bibliography
240
ONE PAGERS, ILLUSTRATIONS, MAPS AND TABLE
One Pagers What’s in a Count? 76 Classification of Muslin 85 De-mystifying Muslin 139 Weaver Within the Circle of Attrition
157
Legend of the Missing Thumbs
166
Verses of the Loom 191 Illustrations Process Steps for Muslin 86 Maps Main Rivers of Bangladesh
30
Spread of Cotton Species Around the World
39
Ancient Bengal with Political Divisions
47
Cotton Growing Areas in Bengal
50
Asian Trade Routes in early-18th Century
120
Table Aggregate Value of Cloth Trade of Dhaka in 1753
127
MUSLIN Our Story
19
Fig. 6 Black bordered muslin sari, circa mid 18th century.
20 MUSLIN Our Story
PROLOGUE Muslin — what magic does the name hold? What mystery
body by the beauty of its wearer and subsume the skill of its
lies enfolded in the filaments of this fabric? Who wove it?
maker, to carry the beloved garden of the Mughals around
Who wore it? To look upon it today is to view a discarded
oneself like a scent without a source, for an audience to
rag, off-white, slightly awry, sometimes studded with
discover a third dimension long before 3D was officially
floral patterns, or plain, with at best a golden edge
discovered.
framing the central cloth. Did the ‘fool and his lady fair’ fall for the hallucinatory spin of the wooden wheel, the
Did it thumb its nose at royal conventions, daring that
monotonous shuttle of the handloom or get swept off
courtly gossip be fuelled by its transparency while the
their feet in a medieval designer’s hysteria? Was this the
power to obtain it and the glory of wearing it remained on
start of the ‘wannabe’ culture that continues with the
the wearer's side?
Diors' of today? To hold the fabric, gaze upon it, is to be transported into Textiles have been spun, embroidered, shaped and draped
a timeless past, where the sheen of antiquity on the soft
across the shoulders of both the common people and
cloth is heightened by a luminescent after-glow. Lighter
of royalty in every culture. We know that more intricate
than a lover’s sigh, softer than a butterfly’s wings, in
designs have been printed or embroidered into the body of
its transparent simplicity lay its subtle pull upon the
a cloth, grander tapestries have been hung and richer silk
imagination of poets, and on the pockets of those who
has been spun. Muslin, after all, was simply cotton, fine and
could afford it.
fragile which most Mughals discarded after a day’s wear, so diaphanous and see through (Moghal Emperor Aurangzeb
How many poems did it ink? How many loves did it inspire?
chided his daughter for appearing nude, while she actually
If the threads could speak would they reveal to us more than
wore seven layers of it), one that provided neither strong
we care to know? Would we feel guilty that the cloth that
shelter from the weather nor was an effective barrier to
had brought us such perpetual fame, was not protected
unwanted gazes. Tedious and time consuming to make and
from the changes in its environment, in the end? How many
almost impossible to hold, a full dress of ‘woven air’ was
wars did it provoke? How many deaths did it determine?
beyond a measurable weight, the final product rare and only
What was the weight of the greed that it added to the
fit as supreme leisurewear and little else.
misery of its makers? Why was its lustre allowed to fade?
Perhaps herein lies its allure, the arachnidan pattern,
Today, we can only conjecture the answers to these
the interwoven threads providing only a semblance of
questions, while in our mind’s eye and our inner ear we
protection, a feeling against the skin, the perpetual caress
imagine the early morning whirring of the spindle, the late
of cloth, like a second skin. ‘The skin of the moon’ said Abul
night slide of the shuttle, the dip of the needle and gaze
Hasan Yaminuddin Khusrow, Indian poet (1253-1325 CE),
through its finished threads to wonder at the magic and
its reality was an illusion in texture. While wearing jamdani
mystery of it all.
(interpretations of the term differ but one translation is ‘flowers in a container’), the master weaver’s goal was to ensure that the flora on the fabric would appear to float, to trick the eye into beholding a design suspended across the
At the least, muslin’s true story needs to be known and today’s survivors of those legendary spinners and weavers of the past deserve our collective care.
MUSLIN Our Story
21
Fig. 7 Bengal’s phuti karpas is captured in the Herbarium both as a sample and a painting.
