CHAPTER 3 Profile of Textiles in Kolhapur District;. 3.1 Introduction: Kolhapur city is situated in the South West of Maharashtra. Western Maharashtra is economically progressive and well developed region. Kolhapur serves as the Headquarters of the Kolhapur district. It is also known as city of places and temples. This district has twelve Talukas. It is divided into four sub divisions; they are Karveer, Gadhinglaj, Radhanagari and Ichalkaranji. In such strong hold area lays the district “Kolhapur”.Sahayadri is on its western side. It is spread over 7,685 sq.kms. With rich water resources and Panchaganga, Vedganaga, Dudhganga, Bhogawati, Kumbhi, Kasari, Tulasi, Chikotra, Chitri, Warna and Krishna are the rivers flowing across the district. Radhanagri, Tulsi, Doodhganga, and Tilari are the four major projects of this district. In the north of Kolhapur district is Sangli District, in West there is Sindhudurg and Ratnagiri District and to the East and South are Belgaum District of Karnataka state. All the regions surrounded the Kolhapur district are well established in case of business. Kolhapur is famous for agricultural activities and is industrially strong, and is politically powerful. It has given leaders like late Y. B. Chavan, Late Vasantdada Patil and Chief Minister Shri Yashwantrao Chavan. The ‘sugar lobby’ of Maharashtra is regarded as ‘kingmakers’. Kolhapur is financially strong because farming is main occupation of people in this district because of rich water resources and rivers flowing around the district. Water is available throughout the year; this is because of the Radhanagari dam constructed by Shahu Maharaj nearly a century ago. Kolhapur is famous and mostly liked for its greenery, hence many film festivals and shooting of films are carried here. Wrestlers of Kolhapur are famous in our country. Kolhapur has pleasant climate and the temperature is between 140c to 350c. Rainfall is from the month of June to September and winter is from the month of November to February. Due to heavy rainfall in the year 2005 and 2006 there 73 was flood in Kolhapur district. As this district has all good weather condition, industries has also developed fastly. “An official census 2011 detail of Kolhapur, a district of Maharashtra has been released by directorate of censes operations in Maharashtra. Enumeration of key persons was also done by censes officials in Kolhapur district of Maharashtra. In 2011 Kolhapur had population of 3,876,001 of which male and female were 1,980,658 and 1,895,343 respectively. In 2001 census Kolhapur had a population of 3,523,162 of which males were 1,807,470 and remaining 1,715,692 were females. Kolhapur district population constituted 3.45 per cent of total Maharashtra population in 2001 census this figure for Kolhapur district was at 3.64 per cent of Maharashtra population. There was change of 10.01 per cent in the population compared to population as per 2001. In the previous census of India 2001, Kolhapur district recorded increase of 17.85 per cent to its population compared to 1991.”1 In this district there are various places for sight-seeing like Bhavani Mandap, Rajashri Shahu Khasbag Maidan, Chhatrrapati Shahu Museum, Rankala lake, panhala fort, dajipur wild life sanctuary and Khidrapur. All the places are full of scenic beauty. Tourist gets attracted due to its greenery. People also visit the religious place in the town. The language spoken is Marathi, Guajarati, Brahmins, Buddhist, Marwari’s, Jains and Muslims are the communities very well settled. Late Chh. Shahu Maharaj is regarded as the father of modern Kolhapur. 3.2 Historical Review: Kolhapur history may be divided into three periods, early Hindu period, partly Mythic and partly Historic, reaching to about A.D1347: Muslim period from A.D1347 to about 1700 and Maratha period since 1700 Kolhapur was one of the very old cities in the country. Kolhapur was named by Kolhapur, Kollpur, Kollagiri, Kolladigiri, Pattan all different names had their own meaning like Kola means valley and Kolhapur means city of Vallies. In short, Brahmapuri, Karvir and Kolhapur are different names for this place city was referred as Karvir after the installation of Mahalaxmi temple. In 634 A.D, King Kamdeo 74 from this family started construction of Mahalaxmi temple. There is great place of pilgrimage named Kolhapur in Southern country. Goddess Ambabai of Kolhapur is worshipped in every Maharashtra household. In old literature Karveer Peeth is referred as ‘Dakshin Kashi’. During calamity Mahalakshmi lifted this city to the safe place by her own hands hence the city was named as “Karvir” in ninth century A.D, when Mahalaxmi temple was established Kolhapur was recognised as a religious centre with different cultural and financial developments. After Shri Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj conquered Panhalgad in 1659, Kolhapur became part of Maratha kingdom. During Shivaji time Kolhapur played a major role in freedom fight war. During the period of Maharani Tarabai, Kolhapur had the status of capital city. In 19th century it was the period of Rajashri Shahu Maharaj, Chatrapati Shahu Maharaj ruled over it. Places like Panhala, Jyotiba, Vishalgad, Nursinhawadi and Bahubali attracted tourist. This district has made progress mainly through Cooperative Movement. The Tatyasaheb Mohite, Late Dattajirao Kadam, Shri Tatyasaheb Kore, Shri Ratnappa Kumbhar and few others have laid foundation and made cooperative movement. 