In the early 1900s, farmers were concerned about the poor quality of kavalais (buckets) used for drawing water from wells to irrigate farmland. These kavalais were made of country leather. This had prompted the government’s intervention in the Madras tanning industry and proved to be the trigger for an experiment in chrome tanning in the Presidency in 1903.
“The question was considered by Government with reference to the economic waste involved in the use of country leather for kavalais or the buckets used by the ryots for well irrigation. A large number of these buckets were required annually by the ryots. Owing to inferior methods of tanning, the leather perished after a comparatively short period of use and it was suggested that experiments should be made with the object of introducing and popularising the more enduring chrome leather,” G.T. Boag, an Indian Civil Service officer from Britain, records in The Madras Presidency 1881-1931.
Boag, a statistician and administrator, had previously served as the Commissioner, Corporation, Madras, and had later had a stint as the Acting Governor of Odisha. A road at Chennai’s T. Nagar was named in his honour (a part of it has been renamed in memory of the legendary actor Sivaji Ganesan who resided on Boag Road).
Considerable interest
In 1903, the government sanctioned ₹2,000 for experiments at the School of Arts to determine whether chrome tanning could be successfully carried out in the Presidency.
“The field of chrome tannery was at that time clear. The experiments at first were conducted on a small scale, the establishment consisting merely of a tanning maistri, a flesher and three coolies, but in the first year the sales amounted to ₹4,779 and enquiries from all parts of India indicated that the venture had aroused considerable interest,” notes Boag. Interestingly, the Chamber of Commerce, which was consulted by the government before it ventured into the tanning industry, felt that chrome tanning was not feasible in Madras.
Padmini Swaminathan, in her working paper on Evolution of Industrial Policy in Madras Presidency, 1900-1947 published by the Madras Institute of Development Studies, points out that the Chamber had felt the tanning industry would revive on its own without government intervention. “The Chamber also felt that chrome tanning was not feasible in Madras owing to climatic difficulties,” she says, citing the Memorandum on the Department of Industries in the Madras Presidency, 1917.
She records that Alfred Chatterton, Superintendent of the School of Arts in Madras, was, however, convinced that chrome tanning had to be introduced in India if the tanning industry was not to disappear altogether.
“Chatterton devoted his time and energy to one class of leather goods, which were in very large demand locally, named kavalais or buckets for lifting water from wells. According to his estimate, the Presidency used not less than a million hides every year for this article alone. Though the buckets were made of well tanned leather, constant immersion in water and exposure to a hot sun caused them to deteriorate very rapidly putting the ryots to a lot of inconvenience. The introduction of chrome tanned leather for these buckets promised to be a great improvement and offered very considerable prospects of commercial success,” she says.
Diversification of production
However, initially, the demand for water buckets was not great and diversification was done to manufacture boots, shoes, and sandals. “Chrome leather water buckets gradually became more popular and in the year 1908-09, ₹9,000 worth of leather was sold for this one purpose, but the main business of the department always consisted in supplying the demand for footwear, especially sandals,” writes Boag.
Large orders for sandals were obtained from government departments and 20,000 pairs were sold during 1907-08 alone. This eventually necessitated the shifting of the department from the School of Arts to a tannery of its own at Sembiam, then regarded as a suburb of Madras.
“Chatterton’s experiments placed beyond any reasonable doubt the fact that chrome leather could be manufactured in Madras and that it was well adapted to the needs of the country,” says Ms. Padmini.
Sufficient training
Chatterton had attributed the initial failure of those who attempted to start chrome tanning units to the inadequate appreciation of the fact that chrome tanning was a chemical industry and required the possession of regulated scientific knowledge. He was convinced that before any very large business in this leather could be secured it would be necessary to train a sufficient number of local chemists in carrying on practical work in the tanneries even while bringing the tannery products prominently before the agricultural population.
According to Boag, the commercial success of the venture led to protests at the end of 1908 by Messrs Chamber & Co, the Upper India Chamber of Commerce and the Madras Chamber “against the department’s interference with private trade”. In July 1910, the government withdrew from the venture accepting an offer from the Rewah Darbar to purchase the plant of the tannery for ₹50,000, the whole stock also being taken over at a valuation. “The transfer was finally effected in the beginning of 1911,” he writes.
The net cost to the government was ₹55,000-odd spreading over a period of seven years. “The chrome leather industry is now finally established in this Presidency and there is no doubt that the Government of Madras helped materially to contribute towards the net result,” says Boag’s report (this quote also figures in the Memorandum cited by Ms. Padmini).
