Silence of the shuttles

Once famous for their glossy cotton fabrics, can Puducherry’s beautiful textile mills be restored and repurposed?

April 08, 2017 04:01 pm | Updated April 10, 2017 02:57 pm IST

The decrepit buildings of Swadeshi Cotton Mill

The decrepit buildings of Swadeshi Cotton Mill

The drapes that shade the windows of the Anglo-French Textile Mills of Puducherry are still bright and cheery, a medley of flowers, polka dots and stripes in solid primary colours. G. Elumalai, a civil engineer, who has worked here for almost three decades, passes his palm across the thick fabric and says, “These were from the last batch of curtains made here,” a faint hint of nostalgia in his voice.

It has been nearly six years since AFT—once a hugely profitable, composite mill that exported to a number of international markets including Europe, Africa and Australia—last produced curtains like these. “The mill stopped functioning after the Thane cyclone in 2011 damaged it,” says Elumalai, as he ushers us across the verdant plot at Mudaliarpet where two units of AFT, both currently under layoff, are located. Only the spinning section of a third unit located at another location, Iyyankuttipalayam, is still functional.

“I have seen this place at its peak,” sighs Elumalai, “It could manufacture over a lakh metres of grey fabric in a day.” The mills now lie silent and empty. The high-ceilinged, colonial structure still holds traces of grandeur and beauty, but it has certainly seen better days. Old brick walls show through the broken plaster, cobwebs wreathe the windows and the corners of doors, rusty machinery lies dust-flecked and askew, and no spires of smoke emanate from the majestic chimney.

It is a similar story at Swadeshi Cotton Mill, also at Mudaliarpet. Nature has taken over parts of the mill: trees have spliced into the walls, piles of rubble and splintered windows greet you everywhere, pipes and tattered posters sag across the building’s façade. A few workers trooping in from lunch look at us curiously as we walk into the only part that is still functioning—the spinning units. Raising his voice to be heard over bobbins of white yarn whirling off dusty old machines, Theodore, who works as a supervisor here, tells me how the workforce has reduced drastically. “Nearly 3,000 people used to work here once,” he remembers. Today there are 200.

PUDUCHERRY, 30/03/2017: (For Metro Plus, Preeti Zachariah's story) Some of the products on display at the Administration building of Puducherry Government owned Anglo French Textiles (AFT) mill on Cuddalore Road in Puducherry. Photo: S.S. Kumar

PUDUCHERRY, 30/03/2017: (For Metro Plus, Preeti Zachariah's story) Some of the products on display at the Administration building of Puducherry Government owned Anglo French Textiles (AFT) mill on Cuddalore Road in Puducherry. Photo: S.S. Kumar

Behind the sheen

Puducherry was once the hub of cotton textiles. R. Viswanathan, the Puducherry CPI Secretary, talking to me over glasses of ruby-red watermelon juice, the same shade as the flag fluttering outside the cramped party headquarters, explains why. “The water here is very good.” That’s why, he explains, the textile has such excellent sheen and colour. The location also helps: Puducherry is around 300 km away from Coimbatore, often referred to as the Manchester of South India because of its cotton and textile industries. “Textile mills were one of Puducherry’s biggest employers,” says Viswanathan, who is himself from a family of mill-workers.

According to the Gazetteer , it was Eugène Panon, Comte Desbassayns de Richemont, Governor General of Pondicherry between 1826 and 1828, who took the first step towards establishing the industry there. He introduced ateliers de charité (charity workshops), where he brought in experienced weavers and dyers from France to train the local population. Desbassayns also encouraged weavers from neighbouring towns to settle here by providing houses for them, thereby creating enough manpower within Pondicherry.

By 1828, the charity workshops were converted to weaving factories (ateliers de tissage). Buildings were constructed, production organised and machinery upgraded. For instance, the flying shuttle began to replace the regular one. By 1940, they were renamed Ateliers de Bienfaisance (welfare) and stayed that way till they began to disappear in the 1850s.

