This is not about politics but about our collective apathy towards our own people, our own roots that define us.
Kashmir has some of the most refined crafts and the most skilled artisans. These crafts are a living document of our ties with Persia, Central Asia, Europe...
What a colossal loss of our historical and cultural heritage it would be to lose even a 10th of this artisanry.
I say this because I know a weaver from Sambhalpur who is employed as a plumber in my neighbourhood.
He's thankful that at least he has a job.
I am mournful that a highly skilled Ikat weaver is reduced to fixing leaky taps and unclogging drains.
If only we knew how rare and valuable his skills are, how his weaving links our culture to those in Cambodia, Indonesia thanks to the Kalinga empire.
With Kashmir, it is a political stifling, with some other states it is driven by casteism or poverty or apathy of markets or some other empathetically addressable predicament. Whatever the reason, it is sad to see us lose our vernaculars in the hand made sector, a medium of expression as important as art, performing arts and the written or spoken word.
But do we care?
Read the full article in THE WIRE
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