INDIAN TEXTILES
THROUGH history

c. 5000-3000 BCE. The earliest evidence of cotton cultivation and textile production comes from the Indus Valley civilisation. At Mehrgarh (c. 5000 BCE), cotton fibre fragments have been recovered ~ the oldest known cotton in the world. At Mohenjo-daro (c. 2500 BCE), evidence becomes more substantial: traces of cotton cloth preserved in bronze corrosion, spindle whorls, impressions of woven fabric on pottery, and remnants of dyed cloth.

This evidence tells us that the people of the Indus Valley were not only growing cotton but had developed the full chain of textile production ~ cultivation, ginning, spinning, weaving, and dyeing. The earliest evidence of indigo dyeing also comes from this period, with dyed fabric fragments recovered from Mohenjo-daro. India was, from the very beginning, both the cradle of cotton and the birthplace of textile dyeing.

The Indus Valley civilisation was also a trading civilisation. Textile fragments of apparent Indian origin have been found at sites in Mesopotamia and the Persian Gulf, suggesting that Indian cloth was already being traded internationally five thousand years ago.

c. 321-185 BCE. Kautilya's Arthashastra, a treatise on statecraft and economics composed during the Maurya period, provides one of the earliest detailed descriptions of organised textile production in India. It describes state-run spinning and weaving workshops, the regulation of textile trade, quality standards for different types of cloth, and the wages paid to spinners and weavers.

The Arthashastra mentions textiles from specific regions ~ cotton from Madhura (Mathura), bark cloth from the Himalayas, silk from Magadha, and linen from various sources. This regional specialisation, which would become one of the defining features of Indian textile production, was already well established by the 4th century BCE.

The Maurya period also saw extensive trade in textiles with the Hellenistic world following Alexander's campaigns. Greek accounts describe Indian cotton with wonder, noting its whiteness and softness ~ qualities that were unknown in the Mediterranean world.

c. 1526-1857. The Mughal period represents arguably the highest point of Indian textile art. Under imperial patronage, textile production reached extraordinary levels of refinement. The Mughal courts demanded the finest fabrics, and the workshops (karkhanas) that served them produced textiles of a quality that has rarely been equalled.

Dhaka muslin reached its legendary pinnacle during this period. The finest pieces ~ reserved for the emperor and his court ~ had thread counts exceeding 1,000 per square inch, producing cloth of almost supernatural fineness. The names given to these fabrics speak to their quality: abrawan ("flowing water"), baft hawa ("woven air"), shabnam ("evening dew").

Mughal aesthetic sensibilities profoundly influenced Indian textile design. The flowing floral patterns, jaal (lattice) designs, and buta (paisley) motifs that characterise much of Indian textile art today have their roots in Mughal court aesthetics, which blended Persian, Central Asian, and Indian design traditions.

The period also saw the refinement of printing and dyeing techniques. Block printing, kalamkari (painted textiles), and sophisticated dyeing using indigo, madder, and other colourants reached new heights of technical and artistic achievement.

The British colonisation of India brought a systematic and deliberate destruction of India's textile industry. The colonial economic model reversed the historic flow of trade: India was to supply raw cotton to British mills, which would produce finished cloth for sale back to India and the world.

The mechanisms of destruction were multiple. Punitive tariffs (70-80%) were placed on Indian textile exports to Britain, while British machine-made cloth was imported to India with minimal duties. Indian weavers were coerced into producing raw materials rather than finished goods. Traditional trading networks were disrupted and replaced by colonial commercial structures.

The human cost was immense. Millions of spinners, weavers, dyers, and printers lost their livelihoods. Dhaka, which had been one of the world's great centres of textile production, was reduced to poverty. The population of the city declined dramatically. Traditional techniques, passed through families and communities over generations, began to be lost.

India's share of global textile production collapsed from an estimated 25% in the early 18th century to less than 2% by the early 20th century. The reversal was not the result of technological progress alone ~ it was the product of deliberate policy designed to serve colonial economic interests.