In the acknowledgements of A Frayed History - the journey of Cotton in India, Meena Menon, who has co-authored the book with cotton crusader Uzramma says, “It was Uzramma who opened the fascinating world of cotton to me when I met her during my research on organic cotton in 2003. She was already well-known for her views on cotton and the technology of the Industrial Revolution which was unsuited to desi short stapled cotton.” The book, published last year, follows the journey of cotton through history and its struggle for revival.
Uzramma and Meena were in Bengaluru recently to explain what colonialism did to Indian cotton. “Once the envy of the world for its variety, the crop and its farmers are mired in despair today,” said Uzramma. “There is unscrupulous competition from artificial fibres to make matters worse.”
Uzramma and Meena in the book say with the right combination of friendly policies and marketing, “it is possible to restore the fabric to its past glory.”
Going back to the days of the freedom struggle Uzramma like Gandhi recognises cotton as the fabric of Independence. The current crisis in farming, the state of cotton farmers, handlooms and weaving are all seeing a disconnect due to policy failure and a lack of historical understanding, she says. Colonial capitalism and the subsequent Indian policy towards agriculture and the handloom industry caused tumultuous changes for cotton, its growers and weavers. As is written in the book, “In the frayed fragments of its history, there may be lessons for us.”
Meena and Uzramma, have extensively toured and lived in cotton-growing rural India. Over the past century, Indian farmers were compelled to abandon desi cotton varieties in favour of long-stapled American cotton which was more suited to machine processing.
“The cotton grown today is derived from American varieties that also require irrigation and is vulnerable to pests. Our desi cotton was a dry-land crop, resistant to local pests and drought,” explains Uzramma. “We are the largest cotton producer in the world today, in spite of all the hurdles we had to face.”
Britain’s mechanised yarn spinning and textile weaving industry decimated the Indian industry in the mid-19th Century. Modern machinery cannot use desi cottons as the fibres are short and weak. This is the same yarn that produced the finest cotton fabrics when the tools used to process them were indigenous, explains Uzramma.
There are several reasons for the debt in the mechanized cotton industry. Meena explains that farmers grow Bt cotton as there are no other seeds available. Pest-resistance is a major issue, and in 2017 the pink boll-worm, considered a minor pest in cotton, destroyed much of the crop. Excessive spraying of chemicals saw the farmers from Vidarbha region, losing lives due to pesticide poisoning.
