"Just as you learn to write each letter before making a word, we learn each stitch to make a pattern. We follow our mother and we learn out designs slowly ... slowly." Saramasi, an elder of the Meghwar tribe.
In 2002 Maiwa staged an exhibition of Kachchh embroidery. Read about that exhibition here.
Below, meet some of the communities Maiwa works with:
Below, meet some of the communities Maiwa works with:
Rabari
"We feel good that our work is valued by the outside world - everyone should know who the Rabari are."
The Rabari of northwest India are a community of nomads who migrated into Kachchh from the Thar Desert of Rajasthan. Rabari are expert camel breeders, cattle herders and shepards. Over time as a community grew too large for the environment to sustain, they would divide and a subgroup would migrate to a new region. Today there are myriad subgroups of Rabari. The main ones in Kachchh are Dhebaria, Vagharia, and Kachchhi. All trace their ancestry back to the mythical Sambal, created by Lord Shiva to look after the camels. Rabari are Hindu and are devout worshipers of the mother goddesses. Many Rabari still celebrate all marriages on only one day, the birthday of Lord Krishna. The marriages take place after the monsoon rains and signal the end of their annual wanderings.
Embroidery is an integral part of Rabari life. They consider the choli (blouse) one of their most important art forms because of its heavily embroidered front. Their stitchwork combines mirrors of many shapes: squares, triangles, diamonds, rectangles and circles. This unusual play with shaped mirrors is unique to Rabari embroidery.
Maiwa works with Dhebaria and Kachchh Rabari. Their closer contact with towns and tourists has, for many years, made the Rabaris' work more commercial. These groups have discovered, however, that by doing high-quality work they can find more stable markets and better returns for time spent embroidering.
Rabari shawls and headscarves have become quite famous. The black woman's shawl is made through a collaborative relationship between three communities: weavers, bandhani tiers, and embroiderers. Maiwa has attempted to keep these relationships alive by creating a market for contemporary versions of the Rabari shawl. Using historic pieces from the Maiwa collection, the pieces receive only minor changes to make them irresistible to a modern audience. Look for them in the Maiwa Store.
Dhanetah Jats
"Our good embroidery is in our eyes and in our hands — that is our skill."
Five hundred years ago the Jats resided in the Halab region of present-day Baluchistan. They were known by the name Dhanetah Jats, which means herder. Under territorial pressure from feudal landowners and in search of new grazing lands, they began an exodus that would take them to Sindh, Gujarat, and eventually Kachchh. Those who took up farming became known as Gracia Jats. Some, known as Fakirani Jats, became holy men devoted to studying the Qur'an. The largest group remained herders and retained the name Dhanetah. All Jats are Sunni Muslims and never marry outside of their community.
Jat women design and produce exquisite, labour-intensive embroidery. The power of Jat embroidery comes largely from the closely stitched patterns that completely cover the cloth. They take pride in the fact that their "stitches outlive the cloth on which they’re sewn." The most intensively embroidered article of a Jat woman's dowry is the "churi" or blouse. Its colour and motifs visually communicate the age, marital status and geographical origin of the wearer.
The Jats were pressured by the government to settle and found themselves on the least fertile land. They began selling their embroidery only fifteen years ago in order to survive droughts. Six years ago, two Jat villages joined KMVS and found a co-operative organization in which they learned the value of their outstanding work and how to market it.
Sodha Rajput
"We like that our embroidery is going to a place far away and that people there will know who a Sodha Rajput is."
The Sodha Rajputs are the most recent migrants into Kachchh from Sindh, Pakistan. Due to the 1971 India-Pakistan war, the Sodhas fled Sindh and were settled into government village camps in Rapar and Bacchau districts of Kachchh where they continue to live. Sodhas are one of several sub-groups of the larger Hindu Rajput community and retain strong links with Sindh through intermarriages. Fiercely patriarchal customs and traditions characterize this traditional protector-warrior community. Control over the movement of women in public has led to various ironic role reversals, such as men fetching water for the women from the village well.
The Sodhas own little land and like all farmers in Kachchh, they have been severely affected by the drought. Most men now work as labourers. Despite economic need, Sodha women have few options as they don¹t participate in agricultural tasks or any form of daily wage labour. Within the confines of the home, however, they create and earn with cloth, needle, and thread. Sodhas brought a whole new language of stitches with them from Sindh that influenced all whom they came into contact with, particularly the Meghwars.
Becoming members of KMVS was an important step for the Sodhas as in many families embroidery is their only source of income. Co-operative marketing brings them steady earnings.
"The large art pieces that take us 4-6 months to complete bring us an income normally earned over a year. Doing them is like having a savings account. Every stitch we do is a deposit and when we finish we get such a large amount of money that we can do something important. When this piece is finished for the museum I will get paid enough to send my son to a middle school."
"The large art pieces that take us 4-6 months to complete bring us an income normally earned over a year. Doing them is like having a savings account. Every stitch we do is a deposit and when we finish we get such a large amount of money that we can do something important. When this piece is finished for the museum I will get paid enough to send my son to a middle school."
Mutwa
"Our work takes so long to do — our mirrors are very tiny — but we Mutai like our work and are happy that we can do large art pieces."
Mutwa is the name of one of eighteen Muslim clans living in isolated villages scattered throughout the Banni region of Kachchh. Over the past 200-500 years the Mutwa have fled Sindh to avoid disputes the the rulers. They are traditionally cattle herders, although with drought and the increasing salinity of the land their cattle holdings are diminishing.
Mutwa women live under the very strict code of conduct known as "purdah" which governs all interactions between men and women. Although most often associated with Muslims, some Hindu communities also practice purdah. Strict adherence requires women to be veiled in the presence of their husband, father-in-law, son-in-law and all unrelated men. Mutwa women rarely leave their house clusters unless seriously ill. They are restricted from leaving the village without a male family member. Under these conditions they create the exquisite embroidery with tin mirrors and minuscule stitches that distinguishes them from other communities. The intricate and time-consuming nature of this work has often been undervalued.
As their stature as wage earners increased, restrictions on movement outside the village have relaxed. Mutwa women can now travel to the local embroidery centre for supplies without being looked down upon by their community.
Harijan Meghwar
"Being members of the co-operative has taught us about high quality and that we can find a world market if we do good work."
Originally, Harijan Meghwars were weavers and leather workers who migrated to Kutch from Marwar, Rajasthan. As lower claste Hindus they were regarded as unclean by higher caste Hindus because they process leather and eat the meat of animals. Mahatma Gandhi introduced the name Harijan, "Children of God," in an attempt to integrate the lower castes into the mainstream. The Meghwars of Kachchh have more in common with their Muslim neighbours who have always regarded them as equals. The interaction between them has produced a remarkable fusion of cultural traits. As well as having similar garments and house hold textiles, each community has enriched their embroidery tradition by borrowing and adapting from the other.
Very few Meghwars are landowners; some herd livestock, some men are letherworkers and many work as labourers. The women are highly skilled embroiderers. However, their social status and poor economic condition often forces them into the commercialized craft sector where a ruthless pace of production, low quality and low wages are the norm.
