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Going Back to Natural Dyes

Anand K Dharwa, December 1997.

The Development Alternatives team is involved in training SC and ST ladies of Sathanur in the use of natural dyes.

Natural dyes are a class of colorants extracted from vegetative matter and animal residues. These are considered as mordant dyes as they require the inclusion of one or more metallic salts of aluminium, iron, chromium, copper and others for ensuring reasonable fastness of the colour to sunlight and washing. These metallic salts combine with the dye stuff to produce dye aggregates which cannot be removed from the cloth easily.

Natural dyes in vogue during ancient days were indigo for dark blue/ light blue, pomegranate rind for yellow/brown/green, lac for scarlet/crimson/purple, jackfruit heartwood for yellow/green, manjistha root for rust red, myrobalan for khaki/green/black. Compound shades were also got by over dyeing of yarn with two colours or by cross weaving. These natural dyes were eco-friendly and more importantly non-carcinogenic, unlike the synthetic dyes in use now.

Natural dyes were extensively used for the dyeing of all natural fibres until the middle of the nineteenth century. The discovery of methods of synthesising alizarian and indigo spelt the death knell of the indigenous industry. Due to the ease of application, the bright shades obtained and the hardsell of the colonial rulers, hand weavers started to opt for synthetic dyes without a clear understanding of the after effects of using these.

The baleful influence of the synthetic dyes affected not only the handweaver but also the agriculturist. Some of the natural dyes like indigo were leguminous in nature and played a valuable role in the crop rotation of rice. With the advent of synthetic indigo, natural indigo seeds were no longer collected and the fields lost out a valuable input by which nitrogen from the atmosphere was fixed in the soil. Use of myrobalan and pomegranate rind in dyeing encouraged the use of bio wastes and cleaned up the environment. Lac was an inset dye derived from the shell of the lac insect, providing gainful employment to hundreds of forest dwellers. Cultivation and collection of lac helped in the coppicing of trees like Som and Arjun by way of clearing of dead branches. More important than the commercial value of the individual natural dye concerned, was the empathy between man and nature. This empathy had fostered in mankind a healthy respect for the biosphere, which was broken once the dyes started being synthesised in the laboratory. The use of natural dyes has petered out except in few pockets like Kalahasti of Andhra Pradesh and few places in the tribal belt of Madhya Pradesh and Orissa.

The unbridled use of synthetic dyes and the non-treatment of effluents contained in the waste waters of the dyeing process has lead to horrendous results. In a few places like Erode of Tamil Nadu, cocktails of lethal chemicals have been injected into the water table by the hundreds of dye houses spewing out non-degradable chemicals, so much so that the water from the borewell has an evil smell and is coloured reddish brown like rum.

It is now suspected that many of the synthetic dyes are carcinogenic in nature and cause havoc in the life systems. It is ironic that Europe which initiated the advent of synthetic dyes in the first place has woken up to the dangers of these agents and is turning down the thumb for a few members of this class, proven to be harmful to the life forms. Many synthetic dyes which had an Azo group in their molecule have been banned and the producers asked to find suitable replacements. This provides an opportunity for the reintroduction of natural dyes, but the path is not easy to travel. Customers who have become accustomed to dazzling colours and good all round fastness of synthetic dyes are hard to convince as only a few of the natural dyes have good all round fastness. Most of the natural dyes produce comparatively dull shades. Change over to natural dyes calls for a shedding of mental blocks and an acceptance of the limitations inherent in these.

Use of natural dyes alone does not help the environment much because some the mordants like chromium and copper are deadly poisons by themselves. Eschewing such hazardous chemicals and using benign chemicals like aluminium and iron is the need of the hour. These chemicals help in the production of some pleasing colours without harming the eco-cycle in the least.

Development Alternatives has been involved in the revival of the use of natural dyes like indigo, pomegranate rind, myrobalan, lac and manjistha using eco-friendly chemicals like alum and iron producing pleasing tones of blue, yellow, brown, green, crimson, scarlet, rust red, black, chocolate, beige, sage, puce, moss green, fawn and other shades on silk and cotton. Our team is presently involved in training SC & ST ladies of Sathanur in the use of these natural dyes. It is envisaged that Sathanur will become an important centre where eco-friendly technologies of Development Alternatives and other development agencies will be practised as a way of life.

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Technologies | Resources