Rejuvenating traditional craft community by using tourism:a case of the weavers of Banaras

Abstract

Banaras or Varanasi apart from its religious importance is also known for various artforms such as wooden toys, stone works, brocade weaving and zari work and also for its performing arts such as music and dance. The banarasi sarees in particular has been a traditional craft which has been practiced from a long a long time, and has been mentioned in the puranas. It has been seen as a tradition to gift a banarasi saree to a newly wed bride and has been worn by the women on various religious and cultural occasions. However, in the present time the craft form has been seen on the verge of decline due to the competition from easy and cheap products made on different machines in comparison to the authentic banarasi saree made on a handloom. As a result, the communities practicing these crafts have shrunk and have started to move out of profession and have started moving to other professions. The craftsmen still practicing the profession are living and working in a very degraded condition and cramped up spaces. They make minimum profit out of their product, which they branded in the first place, and are being exploited by the traders and the middlemen. Varanasi sees a huge flux of tourists, both national and international mostly for the religious reasons, but they also show interest in buying the handicrafts specially the sarees, from the city. They often visit these clusters to see the process of saree making but out of all this the profit s majorly earned by the trader and the craftsmen or weavers. Since the weavers do not make enough profit, they are unable to invest on their living and working areas. They even lack open spaces in their clusters which were used for various outdoor activities, such as reeling etc. Their houses and workspaces and partitioned into various parts, thus cramping them up. The thesis intents to improve the living and working conditions of the weaver communities by using tourism as a tool for instance bringing more influx of tourists to these clusters, establishing interpretation centres, community shops, crafts museum in the nearby area, which in present lies around 13 kms from the city centre, conducting heritage walks to create awareness, establishing better Rejuvenating Traditional Crafts Community by using Tourism: A Case of The Weavers of Banaras iii ABSTRACT connections and network between the clusters through the existing tourist trails. Creating a network of open space for the communities to use for their outdoor works. A lot of the communities have been living for over centuries; thus, these are built heritage for the city and as the Kashi Vishwanath corridor has destructed a great amount of built heritage of the core area, thus preserving these are of importance.