Hanafabi and Saidambi Naik, two middle-aged women from Kalaghatagi Taluk In Karnataka’s Dharwad district, he was initially nervous to speak in front of the camera. After a few whispering moments, Saidambi took the lead in telling her story of sewing the memory.
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“We both belong to the Siddi community of North Karnataka, but our origins are in Sindh, Pakistan and parts of Africa. We left our village to come to Chennai to show our identity.” Kavand (Quilt), Saidambi says in Siddi dialect, which has a mixture of words borrowed from Konkani, Marathi, Kannada, Urdu and Hindi.
Both women rarely get a chance to leave their village as the community distrusts outsiders. Having distinctly African features, the Siddis have historically been discriminated against by colonialists and locals alike. “We sometimes travel to our relatives’ homes near our villages but otherwise, we just work in the fields and sew quilts,” says Hanafabi.
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Since 2015–16, as their quilts began to be recognized as crafts, Siddi women have been gradually moving out of their villages to showcase their art. It is being led by art historian and community practitioner Anita N Reddy, who is working with the community in 15-20 villages. Reddy saw for the first time Kavand At a friend’s house in the Western Ghats 15 years ago. “During a trip to Siddi village, I had given a bunch of my clothes to my friend’s family. The next time I arrived, I was admiring the quilt that my friend’s wife had stitched. She showed me the pieces of my clothes, pointing to the blanket that made up the piece. It was amusing but also charming,” she says.
This set Reddy on a journey to understand quilting. highlighted in detail the importance of KavandSaidambi says, “The most ornate quilts are reserved for weddings. This is inherited by our daughters. If you don’t take a quilt to your in-laws’ house, you may not be treated well. In winter you won’t even have a sheet to cover yourself. We even make quilts for our newborn babies.”
The art exhibition ‘Threads of Confluence’ was held at Dakshinachitra Museum in Chennai last month. | Photo courtesy: B. Jothi Ramalingam
In December, the pair, along with 20 others, came to Chennai’s Dakshinachitra Museum to exhibit 50 colorful, tiled quilts. threads of confluenceA traveling exhibition. For the first time, Siddi women used Madras check, a distinct fabric from the erstwhile Madras Presidency, in hand-stitching. Kavand. Madras checks have been exported around the world since the 16th century.
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not two Kavand Never look alike. Roman letters such as ‘a’, ‘e’ and ‘h’ can be found as a part of the mixture. “For the Siddis, it’s just a design,” says Reddy. What was once a means of survival is now an art, and a potential livelihood.
meeting of two worlds
Bringing together the craft of the Siddi quilters and the Madras check fabric was the brainchild of Anita Pottamkulam, director (culture), Dakshinachitra, who roped in the Reddys and the manufacturers of the fabric, Old Madras Trading Company (OMTC).
Although Madras Checks and Siddis do not overlap in history, there is a metaphorical connection. If the Siddis were brought to India from Africa, the Madras Checks traveled from India to the Caribbean through the colonial trade route of the Coromandel Coast. Now a premium textile, this farmer/fisherman cloth from the 12th century Madrasapatnam village (later Madras/Chennai) left the shores of colonized India centuries later, and became popular in America in the 1960s.
“When Anita [Pottamkulam] And I talked about this exhibition coming to Chennai, we realized that we would like to include an element from the city. Vibrant Madras check, a fabric with a rich history, was our fabric of choice. It has a long history of export from South India to many parts of the world, and is seen as a status symbol, especially in African countries,” says Reddy.
Roman letters such as ‘A’, ‘E’ and ‘H’ can be found as part of A’s design mix. Kavand The quilt. | Photo courtesy: B. Jothi Ramalingam
Madras checks moved to Africa, before moving to the Caribbean and becoming part of the national attire. Reddy further says, Real Madras was known as Rumal injury Meaning ‘real India’ and was used by the Nigerian Kalabari tribe to wrap babies.
rising from scraps
For the exhibition, OMTC provided the fabric. Its co-founder Ranveer Shah, who is on a quest to revive the original hand-woven handloom Madras fabric, now owns 55 of these quilts. Until now, the leftover garment-cloth pieces were used to make stuffed toys. This time, the scraps were cut up and used by Siddi women to create eclectic, Tetris-like patterns. In his Chennai factory, cloth-weavers and Siddi quilt-makers, in the absence of a common language, communicated through songs in their mother tongue.
At the OMTC Chennai factory, Tamil cloth-weavers and Siddi quilt-makers interacted through songs. | Photo courtesy: B. Jothi Ramalingam
Historically poor Siddis, only some of whom are granted Scheduled Tribe status, have struggled to make a living beyond their economic constraints. The purpose is survival. “His main objective in coming to Chennai was to understand his history materially,” says Reddy.
Saidambi Naik (left) and Hanafabi, Siddi quilt artisans from North Karnataka, travel to Chennai For the first time in their lives, they are traveling outside their village to showcase their art. | Photo courtesy: B. Jothi Ramalingam
Both Shah and Reddy are keen to put this quilt making tradition of South India on the global map. While Shah is selling and demonstrating it Kavind Quilts made using his Madras checks, Reddy is separately doing other shows with these Siddi quilt makers, who are not associated with OMTC. She says, “Some women have traveled to India for similar exhibitions, and taught their quilt-making style to other art professionals. This has given them a greater sense of self-worth.” She hopes to take a handful of Siddi women and their quilts to the International Folk Art Market in Santa Fe, USA. Currently, the exhibition is at the Kadri Art Gallery in Telangana till February 19.
The most ornate quilts are reserved for weddings; Daughters get inheritance; Quilts are also made for newborn babies. | Photo courtesy: B. Jothi Ramalingam
Kavand The quilt exhibition is currently on at Kadri Art Gallery, Telangana till 19th February Photo Courtesy: Special Arrangement
not two Kavand Never look alike. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Despite the fact that many of them are earning through crafts, Hanafabi and Saidambi are “not sure how this will solve their huge problems of excessive rains and severe floods and landslides uprooting homes and lives”. One lesson from these women is their resilience as they find joy in learning the art of sewing.
For updates on traveling exhibits, follow @anithanreddy on Instagram
sanjana.g@thehindu.co.in