CRAFT: KALEEN
Impact study: Kashmiri hand knotted carpets

Carpets are woven in the districts of Srinagar, Budgam, Pulwama, Baramullah and Anantnag. In Srinagar there are outlets in Residency Road, Polo View, the Bund, and Boulevard and around Dal and Nageen Lakes. The Kashmir Government Arts Emporium and its branches all over the country have big carpet sections.
Carpet Industry has emerged as one of the most prominent handicraft industry of the state in terms of revenue and foreign exchange earner. The carpet industry in the region is being run both on factory and cottage basis and there are large-scale units in the private sector, which are owned by merchant exporters. The demand of the foreign buyers has encouraged the production of carpets at the extensive scale but the industry is facing competition from other countries such as China and Pakistan.
The Jammu and Kashmir is well-known throughout the world for its beauty, climate and craftsman skills. The handicraft activities in Kashmir valley are famous throughout the world because of their quality, art and design. The handicraft industry holds a substantial share in the overall production and export of the state. The traditional handicraft occupations are one of the sources of livelihood for the number of rural and tribal people even urban people in the era of globalization. The traditional handicrafts and other goods are famous throughout the world and many Kashmiri people directly or indirectly are related to these handicraft occupations for their income. The Climate of the valley is vital as in winters most people find these traditional handicraft occupations quite suitable to generate their income.
The handicraft occupations act as both primary as well as a secondary source of income in Kashmir. These handicraft occupations are a part of our culture and play an important role in introducing the material culture richness of our culture to others. These occupations are of vital importance as cultural heritage. The Handicrafts sector provides employment to nearly about 3.50 lakh persons in the state. The total production of handicraft goods in Jammu and Kashmir in 2013–14 is 2017.82 (Rs in crore), in 2014–15 is 2175.00, in 2015 -16 is 2234.15 and in 2016–17 is 2650.00. The total export of handicrafts in Jammu and Kashmir is 1695.65 (Rs in crore) in 2013–14, in 2014–15 are 1287.04, in 2015 -16 are 1059.41 and in 2016–17 is 1151.122.

Handicrafts sector has an important role to play in the development of the state. Lack of the large scale industries in the State, handicrafts, has remained a key economic activity since centuries. The Production and sales of handicrafts have increased significantly during the last two decades. The major chunk of foreign exchange earnings of the State comes from this sector. Crafts like shawls, crewel, chain stitch, wood carving, shawls, and carpets hold a significant share in the overall production and export of the state
The problems faced by the carpet industry may be put into two major categories:
1) Macro-level problems
The macro-level problems include: insufficient infra-structural facilities, insufficient credit facilities, non-availability of better quality yarn at reasonable prices, lack of facilities for product innovation and development, rising prices of yarn and subsequent rise in carpet prices, increasing competition from machine made products, lack of awareness about Kashmiri carpets in the minds of final consumers, lack of publicity and public relations in foreign markets and lack of foreign market intelligence, poor governmental planning, negligence by central and state governments and inadequate census data about carpet industry units and number of artisans.
2) Micro-level problems
The micro-level/unit level problems are: Lack of working capital, lack of delivery schedule and timing, low education level, low wages and highly unorganized, lack of production and financial planning, inadequate infrastructure and technological obsolescence and exploitation of carpet weavers by middlemen.
COMMUNAL AND TECHNOLOGICAL EVOLUTION:
Designer -> Color-Caller -> Talim-Writer -> Reciter -> Weaver
(naqash) (tarah-guru) (talim-guru) (ustad) (kaalbaaf)
Designer -> Talim-Writer -> Talim-Copyist -> Reciter -> Weaver
(naqash) (talim-guru) (nakkaal) (ustad) (kaalbaaf)

This traditional work version is still extant today with the exception that no talim-copyists are used, though there are professional talim-copyists at a few places. Today, this work version includes highly expert manual designers who create the designs on graph papers and generate the talim as well, either again manually or from computers by scanning the manually drawn graphs in the system. These manual designers usually also do the work of talim-writers; thus, rather it must be so as per one of my respondents, but vice versa may neither be required nor be the case. The contemporary role of ustad has changed from being an instructor relaying instructions to roomful of looms, to a fellow weaver on the same loom, who reads aloud the talim in a specific terminology in particular design types. Thus, the workflow in contemporary manual process proceeds as:
Designer/Talim-Writer -> Weaver
(Naqash) (Kaalbaaf)
The digital technology appeared on the carpet-weaving scene at the onset of this century. The two programs, currently in market, are ‘Naqash’ developed in 1998 and ‘Qaleen Weaver’ developed in 2004.Both are CAD-based systems which facilitate not only creation of designs in accordance with specific carpet measurement and design type, but also generate the talim in the same row-andcolumn structure in which talim is written manually. Whatever the program, there is no difference between a digital and a handwritten talim: both are anatomically and functionally identical. The digital generation of talim, however, makes many further actions possible: for instance, creating as many copies of talim, printing only a specific portion from the design, feeding antique manually written talims back to the system and extracting the design out of it, re-creating missing portions in the older talims etc. With these features, the coding process shot beyond mere code writing on strips which used to be in the manual setting, thereby altering the nature of coding in the design process.
