India is blessed with a heritage of diverse and rich textile tradition, possessing the immense potential to gather resources to make and decorate textile items. Here the geographical conditions and climate facilitate the production of plant fibers and dyes directly from nature, keeping the craft an unrivaled affair among other means, which includes synthetic fibers and harmful chemicals.
Tracing back to its history, the legacy of Indian textiles is believed to have originated from the Indus valley civilization. Their remains left marks of needles made of bones, wooden spindles, tools suggesting the production of cotton garments, etc. Fragments of woven cotton garments were unearthed from Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro sites. Ancient scriptures like Rig Veda, Ramayana, and Mahabharata, also carry chapters that refer to weaving and natural fibers, highlighting the varieties of fabrics produced in those times. India also shared great bonds with foreign lands based on trade links that exchanged textile items, making the country a binding option for their clothing needs, especially for countries like Rome, Egypt, China, and parts of Europe. With the shooting popularity of Indian textiles, the East Indian Company also chose to import Indian cotton and silk fabrics to their land, until Britishers colonized India. Then from the 19th century, the new political power and the advent of the industrial revolution, lead to the downfall of Indian traditional textiles. The exports were brought down and slowly machine-made goods from ‘Lancashire’ flooded the Indian market. Thus Indians were forced to buy them at higher prices. As a result, the traditional textile industry sunk, forcing the population to take up agriculture as a means for livelihood. In 1918, Mahatma Gandhi initiated a Khadi movement for rural self-employment and self-reliance, mainly to prevent the poor section of the society from unjust textile rules, thus making Khadi a symbol of the Swadeshi movement. This lead to Indians boycotting foreign clothes and cultivating cotton in their lands, sufficient for their needs. It was for economic, cultural, and social reasons and not merely political that Gandhi established the Khadi Movement.
Block printing is believed to have been discovered by Chinese artisans in the early 3rd century. Shreds of evidence of the technique were also excavated from places like Egypt, Europe, and some Asian countries. It is from these countries, it spread to other parts of the world. The materials used for block making included wood, porcelain, and metals, where the wooden block was the most preferred in ancient times and metal blocks are the new favorite in this modern age. In hand block printing, the wooden block is made out of a wooden piece chiseled and carved with an indented design, using a hammer, file, nails, etc. At times, linoleum blocks are also used for printing purposes.
Magan Sangrahalaya Samiti (MSS) based in Wardha, Maharashtra, is a non-governmental organization that started in 2003, which aims to empower the women community from the rural areas of the district while restoring traditional crafts of Indian culture. It supports self-help groups and micro-enterprises that rests on eco-friendly means, run by women. The institute runs a historical museum named Magan Sangrahalaya, the only museum in India founded by Mahatma Gandhi in the year 1938, dedicated to the artisans of India. Khadi making is one of the major occupations of the people employed here. MSS has been regarded for their development of new techniques of natural dyeing and recycling the effluents of a natural dyeing unit, by the Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of India, which has taken the unit a long way in their eco-friendly operations run. Hence the textile unit of MSS could replace the chemical dyes, a major health hazard for artisans working in the textile units and a potential environmental pollutant, with organic dyes of 200 hues derived from local forest produce. Also, they introduced a new technique of fresh leaf printing, as a low-cost alternative to block printing. This is practiced under the training and guidance of Mr. Mukesh Lutade, Director of Khadi and Natural Dyeing Department at Magan Sangrahalaya Samiti.