On August 7th, many groups all over the world need to come together and participate in a "World Handloom Day" in their respective countries and states to celebrate the sustenance of handloom-based textile production and asking Governments to be more responsible to the people dependent on such livelihoods. In Asian Countries, where handloom production is a major economic activity, marking this day would help in promoting traditional, environment-friendly livelihoods, employment and economy.
Handloom production the world over did and would make artisans self-respecting, self-reliant, self-supporting and last but not least, humane. It would teach us how to organise our capital, our resources, our labour, our energies, our talents, for the greatest good of all human beings. Promotion of handloom sector should be accompanied by the advocacy of the environmental conservation and boycott of polluting textile goods.
World Handloom Day is aimed at arousing sentiments of the people towards history, present and future. It would lead to reminiscing the past, analyzing the present and building a sustainable future. To celebrate such a Day has many implications. It can create economic pressure on textile competition, a weapon of political agitation against discrimination and a training in self-sufficiency for the attainment of growth in handloom sector.
Scholars have long recognized the co-existence of small-scale, decentralized production with large-scale capitalist enterprise. But the resurgence of small-scale manufacture in recent years suggests that smaller units are not simply some "survival" of an earlier stage of development but an integral part of the emerging structure of contemporary capitalism. In the textile industry, the importance of small "handloom" factories has grown in recent years from a place of virtual write-off to one of inevitable in the Indian market. A complex set of productive relations have mark the growth of handloom industry, including sub-contracting and more informal (but often more intense) forms of control over labor.
On World Handloom Day, there is a need to explore the origins, consolidation and expansion of the handloom industry, examining a series of questions central to understanding its growth. What technological changes and structural shifts made possible the emergence of this sector during the late colonial period? How have the domestic cloth market, technological changes, structural shifts and the policies of the Indian state affected the handloom industry? What forms of production relations and control over labor have been associated with the handlooms and how have these affected labor's capacity to organize?
Celebration of World Handloom Day will contribute not only to an understanding of the rise of the handloom industry, but to a more general appreciation of the factors that have promoted decentralized production globally in a wide range of industries.
Globally, more and more communities, states and even countries are demanding that their production be kept pollution free and asking for stopping textile technologies from killing environmental resources.
On August 7th, many organisations including handloom weavers, consumer groups, teachers, traders and handloom industry representatives along with environmental and civil society organisations can come together to celebrate. You can organise any event, within your resources – innovation would help.
We are putting together a central coordination, where information would be shared, across the world, of various events.
People and organisations are requested to organise their own events. A short note of information about the event would help in coordination. All these events can be put on the website. Please give us a call or send us a confirmation mail / sms / letter.
World Handloom Day this year would mark the beginning of an effort to enhance the growth of handloom sector, revive the livelihoods of handloom weavers and protection of scarce natural resources.
Thanking you,
Yours truly
Dr. D. Narasimha Reddy (09010205742)
E-mail: nreddy.donthi@gmail.com
For the organisers
Chetana Society and Chenetha Colour Weaves Pvt. Ltd
www.chetanasociety.in
E-mail: chethanahyd@gmail.com
Post By: chandrasekharnemani
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