History

Many years ago, India used to be the ‘Cradle of Cotton’.   Climate and soil condition of many of its regions were perfect for growing different varieties of cottons.  The climate also helped dying and printing of the cloth to a very high standard.  For centuries, Indian cotton weavers produced the finest range of cotton and silk to meet demands from different regions of the subcontinent.  Via their trading routes, a vast quantity of hand painted and block- printed fabrics, muslins and brocades made by skilled Indian artisans were traded around the world, bringing wealth and prosperity to Indian cotton growers, weavers, cloth makers and Indian merchants.  In the early 18th century, the colourful Indian fabrics were so popular in England that they seriously affected British wool and silk imports.

From the beginning of time until the 1950s all textile clothing produced anywhere in the world was made from natural filaments and the fibre itself remains to this day the most important part of any textile. Skilful spinning and weaving used to convert fibres into precious cloth and due to the limited supply of these natural yarns, textile products would hold a distinct value.  They were worn, used, and preserved for years.

The Trading Triangle: Slavery and Cotton

In the 1770s, several inventions in Britain created the first industrial processes whereby machines spun raw cotton, fast and evenly.

In the 1770s, several inventions in Britain created the first industrial processes whereby machines spun raw cotton, fast and evenly.  When the British first set up their textile mills, they were importing raw cotton from India and they produced cotton cloth in vast quantities.  They also saw that British-ruled India could become a large potential market for the British made cloth.  To put an end to Indian competition and to open up the Indian market to British exports, an import duty on East Indian fabrics was imposed in 1790s.

With trading laws, the British protected their markets.  The problem now was the cost of cotton fibre.  India lost its place as a supplier to the world of fabrics and very quickly, its raw cotton was not required either.  In the early part of the 19th century, enterprising US planters invested their capital in the cotton farming industry.   By using slave labour, they managed to keep the cost of cotton down.  Very soon, the USA became the main source for raw cotton and it supplied three quarters of its raw cotton to the world markets.

This cotton boom brought about a transatlantic trading triangle that sowed the seeds of some of the global, economic imbalances we still see today.  The USA had trading links with England and Africa. British ships sailed to Africa with cargoes of cotton cloth, firearms, trinkets, and brandy.  These were sold to African slave traders in return for a human cargo of slaves.  Once on board the slaves were branded with hot irons and later sold in America to provide cheap labour on the plantations.  America and England became business partners in this first ‘cotton revolution’ and great fortunes were made for a few, on the backs of the poor. 

As a result, the Indian cotton farmers and weavers lost their place in the world.  They were left out of the production chain.   Indian merchants were forced to buy the British- made cloth.  Luckily, some exclusive textiles in small quantities continued to be produced thanks to the tastes of Indian women (and the sarees they wore as a traditional garment) as they preferred finer cloths made by their own Indian weavers.  It was due to the demands of the relatively poor womenfolk - overlooked by the British as potential buyers of the foreign- made cloth - these specialist spinners and weavers have kept Indian cotton cloth alive in India. This ensured that the Indian industry, once the ‘Cradle of Cotton’, did not break down completely as many others in the world did.

The Spaghetti Machine

Between 1920s and 1960s, the invention of factory-made fibres in the UK and the USA dramatically changed the textile landscape again. 

Between 1920s and 1960s, the invention of factory-made fibres in the UK and the USA dramatically changed the textile landscape again.  In the last sixty years, synthetic fibres have almost deposed King Cotton.  A sea change in the clothing industry and the boom of retail as we see it now is partly due to that.  Though it has made cheap clothing available to the masses, it has its dark sides.  Behind the label of a cosy fleece lie some uncomfortable truths.

There are two types of man-made fibres.  The first is a cellulosic fibre, sometimes known as artificial silk made from chemically treated wood or other plants.  Polyester, Nylon, Acrylic and Polypropylene are synthetic fibres, made from oil.  Polyester was first made in the UK in 1941 by melting and combining two types of oil derived from plastic pellets. 

