SHAKEELA ANDRABI
SRINAGAR: The golden-handed Kashmiri artisans need more support from the administration to revive industry on modern lines as artists associated with different types of handcrafts and artifacts are facing numerous hardships due to flooding of machine-made items which are being made and sold in open market.
According to statistics, Handicrafts is an important sector of Kashmir’s economy as thousands of artisans especially from down-town area or old city of Srinagar are associated with Crewel work, Pashmina, Chain-stitch, Namda-Saazi, Paper-machie, Sozni or Needle work and Carpet sector.
Kashmir’s embroidery popularly known as Kashida is one of the most popular needle-works of the subcontinent. Be it Pashmina shawls with exotic Sozni embroidery designs, crewel embroidery curtains in houseboats, or the embroidery rugs or chain stitch cushions, all these techniques are being been followed by Kashmiri people for a long time.
Kashmir was ruled by different regimes for centuries, whose influence can be seen on Kashmiri textiles. During 1420-70 AD, a paper by Deborah Emmet notes, Zain-Ul-Abidin, the Eighth Sultan of Kashmir, brought shawl and carpet weavers to valley from Turkestan and Samarkand respectively. It is believed that crewel and chain stitch embroidery was also introduced in the valley during his reign. Designers and artisans, dealing with Sozni and crewel embroidery techniques, are quite upset due to introduction of machine work, which has created huge problems for handicrafts sector. “The integrity of handmade products is very different,” admitted an artisan. He further claimed that they try to create products that are far better than machine-made products, which are sold openly in market.
Sozni embroidery is considered to be done by most skilled embroiderers in valley. Earlier it was a man-dominated field but with passage of time many women also joined the workforce.
Sajad Wani, a 35 years old young businessman, told STATE TIMES that he was eager to find a Government job but his uncle, who was once a famous Kashmir art businessman insisted that he should join their family business. “As a well educate guy, I find quite satisfaction in the work and have also started expanding the business. We had many showrooms in Kashmir, Ladakh and even outside valley,” informed Sajad, adding that with machine-made embroidery hitting the market, the handmade embroidery business started facing a crisis.
Sajad admitted that earlier he also started selling machine-made embroidery work but was not satisfied with products. “I think that I am going away from rich Kashmiri culture in which my father and my uncle had spent so much time. So I decided to stick to hand-made embroidery only,” he added
“Apart from machine-based embroidery, the turmoil in valley also affected business badly. At times, we were unable to send products to customers in time, which casted a bad impact on business. Further, we had three stores outside Kashmir but as COVID situation deteriorated across nation, our stores were shut for a long time,” Sajad asserted, adding that though many artisans are continuing the legacy which their forefathers have started but they are quite uncertain about the future of legacy. “Artisans feel that after 30 years Kashmir may lose hand-made embroidery technique. New generation of Kashmir has less respect for embroidery business and is not interested in carrying it forward. I hope that with time Kashmiris may realize that they had ‘something special’ need to be treasured,” he added.