Dotting the Indian countryside, under thatched roofs, on verandahs, and in village lanes, hands flex and flutter in precise movements to create works of art not for permanent admiration, but for daily wear.
Unlike many countries, where works of hand art appear only in museums, in India young and old practice handloom weaving as a living craft for their daily bread. This low cost, labor intensive technology, using equipment built from environment-friendly materials, consumes almost no electricity and directly employs over 12 million people.
Our 2008 calendar highlights some of India's handmade textile wealth, along with the basic processes that transform cotton fiber to fabric.
What sheer delight and wonder, that every thread, every square-inch of the cloth has been touched and fashioned by hand ? actually many hands ? to create a work of personal art! Take a closer look at the overlapping colors, the fine butis (motifs), borders, and pallus (end of sari). How do they tie, dye and embroider Bandini, Lehriya, Ajrakh or Kutchi? With what mathematical precision do they line up the threads for such renowned patterns as Khann, Jamdani, Pochampalli or Sambalpuri?
On the commonest of machines, the pitloom, Indian weavers produce an unimaginable range of textiles ? from coarse towels to the finest Bengal cottons and royal brocades. Every region has fine-tuned its designs and techniques over generations.
When we glimpse what goes into the warp and weft - the length and breadth of threads on the loom - we can grasp their hold upon poets, scientists and seers through the ages. Atharva Veda imagines day and night as two sisters weaving, the warp symbolizing darkness, and the weft, light. Weaving is the idiom of eternity.
And yet, along with farmers, weavers struggle to survive in India today. Handmade fabrics, once affordable to common folk, are forced into niche markets. Unfavorable policies and ill-planned support structures leave weavers at a disadvantage compared to synthetics and powerlooms, whose environmental costs go unaccounted and hugely subsidized.
If the handloom sector - second only to agriculture in generating employment - dies, which other sector is actually capable of absorbing such a huge manual work force? What is to become of centuries old skills that weavers have come to possess?
Concerned about environment and livelihoods, AID started Jivika, a fair-trade
effort to market handmade garments. Keeping overheads low, volunteers
promote Jivika among friends and community functions. Some even opt for
"khadi for shadi" sourcing all wedding wear and gifts from handcrafted
materials. Indeed, we hope this calendar sparks your interest in handmade
cloth, available in small town markets or city shops throughout India.
As we trace our clothes to their origins, we hope to reconnect with the
ecosystem in which such diverse, independent, artistic work has flourished.
Association for India's Development (AID) is a volunteer movement committed to promoting sustainable, equitable and just development. In solidarity with non-violent people's struggles, AID supports grassroots organizations in India and initiates efforts in various interconnected spheres such as education, livelihoods, natural resources, health, women's empowerment and social justice.
Your donations will support grassroots projects in India, so please consider
donating as much as you can. Donations to AID are tax-deductible in USA
under section 501(c)(3) of the IRS code.
The Environmental Defense Fund and the Paper Task Force calculate that by choosing this paper and printing process, AID saved 17 fully grown trees, 5,373 gallons of water, 9 million BTU of energy, 776 pounds of solid waste and 1507 pounds of greenhouse gases.
This calendar was proudly designed by Scribus, an open source publishing software and printed on 100% post consumer recycled paper with vegetable based inks in Greener Printer, CA.