The Hindu : New Delhi News : Acquainting weavers with a lost legacy

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Mar 18, 2006

New Delhi

New Delhi

Acquainting weavers with a lost legacy

Mandira Nayar

NEW DELHI: In an attempt to re-acquaint weavers from Bengal with their lost legacy, a workshop was organised here at the Spring Fair by Dastakar chairperson Lyala Tyabji on Friday.

An annual event, the Spring Fair is organised by the Development Commissioner (Handlooms), Union Ministry of Textiles and the Cottage and Small Scale Industries Department of West Bengal. It is aimed at giving weavers another market to explore.

"Delhi gets saris from all regions of the country. The problem I see with the saris that have been brought to this exhibition is that there is no variety. The same kind of sari is available in each stall, so there is no marked difference which customers look for," explained Ms. Tyabji to the weavers.

While Bengal is known for its crisp cotton saris and weavers have the distinct advantage of cheap prices, great cotton and a good standard of weaving, the biggest hurdle they are facing is getting to know the tastes of the market.

With most weavers clueless about what sells in a market, they are trying to experiment with too many designs and losing their one strength to try and capture the market -- their identity.

"People in Bengal might want to try new things as they are bored of the same cotton saris. But in Delhi and outside we want the same sari our mothers wore or the kind we used to wear in college. That is now not available as weavers are mixing patterns, which are not from Bengal," she stressed.

A tradition of threads that go back centuries, the fabled cotton of Bengal that brought East India Company to the shores of the country is losing its "stamp". Patterns that were once the signature of one sari are now being adopted and adapted to become a part of a completely new sari that does not originally belong to Bengal.

"We don't like changing the patterns that have been passed on to us for centuries. The problem is that we are being told to change otherwise we won't be able to sell. So we introduce motives that are strangers in our pattern," said a weaver.

However, breathing fresh air into their old ways, the workshop was the first step towards taking the weavers closer to the past.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail