A journey into the global history of cotton textiles reveals at each step how significantly it eventually led to the door of Industrial Revolution. India pioneered cotton cultivation more than 5000 years ago and dominated the field singularly almost for 1500 years till Peru joined. After thousands of years this fascinating and unmatched agro consumer product emerged as the prime mover to the globalisation of the textile trade during a defining phase (1200-1850 AD). Cotton challenged wool, linen and silk in Europe and later primarily wool in North America heralding its dominance as the most important natural fibre.
Riello and Parthasarathi have done a commendable job in collecting and editing a good number of high calibre scholarly presentations that interestingly would make every Indian proud of their past massive contributions in the progress of civilisations. Mechanisation of the textile industry radically tilted the balance in favour of Britain followed by the rest of Europe and North America.
In the latter part of the period covered by the editors, China raises some controversies amongst the scholars — some talking about its inefficient technology and business status whereas the others appreciating its natural unforced entry into cotton and its products. China took the advantage of declining Indian exports to South East Asia. The region started becoming self sufficient too. What one misses from all these presentations is how much land was cultivated particularly in the subcontinent and how much cotton was produced annually during the period to make it a highly influencing global product.
Globalisation of cotton textiles or role of cotton textiles to globalise the consuming commodity trade is an exciting tale. The decline of South, South East and Far East Asia under pressure from mechanised British textile industry that had also outpaced France and Germany during 18th century may be looked upon as the beginning of a circle passing back the baton to China and India as the final lap runners today in the 21st century. One would love to wait and watch ‘what next’?
One wonders whether the topics presented regionwise collectively would have served the cause better.
From the subcontinent angle, this wealthy publication can be best summarised by quoting a few words from Beverly Lemire’s highly impartial presentation that read “Indeed, Indian Cottons were the first global consumer commodity manufactured for global markets. The historical narrative must be revised to more fairly reflect the weight of such historical processes.”
The spinning world— A Global History of Cotton Textiles, 1200-1850: Edited by Giorgio Riello, Prasannan Parthasarathi; Primus Books, Virat Bhavan, Mukherjee Nagar Commercial Complex, Delhi-110009. Rs. 1795.
