WOVEN NARRATIVES
Indian Handlooms as Creative and Cultural Industries
This exhibition brings into focus the role of hand weaving across India’s creative and geographical contexts, by drawing attention to their distinct ecologies of manufacture, trade and use. These may be seen as forming specific economic sectors while equally expressing varied individual, social and cultural meanings for the communities involved. The selection of textiles represent some of the most prominent textile- producing regions in the country, narrating their diverse histories, visual and material features, as well as the aesthetic and technical connections many of them share with other parts of the world. Woven textiles, thus, become metaphors for both national identity and development as much as for the recognition of shared, global cultures.
The exhibits on view are conceptualised and created by those who practice as artisans, craftspersons, artists and designers, employing a range of expertise and skills in hand weaving. The processes they engage include pre-loom activities such as spinning, yarn preparation and dyeing, with aspects such as finishing and surface embellishment comprising post production procedures. The makers are also dependent on a variety of raw materials, tools, equipment and devices unique to the requirements of handlooms. Fabrics reach markets through different modes of transport, are sold through a number of retail and wholesale formats, and transformed into apparel, home furnishings and other kinds of products. From such perspectives, the links with other sectors of the economy prove to be vital.
With India celebrating the 75th year of its birth as a nation in 2022-23, the exhibition further serves as a reminder of the handmade, especially khadi — handspun and handwoven fabric — as a legacy of the freedom struggle. Mahatma Gandhi’s ideals for Indian nationalism since the early 20th century, included the concept of swadeshi, a self-reliant economy, with an emphasis on strengthening village, home- based, small scale manufacture. He saw these as essential means of resistance to colonial policies which had caused widespread devastation of the subcontinent’s wealth and enterprise built over millennia.
In this way, we can see him as having pre-empted the present global concerns of environmental sustainability as well as the power of decentralised, collective and community-led action. In thinking about economics and livelihood generation, he pressed upon the importance of self worth through cultural identity. This insistence on the local, however, did not take away from his philosophy of, equally, aspiring to universal, humanist values across people in different countries, continents and civilisations.
Since ancient times, India has participated in trade beyond its borders. This has brought it, historically, in contact with the Americas, Europe, Africa and other parts of Asia. It has been noted that until the Industrial Revolution, a significant component of such commerce was in textiles, with a majority of cotton fabrics traded and used worldwide being Indian. Such cloth was woven from handspun yarns, the finest of which was muslin. Textiles woven, patterned, dyed, printed and embellished in a range of techniques and artistic styles found their way to cultures far and near, forging new, syncretic traditions.
It was the immense potential for profits from mercantile activity in Indian textiles which brought Europeans to its shores, eventually leading to colonisation. While historical specimens remain rare for the period before, from the 17th century onwards, for almost two centuries, we know of prolific production and commerce in an astounding number of genres — from embroidered silk panels for the Portuguese market produced in Bengal, pashmina Kashmir shawls for the French to hand-painted and block printed furnishings from the Coromandel Coast for the Dutch, among others. To eastern Africa went cloths with patterns of checks from south India which were called injiri, to the Arab world ikat telia rumals, to Indonesia travelled the double ikat patolas from Patan in Gujarat and to Japan, fabrics called sarasa which were used as revered objects in ritual ceremonies.
Within the subcontinent, luxury fabrics furnished palaces, aristocratic mansions and homes of the mercantile elite as much as they adorned sacred shrines. Trade prospered between courts and regional markets. The preference for fabrics, their colours and patterns were deeply embedded with class and social markers in the past, even while some of this symbolism continues till date. It were perhaps these layers, giving personal and societal meanings to its users, which prevented them from entirely dying out through the colonial period
as traditional manufactures were systematically destroyed. Governmental efforts in the following, immediate decades of Indian independence were channelled not only in the revival of such production, but in the transformation of such meanings themselves for a new era.
Khadi for instance, became increasingly popular as a luxury product for Indian designers. Block printing offered a creative resource for local brands as well for international labels as exports received stimulus, further influencing the contours of global fashion. Metallic surface embellishments started finding wide markets in festive and occasional wear as well as for bridal trousseau. Several Schools of hand painting of the mata ni pachedi from Gujarat, pichvai from Rajasthan, kalamkari from Andhra Pradesh and patachitra from West Bengal, among others, evolved their repertories to include non-religious themes for decorative purposes in urban interiors.
And even as the country made significant strides in the mechanised textiles sector, the role of handlooms in providing employment, enabling businesses, boosting the domestic economy and earning foreign exchange, among other economic-financial aspects has rested on their creative possibilities, their capacity for cross cultural dialogues and to shape identities for its makers and users. One of the most visible reflections of this is the way in which handlooms have become a popular subject of discussions on social media. This has, particularly, become a means to bind the Non-Resident Indian population with those in the country, increasing the influence of Indian designers abroad as well as connecting weavers and craftspeople directly with clientele across the world.
The textiles here are presented in groups which illustrate the role of hand weaving in art and design, farming and agriculture, nomadic and indigenous traditions, fashion and apparel, and patronage and philanthropy. Key words which constitute these ecologies guide viewers through related information, along with individual descriptions on each exhibit.
Fine, handwoven cotton has been one of the most enduring aspects of the Indian artistic heritage. Celebrated in miniature paintings, evoked in historical poetry and prose, and known for its importance as a product of exceptional trade over millennia; such cloth is today, typically referred to as mul, malmal or muslin. This exhibition presents some of the ways in which its aesthetic-structural qualities have been expressed in design and making in textile traditions across the subcontinent.
Presented are textiles drawn from the collections of the National Crafts Museum & Hastkala Academy and the Devi Art Foundation. Together, they represent a broad period from the late 19th century to now; and include genres of hand-weaving such as the Jamdani, Kadhua and Paithani as well as, to a small extent, of surface embellishment such as chikankari, appliqué and precious metal-foil printing. The exhibition is conceived as the first in a series of three looking at Indian handmade textiles, with plans to address brocading and ikat in the future.
The idea of this series has emerged from a number of considerations. Among these is a reflection that with the increasing popularity of Indian handlooms seen in recent years, there may be a need to revisit some of the assumptions through which the understanding of its related terms and definitions occur. This is particularly felt with the exponential increase in online and digital content, where easily accessed information also faces challenges of clear attribution and provenance.