UK museum exhibits India’s fab history

A billowing Mughal era tent from Tipu Sultan's war booty is clearly the star of the show for many Londoners visiting the Victoria & Albert (V&A) Museum's The Fabric of India exhibition that opened this week. But it is Abraham and Thakore's striking half-lemon yellow half black and grey ikat saree that conveys the most important message: contemporaneity and tradition have to come together to preserve this priceless Indian legacy.
It is not surprising that the V&A has the world's most extensive collection of Indian textiles. Curiously, however, no show focussing exclusively on them had ever been mounted. This exhibition thus is a much needed primer.
From the collection of cotton bolls and silk cocoons (examples preserved by the V&A for over a century!) to spinning, weaving, dyeing techniques, the development of printing, the effect of the advent of western traders on motifs and design, to exported and imported cloths, India's textile story is simply but beautifully told.
The inclusion of selected works of Indian designers from Sabyasachi's elaborately embroidered wedding ensemble and Abu-Sandeep's fine chikan saree to Aneeth Arora's jama-inspired cotton tunic, Rajesh Pratap's ajrakh jacket and many more, shows the vital connect that the eclectic past has with the eclectic present. And a Humans of New York-style photo montage documents that continuity in less rarefied urban circles too.
The task for curators Divia Patel and Rosemary Crill was not easy: distilling millenia-old traditions for a mixed audience of lay viewers and buffs. It is impossible to showcase India's textile heritage in its entirety in a single exhibition and the lacunae are obvious. Benarasi, Odia, Tamil and tribal weaving traditions are under-represented, as are the jamawar and kani shawl heritage of Kashmir, to name but a few.
Even so, the display is breathtaking. Thoughtfully placed benches aid the admiration of wondrously woven gossamer muslin, rich silks and fine wools, dyed with natural materials ranging from indigo to madder and chay, variously embellished with embroidery, applique and paint.
The display also brings to mind the business acumen of India's textile sector, right from ancient times. Fabrics were also made with motifs and designs developed with an eye to markets as far away as Egypt, Holland and Japan, besides of course south east Asia. In that context, the eventual mechanization and mass production of textiles by the West -- also covered in this exhibition -- was a cruel blow indeed.
The participation of premier brands like Good Earth in this exposition of Indian textiles was most welcome. Seeing items with their trademark motifs like the pomegranate and cypress in the V&A gift shop, along with indigo bandhni stoles and other mementos of India's diverse textile repertoire emphasized the continuing importance of commerce in the effort to preserve heritage too.
Back in 2006, exquisite examples from the Tapi Collection were shown at the National Museum in Delhi; that the ministry of textiles has reportedly expressed interest in bringing the V&A exhibition to Delhi is most welcome. For, as Maheshwar textile revival pioneer Sally Holkar points out, Indians also need to know about the sheer wealth and potential of the fabric of India.