Skip to main content

Check This Out




Madras is more treasured the world over as a checked cotton fabric than the erstwhile name of Chennai. The use of the Madras check cloth has been part of the tradition of the tribes of southern Nigeria—the Kalabari tribe! The southern Nigerian tribes wore it as their head dress or wrapped it around their torso. It held a significant place in the culture and tradition of the place—they believed that owning a piece of Madras is the greatest treasure a man can possess.

Madras, here we are talking exclusively about the cloth, became synonymous with the “injiri” or the “real India”. To quote the cloth historian Eicher, “injiri ( Madras) holds a special place in Kalabari life as a symbol of a person’s journey into the embrace of the world beyond this life……the opening scene in the drama of life includes a piece of injiri that is ceremoniously delivered to the mother by the father for carrying the child. This personal emblem of entry into society for that child also becomes the cloth marking his departure the moment he arrives at the house as a corpse…….”

Madras was produced and exported from Madras the place for more than four hundred years. Some say, that the weavers copied the patterns of the Scottish kilts because there was a Scottish regiment in Madras in the early 18th century. Maybe, the Scots copied the Madras check patterns. No one really knows. But historians say the trade of Madras has been going on for many, many years even more than four hundred years maybe a thousand years. But there is not much evidence for this, because the cloth disintegrates, yes it is bio-degradable and cannot last a thousand years to stand testament for this dramatic statement! 

The cloth is woven in and around Chennai and in the Prakasam district of Andhra Pradesh. The most prominent quality of Madras is that it bleeds profusely in the first few washes so it began to be marketed as Bleeding Cotton. Touting the fault of using fast colours as a fashion statement the exporters made a killing when it hit the market in the 60s and 70s! It is said the Portuguese were the earliest to get involved in the trade, then the others like the Dutch, French and the English too jumped into this lucrative trade of exporting Madras. Soon, East India Company controlled the scene and took it all over the world and along the slave route of Africa, France, USA.

    And, it was in the sixties, that Madras caught the attention of the fashion designers and became the rage. The bleeding cotton became quite the fashion statement! And it was used to brighten everything from home furnishings to shoes, bags, dresses and shirts. Cowboyish or crumpled—they were everywhere. It was perfect, comfortable and stylish! And it never goes out of fashion.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Book Review: An Autobiography Of A Sex Worker by Nalini Jameela

I am 51 years old. And I would like to continue to be a sex worker.” This is how the candid and defiant opening statement in Nalini Jameela’s autobiography in Malayalam, Oru Lymgika-thozhilaliyude Atmakadha, goes. It at once throws a challenge at society’s double standards — harsh on prostitutes and soft on the clients. Nalini Jameela, who is the coordinator of the Kerala Sex Workers’ Forum, reveals her sordid story with no trace of compunction. Nalini was a 24-year-old widow when she entered the profession to feed her two children. At that time she did not think about the repercussions of her act. She writes, “I was earning Rs 4.50 at a tile factory near Trissur. My mother-in-law served me with an ultimatum to either give her five rupees a day to look after my children or leave the house. I recounted my woes to a friend, who introduced me to Rosechechi. Rosechechi promised me Rs 50 if I spent time with a man. The first thought that came to my mind was that my children would be looked...
8 comments
Read more

SnooTea: Just My Style

(Photographs by Minu Ittyipe) It began on a lark to spiff up my morning cuppa. Oh well, I just wanted a change from what I had been drinking all my life. I am not complaining about the faithful brew that I stir up with tea dust, it does merrily improve with two extra spoonfuls of sugar but I was just plain bored with the regular. My concept of a cup of tea was corralled in the traditional Indian style- coppery coloured liquid topped with plenty of milk and sugar but now there was in me this undeniable thirst for a more delicate bouquet. Tranquilitea, Coonoor Curiously, though grown in our own backyard, few of us have heard of the orthodox leaf tea, forget the Silver Tips, Golden Tips and the White Tea etc.. that quietly find their way to the export market. To make a foray into this relatively unknown terrain, I headed for Tranquilitea, a tea lounge in the Nilgiris, for a cup of “Tippy” tea. On a sober note, you are cautioned not to confuse “Tippy” with the more commonplace “Tipsy” for...
61 comments
Read more

At 17, V S Achuthanandan joined the Communist Party

Born on October 20, 1923, VS Achuthanandan joined the Communist Party in 1940 when he was just 17 years old. Abject poverty and deprivation were the only things that flourished in Punnapra, Kerala, in those days. My father had a grocery shop close to our house so we did not suffer too badly when we were young. He was a social activist and a SNDP Yogam leader and respected by all.  He had leased some land from the landlords in Vendhalathara and cultivated it. He built a house there too. In this way, along with the grocery store, we could make ends meet. Punnapra school had only up to class three, so I joined Kalarkode school to do class four. It was in an area where the upper caste lived and one had to walk past the temple to go to school. The elite would ridicule the less fortunate, beat and chase them away. Many children discontinued their studies. I was once attacked by the well-to-do students and they asked me. “Who are you to walk this way to school?” I tried to st...
Post a Comment
Read more