Bengal's Cotton Revolt: The Weavers Who Defied the Empire

In the aftermath of the Battle of Plassey, Bengal's legendary muslin weavers found themselves caught between the crumbling Mughal order and the rising East India Company. This episode follows the weavers' revolt of 1769–1770, when thousands of artisans in Junglee Bazaar and beyond refused to produce cloth for the Company at starvation wages. We explore the brutal mechanisms of the Company's monopoly—how it forced weavers to sell at fixed prices, destroyed their looms for disobedience, and turned a once-thriving industry into a tool of extraction. Key figures include Jean-Baptiste Chevalier, the French factor who attempted to break the Company's hold, and the zamindars who wavered between collaboration and resistance. We also examine the wider context: the famine of 1770, the collapse of Dhaka's muslin trade, and how the weavers' struggle foreshadowed later anti-colonial uprisings. This episode draws on Company records, travel accounts, and the voices of the weavers themselves, preserved in petitions and testimonies. #BengalWeaversRevolt #MuslinTrade #EastIndiaCompany #JungleeBazaar #JeanBaptisteChevalier #DhakaMuslin #BattleOfPlassey #1769Famine #Zamindars #Murshidabad #CottonWeavers #18thCenturyIndia #ColonialEconomy #Resistance #EconomicHistory #SouthAsianHistory #BengalHistory #FexingoHistory Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo