BY TAPAS CHAKRABORTY
March 13, 2006
Varanasi, March 12: Haseena Begum knows why militants’ bombs can never
take the sheen off Varanasi’s tradition of communal peace. The main
reason, she explains, is the local silk industry, which has knitted Hindus
and Muslims together in a mesh of social interaction and economic
cooperation.
"Benarasi sari ka jalwa hamara bhaichara hai (the lustre of the
Benarasi silk sari is a symbol of our brotherhood)," she says. Haseena,
whose husband Rizwan works with 10 Hindu colleagues at one of Varanasi’s
many silk units, is one of the thousands of Muslim women who have been
holding peace marches in the town since the day after the blasts. They
have donated blood for the mainly Hindu victims, prayed for them after the
Friday namaz and spoken out against militancy.
Today they walked for peace with celebrities such as the poet Javed
Akhtar and social activist Teesta Setalvad. Former prime minister VP
Singh, who visited the Sankat Mochan temple, also played up the history of
communal harmony in the town, which stayed free from violence even after
the Babri Masjid demolition.
A visit to the congested weavers’ colonies bore out the truth of
Haseena’s claim. The looms were humming at the small makeshift factories.
"The industry didn’t shut down even for a day," said Mustaq Mohammad, a
39-year-old silk worker at Gauriganj. "When the loom runs, it sustains the
lives around it." The silk and sari industry involves more than 5,00,000
weavers, dyers, sari polishers and traders in Varanasi and the surrounding
districts. They come from both communities. "Artists and technicians have
no religion, no colour, no territory," said Aklaq Hussain, a weaver.
The business has a yearly turnover of about Rs 100 crore. The cheap
Chinese silk imports have posed a threat since 1995 but the local industry
has survived thanks to the cheap labour and the weavers’ skills that the
Chinese products failed to match. Those skills had developed into an art
form during Mughal rule and kept evolving since.
"Over the years, the textile tied Hindus and Muslims in a bond of
economic interdependence that only freedom from violence could have
generated and sustained," says Satish Chandra, a social researcher.
"The Muslims make up 60 per cent of the skilled workers. The industry
is feeling the strain (of competition) yet it provides more jobs to rural
skilled labour than any other sector."
The weavers understand the threat communal violence poses only too
well. The post-demolition turmoil of 1992-93 had caused huge losses as
curfew continued for over a week despite the town being riot-free. When
riots rocked neighbouring Mau in October 2005, the weavers’ colonies there
were the worst hit, hitting the supply to Varanasi.
The mufti of the Gyanvapi Mosque, Maulana Asgar Ali recalled how the
poet Nazir Banarsi sang the praises of Hindu deities and wove them into
Muslim prayers. "This is the culture and spirit of Varanasi. It shines
through the character of the silk industry," he said.
"Peace has many enemies. Small skirmishes may happen now and then but
the silk won’t lose its lustre," added silk merchant Javed Ansari.
