Indian fabrics had been most sought after for thousands of years. Textiles from Coimbatore and its neighbourhood brought in huge quantities of gold and silver from Rome and other empires. More than 100 ports in peninsular India were used for exporting Indian textiles. However, European rule and the industrial revolution caused enormous setbacks. A colonised country lost its liberty to harness modern technology from the rest of the world. Finally it became a mere market. The great freedom fighter Lala Lajpat Rai has written in detail about the exploitation that took place in the nineteenth century.
Indian fabrics had been most sought after for thousands of years. Textiles from Coimbatore and its neighbourhood brought in huge quantities of gold and silver from Rome and other empires. More than 100 ports in peninsular India were used for exporting Indian textiles. However, European rule and the industrial revolution caused enormous setbacks. A colonised country lost its liberty to harness modern technology from the rest of the world. Finally it became a mere market. The great freedom fighter Lala Lajpat Rai has written in detail about the exploitation that took place in the nineteenth century.
Coimbatore was nothing but a network of villages those days. The fort built by the rulers of Vijayanagar had given it importance. It became the district headquarters on 24/11/1804 and that day is being celebrated as Coimbatore Day. The salubrious weather and black cotton soil were an advantage. S.P.Narasimhalu Naidu of Coimbatore was an enterprising person and his visit to Mumbai at the time of the founding of the Indian National Congress in 1885 was responsible for the coming up of the first mill in town. The mill - Coimbatore Spinning & Weaving Mills Limited ( 1888 ) was founded by Sir Robert Stanes in the area connected with S.P.Narasimhalu Naidu. The Zamindar of Uthukuli was a signatory in the early documents. This was followed by Mall Mills ( Later Somasundaram Mills ) in 1900.
The Zamindar of Devakottai sent the young P.Somasundaram Chettiar to revive his mill at Kallai in Malabar. Eventually both of them founded the Kaleeswarar Mills in Coimbatore. This was the first Indian mill in town. A number of black cotton soil farmers began to trade in cotton and they used to cycle all the way to Erode those days. The PSG Brothers ( Venkataswamy, Rangaswamy, Ganga & Narayanaswamy ) were among the earliest and they founded Sri Ranga Vilas Mills in Peelamedu in 1922. This was followed by Radhakrishna Mills in 1924. It was promoted by V.Abbay Naidu & his brother V.Rangaswamy Naidu, Rao Bahadur V.Gopal Naidu, A.G.Venkataswamy Naidu and A.G.Guruswamy Naidu. G.Kuppuswamy Naidu entered C.S & W Mills as an industrial visitor and came up with Lakshmi Mills. Dr.R.K.Shanmukham Chetty, C.S.Rathinasabapathy Mudaliar, A.T.Devaraja Mudaliar, T.A.Ramalingam Chettiar, V.C.Vellingiri Gounder, B.Rangaswamy Naidu, K.Krishnaswamy Naidu and many others joined the fray.
Jeweller P.A.Raju Chettiar and his brother P.A.Ramaswamy Chettiar tried to get into textiles in the thirties of the last century but the family had to wait for another 20 years to get into the textile business through Surya Prabha Mills.
Cambodia Mills came up in 1928. The mills were dependent on steam power and by 1933 Pykara Hydro Electric Power began supplying them with electricity. Cotton Merchants like Chennimalai Krishna Chetty and V.S. Sengottiah began to earn huge fortunes. Sengottiah build Saradha Mills and he owned the first Rolls Royce car in Coimbatore. Vakkil Balakrishna Naidu ( Author of Daniacken Kottai ) was associated with a number of mills but he came out of them very quickly.