22 MUSLIN Our Story
In this same Country they make Cotton Garments, in so extraordinary a manner, that no where else are the like to be seen. These Garments are for the most part round, and wove to that degree of fineness, that they may be drawn through a Ring of a middling Size. Sulayman al-Tajir, Abu Zayd Hasan ibn Yazid Sirafi Arab travellers, 9th-10th centuries
MUSLIN Our Story
23
1
‘WHITE GOLD’: SEARCHING FOR ROOTS
24 MUSLIN Our Story
T
he dakats (dacoits, pirates) normally come from
widened and went around turns as we glided towards past
the left bank. It’s more deserted,’ said our majhi
the faint lights of distant towns, its banks merging with
(boatman) Mayedul Islam. ‘But we haven’t been
the silhouettes of village traffic, trees, cattle and children
attacked for years.’
returning home. Rapidly, it all became one silent, sombre profile, etched above the waterline. I wondered, had the
‘Why is that?’ we enquired.
dacoits also attacked when muslin cotton was cultivated in this area?
Our question was greeted with laughter, which floated over the slow tide. ‘Because we are poor,’ he said, and went on to
There had been no hint of dacoits three months earlier
explain, ‘Well, we never carry attractive things like expensive
when I had climbed the stairs to a cafe on the balcony of
mobiles, fancy cameras, cash.’ Then, looking pointedly at
Waterloo station in London. I was meeting Mohammad
what we were carrying, most of which was not normal cargo
Ahmedullah and Saif Osmani, members of Stepney Trust,
for a boat which was drifting mid-river, far from the nearest
a community culture group working in the East End of
town, he added, ‘But things are different today.’
London. After ordering food, we spoke of Bengal’s history, carrying on the conversation begun a month earlier at the
The majhi was right. He guided us through the shoals of
Bangla Week festival. The Trust had undertaken a project
the river by instinct and his advice on security was based
of bringing muslin’s history closer to the British public.
on long experience. The other two passengers on our boat
They had replicated a number of muslin dresses, based
had their daily belongings close to them, a small bag of
on Britain’s plentiful collections in various museums, and
groceries, well-worn umbrellas and a spare pair of sandals;
had displayed them at a public exhibition. They dreamt of
all well below a dakat’s daily pickings.
taking their successful show to Drik (a multimedia activist agency, of which I am the CEO) in Dhaka, and of building
Today had been very different for us too. It was a June
awareness about their work in Bangladesh.
evening, the full day’s heat hung like a humid cloud around us. We had embarked from the small town of Kapasia,
The idea fitted well with our own range of social activist
a name that resonated with cotton growing (karpas, for
programmes, which often undertook projects that focused
cotton) for centuries, about 30 kilometres north of Dhaka.
on uncommon social and cultural issues that would help to
We were following the Brahmaputra’s watery bends to
build an authentic and alternative image of Bangladesh.
Mymensingh, a large district town further north, on the
However, there were a few challenges. If Drik was to co-
west bank of the river.
host the programme with Stepney Trust we would need to represent not just muslin but also the craft, present the
Sunrise, several cups of extra sweet tea and a sleepy group
cultural context. We would have to acquire an adequate
of shopkeepers had greeted us when we had boarded at
knowledge of its origins and current forms, which
the ghaat (jetty). Now, almost a hundred kilometres north,
necessarily meant going beyond the well-known legends
at day’s end we watched the orange orb sinking into the
and stories present in the popular imagination and the
water, a palette of quenched colours burning like a fire
public domain.
below the shimmering surface of the Sitalakhya (meanings differ, one version being ‘silver water’) river. The waters
So I spoke to knowledgeable figures in Bangladesh on the
slowly darkened from dull silver to almost black; the river
issue, stalwarts in the practice and research of crafts such MUSLIN Our Story
25
26 MUSLIN Our Story
Fig. 8 Sitalakhya river, Bangladesh.
MUSLIN Our Story
27
Fig. 11 Night on the river banks of the Meghna.
32 MUSLIN Our Story
fired the weavers’ imagination? Had it driven them to strive
Bengal’s climate, evolved into its sought-after variant.
for more fine, ever-whiter cloth even under the severe duress
The Kew records noted that the owners of one particular
of Bengal’s colonial rulers? All along the land, cultivation
specimen are the National Virtual Herbarium (NVH) of
was going on of whatever crop was in demand, necessity
Jordan, because this species was believed to have been
driving the farmers’ selection from season to season. Cotton
carried from India and had later thrived in the sub-Saharan
today was widely planted under a government program
dust bowl.
in Kapasia and other selected areas of the country, but it had disappeared from private holdings. We brought back
Funded by royal largesse, the NVH’s gates in Amman were
samples and planted them, with the assistance of the
high, the officers polite, and the database shared with
officials of the Bangladesh Cotton Development Board,
Israel. Dr. Nasab Rawasdeh, the director, was surprised at
under its program at their experimental farm in Gazipur.
