The Glorious Days of Silk Trade in Malda District and Its Legacy

Abstract

With its glorious traditional identity of Malda as a district is associated with the history of India for ages past. Malda is famous for its silk which claims credit for its familiarity in the whole India. Kautilya stated its glory in his ‘Arthosastha’. This sericulture has got its extreme in the district of Malda in the Ancient and Mediaeval times but it loses the glory due to Industrial Revolution in England. The East India Company has exported the Muslin of Malda in the entire World and made high profit that time. But the employer i.e.  East India Company deprived the weavers of Malda in many forms to extract a high profit in silk trade. Eventually the weaver left the profession. As a result the production of Muslin was drastically reduced. Despite this deprivation and oppression, many weavers were engaged in that profession.  Muslin weavers tried their best to make their product familiar throughout the country and outside the country. But they failed due to atrocities of the English East India Company. The Muslin was so famous that if it got its due patronage then it could be the forerunner of Industrial Revolution in India. Instead England got the Industrial Revolution in the Textile industry. The Article tries to emphasise the point and tries to explain reason behind it.