“I could not believe that such a textile really existed. It amazed and surprised me that India is a country where you can still find crafts that remain undocumented,” mentioned Saumya Pande, co-founder at Zameen Astar Foundation (ZAF) and HOD Fashion at Indian Institute of Art & Design (IIAD), New Delhi.
The craft she was speaking about is kheta, completely practiced by the ladies of the Shershabadi neighborhood who at present name Kishanganj, Bihar their house. Kheta is a little-known craft kind within the household of embroidered quilts like sujni of Bihar and kantha of West Bengal.
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Khetas are embroidered, reversible quilts comprised of layering and stitching collectively 4 to 5 outdated, worn off saris. (Photo: Zameen Astar Foundation)
Speaking of their elaborate ancestry that spans two international locations, Pande mentioned: “As the story goes, Sher Shah Suri, an able ruler, won the lands till the Delta area of Bangladesh, He gave some land near Malda district to his Afghan foot soldiers to celebrate his victory, but died soon after in an accident. The soldiers got married to the local women, and were called Shershabadis. They were not accepted in the Mughal nor the British army. Marginalised and persecuted, they migrated westwards for the last 400 years. For a long time they owned little land but have now settled in the flood plains of Bengal, Bihar and Odisha.”
Her group has been working with the neighborhood since 2017 when a flood ravaged many villages in Kishanganj.
Close up of the Kheta embroidery. (Photo: Zameen Astar Foundation)
Kheta quilts are reversible. (Photo: Zameen Astar Foundation)
Khetas are embroidered, reversible quilts comprised of layering and stitching collectively 4 to 5 outdated, worn off saris, and is a generational craft kind that’s completely practiced by the ladies of the Shershabadi neighborhood. Unlike sujni and kantha, kheta does not have any placement of central medallions, nook motifs, and even borders, simply thread operating from edge to fringe of the layered sarees in a linear remedy to create dense patterns.
The ladies make these quilts utilizing only a needle and thread, embroidering on them with linear stitches because the sample emerges diagonally, which is why “I feel they have a visually calculative mind,” mentioned Pande. She added that “it is one textile that is sensed through both the hands and feet; women walk over the layers while putting the stay stitches when they start the piece.” In phrases of the design that function within the quilts, patterns are impressed by nature — from lahori (high-quality ripples on rivers) to biscut (bamboo forests that enabled basketry) — in addition to chatsiani from chatai (bamboo mats) or the leekphool (floral patterns).
But khetas had been traditionally by no means made to be bought for financial profit. Tajgara Khatun, 47, who’s from Harishchandrapur, West Bengal, mentioned its one thing ladies of their neighborhood should be taught at a really younger age, like she did when she was 10. Sarifa Khatun, 54, added {that a} woman should know find out how to embroider khetas for being thought-about eligible for marriage. “If she doesn’t know how to make kheta, she will be questioned on her abilities.” Khetas are a prized, heirloom items for them that are gifted by the mom when her daughter will get married and when she has youngsters.
Kheta is embroidered on 44-5 layers of outdated saris. (Photo: Zameen Astar Foundation)
“We practice Kheta in our spare time, after tending to our cattle and doing our farming. But each piece takes a lot of time, sometimes months, to complete. But despite the laborious nature, everyone in my family, including my mother and grandmother practice this craft as it is in our heritage,” said Tajkera Khatun, 33, who was taught this craft by her mother and is now teaching her daughters, too. She, along with other fellow villagers, spoke on the phone from Crafts Museum, Delhi where they are presenting an exhibition on Kheta, marking the first time these women have traveled outside the village. “It feels great, I am very excited for the world to see our craft,” shared Tajkera.
Up till Zamin Astar Foundation and Azad India Foundation’s work with the neighborhood, Khetas had been solely made by “poor people, and sometimes bought by rich people”, in response to Tajgara. But Sarifa mentioned that after their workshops, they’re now inspired to interact in business actions with their cultural and generational craft kind, “They showed us that this can fetch money, and we did start earning more money after they started working in our village,” she added. Adding to that, Ashraful Haque, Tajgara’s eldest son, noticed that earlier, only a few folks even in Bihar knew about kheta; Now, folks from throughout Kishanganj and out of doors the Shershabadi neighborhood are seeing worth within the craft and are wanting to be taught from the ladies.
The craft data is handed down from and to the ladies within the household. (Photo: Zameen Astar Foundation)
But with a craft so intrinsically private and restricted inside households and traditions, got here challenges, too. Panda shared that these ladies do see it as one thing that may get them money in hand as a result of they’re usually held financially accountable by the lads. But she additionally famous that whereas some villages are keen to take up orders of creating throws and runners in kheta embroidery, they often do not wish to half with those that they’ve made for themselves.
“Before the exhibition, I went to mortgage a few of these khetas from the ladies. And regardless that they did not ask for any cash for loaning it, they particularly despatched a message to me requesting for them to returned in due time. So, I do really feel that one thing that’s meant for their very own use is seen in another way, and what we ask them to make is completely different.”
A Shershabdi girl separating thread for Kheta embroidery. (Photo: Zameen Astar Foundation)
Yuman Hussain, government director at Azad India Foundation (AIF), mentioned there have been a number of boundaries “as Shershabadis are a closed Muslim neighborhood with low feminine literacy price. They belong to a conservative Bengali-speaking neighborhood the place ladies will not be the choice makers. Many ladies are married off earlier than they flip 18 years, even right this moment. Many ladies are beedi rollers who earn very much less (INR 100-150 per day), and that too if they’re fortunate to get work day-after-day.”
(Photo: Zameen Astar Foundation)
But the inspiration’s work goals to alter that and empower the proud inheritors of this distinctive craft by changing rolling tobacco into beedis with studying and upskilling of kheta expertise and popularizing it pan-India. The group is working with the Shershabadi neighborhood by ladies literacy program and studying facilities for the younger youngsters and adolescent ladies in numerous villages of Kishanganj district. Hussain believes “kheta’s social impact would help Shershabadi women earn a respectable living for themselves and move closer to financial independence.”
Now, ZAF together with AIF is in search of GI standing because the embroidery kind is particular to a neighborhood and area. Pandey believes that this might economically empower the neighborhood. “We hope that with the GI status, it continues as a practicing craft for longer in the younger generation and is adopted by a larger population within the community. We hope to involve government agencies for training and up-skilling of the craft.”
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With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