our request as their research on cotton, in general, was
We used the harvest to spin yarn on trial. But despite
limited. She walked me into the hermetically insulated cold
all our efforts nothing to date quite resembled the red-
room and talked me through transparent layers of Jordan’s
stemmed plant that had bloomed within Bengal’s unique
historical plant species. The pages captured the slowly
riverine nursery. It may exist for all we know, hidden in some
disappearing vegetation through careful dry - and - press
flowered field, nestled by a distant creek, or subsumed
techniques, archiving the evolving plantscape of a changing
within the DNA of another plant’s variety. For now, all that
desert, before current forms of life vanished as legends.
remained of its visible presence were dried specimens in a
Under the socio-political urgency of food production (a
few herbariums around the world. Though these samples
pressure in Bangladesh too), cotton farming in Jordan
were more dead than alive, their regression into dust
had drastically reduced, and what was now left was more
suspended by a chemical process, my urge to see some form
residual than mainstream.
of the phuti karpas remained. This search turned up more leads, from one scientific In the high hall of the office entrance of the Royal Botanic
citadel to two others: the National Herbarium of Namibia
Gardens at Kew, Greater London, glass cabinets displayed
(WIND), which had primary ownership of the seeds in Kew;
pristine drawings of dissected plants. They hinted at the
and Kolkata, acknowledged as a rich but largely untapped
admirable ability of the English to precisely document and
source of botanical knowledge.
archive the world, whichever part of it they ventured into. Corridors overheated against the winter chill led me to a
Kolkata was home to the Royal Botanical Gardens, renamed
garden-fronted, book-piled room. A detailed discussion
as the Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanic
ensued with Dr. Mark Nesbitt, ethno — botanist and curator
Garden. Founded in 1786 in Shibpur, Howrah, it was the
of the Economic Botany Collection. Kew was the repository
epicentre of plant archiving in India, with over two-and-
to seven million plant species; it was connected to over
a-half million species preserved in its collection. There
eighty other institutions. It was home to several dried
was an energy-sapping, three-mile walk from the main
plants labelled Gossypium herbaceum, the very phuti
security gate through the humid green shade of its multiple
karpas whose living species is what we are searching.
gardens, all irrigated by twenty-six ponds that channeled
Dr. Nesbitt pointed out that the plant had been wrongly
water from the adjacent river Ganga (Ganges) to seventeen
labelled and the actual name was Gossypium arboreum,
thousand living species. I met with Dr. Tapash K. Paul, who
closer to a native hill cotton variety which over time, in
listened and clarified, then led me into the herbarium below. MUSLIN Our Story
33
Fig. 19 Dried Gossypium arboreum sample at the Kolkata Herbarium.
44 MUSLIN Our Story
In 1788, writes Professor Karim, the Commercial Officer of
original). Watt emphasises the uniqueness of this plant
the English trading company stated that muslin was made
by mentioning Dr. Roxburgh’s ‘Flora Indica’, speaking
from phuti karpas and not from boyrati.48 Apart from that,
of the differences between Bengal and Dhaka cotton,
the Indian historian Jagadish Chandra Singh came across a
thereby indirectly stating that it is specific to Dhaka.
man named Krishna Kumar Boshak who, in his youth, used
‘This is the indigenous desee cotton of Dacca, which has
to make muslin. When Singh showed him the picture of
been cultivated from time immemorial.’51 The only issue
the phuti karpas plant from George Watt’s 1907 book, Wild
here seems to be the name, with Watt regarding it to be
and Cultivated Cotton Plants of the World, he recognised
boyrati while Karim and Jagadish consider it to be phuti
it and said it yielded cotton for making the finest muslin.
karpas. From all available evidence the latter formulation
Professor Karim asserts that Dhaka’s phuti karpas was
appears to be correct.
