It’s a world that’s long disappeared: the tall cotton trees in Gujarat that Marco Polo admired; clothes, finer and whiter than flax spotted by Alexander’s admiral in 327 BC; muslin that could be drawn through a ring; entire villages engaged in the making of cotton. The industrial revolution spun cotton into a coveted commodity and mechanisation made it a mass produced fabric. This imagery of a lost world is revived in A Frayed History, a book Uzramma, 80, co-wrote with journalist Meena Menon.
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There are two kinds of people: those who flit on the surface from interest to interest, dabbling in whatever catches their fancy and those who dive deep into an all-consuming devotion from which there’s no return. No prizes for guessing which category Uzramma, founder of the Malkha Marketing Trust (which was set up in 2008 to produce a handspun fabric that derives its name from the traditional mulmul and khadi) belongs to. “As time passes, if you’re really interested in something, you discover more and more about it,” she says.
Cotton and politics
Uzramma emphasises the importance of diversity. She tells me that countries such as China envy this Indian quality. “The Chinese are convinced that democracy is dependent on diversity,” she says, adding that she wishes India would use this to its benefit rather than “iron out differences”. “It’s a great gift and we are throwing it away,” she says.
Uzramma, whose Malkha initiative was born from a dream of replacing large spinning mills with small units located close to cotton farms and weavers, is talking about the diversity of homegrown varieties of cotton and how the introduction of American cotton in the 1970s killed this heterogeneity. But in a country that seems determined to crush its multicultural history, I find the parallels to present-day politics startling.
When I point this out, Uzramma, who goes by one name, agrees. “Diversity is a good thing whether it’s in politics or in the way people live,” she says. “Now everyone is trying to get into one mould. It’s very frightening.” Mostly though, she prefers to discuss her lifelong passion: cotton and democratising its production. Hyderabad-based Malkha, along with its long-time collaborator Centre for Sustainable Agriculture just suggested that the State create a Telangana brand for the cotton it produces. South India’s leading cotton producer is home to many popular handloom varieties.
Uzramma believes that the struggle between large companies and small cotton farmers — who are still the main growers — to control farming practices is the modern-day iteration of the battle between the East India Company and 19th century cotton farmers.
It’s difficult to extract details about how her interest in this subject was kindled. “A lot of people ask me this question and I’m always stumped,” she says, about the world’s most comfortable fabric. “The weaving of cotton cloth in India has been such an important activity for thousands of years.”
A weaver at Malkha Marketing Trust | Photo Credit: Malkha Marketing Trust
Cult following
Born to a Muslim family in Hyderabad — her father was an official in the Indian Railways and her mother, a homemaker — it was when Uzramma came back from a U.K. stint in the 1980s that she found herself with “nothing much to do” and decided to research the history of cotton. She delved into 16th and 17th century travellers’ accounts of the cotton trade. “The whole world bought cotton from India,” she says, adding that everything about cotton, from the plant to the skills required and technology employed was native to this country.
Malkha’s vision was to put the complete cotton chain from field to fabric back in the hands of people. She wanted to use small scale spinning units located in villages near cotton fields to provide locally made cloth to locals. Uzramma began a long-term partnership with weavers from Chinnur in Telangana. The project began as a part of Dastkar Andhra before it eventually got its own identity. It took a decade to get the decentralised spinning initiative off the ground.
Weavers at Malkha Marketing Trust | Photo Credit: Malkha Marketing Trust
There’s a cult following for the signature unbleached Malkha fabric and also the natural indigo dyes that show up brilliantly on this soft cloth. From the start, the response to Malkha from the fashion fraternity was enthusiastic and customers were able to see its special qualities. “It seemed that Malkha had inherited the khadi mantle with its links to Gandhi and the struggle for Independence,” Uzramma says in her book.
While Malkha continues to be a favourite of big city consumers who put a premium on sustainable living, widening its customer base to include all those who want to retreat from fast fashion and embrace the comfort cloth that’s been around from the days of the Indus Valley Civilisation is a goal that is yet to be attained. Right now, the initiative produces a modest 100 metres every month. But measure it in qualities not quantity: qualities such as equity, democracy and diversity.
The writer is a Bengaluru-based journalist and the co-founder of India Love Project on Instagram.
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