The resilient weaving community of Kutch

By Nikita Shastri

A small town in Gujarat is one of the major centres for textiles and crafts in the region. Bhujodi, located eight km from Bhuj is a traveller’s delight not just for the abundant textile variety but also for the vibrant Vankar and Rabari communities that have called it home for centuries. 

The Vankar community are experts in handicrafts including weaving and tie and dye and form an important part of Kutch’s handicraft industry and trade where almost every family is involved in the handicrafts industry.

The 500-year-old village Bhujodi and the communities in it form a unique ecosystem that has led to the region’s prosperity. Bhujodi is built around a central road that branches off from the Bhuj-Anjar highway. The zone has characteristic one-storey structures flanking the road. And, in almost each such structure, there is a loom with a family involved in the handicraft trade.

The ecosystem of the trade

The Vankar community is known as the weaving and cloth trading community. Earlier, the Vankar weavers would make and sell their works to the Rabaris and the Ahirs only. Rabaris being the herding community and Ahirs the farming community of the region. Interestingly, the Ahirs would only choose the brightly-coloured fabrics while the herding Rabari community opt for the black and white undyed yarn fabric.

The relationship between the Vankar weavers and the Ahirs and Rabaris is interesting and unique. When the trade was in its initial stages, each Vankar weavers was associated with a Rabari family and an Ahir family. The Rabari family would supply yarn from the sheep and goats they were rearing and the Ahirs would grow kala cotton.

In the earlier days, the fabric woven by the Vankar weavers would be much heavier weighing around three kilograms as opposed to that of today that is much lighter. The Bhujodi shawls, as they are commonly known, were worn for daily use and for special occasions too by the locals.

The wool collected by the Rabaris would be used to make shawls, blankets, skirts, etc. And the cotton grown by the Ahirs would be used to make headgear, smaller shoulder cloths, etc. 

The story of survival and revival

The story of the traditional communities of Bhujodi is as interesting as that of the zone itself. Most people may remember Bhuj because of the devastating 2001 Gujarat earthquake that levelled several cities and towns in the Kutch region. Despite the catastrophe, the region not just recovered but soon flourished narrating the story of resilience of the locals.

The Kutch village of Bhujodi prospered for more than five centuries before losing everything to the natural calamity and then regained all that it had lost. The weavers of Bhujodi were running a successful trade through sheer hard work and by forming a cooperative for collective prosperity. The famous Bhujodi fabrics and handicrafts were being supplied across India and overseas and had made a name for itself.

When the 2001 earthquake happened, it destroyed the village and everything that had given the locals a regular source of income and an identity – the looms, the work sheds, etc. Not only did the weavers lose their income-generating source but the entire infrastructure was destroyed leaving them with little means to sustain themselves. 

It was then that a few Bhujodi weavers decided to bring back their cooperative and initiated what would later become an inspiring story of survival and revival. The Vankar weavers of Bhujodi paved their own way for sustenance and bounced back as if nothing ever happened to them. 

The blooming trade

Over time, the Bhujodi weavers and artisans have created a huge array of products that are in demand not just in India but worldwide. For decades, the hardworking weavers have worked weaving beautiful fabrics and supplying to loyal patrons.

Earlier, the designs on the fabric would be representative of the community that was wearing the cloth. These included the shapes of musical instruments, footsteps of a herd of animals, etc. Even the names of the motifs were symbolic of the rural life such as satkani, dholki, vakhiyo, chaumukh, etc.

Today, the many workshops in the region weave out fabrics and handicrafts of all kinds. These include bags, bedsheets, blankets, shawls, kurtis, chaniya cholis, skirts, blouses, etc. Most families in the region have been involved in the trade for generations. Many workers who start working in the workshops eventually start their own business too.

The trade has flourished and expanded over the years. Today, the kurtis and bedsheets are mostly made of cotton while the shawls are made of wool. A lot of kurtis, shawls and chaniya cholis are made from ‘Mushroom Fabric’. The cotton and Mushroom Fabric are brought from Ajrakhpur in Bhuj and Ahmedabad and the wool from Ahmedabad and Ludhiana in Punjab.

The challenges faced by the community

Today, as the trade has expanded and prospered, the challenges faced by the community have increased too. With the customers getting easy access to diversity and new fabrics and designs all over, there has been a pressure on the weaving community to diversify and experiment with the designs also.

Not only do the customers want new designs now, they want them delivered sooner. The increased accessibility to e-commerce portals has significantly affected customer behaviour and expectations.

The weavers are now in a race to create new and fresh designs and deliver them much faster than before. The patterns weaved so far by these weavers have been passed down for generations and to diversify or experiment with new designs will take some time which the customer may not understand or accept.

Also, the demands are swiftly surpassing the supply, particularly that of the intellectual property owned by the Vankar weaver. Demands for their products during the monsoon period get hit drastically owing to weather conditions. During the humid season, dyeing takes longer than in others. The weavers will have to account for these factors to ensure there is a regular supply for the demand made worldwide. 

The way ahead

Over the past few decades, there have been a range of entities that have helped the Vankar weaving community diversify and stay relevant to the times. So, the weaver has diversified from the traditional shawls and carpets to new products such as skirts, bags, bedsheets. Also, they have experimented with the designs to keep up with the contemporary trends. 

Over time, there have been significant changes in the social fabric of the community also. The community has faced social ills prevalent during the time such as untouchability and were deprived of the opportunities and the incentives available to other groups in the region. However, with their financial prosperity, the social fabric has changed too and more members are now getting educated and availing new opportunities. 

As for the women, they have come a long way too. Earlier, in Bhujodi, the women would only be involved in the pre-loom work that included readying the yarn and weaving was restricted to the men. However, now, the women work equally with the men and weave at the loom participating in the creating new designs and products.

It was in 2012 when the Kutchi shawl was granted the Geographical Indication (GI) tag that has greatly benefited the hereditary weavers of the region. The tag has helped the community in a big way and has boosted the prospects of marketing their products all over.

(Nikita Shastri is a researcher with The History and Heritage Project – a DraftCraft International Initiative to document details, analyse facts and plug lacunae generated by oversight or to further national or foreign agenda in History and Heritage Across India and Beyond Borders)