Mohammed Ahmad Ansari has spent his entire life in Varanasi, India’s notoriously spiritual capital and the home of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in the congested and narrow streets of the city.
The 55-year-old has spent decades weaving Banarasi saris, which are renowned for its blend of Hindu-Muslim culture with the clacking sounds of handlooms at work in the holy city, which is widely believed to be India’s oldest settlement, dating back as early as 1800 BCE.
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However, sales have recently been negatively impacted by a variety of factors, most recently the tensions between India and Bangladesh, its neighbor.
Since August last year, when former prime minister Sheikh Hasina fled to New Delhi from Dhaka after an uprising against her rule, diplomatic relations between the once-close allies have been severely hampered.
Modi’s support for Hasina when she was in power was credited with some of Bangladesh’s issues, including those attributed to India.
Since her overthrow, there have been a few attacks on religious minorities, including Hindus, because those groups were seen as Hasina supporters. Additionally, Bangladesh’s businesses have been boycotted or attacked because the country demands that Hasina be charged with a crime in her home country.
Bangladesh imposed a ban on the importation of certain Indian goods, including rice and yarn, in April. India responded by outlawing the import of ready-made clothing and processed food products from Bangladesh across international borders on May 17. Bangladesh will need to use the more time-consuming and expensive sea route even though it can still send its saris to India.
It can often take up to six months to weave a single sari due to their exquisite craftsmanship, luxurious silk, and meticulous zari work of fine gold and silver wire embroidery. Depending on the design and the material used, these can fetch 100, 000 rupees ($1, 130) or more.
These saris are popular in Bangladesh during holidays and weddings, but the ban has caused business to decline by more than 50%, Ansari claimed.
This is the most recent blow to the industry, which has already experienced previous government actions, including the so-called “demonetisation,” which saw India overnight invalidate high-value notes and a rise in power tariffs, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic and less expensive competition from saris made on advanced power looms in other parts of the nation, particularly Surat in Gujarat in western India.
Weavers have been forced out of the industry by this onslaught over the past few years, cutting their numbers by half to about 200, 000 as they have since moved elsewhere or taken up driving rickshaws to make a living.
Since the change of the regime in Dhaka, wholesale sari trader Pawan Yadav, 61, has caused the industry to be at a standstill, according to Al Jazeera.
“We used to supply Bangladesh with about 10,000 saris annually, but everything has stopped,” Yadav said, adding that clients in the neighboring nation still owe him 1.5 million rupees ($17, 140), “but the political unrest seems to be making things impossible.”
India has 108 documented sarees, making them famous globally for their intricate designs, vibrant colors, and timeless elegance and beauty.
Despite the current upheaval, more than 3.5 million people work in the textile industry, according to government data, making it the second-highest occupation in India. The sari industry is estimated to be worth about 80 000 crore rupees ($9,0 billion), with some $ 300 million in exports.
The government of Varanasi is waiting for the prime minister to resolve the trade dispute with Bangladesh, which was the result of Modi’s third consecutive election in parliament.
The Modi government announced in 2015 that August 7 would be celebrated as National Handloom Day and that domestic goods would be promoted as domestic goods. According to traders and weavers who spoke to Al Jazeera, nothing significant has yet been said about.
Without enough businesses or reliable income, many artisans have been forced to abandon the trade, and now it’s difficult to even find a young weaver, according to Ramesh Menon, the founder of Save the Loom, a social enterprise working for the revival of handloom. “India has a unique handloom craft that no country can compete with.” The need is to reposition handloom as a luxury rather than poverty.
West Bengal traders are pleased with the ban.
West Bengal, which is located about 610 kilometers (380 miles) north of Varanasi and along the Bangladeshi border, has a completely different situation.
The ban on Dhaka’s saris trading between the two nations has given Bengal’s cotton sari traders a new lease of life after they had been losing market share to Dhaka’s saris.
In Shantipur, West Bengal, Tarak Nath Das, a cotton sari trader for the past 40 years, distributes saris handcrafted by local artisans to various showrooms across the nation.
The 65-year-old was all smiles when business boomed in the weeks leading up to the main festival of Durga Puja, after years of suffering.
At least 30% of our market was consumed by Bangladeshi saris, and the local industry was losing. As orders start to pour in, we have gradually started to recapture our previous markets. According to Das, the sale of saris at the just-completed festival increased by at least 25% compared to last year.
More than 100 000 weavers and traders reside in Shantipur, which is considered to be the heart of eastern India’s sari trade. The town’s handloom weaving industry, which produces a wide range of saris, including the wildly popular Shantipur cotton sari, is well known in the Nadia district.
The nearby Hooghly and Murshidabad districts are also known for their cotton saris, which are both exported to Greece, Turkiye, and other nations.
Sanjay Karmakar, 40, a cotton sari wholesaler in the Nadia district, is pleased with the ban.
The local women prefer to purchase Bangladeshi saris because they come in attractive packaging and the fabric used there is slightly superior to ours, he said.
Sales had been slashed due to younger women choosing leggings, tunics, and other contemporary clothing over traditional saris, which was a result.
Fashion designer Santanu Guha Thakurta, 62, claimed that Bangladesh’s import restrictions would be beneficial for Indian weavers and traders. That also prevented cheap imitations of more expensive designs.
Source: Aljazeera
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