Weaving pasts: Kashmiri textile artisans and their modes of self‑identification

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Kumar, Amit (2025) Weaving pasts: Kashmiri textile artisans and their modes of self‑identification. South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, 48 (6). pp. 1504-1524. ISSN 0085-6401

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Abstract

This article offers a longue durée account of Kashmir’s textile industry, focusing on the post-1947 period through the life stories and recollections of its artisans. While the state and elite actors—from industrialists (karkhanedar) to researchers—have long sought to define and classify artisans, their lived experiences often defy such frameworks. The artisans’ counter-narratives are vital to understanding how they negotiate self-representation, dignity, and agency. By foregrounding artisan voices, the article shifts the usual focus of Kashmir’s textile histories from trade and production to the contested terrain of labour, identity and politics across colonial and postcolonial contexts. Drawing on ethnographic research, it shows that artisans construct their identities through multiple sources—including regional histories, Sufi hagiographies and inherited craft traditions. It further argues that while their everyday strategies of resistance—reinterpretation, symbolic assertion and subtle defiance—may not transform material conditions or dismantle marginalisation, they nonetheless challenge the social hierarchies that structure their lives.

Item Type:	Article
Authors:	Kumar, Amit
Document Language:	Language English
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Artisans, history, Islam, Kashmir, resistance, weaving
Subjects:	Social sciences Social sciences > Sociology & anthropology > Groups of people Social sciences > Groups of people History & geography
Divisions:	Azim Premji University - Bengaluru > School of Arts and Sciences
Full Text Status:	None
URI:	http://publications.azimpremjiuniversity.edu.in/id/eprint/6878
Publisher URL:	https://doi.org/10.1080/00856401.2025.2580683

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