“Faded looms and the Curled old threads”-on the visit to a handloom village

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From my early childhood I was interested in the handloom industry of Bangladesh, especially after I read about its glorious past in the textbook mingled with the myth of ‘moslin’ (in which class I can’t remember). Later I started to know about the real scenario, though it was like ‘catching a glimpse of the ocean’. Some of the facts that I knew about it were, it satisfies about 50 per cent of fabrics’ requirement of the country, and is next only to agriculture in creating employment in the Bangladesh countryside.

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For those who love stats (like the previous line!!), here are some more (from internet).More than 10 million people are directly or indirectly linked with handloom industry. No other industry can create jobs in the country as quickly. Handloom products can be much better export earners as well. There is a big international market for ready-made garments (RMG), made of handloom fabrics. By adding value to handloom fabrics, the RMG industry can multiply earnings and also boost domestic handloom production. Fabrics, known as Grameen Check, Dhaka Check and Aarong Check produced by weavers, are good garment material for the export-oriented RMG industry. Skull caps, lungis, gamchas, bedsheets, and bedcovers made of hand woven fabrics are exported to the Middle Eastern and the South East Asian countries. The RMG industry has unutilized potential to add value to hand woven fabrics. And the demand for handloom products is growing in the international market. But, handloom remains a neglected sector. According to recent media reports, 37.6 per cent of the handlooms in Bangladesh remain idle. According to a recent media report about 70 per cent of the handlooms have been closed down in the Narsingdi district, once known as the Manchester of Bangladesh for its exquisite handloom textiles. It is now a shadow of what it once had been. Reportedly, 0.1 million looms were, thus, closed down in the district over the last thirty-five years, throwing over 80,000 weavers out of employment. This picture of the handloom industry in other parts of the country is no different.

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With my gradual becoming of a traveler(self proclaimed), I wished to come in close contact with this industry of which I have heard so much about, and of course with its people, for once at least in my lifetime. Because of those stats (not known to me until very recently) the terror of not fulfilling my desire engulfed me, as I thought this industry might extinct within a very short time. Well, that might have been a little over anxious thought, but I decided to hurry (don’t laugh at me!!). And I eventually made this trip to ‘Hatpangashi gram’ of Shirajgonj district, as I had info that even though some famous places are on the verge of extinction (!!!!), this village is still a great place to see the pros and cons of this industry. Though, all the ever existing vicious cycles are undoubtedly present here, this village can definitely give an idea of the great potential that this industry has. Most of the pictures taken there and included in this writing are obviously self explanatory (try to understand guys!!!).

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Like most of the news paper reports I can cry for the betterment of this industry, here, in this village and of course for the people who are directly related to it, but I know that won’t change things much. Rather, I invite you all to visit this village, have the pleasure of watching things ‘live’, which eventually you would have to see in the “National Geographic”, sooner or later (take it as a “Mayan Prophecy”!!!!). If at least some are inspired and visit the spot by themselves, that is something I would call the beginning of a “Movement”’, if not a “Renaissance”, rather than shouting for government’s steps like the old times.

Contributed by:

Rajib Goswami, BUET, Bangladesh (Details)

Shiddartho Goushami, DU, Bangladesh

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