Where fields turn red: Narshingdi’s lalsalu upholds the lineage of traditional textile mills
Narshingdi — renowned for its age-old legacy in the industrial textiles and handloom industry — is the only place in the country where the lalsalu clothes are produced
Every day, at around 3:30am, Shiru Mia, 48, and Akhter Hossen, 32, head to the factory, two miles away from their home. For the next 10-11 hours, they engage in dyeing at least 4,000 gauge raw fabrics, transforming white salu clothes into deep red, locally known as lalsalu. They take the dyed rolls to the field, fold them when dry, and return the bolts to the factory.
Meanwhile, textile mills in Balapur village in Narshingdi run in a ceaseless rhythm of whirr, thud, and hiss that keeps neighbourhoods in a never-ending cacophony even in the night's quietest breath. It is an inseparable attachment of human and machine, producing hundreds of thousands of gauge fabrics. Workers operate in shifts; as they explain, "4am to 11am, 11am to 6pm, and 6pm to 4am."
Narshingdi — renowned for its age-old legacy in the industrial textiles and handloom industry — is the only place in the country where lalsalu clothes are produced. These dyed red fabrics are made only in four villages of Narshingdi's Madhabdi upazila – Bangarchar, Paikarchar, Uttar Charbasania, and Balapur — located along the coast of the Meghna River. The cloth is primarily used to make traditional quilts and mattresses. It is also widely used in mosques, temples, dargahs, and majars for various purposes.
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Mahajons (a person who owns a small business and controls its operation) and workers say lalsalu production continues throughout the year, but the peak season runs from November to February.
"A few years ago, large-scale production was limited to the winter season," said Md Nadir, one of the proprietors of Moslem Company in Uttar Charbasania village. "Now we produce throughout the year, but the daily production volume has dropped."
During peak season, fields of the four villages turn red by midday. Rows of red fabric stretch across a half-kilometer or more. Workers operate in pairs, as every step in the production – from dyeing to drying and folding – requires two people.
In Uttar Charbasania and Balapur village alone, there are at least 40 dyeing mills producing lalsalu. Weekly production varies from factory to factory. Moslem Company produces 24,000–30,000 gauzes per week, while some mills across the villages exceed 50,000 gauges within the timeframe.
Producers source raw fabrics from multiple channels. Some directly rely on their weaving factories, while others purchase clothes from nearby mills or markets in Madhabdi, Baburhat, and even Narshingdi Sadar.
"In times when demands for salu clothes are high, even though we have a factory, we need to collect, on average, 30,000–40,000 gauges of extra fabric beyond our own production," Nadir said.
Decades of a dyeing tradition
At 4am, the Shiru Akhter duo start their dyeing process. "The first thing you have to do is prepare the color," said Shiru Mia, while unpacking the ingredients of the colour. There are at least seven ingredients that they mix in the water: alumina, caustic soda, nutting, basonti (yellow) colour, BS (buffer salt), RS (red shade), and acid.
In the two giant cement bowls, they make two solutions – one with the basunti colour and the other with the red shade. "We first turn the raw white fabrics into yellow and then red," explained Shiru.
The solutions are stirred and mixed until all the ingredients are perfectly blended. "Now you have to set the fabric rolls in the dyeing machines," added Akhter.
These dyed red fabrics are made only in four villages of Narshingdi's Madhabdi upazila – Bangarchar, Paikarchar, Uttar Charbasania, and Balapur. During peak season, fields of the four villages turn red by midday. Rows of red fabric stretch across a half-kilometer or more. Workers operate in pairs, as every step in the production – from dyeing to drying and folding – requires two people.
This is when the duo starts the main process.
They pour the solution into the dyeing machines in a rectangular space under the rods. Then they roll the rods while the fabrics soak in the solution and then unroll them.
"See, it is turning yellow. Later, we would mix the red shade," explained Shiru. As the process needs time and attention, Akhter said they cannot rest for a while. "Only you can rest after carrying the rolls in the field and spreading them across," added Akhter.
"Every fabric needs waxing. It fixes the colours and comes with a good finish," Shiru explained. Akhter, in the meantime, mixed wheat powder with water in another two cement bowls. This solution would work as a wax for the fabrics, smoothing the surface, helping them to fold properly.
The duo then takes the dyed rolls to the nearer field. It is already 8 in the morning. Within the next 30 minutes, they finish spreading the rolls, and by 12pm, the long rows of red fabrics turn mature red and dry in the sunlight.
"Every 1,000 gauges of fabric takes a sharp two hours to be perfectly dyed, and you can dye 1,000 gauges of fabric at a time in each machine," said Shiru.
Labourers paid by gauge
At noon, in the Balapur village, the heat of the late-winter sun is making the Nazrul-Safiq duo's bare bodies wet in light sweat. They are folding dried fabrics inside a polythene shelter. Just a short way off, multiple stacks of fabric in the field came into view. One leaned down, and the other smiled, both in the same rhythm of endless folds.
After finishing with the folding and carrying them back to the factory, as it was Thursday, Nazrul said they would receive the week's wage.
"How much?"
"We receive wages by gauge every week," replied Nazrul. "For example, today we dyed 5,000 gauges of fabric and would receive Tk820 for each 1,000 gauges," he added.
"On average, we dye 24,000 gauge fabrics every week and receive around Tk20,000, meaning Tk10,000 each," said Md Taramia in the Balapur village.
However, local workers are rare in the textile mills across Narshingdi, and so are they in the dyeing factories. Most of the workforce comes from the Mymensingh area and has been working there for decades.
Inside the largest fabrics market
On Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays – the weekly market days – shops in the narrow alleys of the Shekherchar fabrics market in the Baburhat area filled with hundreds of gauges of fabrics.
A constant rush grips the whole market from morning till night. Shops overflow with numerous fabrics displayed and sorted for release. Vendors do not even get time to catch their breath.
Meanwhile, the lalsalu producers from the four villages gather in the market. "Until Saturday, I will come to sell my products. Sales are good during the winter season," said a lalsalu producer from Paikarchar village.
The producer supplied around 2.5 lakh gauge lalsalu in the last 4 months. He said it was his highest supply in recent years.
However, prices of lalsalu vary for several reasons, including the rise and fall of demand, the amount of production, and the quality of the fabrics.
There are four kinds of lalsalu fabrics in Sohel's shop in the heart of Shekherchar market. "You can see the watermark here, which shows the grade or quality of the fabrics," continued Sohel. "Throughout December and January, I had been selling the 'No 1' grade fabric at Tk39-40 per gauge; now I have to sell it at Tk35-36."
While sales have increased in recent years, producers and vendors say output has declined compared to a decade ago. Shorter winters have reduced demand for quilts, lalsalu's primary use, reshaping the industry's future.