Another thing that helped was the ordonnance locale of 1826 that promised financial assistance to French citizens willing to set up industry here. This began to interest private entrepreneurs.

PUDUCHERRY, 30/03/2017: (For Metro Plus, Preeti Zachariah's story) A view of the Chimney in side the Puducherry Government owned Anglo French Textiles (AFT) mill on Cuddalore Road in Puducherry. Photo: S.S. Kumar

PUDUCHERRY, 30/03/2017: (For Metro Plus, Preeti Zachariah's story) A view of the Chimney in side the Puducherry Government owned Anglo French Textiles (AFT) mill on Cuddalore Road in Puducherry. Photo: S.S. Kumar

On a tailspin

The first mill, what is today known as Swadeshi Cotton mill, was set up in 1828 by two Frenchmen, Blin from Pondicherry and Delbruck from Bordeaux. Originally a spinning mill, it was expanded to include weaving and cloth manufacturing and enjoyed a period of relative prosperity. However, it didn’t last very long—dogged by frequent change in ownership, financial instability, labour unrest and market vagaries.

The story of Filature et Tissage Gaebele (today Shri Bharathi Mills), started in 1892, is uncannily similar. Both mills were taken over by the government and were managed by National Textile Corporation of India until 2005, when they were taken over by Pondicherry Textile Corporation who formed a company named Swadeshi-Bharati Textile Mills Ltd. According to a company report, although the government has invested around ₹80 crore as on March 31, 2016, the accumulated loss was around ₹96 crore.

AFT’s trajectory is a little different. Set up in 1898 by a British firm that had its central office in London, it was originally called Rodier Mill. It became Anglo-French Textiles in 1955 and had a successful run till 1983 where it was closed for two years due to labour unrest. It was taken over by the Pondicherry government in 1986 who ran it till Cyclone Thane hit in December 2011. However, the mills’ downward spiral had begun a decade before. “Gross mismanagement led to this,” alleges Viswanathan. However, the answer is perhaps not so simple. “You can’t blame anyone—it was because of many things,” says Theva Neethi Dhas, Secretary to the Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry. Dhas, who served as managing director of AFT between 2008 and 2011, says, “AFT used to export 40-50% of their products to Europe. When anti-dumping duties were imposed, this slowed down.”

Rehabilitating a mill

The walls of the restored building where the Puducherry chapter of INTACH (The Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage) is located are covered with photographs of past and future restoration projects. Many of them are recognisable to anyone who has visited the French quarter of Puducherry: beautiful structures with arched doorways, decorative balconies, sunshades and pilasters. Ashok Panda, co-convenor of INTACH, explains how the organisation works. “Whenever we see scope for improving public space, we make a proposal to the government and take it forward,” he says.

Restoring Swadeshi Mills is a project they have been proposing since August 2012. “The mill is functioning at just about a tenth of its original capacity but there are about 70 big and small structures and an area of about 25,000 sq.m available,” he points out. According to him, there is great potential for re-use of these spaces, and he points out that this would also be a great way to de-congest the Boulevard Town. The mill restoration is one among the list of projects identified as part of the Puducherry Smart City proposal; and a detailed report was submitted to the Union Ministry of Urban Development last month, he says. “Many government offices can be shifted here,” he says, referring to the pump house in Bonn that was restored and converted to function as the German Parliament.

The Puducherry government is also trying its best to step in. G. Malar Kannan, Director, Commerce and Industries, and Managing Director of Puducherry Textile Corporation, admits as much. “We have been talking about it for sometime,” he says, adding that there is a meeting with the Chief Minister slotted soon. A January 28 report in this newspaper indicates that the government plans to rehabilitate the mill through the Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode.

But as of now, they remain empty and unused. At AFT, Elumalai leads us into a room filled with products manufactured at the mill during better days. Bright curtains, soft towels, tapestry, a Welcome Australia banner, an apron pinned onto the moss green wall. In one corner, tucked under a rack of saris is an old advertisement board that proudly proclaims, “Anglo-French. For those who know the difference.”

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.