After entering the mill through a side door, I noticed a long row of old unused looms and somewhere from behind the familiar clumping sound of a hand loom was emerging out. An old man perhaps in his 60's strenuously working on the farthermost loom came near us and introduced himself as Rangaiah and that he is the one of the few workmen in the mill. We requested him to explain/show us the working of the loom and he was glad to make us familiarize the same.
I cannot describe the entire art of weaving but what I can surely say is that it requires good coordination of both hands and legs. It definitely would take good effort mastering this skill.
Then he said, "I work for the whole day and I get paid twenty five rupees. What can I buy with that? Thats why I have not put any of my children in to it". It looked very logical of him to say this and I tried to intrude, "Why is that the payment of yours so less. Why aren't there customers for your cloth?"
"Days are gone when people wore simple cotton garments made from hand-looms. Recent textile advancement in the form of more shiny and cheaper polyesters and development of completely mechanized itself emerged in to the market and became wont of the day. And even recently, availability of read-made garments in the retail industry also affected the hand-loom industry. Also on the other hand, cotton continued to be as costly as it is and hence price of pure cotton cloths could not compete with the newer clothes".
So, I got another question to him. What has the government been doing all the while the industry is dying? Is it not helping these people out by finding suitable sales for this cloth.
He said, "Yes, Government has been trying to help in some ways at least. It has taken an initiative such that public institutions such as government offices, Indian railways etc. should buy this cloth and use it for their purposes wherever required. Some market has been carved out for these products".
We felt we got some kind of insight in to this art and its present market value. One question was lingering in my mind as to what all the old looms lying in the mill doing. Have they been discarded of being old or non-functional and then never cared for. My friend wondered that aloud and when we did ask him, he replied, "These are all dead looms. They used to be used by people who are dead now. After their death, there is no one to work on them and hence left non-functional." And finally pointing to the loom he was working on he added, "Once I am gone, even this loom will become dead".
I felt very sorry for this man and the industry and was very uneasy coming back from there.
10 comments:
really a touching one...
reminded me of some gud old dayz
my ancestors were into weaving.. and yet their dead bodies weaving their dead looms.. !!
I think its very nicely written blog specially for the first timer..
Not to mention its very touchy too.
I too feel sorry for that guy and the industry after reading it.
We must do something to help these ppl.
What the heck!!
It is a simple capitalist economy. It is the fault of the people if they are still sticking to old methods. Perhaps, they should get out and check what is going on in the world rather than complaining.
In fact, if government is forcing expensive cotton in railways etc., then it is wasting taxpayer's money.
Remember that we are not in a communist state.
Yeah... I very well agree with you.
But I guess you are not considering the people who are already put in the profession because of the family in which they are brought up and have been doing all their life. You cannot ask them to suddenly abandon their profession and do something else. Just because there is lot of income in some new sectors, you will not advise all the farmers abandon farming and look for better professions else where. Will you?
Good one..…. Ppl should have love for handlooms and should prefer to use it. It is more comfortable than other cloths…..In North East, each state has its own style of handloom and depending upon it, you can find out from where they are. In each houhold, ppl prepare their own cloths………..even these cloths are more popular than the one we buy from market.
I though, in south there is no such handloom…….but this is great to see that there is…..Govt should give more facility to make it alive again and the product should be enhanced such that ppl start to buy this cloths……..
Srujan, the time you spent to write this blog is worth more than that. I too remember the street of the weavers go silent as days pass by in my place. I wonder is anybody left in that place to continue this profession ! My tributes to the silent lives of the weavers.
This is pretty sad, that the weavers are left practically jobless. But there isn't really anything that we can do. Like someone else said, we're a capitalist economy. Subsidizing that industry is not going to help anyway. The industry is structurally dying because of new technology.
I am not going to ask any farmer to abandon their profession. This would be taken care by the economy itself. No one can interfere with that. In fact, if farmers start leaving agriculture sector, then it is good for our economy. The very reason that agriculture is so backwards in India is because of land fragmentation.
Agriculture in India is breaking down because now so many people are into it (because of their family profession) and government by giving subsidies to the farmers is making it worse. I am sure that you understand that subsidies are also a form of communism.
Regarding the family profession, our fore-fore-fathers had only one profession: ''Hunting in jungles''. I am sure that following family profession may not always be a good idea.
Suddenness: There is no element of suddenness here. In this particular case, handloom industry has been dying for like 30-40 years. Even if someone is sticking to it, then its no one else's fault.
Why not do it this way: Instead of government spending taxpayer's money on these things (as if the government owns that money), lets make it voluntary. Who wants to support the dying industries, go and donate money for that. Why make everyone do that. I am not sure how many people would line up for this.
It is easy to blame it on the government but government can do as much as tax you pay. Government money is not free, its our own money.
If my kidney stops working, government can't force someone to donate his kidney to me. If some people are not well to do, then government can't force rich people to support others.
I am not sure if I am able to make my point clear or not.
A very nicely written article, Srujan! It was touchy and reminds me of my childhood days, when I had seen them by myself.
@Anonymous - (last one)
Exactly, u have explained whatever I was thinking about the weaving industry as such. My point in writing this blog is to explain a perspective of the same from another angle.
Post a Comment