‘finer and silkier than any other karpas that was cultivated around this region.’49 Dr. Roxburgh, Professor Karim writes,
Cotton fibres are collected from both the flower pod
had observed the following characteristics of phuti karpas,
(floss), and the ones which are attached to the seeds (fuzz). The ones attached to the seeds, shorter in
a) The plant of phuti karpas was straight and upright;
length, less in volume, were difficult to remove, but they
b) It had comparatively less branches;
yielded cotton of superior quality, hence its demand was
c) The whole plant was red; d) The tip of the flowers were red, the outside of the flower petals were also red; e) The fibre of its cotton was finer, it had more length and was very thin; Samples of the plant as preserved in the Kew Garden and in Kolkata, reveal very little of the original colour. It is almost impossible to state with any certainty whether the brownish stems were onces fully scarlet, yellow or yellow tinged with red. Both Roxburgh and Professor Karim agree on the variety i.e., phuti karpas (though Professor Karim quotes Roxburgh on it!), while some disagreement is evident about the fibre length.
higher. In latter day literature, it is asserted that the characteristic of cotton from Bengal compared to other cotton varieties was the shortness of its fibres, or staple. Under the microscope, it looked like ‘an ill-made hair rope bristling with loose strands’ with the riband-shaped fibres accounting for the subtly uneven finish of the woven muslin.52 The growing appetite for cotton by the English mills caused imports into England to increase from 1.6 million pounds in 1700 to 6.6 million pounds before the end of the eighteenth century. The supply for such an increasing demand tended to be uneven, suffering from variations in supply due to low acreage expansion and external events such as the American Civil War (1861-65), which was a central cause for the great Cotton Famine of 1862-66.53 It
Watt’s pronouncement is definitive; the red-stemmed
‘placed in greater jeopardy...this great industry’ creating a
plant, described and drawn by Roxburgh as the much-
serious shortage of the white fluffy stuff. This prompted
talked-of ‘Dacca Cotton,’ is a special race of Neglecta
scientific studies on how to improve productivity by
(emphasis mine), growing ‘within a very restricted tract
determining optimum soil conditions ‘for the appropriate
of Eastern Bengal.’ The fibre is extremely fine, silky
type of cotton,’54 meaning the type suitable for industrial
and strong but the staple is very short (emphasis in the
needs. What the English wanted was clear; ‘The cultivation
50
MUSLIN Our Story
45
made the cotton yarn react differently, i.e. to acquire superior characteristics when processed in these waters. Reportedly, it was not only the temperature differential between the colder sea water and the normally warmer river water, but the rate of temperature change precipitated by tidal changes that were favourable to the growth of the phuti karpas. While considerable skills were undoubtedly involved in spinning and weaving Dhaka muslin, the dexterity required for farming should not be in any way underestimated. In many cases, weavers would engage in farming too, depending on their availability and economic need. It has been noted by some authors that paan (betel leaf) cultivators were most suited for farming phuti karpas, but we do not know whether this was because of similarities in the nature of farming (plucking of leaf), or because of convenient crop production cycles (betel leaf would be planted at the beginning of the monsoon, when cotton farming activity was over). Any of the above factors or a combination of them would have played a significant role in the cultivation of phuti karpas and its use as the source material for the finest cotton cloth in history. George Watt’s advice was that one should not be overlyconcerned about the ‘errors’ made by early botanists in identifying the ‘plant grown for the muslin industry of Dacca a locality famed for its cottons for perhaps the past 2,000 years.’94 Instead, he thought efforts should be directed to studying ‘critically the methods and theories’ of Indian craftsmen, especially the ‘hygroscopic properties of certain cottons and the chemical composition of the well waters used by them.’95
54 MUSLIN Our Story
Fig. 26 Cotton farmer, Gazipur, Bangladesh.
MUSLIN Our Story
55
Fig. 27 Muslin sari, circa mid-19th century.
56 MUSLIN Our Story
There is also made in Seronge another sort of Calicut, which is so fine, that when a man puts it on, his skin shall appear through it, as if he were naked. Jean-Baptiste Tavernier 17th century French traveller
MUSLIN Our Story
57
2
BENGAL’S GENIUS: FROM FABLES TO FABRIC
58 MUSLIN Our Story
Fig. 39 Skeins of cotton yarn.
