International reporting
In India, silk threads that tell the thread of history
Audio 02:30
Maqbool Hasan, master weaver, supports nearly 50 artisan families in Varanasi.
© RFI/Come Bastin
By: Côme Bastin Follow
3 mins
The sari is India's flagship garment and the finest of these fabrics are made in the city of Varanasi.
The Muslim community assembles them on 19th century looms, from silk threads.
A unique know-how, fruit of all periods of India.
This guild is today threatened by globalization and the political context.
Advertisement
From our special correspondent in Varanasi,
In the alleys, listen close to the windows to hear a characteristic rattling.
It is the sound of the impressive Jacquard machines, named after the Frenchman Joseph-Marie Jacquard, who imagined them at the beginning of the 19th century, before they went around the world.
In 2022, they still resonate in Varanasi.
“
I'm working on a silk sari, it will take me ten days
,” explains Mohamed Safi.
In the dark, he runs his hands along a weaving loom, resembling the sail of a boat.
“
I learned the trade from my father and have been practicing it for 26 years.
We worked here in our family's house
,” says the craftsman.
The looms work without electricity, thanks to a system of cards that guide the chains of threads.
Maqbool Hasan, a 77-year-old master weaver, provides work for around 50 artisans.
He invites us into his store.
The pattern for this eight-colour shawl originated on Scottish looms in the town of Paisley in the 16th century.
In the 18th century, the Indian region of Kashmir reinvented it with a needle.
In 1966, when I found this shawl in Bombay and I reproduced it on our looms, I called it from Kashmir to Kashi, which is the other name of Varanasi.
Multiple legacies under threat
Maqbool Hasan has been distinguished in India and around the world for his know-how, the fruit of Buddhist, Hindu, Mughal and British heritage.
But the millennial guild of which he is the representative is threatened today.
“
We are in increasingly tight competition with China, which is flooding the Indian market with industrial saris
,” he explains.
“
We have to import silk from China and the customs duties are increasing.
We can only sell to wealthy families, especially Hindus.
But in today's political climate, some are calling for a boycott of our fabrics, because we are Muslims
,” laments Maqbool Hasan.
Weaving looms, "ancestors of computers"
With the pandemic, many weavers in Varanasi have had to close their workshops.
For Isabelle Moulin, a French museographer specializing in silk, there is an urgent need to safeguard their tradition.
“
In France, there are only a handful of craftsmen who know how to use Jacquard looms
,” observes Isabelle Moulin.
“
At a time of climate change, it is very important to preserve this local and ecological know-how.
With their punched cards operating in a binary pattern, these looms are otherwise ancestors of computing
.
»
This signet ring of arts and letters intends to federate a worldwide network of silk cities.
For his part, Maqbool Hasan has created several schools for children from the underprivileged community of weavers.
Newsletter
Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
google-play-badge_FR
India