Textile Labels

Art365 | New Delhi, India

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A label is a piece of paper, plastic, film, cloth, metal or any other material affixed to a container or product, on which is written or printed information or symbols about the product or item. Information printed directly on a container or article can be considered as labelling the product. From the mid 1890s, Raja Ravi Varma set up his own printing press and produced his own lithographic work as textile mill labels. This coincides with the success of the cotton mills in Mumbai, Calcutta, Karachi & Ahmedabad.

In 1918, Mahatma Gandhi launched the Swadeshi movement. He called for a boycott of foreign cloth and advocated the spinning of Khadi cotton. So textiles were also significant to the Indian independence movement. The Calico Mills advertisement said to buy Indian. The images on the labels were more than just pretty pictures. They reflected a movement.

Labels have many uses, including promotion and providing information on a product’s origin, manufacturer, its use and shelf life. Indian markets were flooded with British mill woven cotton goods, especially from the companies of Manchester & Glasgow. The Indian manufacturers used images of Indian gods and goddesses on the labels to make them more appealing to users in India. Images of Indian mythology, Indian flora & fauna, and even important and respected people were used to make them more desirable. The textile mill label is an essential visual reminder of trade in British India. The labels were also referred to as ‘tickets’ and ‘shipper’s tickets’, pasted on the bales of the cotton cloth from Manchester & Glasgow. In all likelihood, the cloth was manufactured from cotton fibre imported from India.

Till around 1890, the textile labels were designed in Britian. They were colourful, decorative guilt reminders of the British Raj in India. Indian manufacturers printed the image of ‘Bharat Mata’ and ‘Made in India’, to invoke the nationalist sentiments of the people. Baby products carried the image of Lord Krishna. It was this specific religious iconography that made these labels, which would have otherwise been thrown away into collectibles. These were even used in the pujas by merchants. Mill names were written in Hindi, Bengali, Gujarati & Urdu. The advertisements for gripe water for babies featured Krishna as the ideal cherubic baby. Sunlight soap had Lakshmi & Saraswati, that translated to purity & cleanliness. Designers in Germany looked at traditional Indian miniature paintings for inspiration that would appeal to the natives.

The development in the design & printing techniques over a period of time are clearly visible if you look at the labels & lithographs closely. The way the women were dressed & depicted on the labels revealed their time & period. The textile labels offered an insight into the global trade during the British Raj & independent India.

For those who may think that printing techniques were primitive in the earlier parts of this century, the labels advertising fabrics and textiles will come as a pleasant surprise. The quaint labels are quintessentially Indian in visual quality, colour and portraiture, though they appear to have been printed abroad. Their condition defies their age and the gold colour still glitters as new.