Describe the condition of cotton textile industry in India before and after independence.
(1) Before independence : In ancient India and even during the British rule our textiles were produced with hand spinning and handloom weaving techniques. India remained the world’s main producer of cotton textiles. Indian textiles were of top quality and other countries could not compete with it. There was great demand for Indian textiles and India had a substantial export trade to Britain as well. (2) During British period after 18th century textile industry suffered a set back due to coming of Manchester goods in India. The Indian weavers could not compete due to various reasons. (3) At present the condition of cotton textile industry in India is as mentioned below : There are 1600 cotton and human made fibre textile mills in the country. About 80 per cent are in the private sector and the rest in public and cooperative sectors. There are thousands of small factories with four to ten looms. In the early years, cotton textile industry was concentrated in the cotton growing belt of Maharashtra and Gujarat due to availability of raw cotton, market, transport, labour and port facilities. But now spinning is centralised in Maharashtra, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu but weaving is highly decentralised to provide scope for incorporating traditional skills and designs of weaving in cotton, silk, zari and embroidery. Cotton textiles industry is closely related to agriculture. It provides a living to farmers, cotton boll pluckers and workers engaged in ginning, spinning, weaving, dyeing, designing, packaging, tailoring and sewing. It supports many other industries, such as, chemicals and dyes, mill stores, packaging materials and engineering works by creating various types of demands. India has world class production in spinning, but weaving supplies low quality of fabric. The handspun khadi provides large scale employment to weavers in their homes as a cottage industry. India exports yam to Japan and cotton goods to USA, UK, Russia, France, East European countries, Nepal, Singapore, Sri Lanka and African countries.
