Hand-weaving as heritage: The making of a \"craft tradition\" and the politics of cloth in colonial and post colonial south India

A lecture by IIAS fellow Dr. Aarti Kawlra.

Focusing on the biography of a culturally valued cloth, the silk and gold contrast-bordered “wedding sari” of Tamil Nadu in south India, she will discuss the twentieth century construction of hand-weaving as an inherited “craft tradition”. She examines the reformist and revivalist agendas of state and non-state actors and institutions, to foreground the politics of cloth within a wider, hegemonic process of traditionalization of India’s techno-culture in modernity. Some of the questions her research poses include - How was hand-weaving implicated in the construction of a national and regional heritage? Who are the living repositories of this commingled past? Are they mere place-holders of culture or do they have any claims of their own?

Every third Wednesday of the month one of the IIAS researchers will present his/her work-in-progress in an informal setting to their colleagues and other interested attendees, followed by a lunch provided by IIAS. These lunch lectures are organized to give the research community the opportunity to freely discuss ongoing research and to exchange thoughts.

Lunch is provided. Please register using the form below.