Mangalore Tile Factories

Asha Sumra; Arijit Chatterjee

Of all the Basel Mission Industries, the tile industry left the strongest material mark on the Malabar Coast. Its factory buildings and chimneys characterize riverside settlements throughout the Malabar Coast, and the use of Mangalore tiles became ubiquitous on pitched roof structures throughout the wet regions of India and beyond.

The commonwealth tile factory, Jeppu, Mangalore: view from the entrance © A Chatterjee & A Sumra

The signature product, the Mangalore Tile, defined a roof type and language of pitched roof buildings built across the subcontinent. Houses came to be known by their roofing materials as ‘Tile Houses’, a term indicating construction commonly using red oxide floors, thick brick or laterite walls and wooden-frame roofs clad with Mangalore tiles. A prior system of hierarchy in construction had restricted the masses to thatch construction, with only people or buildings of a certain status permitted to use terracotta tiles on their roofs. However, the new Mangalore tiles overrode this hierarchy, producing a tile that was used to drastically improve the roof drainage on houses of varying stature and public buildings alike.

Bricks being removed from kiln as it is disassembled at the Rego Tile Factory, Mangalore, during demolition, May 2019 © A Chatterjee & A Sumra

Commonwealth Tile Factory, Mangalore (established 1865): The principal rotating core of the first tile factory on the subcontinent. The pug mill and the clay processing section of the factory remain unchanged over the last century. © A Chatterjee & A Sumra

Around the Hoffman kiln of the Albuquerque tile factory: One of the continuous kilns is a ‘z’ shaped Hoffman kiln, likely the only one of its kind in the Malabar region. The kiln is fed from the top with cashew nut shells generating 850-900 degrees. The kiln top is 1.3 m deep. © A Chatterjee & A Sumra

The tile industry began in Mangalore under the supervision of Missionary George Plebst, who combined knowledge of Tile manufacturing in Germany with observations of the traditional potters’ tiles in India. Using clay from the banks of the Netravati River, Plebst redesigned the semi-circular terracotta country tiles into the ridge design ‘Mangalore Tile’ as it is still known today 1 This new tile was stronger and made for interlocking tiles, meaning that tiles no longer had to be stacked on top of each other, thus reducing the weight of the roof and eliminating the need for a heavy roof superstructure.

The new design triggered the founding of the first Basel Mission tile factory in 1865 at Jeppu, Mangalore, the success of which sparked the establishment of competing tile factories in Mangalore, including A Albuquerque & Sons (1868), Rego and Sons (1871), Cascia (1916) and Sujirkar’s Tile Works(1918). Between 1865- 1905 The Basel Mission established seven Tile Factories along the Malabar Coast, with key industrial and trading bases in Mangalore and Calicut. The tiles proved to be effective in climates with high rainfall and the factories produced tiles that were exported as far afield as East Africa, Yemen, Aden, Basra, Sumatra, British Borneo and Australia. The industry provided roof tiles and other terracotta products for building the Mission Compounds, houses, churches, educational institutes and became a staple choice for British buildings within the wet, humid regions of India and the British Empire.

During the booming periods of tile-production the factories produced a variety of products in clay ranging from common and decorative tiles for roofs, floors and ceilings to specialist tiles for roof ridges, hip terminals, ventilation and roof lighting as well as pots, coasters, plates and ornamental garden and religious items. Whilst the tiles were industrially produced from metal dies, some factories had specialist pottery studios for slip-casting or wheel-throwing household, garden and ornamental items. By 1913 the tile industry was reported to employ 2,000 workers and produce 60,000 tiles per day2

Despite the impact and success of the Mission Industries, activities came to an abrupt end as a result of the First World War. An initially mutually supportive relationship between the Basel Mission and British Empire 3 could not be sustained during the War. The German Identity of the Mission led the British Government to take control of Basel Mission Industrial activities under the provision of the Enemy Trading Act (1916). This prevented the Basel Mission Industries from operating in India and caused the commercial activity of the Mission to cease in 1920. 4 Mission properties were transferred to the Mission Trust of Madras and later to the Commonwealth Trust Limited (UK) in the 1920s. In 1977 Commonwealth Trust (India) Limited passed into Indian hands. Indian Tile production continued to operate after the exit of the Basel Mission, but was dealt an additional blow by Partition in 1947. Effects on Maritime Trade effectively wiped out the key Karachi market for tiles, providing a further step towards the decline of the industry.

