How handloom sarees are weaving a storm in Bengaluru

BENGALURU: A sea of indigo greets visitors walking into the Bangalore International Centre at Domlur. Hanging loftily from the ceiling are beautiful blue handwoven sarees, a tribute to the art of handloom. The three-floor exhibition centre is draped in hues of yellow, red and white, with intricate threadwork like the Bengali jamdani and three shuttle weaves. The Registry of Sarees — a city-based organisation enabling design and curatorial projects of handmade textiles — in collaboration with textile curator Mayank Mansingh Kaul, has put on display 52 sarees from a collection of 108 designs, all part of a 2003 exhibition titled ‘Khadi – The Fabric of Freedom.’ This time around, however, Kaul says, they wanted to refrain from using the term khadi. “There’s a lot of difference in Gandhi’s idea of khadi and the khadi we see today. It’s now become a government institution. It has become a high-end luxury fabric and the art and history behind it seems to have faded into the background.”

The exhibition, open till April 6 in Bengaluru, recently travelled to Chirala, a small town in Andhra Pradesh, famous for its handloom industry producing ikat weaves. It was primarily for the weaving community. They set it up in a government school where more than 80 weavers came together to study the fabric and techniques. It was more like a workshop, Kaul says. “The weavers told us that the way we displayed the fabrics, it made them feel like artists, not labourers.”

The second leg was at Coimbatore’s iconic Lakshmi Mills. “There, too, we got a good response, but, interestingly, a lot of people who visited were upset that none of the fabric was available to purchase,” Kaul says.

Efforts like these, Kaul says, are meant to facilitate the study of design and quality of textiles, to reflect on their relevance today and for the future. Ask about region-specific weaves and the efforts for their revival, Ally Matthan, the co-founder of the Registry of Sarees, says reducing textiles to regions is detrimental, an opinion echoed by Kaul.

And why not, when the world of textiles is so fluid, like for example Kanchipuram designs are being done on Benaras sarees, the Kota Doriya from Rajasthan has a GI tag from Mysuru, Chanderi, a traditional weave from Madhya Pradesh, is being used on Benarasi sarees.

“Why do you want to regionalise the art? We often get caught up with the personal sentiment when it comes to sarees handed down from generations. But rarely do we think about the product, the effort and skill put into it,” says Mathhan, whose #100saree pact a few years ago created quite a wave on social media. A resource and study centre in Domlur has been set up for this purpose. Apart from curatorial departments, the centre also provides the environmental conditions necessary for the long-term preservation of these fragile works of art and a research facility for the public. A library, too, is in the works. “It’s all about democratisation of the handloom and building awareness. There is a lot of misinformation about textiles out there. This needs to change,” Matthan says.