Suicide Deaths and Quality of Indian Cotton: Perspectives from History of Technology and Khadi Movement Author(S): C

Suicide Deaths and Quality of Indian Cotton: Perspectives from History of Technology and Khadi Movement Author(s): C. Shambu Prasad Source: Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 34, No. 5 (Jan. 30 - Feb. 5, 1999), pp. PE12-PE21 Published by: Economic and Political Weekly Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4407604 . Accessed: 13/06/2014 06:16 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Economic and Political Weekly is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Economic and Political Weekly. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 130.92.9.57 on Fri, 13 Jun 2014 06:16:17 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Suicide Deaths and Quality of Indian Cotton Perspectives from History of Technology and Khadi Movement C Shambu Prasad The suicide deaths of farmers is a failure of agricultural science and the historical nature of the crisis needs to be appreciated. This paper seeks to retrace the route by which the present connections between Indian cotton and the mechanised textile industry were first established, a direction that has led to the present crisis on the fields of the cotton jflrmers. It also explores the alternatives in the khadi movement which with the aim of reintroducing spinning to the masses had to look at varieties of cotton suited for home- based production and evolve tools for use in the movement. THE large-scale suicide of over 300 cotton of cotton farming in India to examine the for machine made and hand made produc- farmers in Andhra Pradesh this agricul- reasons for the neglect of desi varieties of tion, or export-trader based production tural season point to a crisis in the cotton and thereby attempts to challenge and decentralised operations for local use. sustainabilityof cotton farming.One needs its 'inferior' status. In part III, we look at the khadi move- to go beyond analyzed causes like the Spinning in India is concentrated in a ment during India's freedom struggle. as failure of extension mechanisms, the few centres like Coimbatore, Mumbai and a contemporary and alternative techno- unavailability of easy credit and the spe- Ahmedabad and the cotton trade has been logical response to the developments in cific conditions of Andhra Pradesh, to following the pattern of trade laid down the modern textile industry. The khadi understandthe reasons for cotton becom- in the 18th and 19th centuries. The inter- movement had consciously rejected some ing a highly risky and unsustainable crop. national trade determines prices and of the parameters of modem textile tech- A longer-term view of the situation has varieties grown, the benefits of which nology and thus provides an excellent to appreciatethe historicalnature of present rarely accrue to farmers. Better returnsfor case where some of the dissenting views day cotton farming and the concomitant the farmer is possible if there exist on quality of Indian cotton in the accounts loss of autonomy of farmers over what decentralised cotton spinning technolo- that were mentioned in parts II and I were they are growing. The recent deaths of gies for value addition at the village or actually applied in practice. The move- cotton farmers in Vidarbha, the shift to small towns. Alternative routes of produc- ment, through its scientists like Maganlal traditionalvarieties in north India, and the tion thatcould, by linking household textile Gandhi and Dadabhai Naik, not only earlier event of suicides of farmers in production, local yarn spinning and the posited different definitions of quality Gunturand Prakasamdistricts in 1986-87, growing of cotton in small farms, perhaps more suited to the specificity's of Indian together with the present plight of the provide the key for sustainable cotton manufacture, but showed how a different Andhra farmers, all point to a larger crisis farming. The needs of the mills today are science was possible where the field was in cotton farming that is systemic and not incompatible with the nature of produc- on par with, even substituting, the labo- isolated. I tion on small farms. This paper seeks to ratory, and where experience and memo- Despite repeatedfailures the cotton crop retrace the route by which the present ries counted as much as experimentalfacts. today requires high levels of pesticides connections between Indian cotton and and irrigatedwater. Although recent stud- the mechanised textile industry were first ies on the farmers suicides have pointed established, a direction that has led to the The history of cotton growing in India to the dependence of farmers on pesticide present crisis on the fields of the cotton since 1790, when Bourbon, the first exotic dealers and the increasing expenditure on farmer. It also explores alternatives in the variety was introduced, can be seen as irrigation, they have assumed these as khadi movement. essentially one of the replacementof indi- inevitable for the crop.2 The suicides point There are three parts to this paper. In genous varieties of cotton, which had been to a need for a cotton crop that would part I, we look at how the nature of cotton carefully bred over centuries to provide minimise the risk to the farmer and ensure changed, with the change in the use from the world's best cloths, by American sustainability for both the grower and the a raw material for a technology that could varieties, to suit the emerging mill pro- soil. There is therefore a need to reopen adapt to the widely differing qualities of duction of textiles in Lancashire. Conse- the debate between American and 'desi' local cotton, to one that had to service the quent to the poor understanding of the varieties of cotton in the light of the well- machinery of the English industry and its difference of the two types of cotton, the known sturdy and pest resistant nature of production system, and how in this pro- indigenous was branded 'inferior'. While the desi varieties. The agricultural estab- cess Indian cotton earned the name of the 'deindustrialisation' caused due to lishment today grudgingly accepts the 'inferior' cotton. The reasons for the 'in- colonial rule has been well researched, sturdiness of indigenous varieties, as is feriority' of Indian cotton are then identi- there is little understanding of the tech- evident from the recent move to grow fied. In part II, the question of quality is nical dimensions of this process. The traditional varieties along the Indo-Pak explored in greater detail. We cite several culturalspecificity of technological choices borderto preventpests from entering India. instances from the history of cotton grow- become clear if one examines the history This action however falls short of ques- ing in India to challenge the notions of of cotton growing in modern India and tioning the farming practices within India. the poor quality of Indian cotton. We analyse how a technology that evolved where hybrid and American varieties question the universality of the term, and over generations of practice was branded dominate.3 This paper looks at the history hope to show that it has diverse meanings 'inferior' and replaced by another whose PE-12 Economic and Political Weekly January30, 1999 This content downloaded from 130.92.9.57 on Fri, 13 Jun 2014 06:16:17 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions technological merit remained unques- Along with the possibilities of large portation of cotton to the ports and irri- tioned. quantities of cotton was the invention of gation for increasing the yields. Cotton in India, unlike in other parts of machinery for cotton processing. Several reports were made on the sub- the world, came into general use as cloth- Arkwright's spinning frame in 1769 in- ject of cotton growing in India to increasing for rich and poor at an early stage in creased the spinning potential of small ing supplies from India and removing con- history. Cotton cloth reached a stage of manufactures. In the US the invention of straints. Most were from government perfectionthat made Indiantextiles known the Whitney gin, in 1793, solved an officials within specific areas such as the all over the world and the textile industry important bottleneck in the speedy sepa- reports on the three presidencies, or on the gave employment to vast numbers of rationof fibre from seed. Of interestthough CentralProvinces and Berar,a majorcotton people at each stage of production. Dif- is the fact that all the machinery was growing area, where a cotton commis- ferent varieties were grown in different developed with just the American cotton. sioner was appointed by the Manchester parts of the country, each being suited to Length of staple thus became an important Chamber of Commerce. There were also the local soil, water and climate. While criterion for reasons of convenience of reports and letters from traders in Britain, the cotton of Gujarathad long staples, the operation by machine and had little to do and cultivators - both Indian and British, Dacca cotton was short-stapled, and yet with the quality of fibre. as well as opinions of botanists. These it produced the finest fabric ever made. The over reliance on American cotton sources have been used together for this Since the cotton plant was so intimately was of concern to tradersin the 19thcentury section on history of cotton growing.

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