About City

About City

Malegaon a cheap city

From handloom to powerloom

(Sizing)

The first powerloom was installed in 1937. Before that, sarees were woven on handlooms. But in 1937, this business truly created a new spirit in this village. In the seven or eight years from 1937 to 1944-45, about one and a half thousand powerlooms came into existence in the city. Colored sarees were produced on these powerlooms.

The Malegaon saree was famous in Maharashtra at that time. Good quality sarees were made in Malegaon at a minimum cost and were available to the customers in the market.

Traditional weavers

At that time, 30 weavers were working in the saree weaving business in Malegaon. Famous weavers like Bhagchand Dagdusa, Motilal Virchand, Shivratan Jaju have been famous in this city for many decades.

Malegaon sarees are mainly worn by the villagers. The nearest railway station to Malegaon is Manmad. Rotegaon station, which was 16 miles from Manmad, was under the Nizam's jurisdiction at that time. Malegaon was a village in the Mumbai district at that time. At that time, Vidarbha was known as Virar, and Malegaon sarees were popularly used in villages in all these areas.

The best sarees were available for as little as Rs. 13. About twenty-two thousand sarees were produced and distributed every week.

Gujari....

At that time, the daily business done by the workers of the sarees was called Gujari. This Gujari used to fill up the Shimpati area every day at three in the afternoon. The method was that everyone would bring their finished goods. Each person had a fixed place to store their goods. The goods would be brought to that place, if the buyer paid the right price, the goods would be sold and the goods would be entered into the godown, and possibly the transaction would be settled in cash.

Banks....

At that time, there were two banks in Malegaon. The biggest place where clothes were sold in the city was near Kothya

New Citizen Bank and Bombay Co-operative Bank near Vasant Wadi.

Oil Mill and Ginning Press....

In Malegaon at that time, oil mill was another booming business and it was a part of the income based on agriculture. The farmers around used to grow cotton and pulses. On the one hand, they used to make yarn from it and on the other hand, oil from the ground pulses i.e. oil mill and ginning pressing mill have been available for business here for seventy to eighty years. At that time, ten to twelve ginning and oil mills were set up.

Rawalgaon Sugar Factory....

On the one hand, while powerloom ginning and oil mill were available for employment, on the other hand, the Rawalgaon Sugar Factory, which was famous not only in Maharashtra but also in India, had become an important part of the economy of the taluka. The glory of Rawalgaon was famous in the surrounding five to fifty villages. The horticultural farming, dairy, hospital, market and other subjects were of great attraction to the people of the rural areas.

Transport business...

The sugar produced in Rawalgaon was sent to Mumbai by truck. As all the produced goods started being transported by truck, the transport business took root there and hundreds of trucks were purchased one by one in Malegaon. Apart from that, businesses like jewellers, traders, grocers were flourishing here from the past. In the powerlam business, the producers were mostly Muslims while the sellers were mostly Hindus. At that time, if you wanted to sell goods in a foreign province, you had to take special permission. Since two families, Motilal Virchand and Jhumbarlal Kakani, got such permission, the rest of the families also used to send their goods with the permission of these families.

Lawyers and doctors...

In the 1940s, there were only 15 to 20 lawyers in Malegaon. Kasar, Mehandale, Chindhade Sutvani are some of the important names among them. There were four or five doctors working in the medical field. There were no professionals like architects, CAs, but there were none in medicine.

Malegaon can be called the Manchester of Maharashtra, based on the fusion of Hindu and Muslim communities. For the past hundred years, this village has been known as a cheap city where a family can be maintained at a minimum cost. Although this village may not have received the touch of modernity, there is no doubt that the authentic rural nature here will appeal to anyone.