2017-03-20 Mon

India was once a textile production hub, a Portuguese traveler once famously quoted ‘Everyone from the Cape of Good Hope to China, man, and women are clothed from head to foot, in the products of Indian looms'. Until the arrival of colonialism, India was the largest exporter of textile in the world.

It was astonishing to notice the increase in consumption of Indian textile in the western world during the 17th and 18th century as opposed to the consumption of tobacco, potato, coffee, and tea. The European craftsmen’s work in textile production was not as attractive and skilled as Indian artisans. The most famous textile of India was Kashmiri shawl, but the diamond amongst it was ‘Pashmina’.

Pashmina is Cashmere wool of the highest grade. This shawl is also known as soft gold in Kashmiri, it comes from the four distinct breeds of the Cashmere goat from the different regions of Kashmir. Pashmina shawls are hand spun and woven.

This shawl of Kashmir was the mainstay of the Kashmir valley's economy from approx 1600 to 1860, over 250 years. This luxury textile was patronized by Mughal, Afghan, Sikh and Dogra dynasties that ruled Kashmir. It brought more capital than the whole state revenue at its peak in 1861.

The only strong negative impact on this Shawl production was felt when the Scottish town of Paisley started imitating shawl manufacturing. But this shawl which bought half a million a year once into Kashmir, today its demand is very low and its art may extinct in coming twenty to thirty years.

To promote and recognize this beautiful artwork India Post has issued the hand-woven design of Pashmina shawl on an commemorative stampin 2017.