Jayati Saha

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Master dyer Abdul Rashid’s most
prized possession is a book, which has frayed from a lifetime of daily use.
It’s a ‘master book of colour codes’,  a reference
guide he has put together, page by page, since the 1940s, when he began
practising the traditional Kashmiri art of dyeing.

His workshop, Abdul Rashid &amp;
Sons, sits in a quiet bylane in old Srinagar. Rashid, over 80 years old, sits hunched in a corner, book in hand. There’s
a delicate irony here – breathtaking colours have been created within this
space’s dull unplastered walls.

It’s around 10:30 a.m. when the
process of dyeing begins. It will take all day to dye just two bundles of silk yarn.
This begins with washing the yarn, because, as Rashid says, “Dyeing will be
pure only when the yarn is pure. One must first be emptied of all impurities to
be filled with true beauty.” 

After the washing is done, Rashid’s
eldest son Naushad, around 42 – his only son who is in this trade; an older son
is in the carpet business – mixes powdered beige colour in water heated in an
ancient-looking copper vessel. The copper helps to make the colour permanent. The colour, bought from a local market, is sprinkled little by little, with
care and precision, so that the dye mixes in the water evenly. The yarn is then
wrapped around thick wooden sticks that are dipped and rolled around gently in
the coloured water. This process takes hours because the yarn must soak up the
dye from within.

Once the dyeing is complete, Naushad
takes out a thread and dries it over the fire to see if the colour has caught
on uniformly. He shows it to his father for approval. Once father and son are satisfied,
the process is complete. If not, the yarn is given more time in the coloured
water, more pigments or some bleach. Abdul Rashid believes that every yarn is
capable of greatness. 

This morning, the colour seems to
have caught on perfectly, but the most important task is yet to be done. And
fittingly, it’s Rashid who does it. He takes a ‘finished’ or dyed thread, pastes
it on a fresh page of his revered reference guide, and writes down all the
details in his wavering hand. 

This is the slowly dying art of Kashmiri
dyeing, practised during cold autumns, freezing winters and cool summers. When the
demand is high – the customers are usually weavers of carpets and shawls, who
bring the bundles of yarn to this workshop – the dyers work for 12 hours a day,
and earn around Rs. 20,000-25,000 a month. But when demand falls in the summer,
they only put in 10 hours. 

What is constant, however, is the
commitment with which Rashid, Naushad and their assistant Mushtaq go about
their work. Sometimes, angry slogans jolt the lane, or curfews make it
difficult to carry on. But Abdul Rashid &amp; Sons don’t allow the unrest to
interrupt their work. 

The biggest challenge they face in
these changing times is from mass-produced dyed yarn, which lures many shawl and
carpet makers, but compromises on quality in the name of speed. Rashid says
that when he started dyeing, the art form was in full bloom and countless
Kashmiri families could earn their livelihoods from this work. But today, like
many traditional hand-based skills, this one too is on its last legs. 

“The cheap Chinese products
readily available in the market have killed these family-run enterprises,”
Naushad says. “I am the last generation carrying forward this business. I don’t
want my children to come into this work. I want them to get out of the valley,
get degrees and get white-collared jobs. This business will end with me.
There’s no future in it anymore.”  

Why do Rashid and his son work so
painstakingly when customers rarely think of dyers when they buy shawls or
carpets? Abdul Rashid squints when I ask him this question. He looks out of the
window at the waning sunlight and tells me, evocatively, that nobody notices
the light of the sun, but everybody is warmed by it. The day is dying, and
perhaps the sun won’t rise again on the family business.

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The original
version of this photo essay appeared in print in ‘Classic Imaging’ magazine in
December 2016.

Creating colour like the warm light of the sun

ਮੇਰੇ ਮੁੱਕਣ ਨਾਲ਼ ਇਹ ਕਾਰੋਬਾਰ ਵੀ ਮੁੱਕ ਜਾਵੇਗਾ

নরম রোদ্দুরের মতো রং সৃজন

সূৰ্যৰ তপত কিৰণৰ দৰে ৰঙৰ সৃষ্টি

क्या अब कश्मीर में कोई रंगरेज़ नहीं बचेगा?

گرم دھوپ جیسا رنگ بنانے والے فنکار

கதகதப்பான சூரிய ஒளியைப் போல உருவாக்கப்படும் வண்ணங்கள்

ସୂର୍ଯ୍ୟର ଉଷ୍ମ ଆଲୋକ ଭଳି ରଙ୍ଗର ସୃଜନ

Srinagar

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Creating colour like the warm light of the sun

Abdul Rashid of Srinagar, Kashmir, with seven decades of experience in the delicate art of dyeing, speaks of how his generation of dyers may be the last, and why they still continue to painstakingly tint yarn

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