Aditi Desai on the journey of the Kashmir shawl

India has always been famous for its textiles. Among these, the Kashmir Kani shawl, intricately woven one stitch at a time, in Pashmina is a class apart. I was mesmerised by the beauty the moment I set my eyes on an old Jamawar when I was only 12 years old. That is what drew me to learn more about shawls, connect with shawl-makers and rafugars who repaired and sold antique shawls, and start collecting them when I could afford it. Later, I went deeper into the social history of the shawl and the people and discovered answers to many questions. This is the story of the journey of the Kashmir Kani — twill tapestry weaving — shawl.

Wool was always considered important in the cold Himalayan regions and plain shawls were woven for thousands of years, as evidenced in the ancient texts. A centre of Buddhist and Shaivite theology and practice, Kashmir was greatly influenced by Sufi Islam through its mystics. Kashmir became the melting pot of different cultures, faiths, traditions and a syncretic composite culture emerged. A student learnt the craft at the feet of the master over years of practice, while inculcating the values of patience, cooperation and discipline. Work was considered equal to worship. A shawl could not be made by one person alone. At least 14 different specialists contributed their expertise for the making of a single shawl.

So, how and when did Pashmina weaving start in Kashmir? During the reign of Sultan Qutub-ud-Din, Sufi saint Mir Sayyid Ali Hamadani (1314-1384) arrived in Kashmir with 700 Persian craftsmen and 113 kinds of crafts. He was also the first to bring Pashmina wool to Kashmir valley from Ladakhi Changpa herdsmen who keep Pashmina or Changra goats, while Toosh is the finest and warmest of fleece derived from the wild Tibetan antelope called Chiru. Toosh was banned but continues to be woven and sold because of the high demand from the rich and powerful.

Sultan Zain-ul-Abidin (1420-1470), a great promoter of arts and crafts, invited master craftsmen from Turkistan (present-day Turkmenistan) to upgrade the skills of Kashmiri weavers and craftsmen. The carpet weavers taught the Kashmiri shawl weavers the art of Kani by inserting patterns by hand in the plain shawl, one stitch at a time.

The Mughal era was the golden period for shawls, especially during Akbar’s rule (1556-1605). He fell in love with Kashmir and the finely woven Kani border Pashmina shawls on his very first visit. He set up royal workshops in Lahore, Agra and Delhi to classify, document and store doshalas (pairs of shawls), khilats or shawl cloths for making garments, patkas and turban cloths.

During his rule, Kashmir shawls were given as royal gifts to honour kings, saints, Sufis, gurus, ministers, writers, poets, ambassadors, bridegrooms and royal guests on ceremonial occasions like coronations, festivals, marriages and births. He raised the status of the shawl by making it the ultimate ‘symbol of prestige’.

A major change occurred in the status of the shawl in the mid-18th century when the Afghans captured Kashmir. They wanted money for guns, ammunition and to feed their soldiers. So, they heavily taxed (dagshali) the most valuable item, the shawl. The shawl became a commodity, an item of sale and purchase. To avoid tax, manufacturers started making shawls in parts, later joining these with invisible rafu. By this time, the free naturalistic flowering plant design of the Mughal period had become elaborate, stylised and evolved into the kairi or almond or Paisley motif.

At first, the shawls were sent as gifts for western kings and monarchs, who handed them to their queens and princesses. These ladies wore them as long dresses, as well as draped them over their shoulders. Soon, the Kashmir shawl became high fashion in Paris, especially when Napoleon’s wife, Empress Josephine, became obsessed with them. By 1900s, royal Indian ladies, copying the European ladies, started wearing fine Kashmiri shawls. The British and French colonisers placed their agents in Kashmir to oversee their production for the royals. These were copied in Paisley, Scotland, and Paris and Lyon in France on drawloom and Jacquard looms to meet the growing demand from the fashionable elite at a fraction of the price of the originals.

Najib-ud-Daulah, a charismatic Afghan warrior, migrated to India and became the commander of the army of the Mughal throne at Delhi. He built the town of Najibabad, a fort and caravan serai, and opened a direct route from Kashmir, through the mountains, to Najibabad for Kashmiri shawl caravans moving towards Calcutta. All the highways were disturbed, with political adversaries battling for supremacy. The poor Najibabadis started travelling with Kashmiri shawl traders and learning the skills of rafugari. Their descendents have restored all the shawls in my collection.

Maharaja Ranjit Singh captured Lahore in 1799, Kashmir in 1819, and made it a part of Punjab. He was a great connoisseur of shawls and carried them on his military excursions to decorate his palaces, tents and horses. Majesty and intricacy of design, multiplicity of vibrant colours (like reds, saffron, blues, greens) and introduction of embroidery on the shawl fringes are a hallmark of Sikh period shawls. He had French Generals in his army who started their own business houses in Paris and started exporting shawls to Parisian royal and elite families.

The British took Lahore in 1846 and appointed Gulab Singh Dogra as the Raja of Kashmir, separating it from Punjab. By then, thousands of looms were making large patchwork shawls with patterns influenced by western motifs and colours. Suddenly, due to war, famine and change of fashion in France, exports collapsed in 1870. The domestic market for dorukhas (a shawl that looks same on both sides) and fine embroidered shawls flourished till the 1930s, after which the impact of the freedom struggle and impoverishment of nawabs and rajas became more pronounced. Earlier, every home had a charkha on which Pashmina yarn was spun. Now, mechanically drawn yarn is used.

There has been a huge revival of demand for shawls in India and abroad because of fashion trends among the youth, who want inexpensive yet soft and beautifully patterned accessories that match their clothes. The mechanised shawl industry in Amritsar and Ludhiana is churning out lakhs of wool-mix copies of handwoven Pashmina, Toosh and Kani shawls. They cost a fraction of the handwoven ones and young people are not able to make out the difference.

Shawls also constitute a large part of our exports. The low-grade Pashmina used is blended with synthetic fibres. These shawls are dipped into acids that carbonise their synthetic content and soften them. The chemical wastes are then dumped into Punjab rivers, polluting them. This poses a huge health hazard to our populations and needs urgent action by the government.

The numbers of weavers and rafugars are rapidly declining as they cannot make ends meet and have taken to other jobs. They have also migrated because, tragically, their products cannot compete with the machine-made copies.

— The writer is a noted shawl scholar

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