A study suggests that the principle of dhuna was a sophisticated one. Strumming would alter the frequency of the airwaves, creating a vacuum above the cotton pile, resulting in lighter fibres rising from the heavier pile. The string would not be allowed to touch the cotton as that could damage the fibre. As the pile reduced, the bow was brought down to maintain equidistance from the cotton pile, while the sound of the strumming would guide the dhunera about the effective pitch of the frequency needed. The heavier residual cotton was ‘never used for manufacture of thread, but is exclusively applied to the manufacture of quilts and articles of winter clothing for the Mussulmauns.’9 The light cotton was then rolled around a smooth lacquered reed10 to which the cotton would adhere. It would be wrapped in smooth, soft, dried skin of a Cheetol (scientifically known as Chitala chitala) or Cuchia (Gangetic mud eel) fish into a small cylinder case. This covered cotton was held in the hand during spinning11 to protect the cotton from dust or any other dirt.12 The whole process of preparing the cotton for spinning was complex and labour-intensive, with the intensity increasing in the later stages of spinning. Different instruments were used depending upon the delicacy of the cotton and the fineness of the thread desired. Humidity and light were key factors; the former was required for retaining pliability in the thread, and the latter to allow the spinner to see the fine filament. Spinning was best done early in the morning and in the late afternoon for a few hours. ‘The ideal weather for cutting yarn was in the morning from sunrise till 9-10 a.m. and during the afternoon from 3-4 p.m. till half hour before sunset,’13 thus avoiding the heat of the midday sun which could dry the yarn. The spinning wheel or charka was used for producing coarse or middling yarn as it was supposed to double or quadruple the volume of production of a spindle. Both the takwa and charka were made of wood or bamboo with a minimum of metal and it seemed that the quality of goods
72 MUSLIN Our Story
MUSLIN Our Story
73
Processing steps for muslin
Removing seeds from karpas
Winding and reeling yarn
Applying the reed to the warp
86 MUSLIN Our Story
Ginning coton with small hand bow
Twisting and drying yarn
Applying the warp to the end roll of the loom
Spinning by takwa
Warping yarn
Preparing the heddles
Steaming the cloth
Beetling the muslin with smooth shells
Arranging the threads of cloth
Weaving
Folding the cloth
Packing the cloth
MUSLIN Our Story
87
3
MUSLIN’S PEAK: POMP AND CIRCUMSTANCE
106 MUSLIN Our Story
E
uropean historical records are replete with accounts
Delicately carved furniture, printed silk wallpaper and gilded
of muslin as an item of luxury, as an accessory
cutlery laid out for an evening’s banquet complemented
for royalty, a necessity for the privileged and an
the paintings portraying the Empress in the dresses she
aspiration for the emerging merchant classes. Its spread
cherished. A large painting of her sitting on a golden
across the board in terms of national tastes and the impact
velvet sofa dressed in muslin framed her in off-white, was
upon trading revenues is richly documented — not the least
vivid proof of her elevation of muslin to royal standing.
in the British Library. A scholastic silence embraced me as I
There were more paintings of her draped in diaphanous,
walked through the massive double doors of its Asian and
whispering white muslin, presumably waiting for the
African Studies reading room. To delve and burrow, time-
Emperor (who did not approve of muslin and thought of it
capsule style, into the archives of the India House. The
as a symbol of his mortal foe, the English) to return from
India Office, from where they were transferred, was a minor
his many campaigns. Muslin occupied extensive space in her
misnomer: within the three-thousand individual collections
wardrobe, more than a hundred pieces, exquisitely chosen
of documents are papers that cover the age of the East
for both social and official occasions. Joséphine had not
India Company, the Board of Commissioners of India and
started the fashion, but perpetuated and amplified it after
the Burma Office. All of them landed in the custody of the
Queen Marie Antoinette (1755-1793). The latter is believed
British Library after the abolition of the Company office.
to have worn a muslin fichu (a light, triangular scarf around the neck, made fashionable in eighteenth-century England)
On neat wooden shelves were stacked the orders for muslin
on her last ride to the Place de la Révolution en route to the
placed by the Nawabs of Bengal or English high street
guillotine.
traders. A dense trajectory of merchandise had moved from Dhaka to Arabia, Rome, London and even Indonesia.
At the other end of Europe, to step through the gates
Etchings, sketches, paintings and cartoons illustrated
of Istanbul’s Topkapi Museum into the vast labyrinthine
muslin’s entry into haute couture culture, while its business
complex on Seraglio Point was to take, as Simon Callow
impact on manufacturers, suppliers and dealers was visible
wrote, ‘a walk through the corridors of civilisation.’ The
in the commercial exchange documents. To riffle through
palace, one of the world’s most opulent residences, was
these leather-bound manuscripts, to peruse obscure
built by Sultan Mehmet II in 1465 and was inhabited for the
company purchase records, to scan shipping manifests, to
next four centuries by a succession of Ottoman Sultans.
dig out a US marketing manual such as Muslin Underwear
Topkapi’s Directors of Textile, Drs. Selin Ipak, Sibel Arca and
and Petticoats (Fredonia Jane Ringo, 1925) was to realise
Hande Guyol, talked about their research, and we concurred
that muslin circled the globe, gripped the minds of the
that none of the items on public display could possibly be
privileged as it hugged the contours of their physiques.
muslin (though there are references to fine cotton being worn as an accompaniment to brocade and royal velvet).
