Brian Cox's Jute Journey [DVD]

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The majority of Calcutta’s mills were owned by expatriate British businessmen, but they were run by Dundonians.

Dundee - Blogger JOST A MON: The Jutewallahs of Dundee - Blogger

The penultimate day saw the crew leave the hotel early, only to spend half the day crammed in their cars in the intense heat. Even setting side the racial aspect to their relations, the cultural gap between the Jutewallahs and the local workforce was huge. The film will be aired by the BBC this autumn, followed by a possible showing at the Calcutta Film Festival later in the year. He was raised in the midst of the bustle of the jute mills, where both of his parents got their start. As far as the bosses of the mills, the rich upper-class were concerned, the mill-hands were so much cattle.We went to some jute mills on the other (Howrah) side of the Hooghly, based on the memories of a Scot back home whom we had spoken to before coming to India,” said Archer.

Jute route to roots - How actor Brian Cox soaked in the city Jute route to roots - How actor Brian Cox soaked in the city

After spending the entire morning on the church premises, the crew took a lunch break and then proceeded to the Scottish Cemetery in Park Circus in the hope of finding the graves of Scots who had lived in Calcutta, made it their home for over a hundred years, and were buried in the city. My parents followed their parents into the mills but the closest I got was as a wee boy, peering through the open doors of the Eagle JuteWorks on a hot summer's day. Metred taxis, Mopa airport, post-pandemic woes prevail… “Now that we have fitted metres, the government without consulting us decides to create an app for us and to be operated by us. The idea of filming at the club was to capture what the social life of the Scots living in the city must have been like,” ventured Archer. After a terrible struggle, the carcass of the great animal was carried triumphantly through the thoroughfares of Dundee.A multitude of servants waited upon them hand and foot: bearers, cooks, jamadars who did the floors and bathrooms and walked the dog, a coolie who dusted and made the beds, a durwan at the gates, and the driver. The book, originally printed in 1947, remained in use until the last of the Jutewallahs left Bengal in the mid-1960s. Just as in Dundee decades earlier, the conditions and support for Indian workers in Calcutta were dire.

Calcutta (Louis Malle) - DocuWiki

At the club, Cox and the crew met Mimi Dutt, a city-based broker of jute who deals in jute products, and historian Dr Sumita Sen. Shipped from India and woven in Dundee, jute became a further economic multiplier, when hessian sacks began to carry everything from cotton and coal to sugar and salt across the world.For many of them, the move to India paved the way for a lavish lifestyle of parties and luxurious living. Workers in the local factories were thereby given a grandstand view of the animal that had enabled the other of Dundee’s duumvirate of industries – jute mills. From planting to maturation was ninety to hundred days, by which time the jute had grown over seven feet high. The workers at each mill were interviewed, with Cox spending some personal time — off-camera — with them. Finally the crew proceeded to the banks of the Hooghly for a few hours of filming the barges filled with mounds of jute.

BBC Four - Schedules, Sunday 11 June 2023 BBC Four - Schedules, Sunday 11 June 2023

One of the questions that the programme only touches on is how did these people - most of whom were men - learn to spin and weave? In their prime, though, walking about Chowringhee was like ambling about Dundee High Street, what with all the accents of home they heard at every turn. Dundee’s population had shot up by 30,000 during the jute boom in the 19th century, yet only a few hundred new houses were built.The actor remembers the last days of the jute industry, and considers the pioneering spirit of the jute emigrants to be something he has in common with them. We even discovered a mosque and a temple standing side by side in the vicinity of one mill,” said Cox. Beachfront Bargain Hunt: Uncovering a Bargain Buried on Treasure Island airs Thursday November 11, 2023 on Magnolia. In a revealing documentary from BBC Scotland, Hollywood star Brian Cox, whose films include X-Men 2, The Bourne Identity and Braveheart, traces the history and varied fortunes of the city's jute emigrants. Following the sad and untimely passing of Matthew Perry, fans of the “Friends” star and actor can tune in to.