1. (p.80, ed. Godwin Shiri, Wholeness in Christ : the legacy of the Basel Mission in India (Mangalore : Karnataka Theological Research Institute, 1985).
2. (p.156, Reinhard Wendt, An Indian to the Indians? On the Initial Failure and the Posthumous Success of the Missionary Ferndinand Kittel (1832-1903) (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2006).
3. Which included the gift to the Basel Mission of the land at Balmatta Hill from the British collector to the Missionaries (ref: George N Thomssen, Samuel Hebich of India, The Master Fisher of Men, Orissa Mission Press, Cuttack, 1905, p.26) and extensive use of Mission products in the British Empire
4. p. 1, 48-9, Raghaviah, Jaiprakash, Basel Mission industries in Malabar and South Canara, 1834-1914 : a study of its social and economic impact, (New Delhi : Gian Pub. House, c1990

Rays of light fall from the skylight roof tiles onto the disused racks at the Commonwealth Tile Factory, Jeppu © A Chatterjee & A Sumra

Tiles drying on the racks on the upper floor, A Albuquerque & Sons © A Chatterjee & A Sumra

Architecture, Rhythm & Culture

The tile factories provide a critical contribution to architecture in providing products for building and as buildings themselves. Perhaps paradoxically, a European product made using Indian labour and clay came to be identified with a vernacular language of architecture: tile buildings. The factory buildings themselves emerged from a similar collision of European technology and Indian soil. The factory at Jeppu is the most revealing remaining example of the resulting tectonic. What appears externally to be a structural masonry building is, in fact, a frame of brick masonry, steel and timber that gets lighter with height. The frame is anchored by a kiln and wrapped in a façade of tapered brick walls, which balances the upper floors of the factory. Timber floors are suspended above the kiln with controlled perforations to allow the heat from the kiln to dry the stacked tiles above. Deceptively appearing to be a very simple factory shed building, this tectonic is, in fact, a refined balance of elements resulting from the processes and rhythms contained within.

Under the Basel Mission, the rhythm of the factories was set by daily prayer, the sounds and pace of the machines, and the movement of people and material that formed the processes of the factories. This had the effect of establishing disciplined daily work practices that echoed European factories of the 19^thcentury, whilst also intrinsically linking this praxis to aspirations for spiritual improvement. Although spiritual ties went slack in the absence of the Basel Mission, the machines, technology and processes have largely remained constant. As a result, with the exception of prayer, the remaining functioning factories continue to be animated by similar sounds, movements and rhythms.

Amongst the working factories, a lively rhythm remains despite their limited functioning. Rhythm is generated by both the repetitive nature of the physical structures, and the sounds and scale of the machines, tools and equipment used (or left unused) for manufacture. The chugging pug mill, and the clinking conveyor belt that circumnavigates the factories and the tapping of the tiles set a day-to-day pace. These rhythmic sounds contrast with quietly deteriorating spaces of abandoned factories, and the abrupt sounds of destruction that animate sites of factory demolition.

Reduced demand for Mangalore tiles, combined with depletion of local sources of clay has led many factories to close. The photo essay narrates the condition of the Balmatta printing press and multiple tile factories, which lie in varying states of use, disuse, deterioration and demolition. These environments of production are documented as particular moments of encounter: between material, resources, people, time and place. With many of these spaces rapidly disappearing, the images simultaneously seek to record their character and the process of their transformation as found, whether intentional or incidental.

View of the Commonwealth Tile Factory, Jeppu, Mangalore: The backwater condition of Mangalore is a microcosm of the broader condition of the Malabar Coast: two rivers meet before emptying into the Arabian Sea. The Commonwealth Tile Factory sits on the north bank of the Netravati River. During the peak of the Tile Industry this river would have provided both the source of clay and artery for maritime trade of Mangalore tiles, which were exported by sailing ships as far afield as East Africa, Yemen, Aden, Basra, Sumatra, British Borneo and Australia. © A Chatterjee & A Sumra