Most people who grew up in India have been fed a steady diet of legends about its textile and jewellery heritage. We hear of the Nizam of Hyderabad who used a Golconda diamond as a paperweight, of Jamdani muslin sarees made of material so fine that all six yards of it could pass through a ring, and Kannagi’s gold anklets stuffed with gemstones that revealed themselves only when the anklets shattered.
Jewellery is a necessary sort of preoccupation in a country where the consumption of gold and jewellery has grown at the rate of 10 to 15 per cent per year. The domestic market is estimated to be more than $30 billion (about Dh110.18 billion). Gems and jewellery make up about 14 per cent of India’s total exports, and the sector employs about 3.4 million workers. Some of them are skilled in the traditional crafts, and create luxurious pieces such as kundan meena ornaments, the backs of which tell intricate stories in colourful enamel, even as the fronts glimmer translucently in white and gold.
Just like language changes every few kilometres in India, textiles are as much a part of the cultural vocabulary. Cashmere, Kota, Chanderi and Kanchipuram are names for both textiles and for the places that they come from, sustaining large numbers of people.
Revival of interest
According to a March 2013 report by consulting firm Corporate Catalyst India, textile exports account for 27 per cent of India’s foreign exchange. Responsible for 3 per cent of the country’s GDP, the sector employs 35 million people, making it the second-largest employer after agriculture.
On the back of such demand, revivalists in the sectors believe that both traditions remain relevant because the crafts that created masterpieces are still practised. Recent years have seen a revival of interest in these within India, both by consumers and in sporadic efforts by the government. Designers such as Viren Bhagat, Hanut Singh and Alpana Gujral have made a name both within and outside the country. However, one of the toughest and most rewarding processes is to transform the vast unorganised sector into one that is organised.
“The techniques that Indian craftsmen use have endured,” says Dr Usha BalaKrishnan, jewellery historian and the author of books such as Dance of the Peacock and Jewels of the Nizam. “Indian styles of enamelling and pachchikam, which is setting gemstones in metal compartments, and kundan, where thin ribbons of gold are used to encase the gemstone, are technically different from the West.
“In recent years there has been a revival of demand for handcrafted ornaments. Most large jewellers operate on two levels — they create die-cast pieces for mass consumption; at the same time customers willing to pay the premium required can enjoy exclusive commission-based, one-of-a-kind pieces.”
New focus
Concentrated efforts by various stakeholders are ensuring that these traditions move to the organised sector. “In starting Ezma, our aim was to be the first company in India to produce cashmere in the organised sector,” says Sameer Mehra, the Managing Director of Ezma, a Delhi-based manufacturer and retailer of pashmina. “It required a fusion of skills, tradition and modern machinery. We have a 600-year-old tradition of producing pashmina, a fine type of cashmere wool and fabric. While the yarn and fabric were created in Kashmir, the wool came from the Indo-Tibetan border. A particularly finer weave, kani was the inspiration behind the Jacquard loom.”
From the government, the most recent initiative is a cotton report commissioned by the Cotton Textile Export Promotion Council (TEXPORIL), to create a road map for increasing textile exports from India and build confidence among lenders and investors.
The report, titled Cost Benchmarking Study-India vis-à-vis Bangladesh, Indonesia, Egypt, China, Pakistan and Turkey, examines everything from cost factors such as wages, power, water, transport and exchange rates to the competitiveness of the textile industry in India and these countries.
In the jewellery sector, the All India Gems and Jewellery Trade Federation, which was set up in 2005, is working with the government on a ten-year plan. “We are 20 directors from around the country trying to reskill people through a curriculum that we are developing,” says C Vinod Hayagriv, Managing Director of Bengaluru-based jewellery company, C Krishniah Chetty and Sons. “The goal is to provide skills to about 75,000 people in five years, by creating minimum standards of training, skill and certification in every field, including handcrafting, casting, diamond cutting, retail and sales.”
Curriculum designers have a task ahead of them since these skills and techniques are not documented. In some cases just the use of a name will tell you what, where and how a piece was created. Dr BalaKrishnan says, “One of the unique and defining things about Indian jewellery is that a necklace is not just a necklace. There are names that indicate several things — the source of design inspiration, the motifs, the region and the community it comes from. A rupaiya haar (rupee necklace) is pan-Indian. It is known as a Kasu mala in the south, where kasu means coin. The tradition can be traced back to the second century when there was a vibrant Roman trade. Exports were paid for in Roman gold coins, which the tradesmen made a hole in and strung up. Later the coin necklace became > more sophisticated with intricate designs depicting deities of choice.”
Word-of-mouth, skill of hand
Lack of documentation and labelling are among the biggest challenges for both sectors. Historical records work as a bridge between generations, making people aware of the fine print in the legend. Unfortunately, for most Indians, unless they are directly involved in the craft, information is hard to come by. Weavers, traders and Wikipedia can tell us, for instance, that the kota fabric, famed for its gossamer lightness, uses silk as well as cotton threads. In jewellery, it’s common for goldsmiths to pass off die-struck pieces as handmade.
“Purity has been a major concern due to the lack of labelling,” says Mehra. “It is not mandatory by law to display on a fabric what the contents are. If you look at high-end shawls in India, the retailer will often decide the price after ascertaining how much the consumer can pay. There is no labelling for authenticity, fibre content or pricing. So in case of cashmere or pashmina, which is made from a specific type of wool, the consumer can end up with a shawl made of polyester, bleached wool or silk.”
Dr BalaKrishnan says not branding art forms is also a tradition of sorts. “There is even a debate on who the architect of the Taj Mahal was. In the case of miniature paintings executed for Mughal emperors, only in recent years have some scholars begun to trace little signatures and started identifying them by technique.”
She compares Indian jewellery majors’ lack of documentation with their international counterparts. “Paris-based jeweller Cartier, for instance, signed and numbered their pieces and preserved records of commissions and designs. In India, when it comes to records, sometimes in inventories of royal jewellery you come across mentions of ten necklaces or five sarpech (a turban ornament) or 20 armbands. These are valuable but don’t tell you the weight of each piece or the stones used.”
With family-owned jewellery companies, accounts books sometimes act as historical records. All almost a century-and-a-half old, C Krishniah Chetty, Ganjam in Bengaluru and Jaipur Gem Palace have been working to preserve their history — Dr BalaKrishnan has created coffee-table books showcasing the Bengaluru jeweller’s work. Gem Palace’s collection of historic pieces dates back to the 16th century with specimens including a gold drinking flask in the form of a life-size parakeet with wings covered in rubies and diamonds, and an enamel necklace and bracelets worn by the Mughal emperor Jahangir, who ruled from 1605 to 1627. “We were jewellers to about 20 different kingdoms and sometimes see pieces that we had created come up for auctions in different parts of the world,” says Hayagriv. The process of documentation included inviting families to share information in the form of old pieces of jewellery, bills, wills, records, documents, old photographs and stories.
The retail sector is slowly moving towards a more organised format, nudged by foreign direct investment (FDI). Hayagriv says, “Nothing is stopping us from going international and growing as a brand. FDI in single brands has made it possible to bring in funds from outside into India. The time is right for strategic partnerships from across the gold industry that allow us to harness our heritage.”
