Sadly, Inder has fallen victim to a thing called progress
Kashmiri spinning wheel goes into oblivion
RABIA NOOR (Greater Kashmir)
Srinagar, May 2: Once an important source of livelihood for women folk in Kashmir, the traditional Kashmiri spinning wheel has almost gone into oblivion.
A decade or two ago, an average middle-class Kashmiri women after finishing the household chores would involve themselves in spinning activity to give some succor to their families. But now the use of the spindle type spinning wheel is mostly restricted to widows and destitute.
The spinning wheel locally known as Inder has got a great significance in the Kashmiri culture. The famous pashmina and shahtoos shawls that are considered unique for their quality, texture, softness and elegant look would be woven from the threads spun on the wheel.
Spinning wheel is entirely made of wood except a thin iron rod fitted to its left. With the turning of the wheel, rotates the rod. The wheel is made of small planks, placed in two circles, with a joint in the centre holding them together and parallel at a certain distance from each other.
“The wheel is operated in a sitting posture, with the right hand rotating its wheel and the left hand holding properly the cleaned and softened aggregate of wool against the sharp pointed end of the rotating iron rod, so that fine threads of wool come out.
Recalls Begam Aaisha of Rajouri Kadal: “Earlier eighty per cent of the women would spin the wheel and it would be considered a great art.”
“Spinning wheel is a time consuming process and requires a lot of efforts and patience. On an average it takes over 20 to 25 hours to spin a 50 gram wool,” said a woman from Nigeen, adding that that means so much of hard work. “So nowadays hardly anyone prefers it,” she said.
Another homemaker Rafiqa said that earlier women would make a satisfactory earning out of spinning wheel, which is not the case now.
“Nowadays mostly women are busy with so many things from home to office, hence that leaves little time for them to spin the wheel. Earlier not many ladies would go outside the home for work,” said Anjum Khan, a working lady.
“This activity is now preferred by only those, who really have no other means of income,” she added. However, those who spin the wheel did not seem satisfied with what they earn. Most of them said that they did not earn more than Rs 200 a month with this activity.
Tahira Gusani, widow of a tourist guide, who was killed in a mine-blast at Dalgate four years back, does not have any source of income other than spinning wheel. However, that does not meet her daily requirements. “I spin the wheel for sixteen hours a day, but do not earn more than Rs 200 a month,” said Tahira. “I could get nothing from my in-laws. In fact they even grabbed my dower. Whatever I earn is spent on the daily activities, and is in fact much lesser than what is required for the education of my children, who study in a private school,” said Tahira, adding that she has to spend around Rs 3000 a month on their studies.