Then it was across the Channel. The gravel crunched
The museum’s storage spaces, however, might tell a
beneath my feet as it might have under the wheels of
different story, since there were sufficient historical records
Napoleon’s carriage in the early nineteenth century, when
to conclude that a large trade existed in muslin under
I walked into Empress Joséphine’s house at Château de
the Ottomans (1299-1923) with names such as Dulbend,
Malmaison, a two-hour ride from Paris. Restored by the
Kabulhane and Kanbil. Some of the evidence awaited my
architect Pierre Humbert (1848-1919), the house’s décor and
inspection after I left Topkapi. I strolled with friends up
items spoke volumes about the owner’s expensive tastes.
Istiklal Avenue, off-limits to cars, and towards Taksim MUSLIN Our Story
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132 MUSLIN Our Story
Earlier efforts to successfully produce a ‘semblance of
Fig. 83 Lady Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess
muslin’ had failed to meet the test of Indian standards.
of Devonshire.
However, hugely protectionist trade barriers for Indian
Fig. 84 Great Exhibition, 1851.
muslin, the dearth of imported muslin and the consistent attempts by overseas manufacturers to duplicate Indian muslin started to bear fruit for the English manufacturers. In 1782, Samuel Oldknow, an English industrialist, began making the English version of muslin. London’s fashion trade, looking for the ‘latest novelties in Manchester goods … found a gold mine in Oldknow’s muslins.’61 By 1786, he was the most successful ‘muslin’ manufacturer and controlled twenty-nine mills.62 Understanding consumer preferences of foreign markets was deemed a priority, and the meticulous reports of Christophe Aubin, a commercial agent, sent to explore Middle Eastern markets in 1812, are revealing. He writes, Turkish consumers had initially been ‘very prejudiced against all English Manufacture,’ though ‘they have now changed their mind and buy what is cheapest.’63 Customers sometimes needed additional
MUSLIN Our Story
133
Fig. 89 Bengal muslin gown in German museum.
140 MUSLIN Our Story
European Muslin
manufacturing it in St Gallen. In 1732, the skill of linen
European fashion followed the tastes of the French court.
weaving was transferred to cotton, and Eastern Swiss
It principally revolved around silk but was displaced by
muslin was launched. St Gallen merchants also introduced
muslin, especially under the patronage of Queen Mary
hand embroidery on ‘Indian muslin’ in 1753, which they
Antoinette, and later, Empress Josephine Bonaparte. In
had learnt from Turkish merchants in Lyons. A new
France, a similar pattern of high-class usage, business
profession called the ferggers emerged who worked as
start-up and subsequent protectionist import bans
intermediaries between home workers and manufacturers.
occurred as in England. During their reigns, both Empresses
In the 1750s Georges-Antoinette-Simonet, son of a Tarare
Josephine and Marie Antoinette used fashion to make
textile dealer, took workers from St Gallen to Tarare (a
powerful political statements that shaped the public’s
town, among the Beaujolais mountains in France, not
perception about the fabric.77 It set tongues wagging due
widely known), and though he did not succeed his nephew
to the notoriety associated with the cloth (sheer, casual),
Claude-Marie managed to do so later. With a variety of
which in turn sent sales climbing for muslin. In 1664, the
offerings, the cotton boom continued from 1760 to 1790
La Compagnie francaise des Indes orientales (the French
but stagnated afterwards due to the French import bans
Company for East India trade) was formed under Louis XVI,
and the rise of English manufacturing.81
whose purpose was to navigate and negotiate in almost all the Indies and Eastern seas. With monopoly long-distance
Eventually, like its eastern counterparts the St. Gallen
trade that continued for fifty years, the French had a
industry met its demise when other areas such as
counterpart to the Company in India.78 Trade was brisk
Austria’s Tyrol and the areas south of Germany became
and with bases in Coromandel, muslin was being shipped
cheaper than St. Gallen.82
and sold from Masulipatnam. Their growing popularity triggered an import ban in 1686 and the ultimate collapse of the Compagnie Francaise in 1769.79
American Versions The word ‘muslin’ has also a colloquial meaning. In the United Kingdom, many sheer cotton fabrics are called
Exactly as in Britain, French contraband suppliers and
muslin. In the United States, ‘muslin’ sometimes refers
domestic manufacturers were also galvanised into action.
