We need to market Banarasi weaves to urban India

I recently went on two different shopping expeditions that made me think about the future of Banarasi handloom. The first was with a few female friends in Delhi. We were attending weddings at different times and so we were shopping for a variety of fabrics for outfits as well as saris. We went all over Delhi, from South Extension to Lajpat Nagar to Chandni Chowk. Never really having shopped with a group of women for a wedding before, I was struck by some aspects of my co-shoppers’ behaviour. I was struck first of all by their willingness to pay. Each had her upper limit of course, but this limit was quite high to begin with and also flexible; what seemed to matter most, above price, was finding a piece that she liked. Then, I was also struck by my friends’ disregard for the differences between fabrics. They could not tell, by sight or touch, the difference between a "pure", "mixed" or synthetic fabric, between different types of silk and cotton, or between a handwoven and machine-woven pattern. For them, a piece was simply worth buying if it looked attractive and felt right; handloom, a category of which they were unaware to begin with, did not automatically rank higher as it did for me. 

My second shopping expedition was in the lanes of Madanpura, one of the weavers’ neighbourhoods in Banaras. Visiting one gaddi after another, I was shocked and saddened to discover that it was nearly impossible to find pure handloom silk, in any form. More and more weavers and businessmen, I was told, are switching from handloom to powerloom, which can produce an "imitation" Banarasi sari in under a week while a sari of the same design can take upto a month to weave on a handloom. Handloom products are now reserved mostly for showrooms that specialize in them and order them specially. As a resident of Banaras who likes to visit its workshops and silk firms, I was of course already aware of the decline of the handloom. But this time the situation seemed extreme: I was in Banaras, but I could not find any silk! 

The weavers of Banaras have been much in the news of late, what with PM Modi’s promises to uplift their lives through a Trade Facilitation Centre in the city. The larger issue of how to support the Banaras weavers is too complex to discuss here, but my two shopping trips in Delhi and Madanpura did leave me with a few simple reflections about the market for handloom. It strikes me that there are many, many consumers today, like my friends, who are simply unaware of the nature and types of handloom fabrics and are therefore not really in a position to choose them over other fabrics. These friends of mine would not go into those handloom showrooms that I like to visit, or ask specifically for handloom as I do, because they do not know about handloom; they have never been able to appreciate the striking, exquisite textures and shimmers of chanderi, kota, matka or brocade. Although it is true that handloom weaving is slow, it is not the case that all handloom fabrics are more expensive than all machine-made fabrics, or that people do not want to spend. As one gaddi owner finally said to my questions with a somewhat ironic smile: “Aap log handloom mangti nahi! Agar mangti to humlog rakhte kyu nahi?” "You ladies don’t demand handloom. If you did, why wouldn’t we stock it?"

In an India becoming more consumerist by the day, can’t we think of ways to better market – to make specifically fashionable – Banarasi handloom products, to ensure the continued training of its craftsmen, and prevent a precious art form, alongside with the associated culture of an entire community and a city, from becoming extinct?