Reviving muga silk and more at Majuli island

Majuli island beckoned and Angana Bordoloi followed. The fashion designer, who set up Kiron Foundation to work towards rejuvenation of the local silk weaving craft of Assam, has come a long way since the dream first formed in her mind. About eight years after she first moved to this large river island in this northeastern state, Bordoloi is only going strength to strength to spin a success story – for her organisation as well the rural artisans.

“We started with five weavers,” recalled Bordoloi. “I initially used to go home to home and give them work. I realised that there was a market for their products. But although every woman is a weaver in the Northeast, they have been traditionally weaving mostly for their domestic needs. It was not seen as a serious profession.”

Cut to the present and Kiron Foundation now works with 250 sericulture farmers, more than 80 weavers across Majuli and six in-house weavers who work full-time with the organisation. They create products like mekhela chador, cushion covers, table runners, art pieces and decorative articles made of muga and eri silk. The items are mostly sold through exhibitions and social media. 

Bordoloi, 40, has put in special efforts to preserve the traditional skills while also trying to contemporise the products. 

“For instance, we have even woven the state anthem of Assam, ‘O mur apunar dekh’, as a textile piece,” said Bordoloi. It took more than two months to get ready. 

“It was a really difficult task because it was something absolutely new for the weavers to visualise, and also since they are illiterate they had to try harder to remember the alphabet,” Bordoloi recalled, adding that it was initially tough to make the artisans accept new ideas, be it creating products other than mekhela chador or using the metric method of measurement. 

“But over time, we have established a comfortable relationship with them,” said Bordoloi.

Talking about the changes they have brought in to revive and revamp the weaving practices, Amit Jain, who manages the operations at Kiron Foundation, gave the example of the saree border. 

“Earlier, the borders for the saree or mekhela were prepared separately and stitched onto the main cloth later,” Jain said. “We initiated the process of weaving the border together with the width of the fabric. This allowed the weavers to learn something new, and also provided a fresh range of products to the customers, which was convenient to use.” 

Bordoloi, who belongs to Tinsukia in Assam, studied fashion designing in Kolkata, and worked in Delhi after that. She first visited Majuli in 2013 as a tourist. 

“On my first visit, I felt some connection with this place that’s hard to describe. I got the feeling that I would come back and work here,” she reminisced, expressing her mixed feelings about the way the island has seen change over the years. 

But she is sure that Majuli is her home now and wants to explore other ways to contribute to the place and its people. 

“We want to create something that would enable the villagers and the younger generation to live in a better way while remaining connected to their roots and natural environs,” Bordoloi said. “After all, that’s also a treasure that needs to be preserved.” 

Pallavi Srivastava is Associate Director – Content at Village Square.