to a strong, coarse cloth for everyday use, which in the
The government took a series of steps to reduce its import
UK and Australia is known as ‘calico.’ Merchants brought
dependency on cotton, which included illegally copying
spices and cotton to America during the colonial period
the spinning jenny and using the skills of British prisoners
and calico quickly became popular from the seventeenth
of war. A prime example was Christopher Burckhardt, a
century onwards. Both fine and coarse varieties were used
Franco-Swiss cotton merchant, who circumvented the
either on special occasions, i.e., wedding, parties etc.,
Napoleonic bans and pursued his goal of building a cotton
by the landed gentry on the East Coast or as a popular
industry. Born into a well-connected family in Basel,
everyday item, i.e., children’s clothes, curtains etc. As an
Switzerland, the family was involved in the silk and cotton
American writer remarks, fine mul-muls, striped, sprigged
trade from the fifteenth century, buying Levant cotton
muslins, even turbans were imported from India.
for onward sales to Europe.80 In St Gallen, Switzerland, Peter Bion began processing cotton from Cyprus, Levant and East India in 1724 and wove fustian. Entrepreneurs who saw the success of muslin in England began
Independence from Great Britain in 1776 freed the United States from the monopoly of the East India Company, and the period saw the democratisation of textiles. In
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141
Legend of the Missing Thumbs The imputed rationale was that by making Bengal lose its ability to weave handloom textiles, muslin ceased to be a threat and converted the general population into passive
Of the many crimes
consumers of British machine-made textiles. It is seen as another example of the heights
committed during the
of greed and torture pursued by the British in their single-minded drive to exterminate
British colonial rule,
muslin from Bengal’s portfolio of crafts, which they were failing to do through fair means.
one has remained
Professor Karim, in ‘Dhakai Muslin’, 1965, states that on 30th May 1922, in Madras, a report
embedded in Bengal’s
was published in the daily newspaper of a Congress youth worker stating to the Deputy
collective memory,
Inspector General (DIG), Police that the English had cut off the thumbs of weavers in his
embellished by
village. On being questioned by the DIG, his junior officer, the Superintendent of Police
constant retelling. It is
confirmed this. William Bolt, Dutch merchant, in his Considerations on Indian Affairs (1772) mentions that weavers in Bengal were being so heavily persecuted that they resorted to
that of the British
cutting off their own thumbs rather than continue working under the rules of the English;
cutting the thumbs of
except that he mentions silk weavers. There appear to be no other incidents in recorded
weavers in the 18th
literature, but as Professor Karim points out, it was the English who wrote our history;
century.
therefore the chances of them recording their own grisly practices would be rare. He also mentions a particular lake in Sonargaon, near Dhaka, Bangladesh (we have been there) where villagers believe a large number of thumbs were disposed of. Tellingly, most stories surfaced largely around the time of the Sepoy Revolt, 1857, when anti-British feelings were at a peak.
In any case, it was probably spinners, not weavers, who would be most affected by missing thumbs as that particular digit was crucial in producing fine thread. The reason this story has such a lasting grip on the public imagination is because of the appalling, systemic persecution that was practiced by the British. Combined with the famines, land grabs and usury laws under which the weavers were forced to operate as bonded craftsmen, many believe that nothing was past the British. No crime was too small, no cruelty was too removed for them and the de facto impact of their policies was the same; i.e. loss of livelihood, whether through the slicing of thumbs or endless persecution. Some have taken the view that Indian cotton was not a major threat and anyway it would have taken many doctors to perform such an act. Such arguments are puerile, since the British had put their heart, soul and thinking caps on to ensure the demise of Bengal’s textiles through a series of parliamentary acts, increased duty and widespread exploitation. Though we may never know more, this legend serves as an apt metaphor for British behaviour in Bengal.
for fine cotton in Britain. The increased market space was
of the United Kingdom through economic incentives while
then slowly captured by the evolving European cotton
reinforcing the ban on Indian cottons.
industry. The volume of Indian imports highlighted the size of the newly-created demand and inevitably focused the
France followed suit and outlawed the import of Indian
attention of an increasingly vocal group of capitalists in
cotton in 1686, and over the next seventy years, two ruling
England on muslin’s profit potential.
and eighty royal edicts were issued with the objective of repressing Indian cotton. Other European nations including
According to I. Dunbar, the Officiating Commissioner
Venice, Flanders, Prussia and Spain acted similarly.80 The
of Dacca in 1844, the reason for the decline of Dhaka’s
demand for fine muslin, however, continued to be rampant
muslin was due to three primary reasons. First, foreign
and a flourishing smuggling trade was established.
industrialization and excessive use of modern machineries;
Consumers were willing to pay exorbitant prices for fine
second, the import of foreign yarns, and third, was high
muslins from Bengal and ‘smuggling and the evasion of
taxation. A more complete scenario is shown below.
laws must have been widespread’ to the point where the
76
government was forced to admit in 1719 that there were Barriers through Duties
‘more calicoes worn in England that pay no duty ...[than]
As noted previously, Flemish refugees had begun weaving
that do pay duty.’81
wool in English towns from 1600 onwards. By 1621, only two short decades after the formation of the East India
By the end of the eighteenth century, two-thirds of English
Company, London’s wool merchants began protesting
trade was from export of muslin. They wished to protect
against the growing presence of imported muslin in England.
this while simultaneously banning domestic consumption.
