VANASI, India – Mohammed Ahmad Ansari spent his life in the narrow and crowded lanes of Varanasi, the city said to be India’s spiritual capital and the constituency of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The 55-year-old has spent decades weaving banarashi sarees, enjoying a thorough chunk of hand-woven cues against the background and evening call of the temple bells of Azan in the sacred city, widely believed to be India’s oldest settlement and known for its blend of Hindu-Muslim culture.
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However, recently sales have been a hit for a variety of reasons. The latest is the ongoing tension between India and its neighbour, Bangladesh.
Diplomatic relations between former closed allies have been tested sharply since last August when former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fled from Dhaka to New Delhi after opposing her control.
Bangladesh has denounced some of India’s issues, including Modi’s support for Hasina when she was in power.
These communities were considered Hasina’s supporters, and since her overthrow, there have been several attacks on religious minorities, including Hindus, and Indian companies have also been boycotted or attacked in Bangladesh.
In April, Bangladesh restricted the importation of certain items from India, including yarn and rice. On May 17, India retaliated by banning the import of ready-made clothing and processed foods from Bangladesh across the land’s borders. Bangladesh can still send its sari to India, but it will need to use more expensive and time-consuming sea routes.
Banarasisari is known worldwide for its meticulous zari works of exquisite craftsmanship, gorgeous silk, fine gold and silver wire embroidery, and in many cases it can take up to six months to weave one saree. These can be sold over 100,000 rupees ($1,130) each, depending on the design and material used.
“These sarees are in high demand in Bangladesh during festivals and weddings, but the ban has led to a decline of over 50% in business,” Ansari told Al Jazeera.
This is the latest blow to the industry that has already been hit by previous government policies, such as the so-called demonetization and power tariff hikes when India was disabled overnight, and the cheaper competition with Saree, especially in Sarat, Gujarat, western India.
This onslaught of the past few years has increased, bringing weavers out of business, leaving the city in search of other jobs, or gaining new jobs such as earning a livelihood of rickshaws, earning them around 200,000 people.
Pawan Yadav (61), a wholesale sari trader in Varanasi, told Al Jazeera that business has been stagnant since the change in Dhaka’s regime.
“We used to supply Bangladesh with around 10,000 sarees each year, but everything has stopped,” Yadav said.
India has 108 documented ways to drape saris that hold special positions globally for vibrant colors, which represent timeless elegance and beauty.
Despite the current turmoil, the textile sector employs the second-highest number of people in India after agriculture, with over 3.5 million working among them per government data. Among them, SARI Industry is valued at around Rs 80,000 crore ($90.1 billion), including exports of around $300 million.
Varanasi weavers and traders have voted Modi for Congress for the third time in a row, but are waiting for the Prime Minister to find an amicable solution to the trade issue with Bangladesh.
In 2015, the Modi government designated August 7 as the National Hand Weave Day, pledging to bring about a change in hand weave life by promoting domestic products. But so far there has been nothing meaningful, said Weaver, a trader who spoke to Al Jazeera.
“India has unique handroom crafts that cannot compete with the country,” but without sufficient companies and reliable income, many artisans are forced to abandon trade, and “it’s hard to find even a young weaver,” says Rameshmenon, a social enterprise who works to revive the handroom. “The need for time is to rearrange hand-wovens as a product of luxury rather than poverty.”
West Bengal traders welcome ban
However, this situation differs completely in West Bengal, about 610 km (380 miles) from Varanasi, along the border with Bangladesh.
The ban on sari trade between the two countries has provided a new lease of life to traders in cotton saris from Bengal, who had lost market share in saris in Dhaka.
Tarak Nath Das, a cotton sari trader for the past 40 years in Shantipur in West Bengal, supplies saris woven into various showrooms across the country by local artisans.
After years of loss, the 65-year-old has seen a business boom in recent weeks heading towards the main festival of Durgapuja.
“Bangladeshi’s salise had devoured at least 30% of the market and the local industry was bleeding. As orders began pouring in, they slowly began to regain the old market.
Shantipur is home to over 100,000 weavers and traders and is considered a hub for SARI business in eastern India. The town and surrounding area of Nadia district are well known for the hand-woven weaving industry, which produces a very diverse range of sarees, including the extremely popular Shantipur cotton sari.
Areas near Hooghly and Murshidabad districts are also famous for their cotton saris, which are not only exported to Greece, Turkiye and other countries, but also sold nationwide locally.
Sanjay Karmakar (40), a wholesaler of cotton sari in the Nadia area, is also pleased with the ban.
“Local women prefer to buy Bangladeshi sarees in attractive packaging, and the fabrics used there are slightly better than us,” he said.
It was a pinch of sales, coupled with young women who opted for leggings, tunics and other modern clothing over traditional sarees.
Fashion creator Santanu Guha Takurta, 62, told Al Jazeera that Indian weavers and traders would benefit immensely from Bangladesh’s import restrictions. It also shuts down cheaper imitations with more expensive designs.
“These restrictions were made at the right time just before the start of the festival season, which has really benefited the industry.”
