Indian connections
A celebration of the many and varied links between Scotland and the Indian Subcontinent.
India and Dundee
For almost two centuries the city of Dundee's prosperity was dependent on the textile industry and, in particular, on jute grown in India.
When home-grown flax became economically unviable, Dundee mill owners looked east for an alternative. They found it in jute and the Tayside city quickly became the largest jute manufacturer in the world and an absolutely vital market for Indian jute producers.
Jute - Corchorus olitorius - plant fibre that can be spun into threads
By the early 20th century, however, Calcutta had overtaken Dundee as the dominant centre for production. Nevertheless, the two cities maintained close links and, until the 1970s, many of the overseers, managers and mechanics working in Bengal jute mills were Dundonians while mill machinery from Dundee was shipped out to India in huge quantities.
- Roots, Rivalry and Interdependence - An online exhibition by Dundee University
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Scotland gave the world its most well-known real detective. Glasgow-born Allan Pinkerton was the founder of the famous American Private Detective Agency. The agency's logo, the All-Seeing Eye, inspired the term "Private Eye."