Geographically Asia is the main producer of Silk in the world. The bulk of it is produced in China and India followed by Japan, Brazil and Korea. India is the second largest producer of Silk in the world. It has a strong tradition and culture bound domestic market of Silk specially in North East region.
The artistic and aesthetic sense of Assamese weavers is not content with the striking colours they choose for the fabrics but lies in their mastery over the creation of floral designs beautiful textures -- the weavers weaves with intense feelings and emotion. In Assam the handloom sector stands next only to agriculture in terms of employment generation.
In the context of Silk weavers in Assam, Sualkuchi stands apart. Situated about 30 kilometres from Guwahati is the largest village in Assam and is also known as 'Manchester of the East'.It is very unfortunate that poor productivity and quality weak economic base of the weaving community, lack of market fascility and innovation in the traditional designs and colour schemes have been some of the factors ailing the weaving sector in Assam. Obsolete methods and devices are still in use --- limited range of products with inadequate value addition, lack of trained artisans.
The malberry silk yarn mainly comes from Karnataka. The absence of any organised silk worm forming in the state has led the people to depend entirely on Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. This has posed a threat to this indegen handloom industry by the cheap silk produced on powerlooms in other parts of the country.During my visit to Sualkuchi to meet my relations (my grand parents were one of the oldest reputed Mouzadar Bharali family from Sualkuchi.) I have met Dulal Choudhury -- a muga silk dealer from Guwahati --- known as 'Muga Dulal'. He felt for this industry that has not been able to attract outside market and also because of being unorganized its silk industry is littley known outside Assam.
Not content with getting into trade he continuously fiddled with the fabric and stumbled on its ultraviolet filtering properties and approached the physics department of Tezpur University to verify this. Their experiments endorsed his findings and set him off on a new venture. He began selling UV protection umbrellas and applied for a patent on it. Now he has been awarded the second prize at the Annual Business Festival at IIT Mumbai for the most 'marketable innovation'. He has been selling these umbrellas in India. He already has enquiries from New Zealand about using muga fabric for making tents.During her visit to Assam on Jan '05, Lady Ann from England opened a grand exhibition of North East region at Guwahati, Pragati lll . She was attracted to the handicraft products and item made by wood and bamboo. She was attracted to the Assam Silk and Muga Umbrella. She took a keen interest and suggest
2) To establish links with research and reputed international designs institution based in New York,London and Paris.
Well done Dulal !
Rini Kakati
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