"Great Handicrafts war" menaces pashmina trade

Posted on 20 mar 2008

The "Great Handicrafts war" began between India and Pakistan. Pashmina wool unleashes this war. Each of these states declared that pashmina wool represent a major industry in their region. And that’s why India and Pakistan are fighting over who can have the name "Kashmir pashmina". While immersed in the intricacies of his craft, Malla is becoming increasingly aware that it is at the center of a cross-border controversy being fought out far from his workplace.

Malla is an old hand at the trade with 40 years of experience, has to navigate through these delicate threads made up of 12-micron filaments (a human hair is 200 microns wide) by hand. His dream is to evolve a machine that can handle the legendary pashmina wool. With the help of his loom, he manages to regulate the weak and extra-weak points of this finest wool and with every calculated stroke gives the cloth a shape to envy. If everything goes on time as Malla considers, he will produce a superfine pashmina shawl within a week.

"There is a history of hostility between India and Pakistan and anything attached to Kashmir automatically becomes sensitive," says Ashfaq Ahmad Mattoo, spokesperson of Kashmir Handmade Pashmina Promotion Trust (KHPPT) a body of pashmina artisans.

New Delhi-backed Craft Development Institute (CDI) added that Pashmina is one of the world's most sought-after fabrics in the fashion market and traces its origins to Kashmir. "The elegance, softness, warmth and number of other features make it the numero uno in its class," says Ahmad Fayaz, a handicraft dealer Srinagar.

For Malla, the confrontation is the dawn of a dark era for the already struggling industry. "After witnessing unprecedented growth, we are going downhill," Malla said.

The pashmina products face serious and difficult competition from other countries. "China is making pashmina, New Zealand is making pashmina, Australia is making pashmina, Nepal and many other countries are making pashmina," said Mattoo.

Pashmina wool comes from the mountain goat Capra Hircus, reared by Drokpa nomads in the higher altitudes of the Changthang plateau, spread between the Ladakh region of Kashmir and China. Most of the Changthang plateaus, where these goats live, are in China. In this way all thought that China will flood the market with pashmina wool after increasing the Capra Hircus population and investing heavily in the sector. To produce a single shawl you are need for 200 to 300gr of wools. An average pashmina goat in Kashmir yields 300-350 grams fine wool, while in China the goat yields 350 to 400 grams.

"China is way ahead of us. They have invested heavily, made new weaving facilities and factories and are breeding pashmina goats on scientific lines," said one trader. China is a state which produces 70 percent of the roughly 20,000 tonnes of cashmere wool made in the world and a large amount of it is also branded as pashmina wool.

While describing the difference between India and Pakistan, Mattoo said, "Cashmere wool is anywhere between 14-19 micron in thickness while the pashmina wool is 12-14 microns thick." Matoo thinks that Chinese and other traders are also flooding the market with falsification and machine-made shawls in the name of Kashmir pashmina, hurting the reputation of the Kashmir brand. Because pure pashmina is a handicraft which cannot be woven on machines as it is too delicate for the task. So some manufacturers blend it with other wools or synthetic yarn to make it more durable.

Some traders in the Indian state have been seen to be using silicon softener on the wool to make it look like the real pashmina. "But that lasts for just one wash," said Mattoo. Kashmir remains the only place where pashmina is being worked on by hand without any kind of mechanical help beyond the simple loom.

"Nobody has the skill possessed by Kashmiris in this regard and if we register this, we will be simply registering the gold mine in our name," said Mattoo.

No one knows the end of this incredible war. It can have a best finish, if both states will jointly file the application and reap the benefits in a mutual way, or a worst one, if they will fight over the issue endlessly.