{"id":114832,"date":"2024-08-15T11:33:04","date_gmt":"2024-08-15T11:33:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/08\/15\/how-desi-fabric-worn-by-jane-austen-and-french-queen-was-killed-by-the-british\/"},"modified":"2024-08-15T11:33:04","modified_gmt":"2024-08-15T11:33:04","slug":"how-desi-fabric-worn-by-jane-austen-and-french-queen-was-killed-by-the-british","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/08\/15\/how-desi-fabric-worn-by-jane-austen-and-french-queen-was-killed-by-the-british\/","title":{"rendered":"How desi fabric worn by Jane Austen and French queen was killed by the British"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"How<\/div>\n
It was so light and fine that it was called “woven air”. From French queen Marie Antoinette to British novelist Jane Austen, a lot of women in Europe were once fascinated with a fabric produced in India by hand weavers. Dhaka muslin<\/a>, locally called malmal, was all the rage in Europe among fashionable women during colonial times. It died when the British colonial regime<\/a> destroyed India’s domestic textile industry to sell in India cheap cloth made with machines in Lancashire. Various efforts have been afoot in recent times to revive the difficult craft of producing malmal by hand.<\/p>\n

Also Read: <\/strong>No, India did not get complete independence in 1947. Here’s why<\/a><\/p>\n

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What was so special about Dhaka muslin?<\/h2>\n

Dhaka muslin was a stuff of legends. It was said that a whole sheet of Dhaka muslin could pass through a ring so fine it was. An Arab merchant who visited India in medieval times, wrote, \u201cThere is a stuff made in his country which is not to be found elsewhere; so fine and delicate is this material that a dress made of it may be passed through a signet-ring. It is made of cotton, and we have seen a piece of it.\u201d A story goes that Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb once chided his daughter princess Zeb-un-Nisa for appearing in a transparent dress in court. Zeb-un-Nisa said her dress was made of seven separate layers of cloth. The cloth happened to be muslin.<\/p>\n

Marco Polo described the cloth in his book and said it was made in Mosul, Iraq, hence the name muslin, but it originated in India and refined to an art form by weavers of Dhaka (now in Bangladesh). Due to muslin’s light, airy and translucent quality, some believe the word derives from the French word ‘mousse’ which means foam. In Dhaka, there were different names for different types of muslin such as Abrawan (flowing water), Shabnam (evening dew) and Samander Laher (wave of the sea), all pointing at its fineness.<\/p>\n

Also Read: Videshi to Swadeshi – A look at some brands that propelled India\u2019s journey towards Atmanirbharta<\/a>
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Dhaka muslin was made of a special cotton crop that grew on the banks of the Meghna river which is part of the Ganges Delta. Phooti karpas was the kind of cotton crop best suited for making muslin. Making the yarn from phooti karpas was a delicate process and had several elaborate stages. The making of the fabric could take months. Dhaka muslin had a very high thread count which ensured softness and strength. While most muslin fabrics today have thread count between 40 and 80 (which means these many threads in a square inch of the fabric), Dhaka muslin’s thread counts ranged from 800 to 1,200. The knowledge and expertise to weave Dhaka muslin has now vanished though several efforts are being made to revive it in Bangladesh as well as India.<\/p>\n

How Dhaka muslin wowed Europe<\/h2>\n

Dhaka muslin became the choice of the aristocracy in Europe after European traders arrived in India in the sixteenth century and started taking Dhaka muslin to Europe.<\/p>\n

British media marveled at the fabric. \u201cIt is much to be doubted if we in England have any more delicate and beautiful goods than the muslin of Dacca,\u201d wrote ‘Illustrated London News’ in 1851. “The muslins of Dacca, of which specimens are exhibited, resemble a spider\u2019s web in fineness of texture, for a whole breadth may be drawn through a finger ring,\u201d wrote \u2018Morning Post’ in the same year.<\/p>\n

Many Europeans did not believe that a fabric so marvelous was woven by humans. There were rumours that it was woven by mermaids, fairies or ghosts.<\/p>\n

“At its peak, muslin was on display at the French court where, at the close of the 18th century, Empress Josephine\u2019s muslin dresses set the course for the Empire Line style in France and later in Regency-era Britain. That style centered around muslin, since only \u201cfilmy muslin,\u201d wrote Christine Kortsch, author of ‘Dress Culture in Late Victorian Women\u2019s Fiction’, ‘clung Greek-like to the body \u2026 and no color would do but white’,” Writes Khademul Islam in Aramco World.<\/p>\n

Muslin also ended up changing fashion trends in Europe. “While traditionally, these premium fabrics were used to make saris and jamas \u2013 tunic-like garments worn by men \u2013 in the UK they transformed the style of the aristocracy, extinguishing the highly structured dresses of the Georgian era. Five-foot horizontal waistlines that could barely fit through doorways were out, and delicate, straight-up-and-down “chemise gowns” were in. Not only were these endowed with a racy gauzy quality, they were in the style of what was previously considered underwear,” says a BBC story. “…Dhaka muslin was a hit \u2013 with those who could afford it. It was the most expensive fabric of the era, with a retinue of dedicated fans that included the French queen Marie Antoinette, the French empress Jos\u00e9phine Bonaparte and Jane Austen.”

Also Read: <\/strong>How a house in London became a hub for freedom fighters<\/a><\/p>\n

An Indian muslin shawl, which is believed to have been embroidered by British novelist Jane Austen, is shown on display at Jane Austen\u2019s house museum.There are many references to shawls in both Jane Austen\u2019s novels and in her letters. In a letter to her sister, she writes,”Mary Whitby\u2019s turn is actually come to be grown up & have a fine complexion & wear great square muslin shawls.”<\/p>\n

Shawls were a hugely popular and versatile fashion accessory in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, as per the museum website. Many were made in India or East Asia, or were made in Europe from fabrics that were imported in bulk by the East India Company. By the 1800s, Indian shawls were a fashion staple for Regency high society. Not only did they add style and glamour to a lady\u2019s wardrobe, they also added colour and pattern to her dress, and provided a welcome layer of warmth.<\/p>\n

How the muslin industry vanished<\/h2>\n

Like much of the traditional domestic Indian manufacturing the British colonial regime destroyed, Dhaka muslin too vanished. <\/p>\n

Industrial revolution brought machine-made cloth in Europe which could not match the quality of Indian cloth but was cheaper and could be made in less time. While the British took away cotton from India, they flooded the country with cheap cloth made in textile factories of Lancashire. <\/p>\n

To destroy India’s muslin industry, they used an ingenious trick. Since the thumb nail was used while weaving muslin out of very fine threads, the British used to chop off thumbs of weavers to discourage domestic manufacturing of muslin. Also, the unique variety of cotton used to weave Dhaka muslin, phooti karas, too vanished over time.
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It was so light and fine that it was called “woven air”. From French queen Marie Antoinette to British novelist Jane Austen, a lot of women in Europe were once fascinated with a fabric produced in India by hand weavers. Dhaka muslin, locally called malmal, was all the rage in Europe among fashionable women during […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":114833,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/img.etimg.com\/photo\/msid-112546796,imgsize-992726.cms","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[602],"tags":[94046,14,94042,94043,19188,94040,94044,8456,94038,93496,94036,94037,92986,94039,94041,70029,1177,10433,94045],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114832"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114832"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114832\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":114834,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114832\/revisions\/114834"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}