INDUSTRIES OF KASHMIR
J.C. Kumarappa
The very mention of Kashmir conjures up associations with beautifully embroidered shawls, most artistically painted papier mache work, dexterously carved wood work and wonderfully designed carets, but how many of us know the poverty, squalor and ignorance in which the skilled artisans, who produce these world renowned articles, live? A workman with a family tradition of skill generally makes only Rs 25 to Rs 30 a month in any of these trades dealing in luxury and artistic creations. The custom for these products is mostly in the curio markets. In any article of artistic merit the bulk of the cost is naturally in labour. But as there is a lack of organisation and capital among the artisans in Kashmir, the middlemen reap a rich harvest leaving little to labour.
Power: Kashmir, in common with all Himalayan tracts, has unlimited power available in the form of water mills. Flour grinding is commonly done with such power. To a limited extent rice is also dehusked in this way. Certain quantities of mustard seeds are produced; these can also be crushed by water power. At present, very little advantage is taken of this natural gift.
Textiles: The A.I.S.A. has stepped in and has helped to revive some sections of this industry, which were almost on the point of extinction; but the workman still gets a comparatively low return. In luxury trades, where the customer’s ability to pay is high, we should have expected a large share to go to the skilled workers; but this has not yet been achieved.
There is a certain amount of sericulture, which is a government monopoly. There is much scope for expansion in this industry. Sheep-breeding also is a basic problem as so much of Kashmir industries today depend on the quality of wool produced. There is a dangerous tendency for foreign wool to displace the local product. Unless the government takes immediate stes, ruin will overtake the production of wool in Kashmir and nearby valleys.
Paper and Papier mache: In a place near Ganderbal the A.I.S.A. is pulping rags by means of a water power mill and at Nowshera such pulp is being made into paper. The pulp for papier mache is generally produced from waste paper by trampling. Handmade paper was a well-known industry of Kashmir from remote times, but it is extinct today. The forests of Kashmir can well supply the raw materials from which paper pulp can be made. If the government helps in the supply of raw materials, these can be reduced to pulp by water power near the source of the raw material in places where such conveniences are available. Pulp-making can be organised cooperatively. Then the pulp can be distributed to papier mache workers and paper makers. Again, a cooperative organisation may be needed to market the products and to prepare stationery and so on.
Toy-making: Toy making from papier mache should be entrusted to experts in child psychology. India is flooded with foreign toys which have no relation to the life and the genius of our people. If we wish to give a proper direction to the next generation of citizens in their mode of life and standard of living we must begin with children. The impressions that toys make on young immature minds are lasting. Hence the importance that should be attached to this trade from the educational point of view.
School of Arts: The artisans are carrying on with age-worn motifs. There is a great need for a live School of Arts which will make a careful study of the famous old designs of Kashmir (some specimens of which can be seen at the Srinagar Museum) and supp;y fresh ones.
Pottery: There is a crude type of glazing done on pottery which can be much improved as good clay is available within the state. The papier-mache artist will not find it difficult to decorate these cups and saucers with simple designs of chenar leaves, woodpeckers or kingfishers which are so popular with them. The cheap Japanese handpainted crockery is often the work of children and hardly adds a price to the price of a cup and saucer.
Cattle Farming: The Veterinary Department can do much to increase the breed of cattle, which is extremely poor and undernourished.
Apiculture: Production of honey is generally carried out on very crude lines. Cottages have mud pots buried in the walls with small holes in the wall for the bees to go in. When the combs are full the honey is squeezed out of the combs. This is both unhygienic and uneconomic. Not enough propaganda is made by the Agricultural Department in favour of introducing modern methods. Up-to-date bee-keeping should be supplied. Instructions on bee-keeping should be given and demonstrated by qualified instructors from Government Apiaries conducted on up-to-date lines. Kashmir has many natural advantages which can easily make this a valuable subsidiary industry.
Poultry-keeping: The staple diet of the people is rice which requires to be supplemented by items which are rich in proteins such as milk, eggs, fish etc. There is certain amount of poultry-keeping, and ducks and geese are found everywhere. Still there is room for model poultry farms run by the Government.
Pisciculture: Though water is to be seen everywhere very little pisciculture is undertaken. What is done in the way of culturing trout is mainly for the sport of the Maharajah and his guests, and the nurseries, being preserves, are not available to the people. What are needed is popular varieties of fish which can be used by the local people for their own needs.
Fruit-preserving: During certain seasons Kashmir produces large quantities of fruits, such as strawberries, cherries, plums etc., which can be preserved by cottage processes if the necessary supply of sugar is forthcoming.
Manure: there is a certain amount of trade in furs obtained from the mountainous interior and from Tibet. The furrier hardly ever finds any use for the carcase of the animal. If bone meal and meat meal manure can be made from these the fields will be the richer for it.
Tourist traffic: Economics of Enterprise has little use for moral and cultural values. Its main concern is profits. This is especially noticeable in the tourist traffic industry. In places such as Switzerland, the Riviera, Kashmir, etc. where visitors come for pleasure, the trades which cater to such a fleeting population in a holiday mood of abandon, mainly think in terms of the momentary advantage they can take of the customer’s ignorance of conditions prevailing locally. Ordinarily the natural check to such a course is the consideration of building up a goodwill which will bring the customer back to the trader. The chances of a tourist going back to the same place are remote and hence this safety valve to the greed of hotel keeper, houseboatwallas, curio dealers etc. being absent, these people are bent on fleecing the unwary. This in time has a tendency to lower the business morality and self-respect of the people. Every visitor becomes the quarry out of whom as much as possible has to be got while rendering to him as little as possible in return. Cheating takes the place of honest trading to such an extent that it often borders on daylight robbery. One notices this degradation everywhere in Kashmir. True hospitality ennobles the host. But the commercialisation of this in tourist traffic carried to the extreme tantamount to prostituting this noble aspect of human nature in return for the spoils that can be made by fair means or foul. If this canker is not to eat into the vitals of a simple and artistic people strict regulatory measures should be adopted by the government. Although at present there exists a “Director of Visitors Bureau” its activities are purely indicatory. It has to protect the Kashmiri from falling a victim to the devil of greed and avarice, by closer control and regulation of the tourist traffic.
(Gram Udyog Patrika, August, September and October 1945)