The geography of weaving in early nineteenth-century south India

Most research on the handloom industry is focused upon the export trade and production for export, and, by extension, upon the Coromandel Coast. This article, by contrast, explores the physical and human geography of weaving for the ‘domestic’ market in the ‘inland’ regions of south India. Using visual sources such as Company paintings, together with archival materials and statistical data, it reconstructs everyday modes of dress and clothing in the early nineteenth century in order to obtain a picture of the ‘kinds’ of cloth produced: this analysis shows that the largest proportion was white or predominantly white, and of coarse to middling quality. It goes on to map different systems of cloth production, and the pattern of weaver settlements, and shows that both were significantly different from those described for the Coromandel Coast. In the inland regions, coarse and durable kinds of cloth were woven almost everywhere by plebeian weavers scattered through the countryside; patterned and fine varieties were woven by specialist, full-time weavers who usually lived in large settlements. The article describes a diversity of markets and production systems, unpicks the meanings of part-time and full-time work, and their significance. The data and analysis serve to complicate the debate on the nature of the textile economy in early modern India.