The industry did not exceed expectations between 1930 and the second world war. Earlier Diwan Bahadur P.Somasundaram Chettiar had been the only star performer. The onset of the second world war gave a fillip to the industry. Government tax concessions, relaxation of import restrictions in respect of raw materials and machinery encouraged many to enter the field and prosper. The scarcity of cotton cloth at the time of war helped the mills. Controls on production and distribution of cloth, yarn and cotton were imposed by the Government. This was done in order to regulate the supply and divert them to the most needy. For the purpose of augmenting its revenues, the Government formulated the excess profits tax deposits. This period has been a period of prosperity to the industry. Peak production was maintained and fat returns accrued both to the workers and investors. Rich dividends were declared and therefore the value of the shares rose up. Even people with humble means were attracted to invest their surplus in the textile industry in preference to other forms of investments.
Eminent citizens like T.A.Ramalingam Chettiar and T.T.Rathnasabapathy ( TTR ) Pillai were on the board of a number of mills. TTR.Pillai was the President of Lakshmi Mills and he was also a Director in Cambodia Mils. Diwan Bahadur Venkatarama Iyer was a Director in Coimbatore Murugan Mills. Quite a few bankers and leaders lent their names in order to help the promoters of mills to raise capital. The support of S.Bheemiah Chetty, N.K.P.Muthuswamy Chettiar, T.S.Sivasubramaniam Chettiar, Kulur Family, Anupappatti Kasthuriswamy Naidu known as Panakkara Naicker helped many of the mill owners tide over many a financial crisis. The private banks and indigenous bankers played a seminal role those days. Youngsters were sent abroad by the mill owners and the foreign return plus locally skilled youngsters began to perform well. G.V.Doraiswamy Naidu, R.Venkataswamy Naidu, G.Krishnan, G.N.Sam, G.Ramaswamy Naidu, G.R.Govindarajulu, G.K.Devarajulu, G.K.Sundaram, K.Venkatesalu, SITRA K.Srinivasan ( research ), V.L.Balakrishnan were among the star performers. Father and son duo - P.Somasundaram Chettiar and his son P.S.Sathappan did very well. In fact P.S.Sathappan was the earliest to visit Europe for gathering technical know how nearly hundred years ago. S.R.P.Ponnuswamy Chettiar was from the handloom sector and he could understand the impact of modern technology and he came up with a mill of his own at the dawn of the republic. The goodwill of S.N.R.Chinnaswamy Naidu helped to raise capital for Sri Ramakrishna Mills those days.
Dr.R.K.Shanmukham Chetty understood the need to get the industry together in business and research. Therefore he founded the Southern India Mills Association ( SIMA ) and also mooted the Southern India Textile Research Association ( SITRA ). R.Venkataswamy Naidu of Radhakrishna Mills was involved with SIMA for a long time and the building came up during his tenure. He was an extremely dynamic mill owner. The industry faced a slowdown in 1949 and efforts had to be taken to get it back on its toes once again. The mills were managed through Managing Agencies. Trade Union leaders like N.G.Ramaswamy fought for the rights of the workers. It was a matter of pride to be a mill worker.
Now its time to celebrate the Coimbatore Day on 24 November 2019 and let us happily see the names and details of the old mills which ruled the roost during the early fifties of the twentieth century. Its time to take a look at the status of the industry during the early fifties of the last century.
Camodia Mills in Ondipudur had a spindelage of 37890 and it was managed by its Managing Agents, Pierce Leslie & Co Ltd. It had about 2200 workers on its rolls. The Coimbatore Cotton Mills ( Managing Agents : R.Bheema Naidu & Co & Grams ' Rukmani ' ) had 924 workers and 28864 spindles. Coimbatore Kamala Mills ( Mg.Agents : R.V.Lakshmiah Naidu & Co and was equipped with 17,264 spindles ). Coimbatore Murugan Mills ( Mg.Agents : T.A.Ramalingam Chettiar Sons & Co ) had 100 Japanese Automatic Looms and 19,460 spindles with a worker strength of 900.
The Coimbatore Pioneer Mills Limited ( Managed by T.R.Narayanaswamy Naidu & Co ) used to make high count yarn and had a spindle capacity of 19,798.
