Weaving in Benares, India
Gandhi took Khadi as a political idol in protest of the cotton made by the British mills. In 21St. Over the centuries, Gandhi’s anti-colonial patriotic politics has been marketed as a beacon of hope for the betterment of India’s indigenous weavers, embellished with the principles of sustainability, the concept of handmade luxury. Khadi’s share in textile production has doubled in the last five years. Although the weaving movement has empowered various elites in the Indian textile industry, low-wage weavers have often continued to work in hazardous environments.
Powerlooms are power looms where manual looms are operated without the aid of electricity. The elite-owned powerloom sector accounted for roughly 60% of the fabric production in India where the oppressed-nations dominated the weaving sector despite employing 11 million indigenous artisans, contributing 15% to the fabric production. Although the Government of India protected the interests of the weaving industry from the occupation of the weaving industry and reserved certain specifications for the exclusive production of looms (Handloom Reservation of Articles for Production Act, 1985), there was also a need to nurture the powerloom industry. Simultaneous address by the state.
“The handloom worker was tempted to run in a bullock cart on a road that was much faster than his car and against a competitor driving a racing car. It was an irrational race, a hand-operated loom could never be as productive as a mechanical, electric mill. It can never achieve the scale economy needed to compete in a productive market, because the loom is a lone worker and his family, not an organization like a mill. “- Roundtable India
When I visited the Benares Craft Cluster in the early 2010’s, inadequate wages and consequently high-job dropout rates were the biggest concern that bothered weavers in the ground realities. At that time the weavers of Benares were paid an average of about 150 rupees a day. A recent survey by the Handloom Information and Advocacy Center in Andhra Pradesh found that 55% of weavers earn less than Rs 1,000 per month. The handloom weavers are forced to look for other jobs with better pay and there is no greater loss for the handicrafts than the loss of such highly skilled artisans and craftsmen. Gandhi made Khadi a champion in competing for British-Mill products in colonial India. The average Indian weaver still does not have access to the electric machines used by the British 70 years ago!
Small industries are scattered and widely supported by individuals (and immediate families) as opposed to large-scale powerloom mills. Loss of sight due to insufficient light is alarmingly common among weavers.
“The hand mill gives you society with the feudal lord” – Karl Marx
Certain labor groups like handloom weavers, as well as the dominance of the elite in the powerloom sector, are the main features of the caste society.
Update: Fashionable Link, August 9th, 2019
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