MUSLIN CLOTH

 

Muslin in the textile industry in 1960. Muslin is a very fine cloth woven with threads made from a special type of cotton fiber. Muslin was produced in different regions of the Indian subcontinent; But the main production areas of Bengal were Dhaka and Murshidabad. Muslin was also produced in Shantipur, Malda and Hooghly. The muslin produced in Dhaka and its surrounding areas was of excellent quality, which is popularly known as Dhakai muslin.

The muslin produced in Shantipur came to be known as Shantipuri Muslin, which was recognized by the East India Company. Dhakai muslin was recognized as a Geographical Indication (GI) product of Bangladesh in 2018 and Bengali muslin as a Geographical Indication (GI) product of the Indian state of West Bengal.

In Dhaka, muslin was made from very fine cotton yarn called footi karpus, while in Malda, Radhnagar and Burdwan, muslin was made from fine cotton yarn called nurma or kaur. A minimum of 300 count yarn was used for the shirred, handwoven muslin, resulting in a glass-transparent muslin. This muslin was used to make royal robes. There were about 28 varieties of muslin, of which jamdani is still widely practiced.

Muslin weaving stopped in Bengal in the latter half of the 18th century due to various reasons, but now the government has started re-weaving and this industry has been brought back.