The Coimbatore Spinning & Weaving Mills had R.G.S. Naidu & Co as its Managing Agents and its capacity was 72,832 spindles, 407 looms. The mill produced long cloths, chadars, towels, mulls, dhoties and hosiery goods. Gnanambikai Mills had a 14,656 spindle capacity and was managed by V.C.Vellingiri Gounder & Brothers.
Managing Agents G.V.Doraiswamy Naidu & Co ran Janardana Mills and it was endowed with 23,784 spindles. Jayalakshmi Mills had 12,128 spindles and its sister concern Jothi Mills ( owned by Ramakrishna Industrials ) was endowed with 11,000 spindles.
Kadri Mills ( 20,520 spindles ) was under G.Krishna & Co. Kaleewarar Mills was managed by P.S.S.Somasundaram Chettiar and had 50,612 spindles and 425 looms. C.N.Venkatapathy Naidu & Co managed Kasthuri mills and it had 15,420 spindles.
Kothari Textiles ( 28,944 spindles : Managing Agents - Kothari & Sons ), Kumaran Mills ( 11,904 spindles and Mg.Agents were N.Appuswamy Naidu & Co ), Lakshmi Mills ( 51,348 spindles in Coimbatore and 25,920 in Kovilpatti, Mg.Agents - G.Kuppuswamy Naidu & Co ), Lotus Mills ( 18,040 and was run by Lotus Agency Ltd ), Pankaja Mills ( 30,796 spindles and was managed by C.S.Rathinasabapathi Mudaliar & Sons ), Radhakrishna Mills ( Grams - 'Textile ' ) was managed by A.G.Guruswamy Naidu & Co ( spindles 42,000 ), Rajalakshmi Mills ( 25,896 spindles under B.Rangaswamy Naidu & Sons ), Saroja Mills ( 14,920 spindles under Thiagaraja Chetty & Sons Ltd ), Sivananda Mills ( Grams - Essorpe ) was having a spindelage of 10,304 under S.R.P.Ponnuswami Chetty & Sons.
The list includes mills in Coimbatore only and the suburban mills like Premier Mills, Thirumurthy Mills, Palani Andavar Mills, Sri Venkatesa Mills call for a bigger observation.
Somasundaram Mills ( 24,140 spindles managed by P.S.S.Somasundaram Chettiar ), Sri Ramakrishna Mills ( 6,160 spindles under S.N.Rangaswamy Naidu & Sons ), Sri Balasubramania Mills ( spindles 17,696 under K.Krishnaswamy Naidu & Brother ), Sri Kannapiran Mills ( Spindles 12,772 under K.Venkataswamy Naidu & Co ), Sri Karthikeya Spinning & Weaving Mills ( spindles 11,032 - Props : G.Ramaswamy Naidu & Brothers ), Sri Palamalai Ranganathar Mills (spindles - 8,500 under S.K.Rangaswamy Naidu & Co ), Sri Rangavilas Ginning, Spinning & Weaving Mills ( 30,000 spindles under P.S.G & Sons ), Sri Sarada Mills ( 20,796 spindles ), Vasanta Mills ( 33,704 spindles, 270 looms under R.K.Shanmukham Chetty & Brothers : products - mulls and shirtings, long cloths and chadars, dhoties, towels and vests ), Varadaraja Textiles ( 4,000 spindles under G.V. Doraiswamy Naidu ), Vijayalakshmi Mills ( Managing Agents - Gupta & Co with a spindle capacity of 16,312 ).
The industry employed several thousand people and added to the wealth of the region. Coimbatore became a pre eminent industrial cum commercial centre because of the mills founded by the black cotton soil farmers. Eventually other centres developed and the rest is history. Several shareholders, directors, consultants, mentors, bankers, farmers, traders, ginners, merchants and workers did their bit. All these efforts culminated in the founding of South India Viscose under the leadership of R.Venkataswamy Naidu & G.K.Devarajulu. It was the golden moment and Coimbatore had become the ' Kuberamangalam ' of the South by then. Let us salute all the textile industry pioneers named and unnamed on the occasion of Coimbatore Day.