Cotton textiles count among the oldest industries in India. One can follow it back to the times of Indus Valley Civilization, when cotton fabrics of India were in great demand even in the countries of Europe and West Asia. It used to be a cottage or village industry during those times. The spinning wheel comprised its only machine- simple but exceedingly inventive. The modern textile industry in India first began at Fort Gloster near Calcutta in early 19th century. But it actually made a headstart in Mumbai, when a cotton textile mill was set up there- exclusively out of Indian funds, in 1854.

There are several worth remarking features of the Indian textile industry. It is based on indigenous raw materials, especially cotton. In 1995-96, the textile industry had provided employment to over 64 million persons, next only to agriculture. Thus it is exceedingly meaningful for a country like India, because it is a labour-intensive industry. It alone accounts for 4% of the gross domestic product. More prominently, it is responsible for 20% of the manufacturing value addition. Lately, it has been bringing home one-third of India`s total export earnings. In 1996-97 the country had earned virtually 12 billion U.S. dollars.

The industry provides livelihood to farmers, cotton ball pluckers, and workers engaged in ginning, spinning, weaving, dying, designing and packaging, not leaving sewing and tailoring. It is India`s most traditional and esteemed industry. More importantly, the industry strikes a sensible balance between tradition and modernity. While the spinning occupation is rather centralised, weaving is exceedingly decentralised, providing scope for traditional skills of craftsmen in cotton, silk, zari, embroidery and so on. The hand spun and hand woven khadi holds back the ancient tradition of providing large scale employment in one`s home and cottages. Textile industry in India has all along prospered on its own funds. On the other hand, the country possesses the most contemporary capital intensive and high speed mill-produced cloth with a huge market- both at home and abroad.

The fabrics, i.e. cloth is basically produced in three sectors - (i) mills, (ii) power looms and (iii) handlooms. Together they account for 98.5% of the fabrics produced in the country. It is fascinating to observe the share of each. The mill sector accounts for only 5.2% of the total fabrics produced in the country, whereas power looms and handlooms are responsible for 73% and 20.3% respectively. For example, the whole sari sector is earmarked for handloom and power loom sectors. The latter also produces hosiery on a vast scale, by and large for export purposes. India also exports quality yarn to Japan and European Economic community.

In 1997-98 the country had produced 37.4 billion metres of fabrics. The per capita availability of fabrics rose to 30:92 metres in the same year. It was less than 15 metres in 1955-56. During that time it was only cotton fabric. Now the proportion between natural and human-made fibre is 50:50.

Total spindles had risen three fold, since 1950-51. The spinning mills rose from 378 to 1719 by 1997. The states Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat top the country in textiles, in a downhill order.

The important centres of cotton textiles industry comprise Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Coimbatore, Madurai, Indore, Nagpi Sholapur, Kolkata, Kanpur, Delhi and Hyderabad.

Lately, the readymade cotton garments industry has been developing in tremendous momentum to cater to foreign markets. They are thus bringing home prized foreign exchange. One of the problems faced by cotton textile industry in India was the old-fashioned technology of old mills and their industrial sickness. Slowly, but steadily old technology is being superceded by the new one. India is yet to exploit her enormous potential to manufacture classic cotton fabrics, for which there is enormous demand in the upper social classes of the industrialised countries of the globe.