Two years later, in 1623, the English parliament bowed down
This meant that the Europeans required to simultaneously
to the wool lobby, began its debate on textile imports and
increase cloth purchases in India while protecting their
labelled them as ‘injurious to the national interests.’77
own uncompetitive national industries,‘a miraculous feat possible only because [of] war capitalism...’82 Ever-stiff
In 1678, a pamphlet titled ‘The Ancient Trades Decayed
barriers on imports of Indian textiles for the British market
and Repaired Again’ raised the protectionist agenda by
continued to be erected and between 1802 and 1819, the
warning against people who ‘hindered wool’ by wearing
import duty was increased nine times. In 1813, duty on
foreign clothes.78 In 1685, the first 10 per cent duty increase
calicoes for domestic consumption was a staggering 85
on ‘all calicoes and other Indian linen’ was imposed. In
per cent while the re-export market was exempted, so
1690, this tariff was doubled. In 1701, the Parliament
that they could be brought in duty free and sold for a profit
banned the import of all printed cottons through the so-
to other nations. The program of regulatory persecution
called ‘Calico Act.’ A 1721 act further banned people from
with ever harsher punitive measures of Bengal’s cotton
wearing printed calico if the white calico originated from
achieved its goals. In 1817-18, for the first time exports to
India, while the Manchester Act of 1735 excluded from the
India from Manchester and Glasgow exceeded the former’s
prohibition all printed goods made of linen yarn, cotton
exports to Britain.
79
and wool manufactured in Britain. Legislative guidelines directed production towards mixed cotton and linen yarns,
Genocide in the Form of Famine
with the latter imported from Ireland and Scotland. This
Although Bengal was traditionally ‘the granary of
served the purpose of attempting the political integration
seventeenth-century India’ weather conditions could MUSLIN Our Story
167
176 MUSLIN Our Story
a minimum of two months to produce costs Taka 60,000 (1 USD = Taka 80) and is split three ways,’ Al-Amin tells us. ‘The shopkeeper gets a third, the middleman another third, and we get the rest. That’s Taka 20,000, minus materials,
Fig. 106 Weaver Momin studies motifs in Rupganj, Bangladesh. Fig. 107 Weaving jamdani saris in Sonargaon, Dhaka.
so 5,000 per month for each one of us. A person working in a factory gets double that. Being a weaver makes little sense; it’s more a habit than a profession.’ Women sit in the family courtyard, spining the yarn onto reels, preparing it for the loom. Against the dull, muddy background of cheap industrial items and daily poverty, the weavers produce their art, the saris with their seemingly infinite combinations of brilliant motifs, colours and geometric patterns for sale at the haats or to fulfil advance orders by the mahajans (middleman traders) from the city. We visit multiple production centres, speak with the owner-craftsmen, and get a sense of the cycle of activities that govern their lives. Family and social life co-exist with production and marketing in the same physical and cultural space. Their days begin early and end late at night making for fifteen-hour workdays for both ustads (masters) and shagrids (apprentices) alike, working as a pair at every loom. I watch their silent understanding, as they gently volley the maku (spindle which holds the cross-thread of the weft) back and forth. The threads which form motifs dip, rise and turn through the loom. The nachni kathis (‘dancing sticks’ which hold the two sets of warp threads) move up and down creating a cage of warp and weft threads. Rapid flicks of the hand send coloured threads from the maku through the tunnel of crossed threads on the loom. Then comes the pull of the shana towards the body and a push of foot pedals — this painstaking cycle is repeated thousands of times and the design slowly emerges in this medley of synchronised moves, flawless in repetition and complete in execution. To watch the weaver work is to witness the transfer of ingrained memory onto the cloth. The weavers, sit with their legs in the dugout earthen pits of their looms, hunched over the glowing electric filament and emerging MUSLIN Our Story
177
Fig. 133 Samples of new muslin produced in Rupganj, Dhaka.
246 MUSLIN Our Story