The Indian Loom, Climate Change, and Democracy: Introducing the Malkha Enterprise

Weaving on the handloom in India remains in the twenty-first century a large industry practiced by several million people, including, besides weavers themselves, others engaged in supporting activities. Indian hand weaving is a potentially viable ecological textile industry for the future, particularly if factors such as environmental damage and social costs are included in measuring viability. However, Indian hand weaving suffers from the perception that it is a relic of the past. Too, in the market it is undercut by cheaply made machine-produced cloth fraudulently sold as handmade. Research into the history of hand weaving revealed that there were two distinct modes of production, one in which expensive cloth was made for the elite, and another in which ordinary cloth was made for ordinary people. Since the making of expensive fabrics needed expensive raw materials, the weavers were dependent on an investor to supply these materials, creating a hierarchic dependency. The vernacular production of cloth, on the other hand, was democratic with lateral relations between the different stages of production. Malkha has simplified spinning by avoiding bale-pressing cotton lint, a technology introduced in colonial times to carry cotton long distances from the field. Malkha spinning centers are substantially smaller in size than conventional mills, closer to the small scales of Indian cotton farming and hand weaving.