Report of the Jute Enquiry Commission 1960

Abstract

Jute has been cultivated in the Bengal delta from time immemorial but no one can say when or from where it came. There are about 40 species of jute out of which only two, namely, Corchorus capsularis and Corchorus olitorius, are of commercial use. In the trade the former is known as ‘ White ’ and the latter as * Tossa ’ jute. Some earlier authorities believed Corchorus olitorius to have come from the Mediterranean region to the Indo-Pakistan sub-continent. According to watt (1908), the early habitat of olitorius is Khulna (East Pakistan), Burdwan and Parganas (West Bengal, India), and that of capsularis is Ningpo and Tientsin in China.1 ' Corchorus olitorius has been reported under wild and cultivated conditions in tropical regions of Africa and on the basis of the latest theory of origin of species, botanists now beleive th at the primary centre of origin of olitorius is tropical Africa, while the secondary centre might be Indo-Pakistan or the Indo- Pak-Burma region. The origin of capsularis was regarded by many early botanists as South China. However, wild varieties of capsularis have recently been reported from St. Martin’s Island near Cox’s Bazar, (East Pakistan) and from Bombay, Saurashtra and Madhya Pradesh (India). Many botanists now believe that the primary centre of origin of capsularis may have been the South East Asia region which includes South China, Burma and the Indo-Pakistan sub-continent. In ancient times jute was more or less a garden plant and its leaves were used as vegetable or medicine. The fibre value of the plant came to be known much later and to-day jute is cultivated mainly for its fibre. It is-interesting to note that although reference to the use of jute cloth is found in ancient and early mediaeval literature of India, it was in Akbar’s time that jute became an important feature of the economic life of Bengal. For about 350 years from the first quarter of the 16th century upto the 3rd quarter of the 19th century jute was a fiourshing cottage industry of Bengal. During the 16th and the 17th centuries, the poor in eastern and northern Bengal were mostly clad in sack cloth made of jute.3 How important the industry had become by the middle of the 19th century can be seen from the following quotation from Forbes’ Royle. “ On all the eastern frontiers a great proportion of the women are clothed in the coarse cloth made of the Corchorus, which also gives them much employment” 4. He quotes a letter from one Mr. Henley who wrote, “ This industry forms the grand domestic manufacture of all the populous eastern districts of lower Bengal. It pervades all classes, and penetrates into every household. Men, women and children find occupation therein. Boatmen in their spare moments, husbandmen, Palankean carriers and domestic servants, everybody, in fact, being Hindoo?—for Mussalmans spin cotton only—pass their leisure moments, distaff in hand, spinning gunny twist...