THE SONG OF THE SHIRT
Jeremy Seabrook
Navayana 2014
288 pages; Rs 495
Most fields of thought view evolution as a linear process. In his scholarly but interesting tome The Song of the Shirt, Jeremy Seabrook uses the textile industry and the cases of Dhaka and Lancashire to illustrate that evolution can also follow a circular path. Through a thorough analysis of economic and historical records, interviews with academics and activists, case studies and extensive field work, he makes the point that certain areas of the world are prone to cycles of industrialisation and de-industrialisation. In the process, he postulates that industry is a more changeable phenomenon than is generally thought. Given that the haunting images of the collapse of the Rana Plaza building in Dhaka last year that claimed over 1,100 lives are still fresh in public memory, this book offers a timely and interesting analysis that, in essence, shows that history does indeed repeat itself.
Mr Seabrook bases much of his argument on fieldwork. He visits different garment manufacturing facilities in Dhaka to understand ground realities. What he finds is unsurprising, sadly. On the pretext of catering to rising market demands, Bangladeshi textile workers are being consumed much like raw materials by exporters, he writes. Paid a pittance by Western standards, they are actively discouraged from joining unions. In sharp contrast to the affluent Western consumers they serve, Bangladeshi workers have very poor diets and living standards are poor, he reports. Although Mr Seabrook is quite conscious of not applying Western standards to the reality of Asian poverty, he does exactly that when he bemoans the fact that they subsist on dal, rice and vegetables - and never have milk, fruit, meat or eggs. The fact is that even this is probably aspirational to their landless and unemployed brethren.
The author goes on to draw parallels between Bangladeshi workers of today and their ancestors who wove the fabled fabrics of Dhaka in the 18th century. They used to be so indebted to the East India Company, thanks to their system of advances, that however hard they worked they could never hope to be loan-free. The mercantilist markets of yesterday have been replaced by the competitive, price-driven western marketplace of today - yet the stories of the workers remain the same. Workers' rights groups were actively and often violently discouraged in 18th century much as they are today. Modern factory owners, he writes, are well-represented in Parliament and, therefore, are as powerful as officials of the East India Company once were.
Having made the point that the cycle of oppression that began in 18th century has come full circle to return to the state of textile workers today, Mr Seabrook goes on to argue that the textile mills of distant Manchester are a third link in this chain. At the turn of the 19th century, Lancashire's mills began to produce cheaper machine-made cloth that came to replace the textiles of Bengal. Consequently, the weavers and spinners there lost their jobs and the boom town of Dhaka became a ghost town where tigers began to roam the deserted streets. By the mid-1900s, the cycle turned again and the fortunes of Manchester's mills declined. While the cyclic de-industrialisation of Manchester had fewer grievous consequences compared to Dhaka, it became beset by all the problems resulting from unemployment - high levels of crime, substance abuse and a general sense of bitterness and loss.
Throughout the book, Mr Seabrook's voice seems more like that of an activist than an academic. His thesis seems somewhat imbalanced in parts, especially when he allows outrage to overrule his objectivity as an observer in Dhaka. The circumstances of the workers are undoubtedly disturbing, but readers need to hear the viewpoints of the factory owners and government, too. Currently ranked the third-largest garment-producing nation after China and Turkey, Bangladesh's economy has been driven by garment exports. The workers would probably have no other avenue of employment other than the garment export industry. In the general scheme of things, cut-throat price-driven Western importers, such as Walmart, Benetton and Gap, are as, if not more, exploitative than the Bangladeshi garment factory owners trying to stay afloat in a poor economy. On another note, its cover, reminiscent of the textiles produced in Dhaka, is beautiful, quite unusual for a book with such a serious theme. Also noteworthy is the structure of chapters. Each focuses on a single line of thought and is pleasantly succinct (most are not more than four pages long).
The Song of the Shirt weaves, on the whole, a compelling story of what Mr Seabrook refers as "a global war of attrition of rich against the poor, a conflict between unending greed and the inexhaustible energy of flesh and blood". Its significance lies in the fact that it tells the story of the hidden faces behind the cheap clothes the Western world wears - faces whose songs very few have heard before.