Whereas cotton and wool can be turned into textiles by hand skills and small-scale units, polyester needs factories with huge capital investments, machinery, concentration of power and chemicals.  Thousands of massive plants consuming vast energy resources and creating pollution produce tons of synthetic fibres.  With every garment needing less than a kilo of man-made fibre, billions of garments are made in factories in poorer countries where the cheapest labour is available.  The so-called sweatshops can produce over 10,000 pieces of clothing a day.  Most synthetic fabrics are treated with chemicals during and after the processing.  These chemicals not only leach into the environment, leaving an impact on groundwater, wildlife, air and soil, but they also sometimes get absorbed and inhaled by us directly.  

Synthetic fibres consume vast amount of finite energy resources in its manufacturing, creating pollution and they produce non – biodegradable, inert material, hazardous to the environment and health. Everything we have been making and buying will be with us somewhere on the globe as a polluting waste for about two hundred years to come.  It is relatively easy to manufacture.  To keep the machinery of clothing industry going, people in rich countries are encouraged to buy changing designs and seasonal throwaway clothing while poorer countries feed this fabric frenzy in the name of productivity and increase in market shares. 

Various environmental and health agencies have suggested that it is best to stay away from clothing that includes acrylic, polyester, rayon, acetate, triacetate and nylon.  

Many people have also realised that this spaghetti machine-like clothing industry is costing the earth.

The Pesticide and the GM Boom Kills

The cotton crops today have become a serious cause of concern.  As cotton is particularly prone to insect attacks, the use of chemical insecticides and pesticides has increased. 

The cotton crops today have become a serious cause of concern.  As cotton is particularly prone to insect attacks, the use of chemical insecticides and pesticides has increased.  Since insects started to develop certain immunities to pesticides, the situation has worsened.  Today, India, China, and America spray thousands of tons of pesticides on to their cotton crop fields.

Cotton used in just one T-shirt takes an estimated 150g of pesticide to cultivate.  Harmful chemicals are literally poured on to the cotton plants at a horrific rate.  Extensive use of pesticides makes soil barren and useless (Nicaragua – previously one of the biggest cotton growers – has almost entirely lost its trade to pesticides.)  The world trade organisation (WHO) has estimated that about 20,000 people die every year because of pesticide use.   Plants and wild life are destroyed when pesticides are sprayed from aircrafts.  The situation of cotton farmers has become progressively worse with increased use of pesticides and handling of these dangerous chemicals. 

The other threat is genetically modified (GM) seeds.  Over 75% of American cotton is GM.  Only one company in the USA has a monopoly in this seed market.  They sell 90% of all GM seeds.  Farmers in India and China are beginning to adopt GM cotton. Penetration of GM in India has reached an average of 5% of cotton farmers in just three years.  GM seeds cost a lot more and it can push the farmers into deeper debts.  In India, more than 2000 cotton farmers have committed suicide in the last four years.  The cotton crops are failing due to heavy use of pesticides and they are unable to pay the serious debts they have incurred to procure seeds and pesticides.  Moreover, the extreme debts lead to migration of farmers into the cities.  Environmental problems, barren soil and water pollution, lead to the ruin of common resources and damage to the health of rural communities. 

Farming cotton is difficult and it is hard for farmers to make a living.  They are fighting a triple surge of overzealous pesticide salespersons, concentration of trading cotton in few hands and a price fight of cotton against synthetic fibres.

Ethical Clothing

In the 1920s, Mahatma Gandhi made the people of India and the rest of the world aware of clothing with ethics.

In the 1920s, Mahatma Gandhi made the people of India and the rest of the world aware of clothing with ethics. As defiance against the British-made mill cloth and their unfair taxation on Indian cloth makers, the Indian spinners and weavers, he began to hand spin the cotton on a wheel (charkha).   The cloth made out of hand spun hand woven fibres was called ‘Khadi’.  By 1940s Khadi became a symbol of independence of India – Swarajya and freedom from the British rule.  Millions of freedom fighters and supporters of Gandhi’s movement burned piles of imported clothing during a nationwide campaign.   They took to hand spinning on the spinning wheel, the charkha, as a daily reminder and expression of their belief in direct action against colonial rule.