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Journalism of Courage
The legendary Uzramma, who initiated the Andhra Dastkar Trust in 1990, in her introduction to the Takshila Yearbook for 2019, writes that “the word textiles originates from the Latin word texere, which means to weave. It is much later that it came to be comprised of rich subtexts such as pressing fibres together, spinning, knitting, crocheting and knotting”.
Warp and weft is what the Takshila Educational Society’s Yearbook has at its centre this year. Uppada Jamdani of Andhra Pradesh, Loin Loom weaving of Nagaland, Goat work of Rajasthan, Bobbin lace work of Tamil Nadu, the Kimkhwaab, Chikankari, Ajrakh and much more, lesser-known styles — all sit easily on the many pages that feature the 365 days of this year. It is hard to imagine how one would be able to write anything in the diary at all, given the tapestry on display on each page, which makes for absorbing reading.
Painstakingly designed to include very disparate areas of India, this is no simple narration of styles or a lament of handloom traditions long lost. The yearbook holds out as a symbol of the grandeur, simplicity, diversity and inclusiveness of pretty much what is India with this offering.
Takshila works at village Jamaalhaata in Siwan district of Bihar, with weavers, to focus on reviving skills long constrained by the crippling poverty of this part for decades now.
Indian textile traditions have for long been a threatened but valued part of the Indian experience. Before 1947, the homespun khadi was more than a piece of cloth, and was short-hand for a whole manifesto for independence from colonial rule that the national movement held for a future. Before that too, the 13th century poet-reformer Kabir, mediated verse from between his preoccupations on the loom — parts of his verse, the famous lines — jheeni jheeni been chadariya, was later the title of a moving novel by Abdul Bismillah.
This Yearbook for 2019 is not for sale and is “for private circulation”.
The high level of skills involved in weaving in the Medieval years led to some exotic names for muslin and other fine fabric, like evening dew, running water or sweet sherbet, but among the many anecdotes, the finest is perhaps on Mashru, from Gujarat, “a mixed style, with a silk warp and cotton weft and was used by Muslim men who were prohibited by a Hadith rule to wear pure silk fabric. As the silk yarns were on the outer side while the cotton yarns were worn close to the body, these textiles were considered derived ‘lawful and permitted by sacred law’ or masher, this Arabic word therefore came to be the name of the textile.”
