Name region and technique
Record production regions such as Gujarat, Bengal, Coromandel and Rajasthan where evidence allows. Cotton, silk, wool, block printing, resist, weave and embroidery are not interchangeable labels.
Cloth made for different markets
Textiles for the Middle East, Mediterranean, Africa, Southeast Asia and Europe varied in design, scale and use. Makers were already responding to many markets before European companies arrived.
Trade cannot be separated from power
Colonial machine cloth, tariffs and policy damaged local spinning and weaving. Khadi later became politically charged as a material of resistance and self-reliance, not merely a rustic fabric.
Sources behind this article
External sites open in a new tab as evidence, not as a substitute for this article.
V&A — Indian textiles (opens in a new tab)The Met — Indian Textiles: Trade and Production (opens in a new tab)The Met — Red Sea textile trade (opens in a new tab)