3.3 History of Textiles in Kolhapur District: In history Shahu Maharaj struggled for welfare of common people. In the year 1902 Shahu Maharaj returned from abroad and he constructed auditorium (Natyagrah) and Khasbag ground for the people. He was not satisfied by it because it did not provide employment to local people. In the year of 1905 year Shahu Maharaj started an industry which was based on crops so that farmers and local citizens get employment and proper value for it. Cotton is an important fibre crop 30,000acres of land was under cultivation of it. Hence to utilise this resource Shahu Maharaj thought to start a cloth mill at Kolhapur. On 27 September 1906 day of Dashera foundation of Shri Shahu spinning and weaving mill was laid down. This mill is situated on 27 acre plot of land and in the heart of city. This was the first cotton mill which was run on the principle of joint stock capital system in Kolhapur 75 district. There were some financial difficulties and hence this mill was taken over by the Kolhapur Sansthan. In the year 1949 Kolhapur Sansthan was merged into Bombay state. The first powerloom factory was started at Ichalkaranji in the year 1928. There was much development in this field in the period of Second World War. The late Maharaja Shahu Chhatrapati of Kolhapur, started a cotton textile mill at Kolhapur, It was owned by the Kolhapur Government. Originally it had only a spinning section and weaving department was added to it in 1928. Till 1935, it was managed by Messrs. James Finlay and Co. who acted as the agents of the Kolhapur Government. With the merger of the Kolhapur in Bombay State in 1949, the unit was taken over by the Government of Bombay. Besides this large-scale textile unit, there were in 1953-54, 150 power loom factories in the district which were mostly located at Ichalkaranji. About 1,590 power-looms were working in them. The first power-loom factory was started in 1928. During the thirties and forties of this century this industry was greatly expanded as a result of the encouragement and concessions granted to it by the Jahagirdar of Ichalkaranji, a Jahangir of the then Kolhapur State. It was during this period that many hand-looms were converted into power-looms. The industry was further expanded during the Second World War, when many Marwari Commission Agents rendered financial assistance to artisans working on handlooms to facilitate the conversion from hand-looms to power-looms. Availability of skilled labour was another factor which helped in the expansion of the industry. Cotton, cotton-yarn of different counts and art silk was the main raw materials in the industry. Cotton yarn of 40s and over, artificial silk-yarn, and dyes were brought from Bombay. Sometimes, cotton-yarn of 40s and over was brought from Madura. Stores materials were purchased locally Most of the power loom factories were situated at Ichalkaranji. Some of them used power generated by oil engines and some received it from Radhanagari Hydro-Electric Project. 76 In 1956-57, the main cotton textile products of the district were grey dhotis and Pugree-cloth, plain Khadi, heavy long-cloth, and dhoti-cloth manufactured by the textile mill and coloured Saris and Khans and grey dhotis produced on power-looms. More than ninety per cent of the textile production in the district was of saris and khans and grey dhotis. On an average a power-loom produced 25 yards of cloth per day. Power-loom factories were then producing grey dhotis as they were forbidden to produce saris of lower counts by Government. The market for these goods was generally concentrated in Maharashtra. Marketing of the products was done through commission agents. Past 96 years a siren of Chh Shahu mills of Kolhapur set as alarm for people at 6.30 am. But now this mill is near to be shut down. In the year 2010 of January the last stock of mills cloth was sold at 40% discount outside the mills closed gates. But now some top industries are trying to deal with it. Some ministers demanded that state government must invest and handle this mill or preserve it as memorial to Shahu Maharaj and it will work as guidance for the next generation. 3.4 Kolhapur as Educational Hub: Kolhapur is a popular pilgrim Centre.