Saving the ancient Bandhani fabric of Gujarat

Tag : Colours Textile

Saving the ancient Bandhani fabric of Gujarat
By V.N. BalakrishnaAhmedabad | August 10, 2008 11:05:08 AM IST

Mention Bandhani and immediately what comes to mind is brightfabric of immaculate quality and rich history. Now, the spoiler -the brand is in urgent need of being rescued from the clutches ofunscrupulous dealers who are peddling low quality products in thename of Bandhani.
The Jamnagar and Kutch areas of Gujarat are associated withBandhani. The fabric is specially tie-dyed by hand. The art ofmaking these cotton and silk clothes of vibrant designs and colourshave been passed down through generations. The Sindhis, Muslims andKhatris of Kutch are known to have practised this art.
"Bandhani is a list of products and does not refer only to saris.It can be a turban, sari, or even dupattas and the material may becotton or silk. Bandhani refers to particular areas in Jamnagar andKutch districts where this ancient art was prevailing," R.M.Shanker, a research officer of Atira (The Ahmedabad TextileIndustry's Research Association), said.
Today however this fabric runs the risk of losing its identity asthe name is being attached to low quality products. The governmentplans to combat that by attaching a geographical indication (GI)tag to the real thing.
"The union ministry of textiles has in consultation with stategovernments prepared a list of 5,000 textile items and under theinitiative of the United Nations the Bandhani saris and Kutchishawls could be included for GI registration," Shanker told IANS.
GI refers to a country or a place that conveys an assurance ofquality, antiquity and distinctiveness, Sankar elaborated.
However, GI recognition can take time. It is the stakeholders whohave to file the application for GI registration and Atira is onlya facilitator.
The government has now realised bogus Bandhani fabric could soundthe death knell of the original ones. To save the Bandhanitradition, the commerce ministry had recommended to the World TradeOrganisation (WTO) to cover Bandhani in the Intellectual PropertyRights (IPR) and GI.
A part of the WTO agreement is about IPR. It covers severalindustries like pharmaceuticals. Called intellectual trading andbased on intellectual products comprising know-how, designs andinnovations in textiles too are now being covered.
In India the textile ministry is doing further research on the5,000 textile products selected for their antiquity and are workingtowards preventing misuse of their brand name.vnb/ak/jg/tb
(437 Words)**10080958NNNN (IANS)