Indian Weavers’ Holocaust: Early Colonial Brutality and the Erasure of Mahua Dabar, India

Navrang India February 25, 2026
thefridaytimes.com

Above image: The British forced the Indian artisans were to move to the production of raw materials for British textile manufacturing to make high profit.........

The history of the British Raj is often portrayed through the lens of administrative modernization, yet beneath this veneer lies a harrowing narrative of industrial sabotage and human rights atrocities. Among the most egregious of these was the systematic destruction of the Indian weaving community—a campaign that transitioned from economic strangulation to physical mutilation and, ultimately, the literal erasure of entire settlements.

Woman weaver, Assam,India. indianetzone.com

Economic Sabotage and Physical Mutilation

In the early 19th century, the East India Company (EIC) sought to transform India from a premier exporter of fine textiles into a captive dumping ground for British machine-made cloth. To achieve this, the Company moved beyond punitive tariffs. In Bengal, reports surfaced of a "disdainful act" where the thumbs and hands of master weavers were allegedly chopped off to prevent them from practicing their craft. This was not merely an act of cruelty but a calculated strike against the "Indian cottage industry." By physically disabling the artisans whose Dacca muslins and fine silks outclassed Manchester products, the EIC ensured that the "Indian economy began to slide downhill," forcing a self-reliant population into abject poverty.

A weaver in an Indian village.globosapian.net

The Tragedy of Mahua Dabar

The town of Mahua Dabar in Awadh stands as a haunting symbol of this era. It was settled by twenty weaver families from Murshidabad and Nadia who had fled British persecution. Many of these first-generation refugees were already mutilated, yet they passed their skills to their children, turning the town of 5,000 into a bustling textile hub.

thefridaytimes.com

Above image: Indian weavers at the 1886 Colonial and Indian Exhibition in Britain..........

However, during the Great Rebellion of 1857, the simmering rage over generations of lost livelihoods boiled over. In retaliation for the beheading of six British soldiers by a mob, the British 12th Irregular Horse Cavalry surrounded Mahua Dabar on June 20, 1857. They slaughtered hundreds and razed every home. To finalize the revenge, the Raj decreed the town "gair chiragi" (non-revenue land), effectively erasing it from all future government records and maps.

A Forgotten Holocaust

While British historians often cite a figure of 10,000 Indian casualties during the 1857 reprisals, modern scholars like Amaresh Misra argue for a far more staggering scale. Misra’s research suggests that the British may have killed up to 10 million Indians over a decade in a "secret holocaust" designed to break the spirit of the population. Despite the scale of these atrocities, they remain largely absent from mainstream Anglo-histories. Many of the first-generation weavers had already lost their hands, but they taught the craft to their sons and the small town of 5,000 people soon became a bustling hand loom center.On June 20, 1857 the 12th Irregular Horse Cavalry surrounded the town, slaughtered hundreds and set all the houses on fire. The Raj decreed that no one could live in the place from then on.

Yet the 1757-1947 Indian Holocaust and the 1942-1945 Bengali Holocaust have been erased or neglected from British history – thus, for example, there is absolutely no mention of these enormous atrocities in recent Anglo Histories such as “The Story of India” by Michael Wood (BBC, 2007), “The Britannica Guide to India” (Robinson, 2009), 

Amaresh Misra : “It was a holocaust, one where millions disappeared. It was a holocaust ....... because they thought the only way to win was to destroy entire populations in towns and villages. It was simple and brutal. Indians who stood in their way were killed. But its scale has been kept a secret" (Randeep Ramesh, “ India 's secret history: “a holocaust, one where millions disappeared…” Author says British reprisals involved the killing of 10 million Indians spread over 10 years”, (Guardian, 24 August, 2007). However, British writers in a process of continuing  holocaust denial, put the number of Indians killed at about 10.000

Legacy of the 1823 Petition

The desperation of the era is best captured in an 1823 petition signed by 12,000 weavers, pleading with the Board of Trade for work. They stated, "We are weavers and do not know any other business. We must starve for food if the Board of Trade do not cast a look of kindness." The plea was ignored. The British policy was clear: the survival of the British textile industry required the death of the Indian weaver. Today, the rediscovery of sites like Mahua Dabar serves as a vital reclamation of a history that the Raj attempted to bury forever.

“War of Civilizations: India AD 1857” by Amaresh Misra; Randeep Ramesh (The Guardian, 2007); Proceedings of the Board of Trade (1824); and reports by Tapas Chakraborty on Mahua Dabar.







K. N. Jayaraman