The Great Indian Bazaar - South India and Kerala - page 988

Terrific Textiles
Textile production is India's major industry and around 40% takes place at the village level,
where it's known as khadi (homespun cloth) - hence the government-backed khadi empori-
ums around the country. These inexpensive superstores sell all sorts of items made from
khadi , including the popular Nehru jackets and kurta pyjamas (long shirt and loose-fitting
trousers), with sales benefiting rural communities.
You'll find a truly amazing variety of weaving and embroidery techniques around India.
In tourist centres such as Goa, textiles are stitched into popular items such as shoulder
bags, wall hangings, cushion covers, bedspreads, clothes and much more.
Appliqué is an ancient art in India, with most states producing their own version, often
featuring abstract or anthropomorphic patterns. The traditional lampshades and pandals
(tents) used in weddings and festivals are usually produced using the same technique.
In Adivasi (tribal) areas of Gujarat and Rajasthan, small pieces of mirrored glass are em-
broidered onto fabric, creating eye-catching bags, cushion covers and wall hangings. Gujar-
at has a diversity of textile traditions: Jamnagar is famous for its vibrant bandhani (tie-dye
work) used for saris and scarves, among other things, and Vadodara is renowned for block-
printed fabrics, used for bedspreads and clothing. These glorious creations are sold in shops
right around the country, so keep your eyes peeled.
Block-printed and woven textiles are sold by fabric shops all over India: each region has
its own speciality. The India-wide retail chain-store Fabindia ( www.fabindia.com ) is striv-
ing to preserve traditional patterns and fabrics, transforming them into home-decor items
and Indian- and Western-style fashions.
Odisha has a reputation for bright appliqué and ikat (a Southeast Asian technique where
thread is tie-dyed before weaving). The town of Pipli, between Bhubaneswar and Puri, pro-
duces striking appliqué work. The techniques used to create kalamkari cloth paintings in
Andhra Pradesh (a centre for this ancient art is Sri Kalahasti) and Gujarat are also used to
make lovely wall hangings and lampshades.
Lucknow, in Uttar Pradesh, is noted for hand-woven embroidered chikan cloth, which
has intricate floral motifs. Punjab is famous for the attractively folksy phulkari embroidery
(flowerwork with stitches in diagonal, vertical and horizontal directions), while women in
West Bengal use chain stitches to make complex figurative designs called kantha . A similar
technique is used to make gabbas, women's kurtas (long shirts) and men's wedding jackets
in Kashmir.