20 SOCIAL SCIENTIST quate protection and support, it can serve a very large internal market as evidenced by the fact that handloom fabrics account for one-third of the total cloth production in India.3 Besides, handloom products have a large export potential which is explicit from the fact that exports of handloom fabrics from India steadily increased from Rs 300 million in 1971-72 to Rs 1000 million in 1974-75.4 The contemporary export market for West Bengal handloom products has also been quite promising as can be inferred from the steadily rising share (from 41.22 percent in 1970 to 45.2 percent in 1976) of export of West Bengal handloom products in the total handloom exports through Calcutta port and airport.5 Above all, this cottage industry has a vital role to play in employment generation in the state economy. According to an estimate made in 1978 by a study team appointed by the Ministry of Industry, Government of India, the sector provided work, primary as well as subsidiary in nature, to 10 million people in India and 0.49 million weavers in West Bengal.6 Notwithstanding the reasons and latent possibilites that justify the promotion of the handloom weaving industry in West Bengal, the state intervention for its rehabilitation has throughout been limited to mere bureaucratic formalities, devoid of insight into the prevailing pattern of economic relationships in this sector. The varied constraints faced by the handloom weavers in the state, in general, include low income and irregular employment, a mono. polistic control of mahajans or middlemen in the production and distribution system, a weak infrastruciural base for marketing and distribution, low level of technological improvements, lack of diffusion and skill among weavers and absence of a non-traditional production base and so on, all of which, broadly speaking, are reflections of the inherent lacuna in the production system and organizational structure of the industry. It is with this perspective that an attempt has been made in this paper to assess the development and pattern of organization of the handloom weaving industry in West Bengal and highlight the hiatus in the organizational framework thereof. ORGANISATIONAL ASPECTS The organization of the industry encompasses a set of functions which guide the production system and relations. These are: i) supply and distribution of yarn and other inputs; ii) collection and marketing of finished products; iii) arrangement of pre-weav-ing and post-weaving ancilliary facilities to the weavers; iv) promot"