KOLKATA: In May, 200 silk flags made with fabric from Murshidabad will form the River of Hope at the Platinum Jubilee Pageant along the Mall in central London to mark Queen Elizabeth’s 70 years on the throne. While the made-in-Murshidabad silk yarns have already reached the UK, a silk expert from the French city Lyon has flown to Kolkata to explore the possibility of Murshidabad superfine mulberry produce to enter the global silk network in future.
French textile artist Isabelle Moulin, who is visiting India to promote bilateral cooperation between India and France around design and textile, with an emphasis on silk in India, met with members of the West Bengal Crafts Council to discuss Murshidabad’s silk heritage and examine its potential to partner other major silk producing cities across the globe.
Bengaluru is the only Indian city to feature in the exclusive club that includes two cities from China and Japan.
“India has so many silk-producing centres, there can be multiple cities in the global alliance for exchange of techniques, technology and exploring trade opportunities,” said Moulin.
India is the only country that produces all varieties of silk. “Thanks to its mastery in the production of so-called wild silks, such as tasar silk, eri and muga, India can offer a very attractive ‘ecological’ alternative for those who are moved by the interrupted destiny of the Bombyx Mori chrysalis. In the new distribution of cards that is emerging at the world level, it is obvious that India will undoubtedly have to play a major role. For this, it will not be a question of trying to produce silk in the same way, but simply inventing new processes adapted to the climate, ecology, economy and energy,” she said.
WB Crafts Council president Shanta Ghosh said her organisation will extend assistance to Moulin to carry out a study on Bengal silk and enable it to figure on the global map. “New designs and applications can revitalize the Bengal silk industry,” she said.
France is the European capital of silk. Frenchman Jacques de Vaucansoon introduced the Jacquard loom that allowed a string of punched cards to be processed mechanically in the correct sequence to create patterns and designs on silk. The binary punched cards of the loom are considered the precursor to the modern computer.
