 "Tiruppur is India's largest textile cluster, accounting for 55 per cent of the country's overall knitwear exports | Photo: shine jacob")
The rhythmic sounds of spinning and weaving, often dismissed as ‘textile noise’, are music to the ears in Tiruppur. What outsiders might find unpleasant — the chemical odours from dyeing, printing, and finishing processes — are, for locals, the scent of an economy that has thrived for millennia. Nearby Kodumanal, for instance, is believed to have clothed ancient Rome 2,500 years ago.
When the Donald Trump administration announced fresh tariffs earlier this month, many feared it would be the final blow for an industry still climbing out of the pandemic slump. Instead, Tiruppur’s streets have grown livelier over the past
