The weavers of Banaras are facing a social crisis for over the past two decades. Cloth has symbolised the politics of relations between human beings and the sacred and has also been used to describe the content and texture of human beings and the domain of the sacred. Vasanthi Raman in her research fellowship for the IIAS came up with these findings as she traced the genealogy of the weavers and their crisis as the historical low caste julahas and their conversion to Islam and becoming Momin Ansaris, a key step in their social and historical voyage. This book is a social document of weavers that are fast facing extinction as an artisanal community. This is the story of the humble weaver or the julahas of Bihar and their journey over the centuries and their attempt to transcend their lowly and despised status in a hierarchical Hindu social order by conversion to Islam.
There are no reviews yet.