IAS Prelims preparation 2018
Day 34 (April 26, 2017)
Topics of the day: History VIII NCERT Part II Chapter 1 key points
When the Portuguese first came to India in search of spices they landed in Calicut on the Kerala coast in south-west India. The cotton textiles which they took back to Europe, along with the spices, came to be called “calico” (derived from Calicut), and subsequently calico became the general name for all cotton
textiles.
European traders first encountered fine cotton cloth from India carried by Arab merchants in Mosul in present-day Iraq. So they began referring to all finely woven textiles as “muslin”.
Jamdani is a fine muslin on which decorative motifs are woven on the loom, typically in grey and white. Often a mixture of cotton and gold thread was used, as in the cloth in this picture. The most important centres of jamdani weaving were Dacca in Bengal and Lucknow in the United Provinces.
In 1720, the British government enacted a legislation banning the use of printed cotton textiles– chintz – in England. Interestingly, this Act was known as the Calico Act.
In 1764, the spinning jenny was invented by John Kaye which increased the productivity of the traditional spindles. The invention of the steam engine by Richard Arkwright in 1786 revolutionised cotton textile weaving.
Spinning Jenny – A machine by which a single worker could operate several spindles on to which thread was spun. When the wheel was turned all the spindles rotated.
The tanti weavers of Bengal, the julahas or momin weavers of north India, sale and kaikollar and devangs of south India are some of the communities famous for weaving.
The charkha and the takli were household spinning instruments. The thread was spun on the charkha and rolled on the takli.
For coloured textiles, the thread was dyed by the dyer, known as rangrez. For printed cloth the weavers needed the help of specialist block printers known as chhipigars.
Aurang - A Persian term for a warehouse – a place where goods are collected before being sold.
Mahatma Gandhi urged people to boycott imported textiles and use hand-spun and handwoven cloth. Khadi gradually became a symbol of nationalism. The charkha came to represent India, and it was put at the centre of the tricolour flag of the Indian National Congress adopted in 1931.
The first cotton mill in India was set up as a spinning mill in Bombay in 1854.
Tipu Sultan who ruled Mysore till 1799, fought four wars with the British and died fighting with his sword in his hand.
The sword had an incredibly hard and sharp edge that could easily rip through the opponent’s armour. This quality of the sword came from a special type of high carbon steel called Wootz which was produced all over south India. Wootz steel when made into swords produced a very sharp edge with a flowing water
pattern. This pattern came from very small carbon crystals embedded in the iron.
Wootz is an anglicized version of the Kannada word ukku, Telugu hukku and Tamil and Malayalam urukku – meaning steel.
Charles Weld, an American geologist and Dorabji Tata, the eldest son of Jamsetji Tata with the help of Agarias found iron ore deposits in Rajhara Hills.
The Tata Iron and steel company was set up at the banks of river Subarnarekha.