Kashmir’s Unsung Kani Shawl Weaver !

The exquisite Kani Shawls made in Kashmir were once favourite of Mughal, Afghan, Sikh and Dogra rulers in Kashmir. The British aristocrats also admired this product, especially their women. This art might become a thing of past soon if not given proper attention. The reason is that like many other artisan communities the traditional Kani Shawl weavers are unable to pass on this skill to their younger generation. Many of them don’t do this due to lack of societal acceptance to this skilled work and some say that the younger generation don’t have so much patience to learn this art, especially those who are educationally qualified. In such a scenario if some artisans are able to pass on this skill to more and more people, especially their own children, we need to appreciate that.

The 71 year old Farooq Ahmad Mir is one among them. He has not only taught Kani Shawl weaving art to almost 350 people in Srinagar’s old city but his own children are professional Kani-Shawl weavers. All his three sons are well educated and one of them is a post graduate in Economics. Unfortunately in spite of having been awarded at state and national level by top dignitaries including the Prime Minister and Union Textile Minister, Farooq Ahmad Mir is an unsung weaver and not much has been discussed or written about his great work till date.

The 16th century Persian book Ain-i-Akbari records that Emperor Akbar was an avid collector of Kani Shawls made in Kashmir. These shawls are made from pashmina wool. Instead of shuttle use in pashmina shawl, Kani Shawl is made using Cane Needles (Kani), which is similar to carpet weaving. The pattern is woven into a shawl and takes 4 to 18 months to make one product.

Who is Farooq Ahmad Mir?

Farooq Ahmad was born in the year 1953 in Khaiwan Narwara area of Srinagar’s old city. His father Ghulam Mohammad Mir was noted pashmina shawl weaver and his 5 generations have been into this art. Mir was born in a poor weaver’s family and education was a distant dream for him like many other weaver families. He learnt shawl weaving right from a young age and from the age of 14 years he started working on handlooms from dawn to dusk and supported his family business. Because of his passion for this art Farooq Ahmad Mir became one of the finest weavers in locally woven shawls & developed some rare skills to weave master pieces. Although Farooq sahib could not get formal school education he worked hard to send his siblings to school which included his three younger brothers and two sisters. During his 60 year long career Farooq Ahmad Mir has taught almost 350 artisans directly and indirectly he has given Kani Shawl skills to thousands.

The 20th century was an era of science & technology but in the 21st century it was felt that industrialization was like a curse on mankind due to excessive fossil fuel emissions etc. The handmade goods thus got a great significance in the international market. Mir is definitely one of the pioneers who helped to save this heritage. He is not only the saviour of this heritage but passed on this legacy to his three sons Majid, Altaf and Fayaz. All the three brothers are recipients of prestigious state and national awards in Kani Shawl work. This is a great achievement indeed.

Awarded by PM Modi

The art of weaving Kani Shawl till early 1990s had almost vanished but Farooq Ahmad Mir worked passionately to keep this art form alive. He empowered hundreds of young men and women to enable them to earn their livelihood through this art. Handloom is an ancient art and mostly it is treated as a poor man’s job & that is the reason the new generation was reluctant to make their career in this sector, especially Kani Shawl art. Kani shawl is an ancient art and this art form had almost vanished around late 1940s. Only the weavers of Kanihama in Budgam had kept this artform alive; they had learnt this from veteran artists in Srinagar’s old city and from Kanihama. Mir took an initiative and started Kani Shawl weaving in the 1990s by introducing new designs, and trained more people including his sons.

Farooq Ahmad Mir has got multiple awards in pashmina Kani weaving. He got National Award 2007, Thakur Ved Ram National Award 2011-2012. He was also given Kamala Award (Shanta Prasad Award) 2018 and prestigious State Award for excellence in Arts & Crafts 2019. Farooq Ahmad Mir has the distinction to be the National Awardee in Kani Shawl art from Govt. of India (under Ministry of Textiles). Mir has a distinction of being awarded prestigious Sant Kabir Award -2014. This award was presented to him by PM Modi in Chennai on August 7th 2015.

Conclusion

The Kani Shawl products made by Sant Kabir awardee Farooq Ahmad Mir and his sons are not only sold in the country but it has an international market as well. Recently the Amabani family purchased more than 100 Kani Shawls from Mir’s through their Swadesh company for Anant Ambani’s wedding. TATA subsidiary Taneira and Aditya Birla group are also some of their prestigious clients. 

Dr Raja Muzaffar Bhat is an Acumen Fellow. He is Founder / Chairman J&K RTI Movement and Anant Fellow for Climate Action