Srinagar, October 29
Twice hit, the Kani shawl industry in Kashmir has fallen on bad days, thanks to some deft work in Punjab.

There was a time when wealthy people would not think twice before shelling out over a lakh to buy a Kani shawl — one piece of which takes months to weave intricate wooden stick work on its fine fabric.

That’s history now.

Ask Zamir Naqas of Kashmir Valley Arts, which had put up a stall at Kashmir’s first international fair on its handicrafts.

“Manufacturers of quality handicraft items,” he says, “used to be perpetually at work as demand always outstripped supply. Not any more.”

After the insurgency in the state, which seriously affected sales, Punjabi ingenuity has pushed back the Kani industry further.

Traders in Punjab are passing off fakes as genuine products. What they are hawking is in no way a piece of the grand Kashmiri handicraft but pieces hurriedly churned out on handlooms.

You may not know this, but even the legendary Pashmina shawl comes much cheaper than a Kani, and Kashmiri Pashminas make for the bulk of their sales in Punjab.

But the Punjabi trader has poached on Pashmina, too.

Trader Rashid Amen: “A genuine Pashmina should not cost less than anything between Rs 5,000 and Rs 6,000. But, in Amritsar, you can get a fake for Rs 2,000 or even less.”

The fakers came in at an oppurtune time — after militancy hit the valley’s indigenous industry and government’s quality regulation controls slackened.

There is hope, though. Local traders are confident the latest expo, the first such international fair, would help. There were buyers from as far as Ahmedabad, and some even from abroad. They were impressed with the the colourful magnificence of Kashmir’s woven and crafted goods.

Ashish Nanda, a doctor in a Delhi hospital, told The Tribune that he always looked for authentic Kashmiri works, but he had never seen so many genuine products displayed together. His choice was a blazing red carpet worth Rs 2.25 lakh. Ashfaq Ahmed, whose Kashmir Mehal has branches in some top five-star hotels of Delhi: “Our marketing skills are limited and it is largely brokers who bring buyers to us. But these brokers pocket a large part of what we manage to sell a product for.”

Owing to lower margins, Ashfaq says, they can’t pay more than Rs 3,000-Rs 4,000 to artisans for their unparalleled skills.

“The government has begun showing concern for the indigenous Kashmiri industry but it needs to much more for the handicraft to flourish again.”

For one, establish a mechanism to take on fakers from other states. In Amritsar, to begin with...