Click here to join Express Pune WhatsApp channel and get a curated list of our stories
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
Tags:
Journalism of Courage
A few metres away from the Pune railway station is a swanky neighbourhood which comes to life in the evening, lined with high-end restaurants and promises of fine dining. However, the signboard at the gate leaves one confused: ‘The Mills’. Right next to the signboard is a bust of a man who offers a peek into the history of the place, from where one of the largest and first textile mills of the city operated – Raja Bahadur Motilal Poona Mills.
The seeds of the Indian textile industry were sown on the west coast of India in 1851 and all of this yarn was prepared for sale to China and the Far East. It took several years before the Indian textile industry made efforts to supply the domestic market and experienced a slight slump during World War I but quickly recovered in the early 1920s, as per the ‘Foreign Agricultural Report: Cotton Production in India’ written by Henry W Spielman and published in 1950.
“In 1891, Raja Bahadur Motilalji Pittie laid the foundation of the Raja Bahadur Motilal Mills in Pune,” informs Umang Pittie, Vice-Chairman of Raja Bahadur Motilal International Limited . Lokmanya Tilak had written a special editorial in Kesari welcoming this new venture of the Pune industrialist according to ‘Pune: Tradition to Market: A Study of Changing Trends in Consumption with Special Reference to Service Sector in Hotel Industry,’ written by Jasmine Damle. An industrial fund called ‘Paisa Fund’ was started to give a boost to the Swadesh industries then.
Before 1951, when the industrial landscape in Pune began to take shape due to the industrial decentralisation policy followed by the Bombay government, the Ammunition Factory Kirkee, Kirloskar Oil Engines at Kirkee and Raja Bahadur Mills were the only big centres generating employment in Pune, according to ‘Social Consequences of Urbanisation and Industrialisation in Pune’ written by A Bopegamage.
“The climate in Pune was never conducive to setting up a textile mill due to the dry temperature here. But the mill was set up and soon became the third largest employer in 1960s Pune,” says the vice-chairman of Raja Bahadur Motilal International Limited, Umang Pittie.
According to Pittie, the majority of the textile products were exported to European countries during the late 1800s and Raja Bahadur mills was among the first ones to make readymade bed-sets, a common household item, in the Pune belt.
After tasting success in textiles, the Pittie family decided to expand and enter the drafting machine business. “In the 1950s and 60s, we decided to expand into the drafting machine business,” informs Pittie. The production was carried out under the ‘Pittie name’ and their contribution to defence machinery was recognised in the form of a Silver Shield by the President of India in the 1960s, she said.
With the computer-aided design software entering the market, drafting machines soon became redundant and the business went downhill, Pittie added. Raja Bahadur textile mills eventually shut operations in the 1990s.
The shift to real estate was executed after sensing an opportunity due to the central location of the area owned by the mill paired with the brand’s trust among Pune consumers.
In the last few years, the family has developed six restaurants at the location, including Indian eateries, bars, patisseries and diners. “Along with restaurants, the Mills also offers an array of cafes and other recreational options that celebrate the culture and rhythm of Pune,” as Umang Pittie puts it.
The essence of the mills is preserved in the structure of the triangular roofed buildings and memories of yesteryears, like residents setting their watch according to the mill’s siren according to the mill’s opening time.
