Silk as they say, ‘Queen of textiles’ needs to be talked about at royal length. Which is why this blog comes with a warning of enormity to justify the royalty. Every designer has a unique relationship with silk. Many just work with various kinds of silks mostly. Few completely avoid the silk route and keep their collection more rustic and earthy. Whichever road we take– we have to acknowledge the authority of silk. My relationship with with the long lush yarns is longstanding. I need a few episodes to cover all I have to say about silk and how I have used it in my designs. This blog will mainly cover Sericulture in India and the role of women in the same.
THE SILK VOYAGE TO INDIA
Sericulture is cultivation of silkworms for production of silk. Sericulture has existed in India since 15th century and it is one of our key indigenous agro- based industries. Many historians credit its origin to China from where silk travelled to India. We have records dated to 1710, that the East India company introduced mulberry silkworms in Bengal. Hence then the first research and development of Sericulture started in India. Somehow their efforts in culturing silk almost dwindled in the following decades. Meanwhile the silk industry organized by Tipu Sultan and East India Company gathered momentum in Mysore, Karnataka. Indian industrialist J.N. Tata, started silk farms in Bangalore with the help of a Japanese couple. Some of the educated youths were also trained in Sericulture, including seed production by Japanese methods, and the Tata Silk farms flourished. Even today, Karnataka remains the largest silk producer in India
Sericulture
The Sericulture in short is cultivating silkworms and extracting silk from them. Sericulture is an agro-based industry. It involves rearing of silkworms for the production of raw silk, which is the yarn obtained out of cocoons spun by certain species of insects. The major activities of sericulture comprises of food-plant cultivation to feed the silkworms which spin silk cocoons and reeling the cocoons for unwinding the silk filament for value added benefits such as processing and weaving.
Silk is made of proteins, Sericin and fibroin, secreted in the fluid state by a caterpillar, popularly known as ‘silkworm’. These silkworms feed on the selected food plants and spin cocoons as a ‘protective shell’ to perpetuate the life. Silkworm has four stages in its life cycle viz., egg, caterpillar, pupa and moth. Man interferes this life cycle at the cocoon stage. Once the worms start pupating in their cocoons, these are dissolved in boiling water in order for individual long fibers to be extracted and fed into the spinning reel. Silk is a high value but low volume product accounting for only 0.2 % of world’s total textile production. About 10,000 silk worms are killed to make a single single saree.
Dye fed Silk Worms
The dyeing process causes pollutants. It adds a lot of dye waste and pollution to an existing global crisis of climate change and ozone layer depletion. New technologies and innovations are required to manage and mitigate the pollution that comes from textile industry. Many wild silk worms spin a natural coloured pigment like yellow, brown and green. The pigmented silk is hardly commercially viable. To produce commercially viable naturally coloured silk, the silk worms are fed dyed mulberry leaves and the resultant silk has a reddish tinge. This silk can be used in sericulture. By advanced technology, fluorescent and luminescent silk can be produced by feeding the silk worms some special chemicals. These silks have high purpose industrial use.
Sericulture globally
Silk production is regarded as an important tool for economic development of a country as it is a labour intensive and high income generating industry that churns out value added products of economic importance. The developing countries rely on it for employment generation, especially in rural sector and also as a means to earn foreign exchange. Geographically, Asia is the main producer of silk in the world and produces over 95% of the total global output. Though there are over 40 countries on the world map of silk, bulk of it is produced in China and India, followed by Japan, Brazil and Korea. China is the leading supplier of silk to the world.
india & sericulture
India is the second largest producer of silk in the world. Domesticated silk worms (Bombyx mori) are raised for the purpose of sericulture. India is the only country producing all the five known commercial silks, namely, mulberry, tropical tussar, oak tussar, eri and muga. Of these, muga with its golden yellow glitter is unique to India. The most popular and renowned variety of silk produced in India is the mulberry silk. Major silk producing states in the country are Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Assam and West Bengal, Jharkhand and Tamil Nadu.
AHIMSA or NON-VIOLENT SILK
Silk Designer's darling
Strength is one of the most interesting characteristics of silk. At first touch, you might be fooled into thinking silk is fragile but it’s actually one of the strongest fabrics there is. It may be elegant and gentle on your skin, but underneath the shine it’s brimming with power. Part of this strength comes from the length of the fibres. Cotton and linen are made from short plant fibres that are spun together to make longer threads.You can’t pull a strand of silk into its component fibres in the way you can with cotton. Of course, there are more than one reason for it’s silky reputation and price.
Role of women in sericulture
Women are indispensable to sericulture. They are actually pivotal in Sericulture and handloom industry at large. Sericulture is an agro-based industry, which is less capital intensive and therefore suits rural-based farmers, entrepreneurs and artisans. A sizeable number of workers belong to the economically weaker sections of society, including women. In reality, it is an occupation by women and for women because women form more than 60% of the workforce and 80% of silk is consumed by them. Women are mostly favored due to their industrious nature. They are employed in a mulberry garden or silkworm rearing or in a grainage (The selection and storage of cocoons in sericulture). Coming to the post cocoon technology, the involvement of the women is greater, commencing from silk reeling, weaving and garment manufacturing industry. The women involved in sericulture seamlessly multitask from managing house hold chores, babysitting to attending to silkworm rearing activities like manicuring mulberry leaves, worm-bed cleaning, feeding the silkworms, maintenance of hygiene, picking the ripe worms and placing them on mounting-mountages (the process of transferring the mature larvae is called Mounting). Thus, the entire process of silkworm rearing needs expertise, patience and high skills. Women are blessed with all these qualities in abundance hence their heavy involvement in Sericulture.
Sadly – though women are constantly involved in almost all activities up to the production of cocoons, they are excluded in business development activities such as marketing of cocoons and collection of the final remuneration for all the dedicated hard work. This is mainly due to the still existing social taboos and customs prevailing in rural areas manifesting in oppressive patriarchy. Women, with the excuse of being protected are kept away from key activities that involve communication and finances. Sericulture is an organized sector in India and yields the highest income per unit area under the socio economic conditions of the small farmers. Of all industries, Sericulture provides scope for direct involvement of women in the process of production and decision making for improving their economic conditions.It enables them to gain greater recognition and status in the family and society.
Each of us who understand and appreciate handloom can do our part to contribute towards the Indian handloom industry. Make a conscious choice– look distinct and offer an opportunity to those you toil to make authentic garments with dedicated craftsmanship. To view my designs and the silks I have used: MODAL SILKS BLENDS OF DIFFERNT SILKS COMBINATION OF SILK & ORGANZA
References: https://vikaspedia.in/
https://www.drishtiias.com/daily-news-analysis/sericulture-in-india
https://mospi.gov.in/sites/default/files/Statistical_year_book_india_chapters/Sericulture%20write%20up_1.pdf
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2589014X2030236
And several text books on this topic.
