Weaves of Telangana - Maggam Show

 I was invited to Maggam, the vastra show by my friends Nitisha Baalay, Bharati Kuttoor and Bharati Swatantra and it was indeed a wonderful evening thanks to them. India has a textile weaving tradition of more than five thousand years. As a historian, I am aware of how rich  our textile trade was in the past and how it was systematically destroyed from  19th century onwards. Many of the foreign travellers from Marco Polo to Nuniz, who  visited India in the ancient and medieval period wrote about the textiles of India in glowing terms. Today there are about two lakh forty thousand weavers in Telangana itself  with about seventeen thousand working handlooms  and three hundred and thirty six weavers cooperative. Unfortunately, today our handloom industry is in a crisis and many weavers have committed suicide and have lost their livelihood for we have turned our face from handlooms to machine made materials that are cheap and easy to maintain but have no identity of their own. Many of the children of the weavers do not want to go into weaving and have become daily waged labourers. This was a wonderful initiative to show case not only the handloom sarees but also the modern dress, office wear, gents clothing made with handlooms. I have always been a  big advocate of handlooms, having only  two kind of sarees in my wardrobe, silks and  handlooms from all over the country. I have been a big fan of the sarees of Telangana for more than half a century now. The Pochampally, the Gadwal, the Narayan pet, the Gollabama, the Ikkat  the Dharmavaralm, the Uppada and the karnool cottons have been my favourite. It was a great experience to watch this show that had all varieties of handlooms and the show, was interspersed with short films on weavers craft, Kuchipudi dance. There was also a Jewellery collection of Telangana that was showcased. Mrs. Smriti Irani the Union minister of Textile inaugurated this with Giriraj Singh and Muralidhar Rao who is taking a great initiative in popularising handlooms. The show was organised by CBMD, Community based Mobilization for Development. I only wish and hope that the younger generation takes to handlooms, at least as a fashion statement and pumps in some fresh blood  into this industry and give a renewed lease of life to these weavers of our state that weave magic into our fabrics and  sarees with their breathtaking designs and patterns.

A great show and I am thankful to the organisers for this initiative. I am a great advocate of handlooms and my wardrobe consists of only Silks and handlooms from all over the country. I feel sad that today the weavers are committing suicide and their children are becoming daily waged labourers. We have turned to machine made fabrics and forgotten the rich weaving tradition that we have. Maggam showcased not only the sarees, but even office going clothes and gents clothes made in handlooms. I only wish the younger generation adopts handlooms and gives a breath of fresh air to this dying industry and the weavers that weave magic with their designs and patterns.