IN PRAISE OF A FINE YARN

The Weavers’ Service Centre promoted collaborations between traditional weavers and trained artists with the aim to revitalize the handloom sector and transform traditional weaving skills and design vocabulary

- Meera Menezes

When cultural activist Pupul Jayakar was trying to set up the design centres of the All India Handloom Board in 1955, one of the persons she approached for help was the young painter K.G. Subramanyan. He readily agreed. In his essay “Do hands have a chance?” brought out in a volume to felicitate Jayakar on her 70th birthday, Subramanyan detailed what attracted him to this cause. “Though I subscribed to the idea that creative artists and craftsmen are rare and especially endowed individuals, the idea of maintaining and presenting familial traditions of refined craft practice from one generation to the next intrigued me no end.”

Subramanyan was also conscious that millions of people depended on handicrafts for their survival and that modern and mechanized systems of production – necessary for spurring a newly independent nation’s economy – posed a threat to their existence. This could push vibrant craft forms that had been flourishing for centuries to the brink of extinction. Urgent support systems were required and the Weavers’ Service Centre (WSC) set up in 1956 was one such initiative that filled that gap.

The design centres had a pan-Indian presence and were located in four zones: North, South, East and West. While some of them were in the metros, others were close to traditional weaving centres such as Varanasi, Kanchipuram, Bhagalpur and Indore. Many had both weaving and printing facilities, where master weavers adroitly translated designs into fabric.