In diverse India, every ethnic community has its own cultural and traditional way of felicitating distinguished persons par excellence, in social or any public forum. The object, with which an illustrious person is welcomed and honoured, does not have any materialistic importance. Rather something unique and special, representing the culture and ethos of the region is used for a noble purpose.
In the Brahmaputra valley of Assam, a Handloom made Gamosa, (Japi, a unique headgear made of bamboo with decoration is also used along with a Gamosa) is primarily used with high dignity for this purpose. Gamosa is a small rectangular piece of fabric used to wipe body parts; however, it is a unique identity of Assamese society and has got high esteem and wide usage in Assamese culture. If an eminent person visits Assam and even if the President of the U.S.A. visits Assam, He would be welcomed and bestowed honour with a Handloom made Gamosa. The entire Assamese community feels on top of the world, whenever an Everest-winning Assamese hoists the white and red Gamosa on its cliff.
Handloom weaving is an age-old tradition of Assam and during the Ahom dynasty (Who ruled Assam for almost 600 years) it was a compulsory household craft. Whilst the per capita income of Assam was among the top Indian states before independence, Handloom weaving contributed to a great extent. During that time people used to weave clothes for household consumption. However, Handloom weaving is a tedious job and high skill of hand-eye-feet coordination is required along with lots of physical labour. Because of its unique appeal handloom fabric is eulogised in every nuke and corner of the world. In a developed economy, the production of Handloom fabric is not feasible if it is not sold at a high market price as the labour cost is pretty high in those countries. The higher price of handloom fabric in comparison to modern/power loom fabric is fairly justified because of the augmented labour involved coupled with low productivity.
Assamese Gamosa is characterised by its white and red combination. While white cotton warps (yarns in the longitudinal direction) and wefts (yarns in the transverse direction) are used for the base fabric in a Gamosa, extra red warps and wefts are used for borders, motifs and making floral, geometrical patterns at both the ends.
From time immemorial, Gamosa in Assam is being woven in handloom, since every Assamese woman was a highly skilled weaver. Having said that, most of the weavers over time opted out of this famed weaving practice. The intrinsic reason is they can’t sell it at the proper price to earn a decent profit margin.
Gamosa is one of the indispensable elements of the biggest festival of Assam, the “Rongali Bihu” or “Bohag Bihu”. One can’t imagine Bihu without a Gamosa, which is fondly termed as BIHUAN. Presenting a Bihuan to the beloved, near & dear ones as well as to the elderly persons as a token of genuine love, care and respect, is an affluent tradition of Assam. Hence during bihu demand for Gamosa shoots up in Assam. Moreover, Gamosa is widely used in Assamese society for ritual works and felicitation purposes in all sorts of meetings, cultural programs etc. Seeing this prospect, traders from outside Assam endeavoured to capture the Gamosa market of Assam with cheap power loom-made Gamosa. As a result, the entire Assam got flooded with power loom-made Gamosa. In this changing scenario, local weavers lost the rhythm of weaving as customers are unwilling to pay the proper price of handloom-made Gamosa.
In almost all the handloom clusters of India dobby/jacquard shedding mechanism is used to create motifs and designs. Dobby/jacquard mechanism reduces the labour of weavers and hence improves the productivity of Handloom. This mechanism eases the design/motif-creating process in the loom. However, in Assam, some traditional techniques are being used for creating motifs and patterns of designs. Although these traditional techniques are laborious and yield low productivity, the standard and beauty of a Gamosa made with such techniques are unparalleled and undoubtedly these traditional techniques upraise the Assamese Gamosa to a beautiful artefact. Weavers of this region get hold of this phenomenal craft from one generation to the next. The use of a dobby/jacquard mechanism in Handloom weaving is the need of the hour to improve productivity so that the demand-supply gap of Gamosa can be minimised. On the other hand, conserving and encouraging traditional techniques for creating motifs and designs are equally important since such a unique craft helps the Assamese community to carry on its ethnic identity.
The Ministry of Textiles of Govt. of India reserved 11 textile articles like Mekhela-Chador, some categories of sarees, dhotis, Gamosa etc. for exclusive production by handlooms, vide notification dated 3rd September 2008 based on the HANDLOOM (Reservation of Article for Production) ACT, 1985 enacted by the parliament of India, The objective of this act is to protect and ensure the development of the handloom sector. According to that notification, Assam’s Gamosa is prohibited to be manufactured by the power looms and it is a legally punishable offence. But due to a lack of strong vigil by the concerned department/administration, cheap power looms Gamosa manufactured outside Assam was making inroads into the market of Assam. However of late the Govt. of Assam issued a notification, banning the selling of power loom-made Gamosa, Mekhela-Chador etc. and initiated a drive against the sellers to weed out such banned articles. Such an emboldened step by the Govt. of Assam is bringing a ray of light to the weavers as well as the stakeholders of the Handloom industry.
The bona fide offer of G I (Geographical Indication) Tag to Assam’s Gamosa is a buoyant message to the people of Assam and a matter of pride for the Assamese community as well. This GI tag is offered to certain articles of geographical origin by the Govt. of India.GI tag legally prohibits those articles with certain specifications, to be manufactured outside the place of origin. As a result, production units and stakeholders of that specific geographical area i.e. the place of origin get safeguarded. GI tag will ensure the protection of Assam’s Gamosa. Now onwards Assam’s Gamocha can be legally manufactured only in Assam. This is a silver lining to the misery of local weavers.
Gamosa is the lifeblood of the Assamese people. It is also the cultural identity of ethnic Assamese society and a symbol of self-esteem as well. Barring Gamosa, the identity of the Assamese community is outlandish. The responsibility of protecting the Gamosa and vivifying the traditional weaving craft for eternity is entrusted to the Assamese people only. Everyone who takes pride in being a dignified Assamese person should pledge not to buy power loom-made Gamosa. The government of Assam must keep a strong vigil in the market throughout the year so that power loom-made Gamosa is not sold at all. Every Assamese person should be mentally prepared to buy handloom-made Gamosa produced by local weavers at the cost of their blood and sweat, although it is a bit costlier than the power loom-made ones. Organising committees of different meetings, felicitation programs, Bihu and other cultural shows etc. must keep the budget a little higher for Gamosa because then only our local handloom production of Gamosa will get the momentum. Otherwise taking the opportunity of the failure of the strong drive against unscrupulous traders by the concerned Govt. department and administration throughout the year, powerloom-made Gamosa will keep playing the hide-and-seek game in the market.
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By
RITUN BARDALAYE
Nandanpur, Malow Ali, Jorhat
E-mail: ritun_b@rediffmail.com
Contact No: 9207013570
