THE ECONOMIC WEEKLY

October 4,1952

Indian Cotton Textile Industry

— A Timely Assessment

I N a paper on I n d i a n C o t t o n T e x -
tile Industry contributed to the
last issue of the Egyptian Cotton
K i n g d o m for the supply of capital
goods and that the market in yarn
and cloth w h i c h Britain lost p r o -
Gazette (volume N o . 16, M a y gressively due to establishment and
1952), M r T . P . Barat, former T e x - expansion of the cotton textile
tile Commissioner to the G o v e r n - industry in I n d i a was partly made Part II of the article summarizes
ment of I n d i a , traces the develop- good by her gains in the export of the position of cotton production in
ment of the industry and attempts textile machinery. T h e values of India and consumption of both
an assessment of its present position, imports of textile machinery accord- Indian and foreign cottons and
w h i c h w i l l be of wide interest. i n g to the author are; shows how after p a r t i t i o n , the con-
Part I of the paper deals briefly sumption of foreign cotton has in-
with the historical background. V a l u e of Textile Machinery Im- creased while that of I n d i a n cotton
ported i n t o India (in Rs lakhs) has progressively decreased. T h e
Decline in the old hand-spinning
a n d hand-weaving industry which f o l l o w i n g are his figures:
used to produce delicate a n d artis-
tic fabrics priced so highly by the C o n s u m p t i o n of C o t t o n
Egyptians, Greeks and Romans ('000 bales of 400 lbs)
followed the invention of the spin-
n i n g jenny and powerloom in the
18th century w h i c h brought about
a revolution in the cost of spinning
and weaving. T h e imported m i l l
spun yarn gradually replaced hand- Particularly informative and inte-
spun yarn in the weaving of cotton resting is the account of the efforts
fabrics and spinning mills were the which had been made during
first to spring up in this country. the post-war period for estab-
It is only later that composite mills lishing the manufacture of tex-
were set up w i t h mechanised weav- tile machinery and m i l l stores in
ing. Mr Barat sums up the present I n d i a , to make the I n d i a n industry
position of the industry as follows: self-sufficient. According to the ton Committee to expand the
author, a fair headway has been growth of I n d i a n cottons and to
11 m i l l i o n spindles installed in made in m a n u f a c t u r i n g essential improve their qualities.
about 380 textile mills of w h i c h 10 mill stores. T h e following are the
m i l l i o n spindles are w o r k i n g in the percentages of the domestic require- Part III deals w i t h the control
first shift, 9 m i l l i o n in the second ments which can now he met f r o m on cotton, the production and the
and 3 m i l l i o n in the t h i r d shift. indigenous p r o d u c t i o n : distribution of cotton textiles and
194,600 looms of w h i c h 179,000 export, of cloth and yarn. Mr
are w o r k i n g in the first shift, 155,000 Barat's observations on the export
in the second and 22,000 in the trade are interesting. The volume
t h i r d shift. and values of export of varus and
piecegoods from 1935 are given
T h e industry has a fixed capital
in Table II on the next page.
of nearly Rs 60 crores and gives
direct employment to 800,000
workers.
T h e industry consumes annually
(1) the whole cotton crop of India
w i t h the exception of some 200,000
bales of short staple cotton and
about 1,000,000 bales of i m p o r t e d
cotton.
(2) O v e r 2 m i l l i o n tons of f u e l
50 m i l l i o n gallons of fuel oils and
about 900 million K W H electricity.
(3) Rs 6.5 crores w o r t h of sizing
materials, Rs 3.5 crores of dyes and
chemicals, Rs 1.4 crores of mill
stores and Rs 3 crores of packing
materials.
T a b l e I gives the p r o d u c t i o n of
the industry f r o m 1942 to 1951.
M r Barat points out that the Note.—From August 1, 1946, the working shift of 9 hours in the Indian
Indian m i l l industry has been cotton mills was reduced to 8 hours. From August 15, 1947, the figures relate
dependent mainly u p o n the U n i t e d to the production of Indian mills alone.

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