Kashmir’s kani shawl weavers feel left out in cold

Sajad Mir is weaving a shawl he started seven months ago. He says it will take him a couple of more weeks to complete it. 

Sajid and his brother run a loom where they, along with some other young men of the Kanihama village in Kashmir, weave special kani shawls by hand the entire day.

Another weaver, Firdous Ahmed Shah, has been practising the craft for decades. He touches his loom only after offering his morning prayers as he believes that the money earned using this skill is as sacred as the craft itself. 

The intricate patterns of Kanihama shawls tell the story of the hard work that goes into weaving each piece, but the hands that power the loom are longing for due recognition – and reward.

All streets lead to beautiful shawls

The weavers of Kanihama produce 600-700 shawls each year that sell for lakhs of rupees in the market. 

It is said that Kanihama village is where the beautiful kani shawls were first created. Once known as Gund Kawarhama, the village of Kanihama got its new name from the kani or spool – a wooden tool used to make these shawls. The spools are in fact made within the village using special wood collected from nearby forests.

Every street of Kanihama, located in central Kashmir’s Budgam district, leads to a handloom where weavers spin delicate Pashmina yarn with different coloured threads to create different design patterns.

On cold winter days, the smoke arising from the fire lit by weavers to warm their hands beckons visitors to these handlooms, showing that the artisans are hard at work. 

The shawls of Kanihama

Despite the availability of machine-made shawls in the market, there is high demand for Kanihama shawls due to their unique handmade character. In some parts of the Valley, brides wear these shawls, custommade by Kanihama weavers, as part of their family tradition. 

One of the most unique features of this shawl is that it looks the same on both sides. It stands out for its softness. Also, unlike other Kashmiri shawls, kani wraps don’t feature embroidery work and the different patterns are woven on the loom itself.

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The price of kani shawls starts from Rs 35,000 and goes up to Rs 3 lakh. The cost may not seem steep when you see what goes into the making of a single piece. 

Pashmina from Ladakh is meticulously handspun by the women of the Valley on a spinning wheel locally known as the yender. This is later placed vertically on the loom and used to make the warp base of the shawl. The weft threads for creating traditional patterns on the shawl are dyed in different colours before being horizontally interwoven with the warp. 

Kanihama village is home to about 400 families, 80% of which comprise weavers. The children of the family start working with the threads when they are as young as 10 years old. It takes months to learn the craft, and like with any other craft, there is no limit to honing the skill. 

According to locals, at a time when Kashmir’s shawl weaving craft was about to vanish, a political leader – Ghulam Muhammad Kanihama – worked hard to revive it. 

According to the locals, it was in the 1960s that Ghulam Muhammad Kanihama, who was a legislator from Beerwah in Budgam district, set up a loom at his house and appointed an artisan to train some of the villagers. He also used to spend his spare time with weavers to show them the antique designs. 

Ghulam Muhammad Kanihama died in 2001. But today, the village is home to thousands of artisans who preserve this craft as their cultural legacy.

The village was recognised as a craft tourism village by the Ministry of Textiles, Government of India, in 2020. Only five villages received this recognition. The shawls of Kanihama also have their own GI (Geographical Indication) tag. 

Many artisans from Kanihama have won national awards for their work. But they are now apprehensive that the hardships faced by them and loss of interest in the craft among the younger generation could lead to its decline. 

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The golden hands need help

Shabir Ahmed received a national award for promoting the craft of weaving in 2017. This led to new opportunities for him to participate in exhibitions outside the Valley where he showcased his work. 

But Shabir feels that the younger generation is not showing interest in the kani craft. 

“It requires a lot of patience and you need to sit all day on the loom to make these shawls,” he said. 

The demand for kani shawls in India and abroad is high, according to Shabir. Some sellers, however, mislead customers by selling them machinemade shawls in the name of handwoven ones. 

The machinemade shawls are rough on one side, and also lack the softness of a handwoven piece. They cost from Rs 5,000 to Rs 20,000. 

“A customer who values originality can easily differentiate between the two,” he said. 

The lost pride

Faisal Wani was only 10 years old when he learnt how to weave. He has been in the craft for over 22 years now, and never left it despite facing the ups and downs. He believes that weaving is a cultural legacy that he is carrying forward. 

“There was a time when weavers used to keep the kani behind their ears as a sign of pride, but now only God knows our condition and how we manage our livelihood. The state of artisans today is worse than that of a labourer,” he said.

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Faisal feels that the families of weavers would starve if the government doesn’t provide them free ration. He adds that the middlemen who own shops make profits from the schemes provided by the government and also take away the credit of the artisans’ work.

“Our earnings are not even enough for us to give our children a good education,” Faisal said. 

The artisans feel they are at a disadvantage while the loom owners walk away happily.

“We have given our lives to this craft, but the only money we get is the wages provided to us by the loom owners. A weaver gets Rs 30,000 to make one piece of shawl and the loom owner sells the same shawl for double the amount,” Shah said. 

The craft of weaving kani shawls has been passed down for generations in Kanihama. But the community now fears that if the situation doesn’t change, the practice will lose its charm. 

“It’s only the weaver who keeps the craft alive,” Shah said.

The lead image at the top shows weavers of Kanihama village in central Kashmir’s Budgam district working on the loom (Photo by Urvat il Wuska)

Urvat il Wuska is an independent multimedia journalist based in Kashmir, covers culture, gender and human rights.