WOOL 



INDK.KVM - IM.rsTRIBS 



the upper , H, there are small hand-loom workshops in woollm 



manufactures, and these each emplm- onlv line or two hands. 



jate thev are important, though . ;, Urge number that 



-nnion i, i,,.,,!,. official!; beoauM, 



though no1 -.\ooll,.n nulls n . iire weaving establish- 



ments that employ annuallv from 4..'." ,ne on 6,000 hands. These 



wool-weaving indigenous ecUbUihmaitl are all located within the 

 re concerned for the most part in the pn: -f shawls, 



t-hwlnrs (see next page), pnshmina, jamawar (or patterned o/tooru), ft 

 fintdi. etc., etc. But here and there thr< rw is a fairly J * 



ndu>trv in Oriental carpet -weaving (nee Carpets and Rugs, 272-d) 

 and in felted rugs (namdas), and tlu^ does not appear 

 the official ret urns above indicated. But if the stud v of i woollen 



industries be extended so as to include the production of mixed fabrics, 

 that is to say those in which wool constitutes but one, and perhap* 

 least important ingredient, an extensive assemblage of textiles would 

 be thereby embraced, such as the hhnrwt, mashrwt, gkattas and the like. 

 These are mostly made of silk and cotton ut occasionally of wool 



and silk combined. The name mashru (i.e. permitted ' jives the 



key apparently to the explanation of the n< hl\ varied assemblage of 

 fabrics so designated. Pure silk was forbidden to be worn by Muham 

 madans except on special occasions, and thus the weavers conceived of 

 numerous methods by which an admixture, perhaps of but a small amo 

 of silk might be thrown on the surface of a woollen or cotton textile to 

 give it the rich effect of being constructed almost entirely of the more 

 expensive and luxurious material. The word hunru, literally means a 

 textile intended to be worn in the cold season. It is woven of cotton so 

 treated as to give it the effect of wool, and is usually brocaded with silk. 

 Occasionally such textiles are made entirely of silk, and are, strictly speak- 

 ing, amrus, but when, in place of cotton, wool is used, they are commonly 

 designated ,"//"/"'//.?. These are pieces of a fixed length, such as would vmui-s. 

 be required for the preparation of a choya or coat, or suitable for a 

 lady's dress. They are simply brocaded woollen goods with the pattern 

 either in very fine pashm or in silk, or they may be in cotton, with 

 jinxl/m or silk ornamentations. In the jamawars of Kashmir, the end 

 pieces are woven straight on, but in Amritsar and Ludhiana they are 

 sewn on. A large percentage of the Kashmiris settled in British India 

 have abandoned the shawl trade an ; rated their attention ex- 



clusively on the production of plain jxishniina or of jamawars. They 

 found a lucrative field in the laruer towns, especially where these possess 

 a fair percentage of Muhammadans. v U ch as Luck' ierabad, etc., 



and in time the weavers adapted themselves to the requirements of their 

 markets and produced himrus and other brocaded textiles in which wool 

 was largely replaced by cotton or silk. Within recent years a soft form 

 of wool has been imported into India (and in increasing quantities) origi- 

 nally from Kirman in Persia, more recently from Australia and Afghanistan. iirm.Pi wool. 

 So also by special treatment soft staple can be produced from almost any 

 wool. These special wools are worked up alone or in admixture with pathm 

 in the production of pashmina, a textile imitated in Europe by a fabric 

 known as Kashmir." which, needless to say, is not made in Kashmir nor in 

 India, any more than a tithe of pashmina sold in India and exported to 

 Europe and America is made of pashm. [Cf. Imp. Gat., 1907. iii.. -12-&] 



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