The Indian textile industry, started in 1850s, was still in a primitive craft stage till 1930s. Little formal education, rule of thumb solutions to problems, secrecy by mills and isolation of technicians were rampant. Some small groups like Saturday Textile Club of Bombay and Textile Brotherhood at Ahmedabad existed on a small local scale. Ten visionary technocrats brought 126 technicians and managers together on Sunday, the 9th April 1939 to establish the Textile Association (India); a forum for free exchange of technical and other information in a spirit of fellowship and cooperation.

The need to give publicity to activities of TAI, to convey happenings in the industry, to give summary of important articles was fulfilled by starting, ‘Textile Digest’. Early features were employment opportunities, readers’ page, open forum, etc. The TD soon became a textile darling, a proud possession of every member.

An idea mooted in 1943, fructified in 1944, in the form of a conference to foster closer liaison and fellowship between members and to start a forum for exchange of views on vital issues related to the textile industry. An exhibition was also organised where indigenous machinery parts were exhibited. This twin affair was such a grand success that it was made into a major annual event, which also served the admirable purpose of raising funds for TAI activities.

The Awards of Associateship and Fellowship by application were started to recognise acquired capability of technical and managerial kind in Indian textile mills.

Three books were commissioned and published during the Silver Jubilee. ‘Indian Cotton Textile industry – an Economic Analysis’ by Dr. D. S. Mehta: ‘The Cotton Mills of India, 1854 – 1954’ by P. N. Joshi: ‘Technical Development in Textile industry’ a compendium.

As the word of The Textile Association (India) activities spread across the country, many other textile centres than Mumbai wished to start similar activities. The migration of experienced technicians from Mumbai also helped. A post of Liaison Officer was created and efforts made bore good fruit: 11 branches – later called units – were established in just one decade till 1953. By 1991 almost all textile centres had been covered through 27 Units.

Each issue of JTA – a bimonthly devoted to textile science, technology, engineering and management contains 4-8 articles of practical interest to different segments of the textile industry. Articles are contributed by R & D organisations, teaching institutes, machinery – dyes – fibre manufacturers, and industry practitioners. Quality is maintained through expert scrutiny before acceptance. Editorials on current topics are popular with the readership, which gets TAI activity news and other professional news also through JTA. Four world-abstracting services cover JTA.

The number of textile teaching institutes in India has grown from just 2-3 in 1950 to cover 60 by 1990. Even so, the need to help those engaged in diverse textile activities to become professionally qualified continues to exit. ATA and the recently introduced GMTA are equivalent to diploma and degree courses respectively. The fellowship serves to recognise good contribution to textile fields and even Ph.D. holders in textiles now seek this recognition.

Tablets are short (24-32 pages) compilations on each stage of manufacture in spinning, weaving and chemical processing and on engineering utilities. Starting from basic functions, the TABLET gives norms on quality, productivity of machines and labour, faults and remedies, maintenance practices, supervisory check lists etc. Made available in art paper coloured printing at very low costs, over 1,25,000 copies of 29 different TABLETS have been bought since 1982.

The annual theme conference – All India Textile Conference (AITC) – of The Textile Association (India) has become a unique forum where good, usable new work in textiles done in all types of organisations gets presented to between 800 to 2000 delegates from all over India. The book of 30 to 40 papers is given to each delegate and is available at cost from the Central Office. Each book is an interesting accumulation of wealth of knowledge for improving performance of the textile industry.

Major political, social and economical changes have taken place in recent past. All related to the ushering in of market economy and globalisation. Consequent to the fierce quality-cost competition for survival and growth, the Indian Textile Industry is in the throes of a major structural re-adjustment. Only the fittest will survive in the small, medium and large sectors of textile manufacture and of supplier industries like fibres and producers machinery, dyes-chemicals manufacturers. Higher education is being rapidly privatised and continuous education will play much larger role in future. Information technology has irreversibly the pace of flow of information and knowledge. The need for R & D has grown tremendously, but so have the possibilities of buying latest technology improved.

The TAI is accutely aware of these changes and of their impact on the role to be played by a professional body. The Textile Association (India) offers a good pause to look back, to introspect, and to plan afresh for the future of the textile industry.

THE TEXTILE ASSOCIATION (INDIA), FOUNDING FATHERS: