Mumbai ( Cotton Textile Industry )

Cotton Textile Industry In Mumbai

History of the Textile  Industry 

The cotton textile Industry of india has a glorious history. indian handloom once produced matchless fabrics which were highly esteemed in the international market. We find mention of indian calicos in marco polo's account too. during the british rule, the industries in india were ruthlessly suppressed by political measures but this industry could not be crushed as it was a part of our agricultural economy.The modern textile industry made its beginning in 1818 at fort glaster near kolkata however  it closed down after some time. the real  beginning had to wait till 1854 when bombay spinning and weaving co ltd was set up.

 The new location proved to be so favourable that many more mills started opening as the chinese yarn market was captured by the japanese by about 1920, fresh new mills were required in india to supply yarns to china along with this  the Swadeshi movement and the grant

of fiscal protection provided a strong impetus to the growth of the cotton textile industry. the industry suffered a setback in1947 when,as a result of partition,large cotton growing areas went over to pakistan .but this allowed more areas to be brought under cotton cultivation in maharashtra, gujarat and  tamilnadu.at present,cotton textile industry in india,

Reasons for Early Start                                                                                                                             The initial concentration of cotton mills in mumbai was due to many factors;

• Raw cotton for mills was readily available in the hinter land more over cotton used to be brought here for export long stapled cotton was also imported to mumbai from Egypt and sudan.
• The local parsi and bhatia merchants invested their financial resourses in the cotton textile industry.
• As a commercial centre, Mumbai offered many financial banking and marketing facilities .
• Mumbai enjoyed the most favourable transport system both with regard  to raw  cotton and market. The opening of the railway link to thane and Deccan favoured the transport of raw cotton