It is rare for someone from the fashion and textile world to try and draw attention to the government’s negligence of handloom and other textile crafts. But this is an area which is in crying need of attention. As a designer of both textile crafts and fashion, I have had a 45-year association with what is, perhaps, the world’s richest resource centre of textiles. Indian textiles are not only unique; their diversity also represents the last of the world’s hand-made, non-mechanised production of silks, cottons and wools. This unique combination of the hand with the inherited skills of India, is our USP, and gives us an edge in a world driven by industrialist power, and going the way of China. A country which, as many of us know, is doing its best to replicate what we make by hand in its mechanised units and sell it back both to India and the rest of the international fashion community. This plagiarism is done by China because there is a market for handcrafted goods. But we, in India, do not take advantage of the opportunity, either economically or sociologically, to improve the lot of weavers and others craftspeople.
Deputations to the government have not got the reception that the issue deserves. Our vast resource of handmade textiles is viewed more in the nature of a sentimental fallout of an era long gone and hence non-progressive. The sceptics feel that they should be used merely as inspiration and be showcased in museums. This just makes their demise inevitable. If the last figures I got are to be believed, India is home to 16 million practising textile craftspeople. This is equal to the population of some small countries. Leaving alone the romance that some of us have with our craft sector, are we going to rehabilitate these people if we consign their work to mills?
It is ironic that the rest of the world considers handloomed fabric chic, sophisticated, edgy and aspirational, being rare to come by. But in a typical case of myopia, in India the very same fabric is treated with arrogance, and perceived as fabric patronised by the “behnji brigade”.
Handlooms and khadi, which is one of India’s huge sartorial contributions to the world, need to be looked at with a fresh perspective. From a design point of view, we have a unique product with an edge in our own market and an undefined potential in the international market. Second, it is a resource which could put the country on the textile map of the world, as a marketing and tourist tool. Look at Thailand which has created an identity in textiles from one simple dupion silk, which is sold as Thai silk around the world. We have not one but an amazing richness of fabrics.
Take a look at India’s key fabrics. Cotton is grown indigenously and is the bedrock fibre of India where it is hand spun, a technique that is lost to the world. Mostly spun by rural women, the yarn has a slubby, irregular texture that produces linen-like looks of great rarity, alongside comfort and individuality in this hot and humid country. These yarns are then hand woven to produce a variety of fabrics, each differing according to the region where the cotton grows, with unique qualities that are imparted to it by the weaver, skills which he or she have inherited traditionally.
The Ahimsa silks of India, too, make a huge fashion statement. This incredible fabric is produced with yarns gathered from the Terai region and eventually produce the rarest of tussar and muga silk varieties. Fashion pundits know that the wools originating from the Himalayan region, such as the pashmina, are synonymous with India, and are our USP.
The textile sector is the second largest provider of employment in India, after agriculture. It is a vertically-integrated industry and produces raw material for the finished product. The production of handloom is uniquely environment-friendly, generating employment for unskilled rural workers, especially women. We, as a country, cannot be blind to the immense potential of one of our richest resources. Are we unaware that uniqueness of design is attracting manufacturers in China to replicate our designs as much as possible to sell back to India? The government is not unaware of this; the matter has been brought before it by various forums repeatedly. Funds and allocations meant for the sector are being diverted to other sectors. Despite many schemes created by the government, little or no resources reach the weavers.
Ironically, India has a plethora of institutions set up specifically to cater to the needs of the sector. The near-comatose Khadi Gramodyog, which has a countrywide network, is not working to promote khadi. The outlets largely carry an inventory of spurious goods in the enviable retail addresses, which the taxpayer is subsidising. The Weavers Service Centres set up in the ’70s are in a state of a similar coma, the Handloom Boards and other such organisations are not accountable to anyone but themselves, and are also in a somnambulistic mode. We have also managed to politicise our Master Weaver Award schemes. It is disheartening to belong to a country where the government cannot be held accountable for continuing the basic governance for which institutions have been set up, and a huge number of people are employed.
Varied interests eye the subsidies in place for the handloom sector, and initiate changes which are detrimental to the weavers. The present situation was highlighted by the government’s decision to change the definition of handlooms, and divert the funds and allocate them to other industries. How are these policies initiated and by whom? Some of these questions should be addressed.
As a new emerging economic power, we hope to bring in investments in fashion and textiles. At the moment, we are not encouraging the growth of one of the most unique textiles the world has known. Neither are we preserving our cultural heritage of textiles, which is rooted in dyeing, printing and weaving. India exported the most aspirational textiles to the world for thousands of years. Surely, the time has come to relook at our heritage and see if we are not squandering it away.
Ritu Kumar is one of India’s foremost designers, who has developed a unique style reflecting ancient traditions of Indian craftsmanship