Sualkuchi is located in the latitude of 26°10'0"N and the longitude of 91°34'0"E. The hottest season of the year in Sualkuchi are May to middle part of September. As mighty river Brahmaputra flows in the South direction of the village, a sort of breezy air flows throughout the year. The village is thickly populated. Approximately there are 2,24,381 peoples (according to 2001 census report) inhabitants in this village. The major occupation of the people in this village is weaving. Most of the areas in this village are plain but in some part of north-eastern and central side in this village are covered by small hills.
A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE OF HAND-LOOM INDUSTRY IN SUALKUCHI
Sualkuchi is a multi-caste town under Guwahati Sub-division of Kamrup district of Assam, situated on the North bank of the mighty Brahmaputra at a distance of 30 km West of Guwahati. The town is linked with Guwahati by P.W.D roads and with Palashbari on the South bank by motor boat and country boat. As per 2001 Census, the total population of Sualkuchi was 21252 with 4023 households. The average household size is 5.28 with sex ratio 1045. The literacy rate is 64%. S/C, S/T population constitutes 26% and 2% respectively of total population of Sualkuchi.
Having a long tradition of silk weaving at least since the 17th century, Sualkuchi is the prime centre of the silk hand-loom industry of Assam. Although originally it was a “craft village” having several cottage industries till the forties of the last century such as hand-loom weaving industry, oil processing in the traditional ghani, goldsmithi, pottery etc, the industries other than hand-loom are now almost extinct and the artisans have already taken up silk weaving as a profession. Although the weaving industry of Sualkuchi remained almost confined within the Tanti Community of Tantipara up-to the 1930, later people belonging to other communities also started to take up silk weaving gradually. Now, even the fishermen of the Koibortapara hamlet of Bamun-Sualkuchi and the Brahmin families have also given up their ascriptive caste occupations to a larger extent and they have taken up silk weaving as the main source of income.
The weaving industry of Sualkuchi received a big boost during the Second World War. The growing demand for fabrics and their increasing prices, encouraged a few Tanti families to introduce weaving commercially and they started weaving factories engaging hired wage weavers. Today, the factory system with semi-automatic Fly shuttle handloom has already been extended to entire Sualkuchi and 73.78% of the households of the town are being engaged with commercial weaving of hand-loom. The Census of Hand-looms in Sualkuchi conducted in 2002 reveals that Sualkuchi has 13752 active commercial hand-looms, of which 54.75% are performed by the woman weavers, who are basically hired from the outside of Sualkuchi. Although the hired wage weavers were originally the local poor from the Bamun-Sualkuchi area of the east and Bhatipara hamlet of the west, a flow of migrated wage weavers from different parts of Assam has emerged gradually since eighties of the last century and presently migrant weavers are dominating the wage weavers of the town.
The Hand-loom industry of Sualkuchi encompasses cotton textile, silk textile as well as Khadi cloth which are, in fact, traditional cloth endowing high social and moral value in and outside the state. However, Sualkuchi is well known for silk textiles both mulberry and muga silk. In fact muga, “the golden fibre” is produced only in Assam and it has also tremendous export potentiality. Such activities are intimately linked with the culture and tradition of the Assamese people since long past.
Even Gandhiji, the father of the nation was also highly surprised about the art and culture of weaving of the Assamese women when he visited an exhibition of eri and khadi clothes in Sualkuchi on the 9th of January, 1946. He was greatly astonished when he saw that one of the expert weavers of the silk town had depicted him in the cloth produced in his hand-loom.
As per the Census report of 2001, the workforce participation rate in the town was 37.93% of the total populations, of which only 0.53% were cultivators, 1.2% were agricultural labours, 56.37% were engaged in household industries and the remaining 41.90% were engaged in other activities.
The Silk Industry of Sualkuchi
“Khat khat khat khatsalare sabade prean mor nite nachuyai” was one of the most popular radio songs composed and sung during the fifties of the last century by the present artist pensioner Narayan Chandra Das Of Sualkuchhi. Actually the ‘click-clack click-clack’ sound of the loom make the soul of the passerby dance with the rhythmic rattle of the shuttle flying through the sheds of the wrap. No doubt, there are nearly 12 lakh throw and fly-shuttle handlooms in Assam, but most of them are domestic weaving a few metres of cloth for the use by the family members. There are also some semi commercial looms producing some metres of fabrics for the market during the off hours of the house-wives doing either independently or under some so called “Mahajans” who supply yarn to the poor weavers, who return the woven cloth against wages per piece.
The number of purely commercial looms working through out the year and producing different verities of fabrics only for the market is not very much encouraging. The silk loom of Sualkuchi and the Cittaranjan looms of Silchar had held a predominant position as per a report of the Textile Enquiry Committee of 1954. Sualkuchi However holds now the unique position in Assam nay in North East India by producing pat (mulberry). muga and tasar fabrics of various designs and colors. It has very expert designers and weavers. On the occasion of the visit of Mahatma Gandhi to Sualkuchi on January 9, 1946 one designer Rajen Deka, designed the picture of Gandhiji got it woven in a piece of pat cloth and was presented to him. The woven picture was so fine that even the two broken front teeth of Gandhiji with a smiling face were depicted and while seeing the picture the father of Nation remarked that the weavers could weave dreams in their cloth.
Sualkuchi an ancient craft village-having silk-rearing and weaving communities, potters, goldsmiths and oil pressures. While silk-rearing vanished long time ago, the gani industry perished during the early the part of the last century as the ‘Mudois’ of Sualkuchi used to sell mustered seeds to the mill of Guwahati. Pottery and gold-smithy have also vanished and the ‘Kumars’ and goldsmiths have undertaken more income yielding weaving besides other professions. The history of Sualkuchi was traced elsewhere by this writer to the 4th century BC on the basis of Kautilya’s reference to Suvarnakudya of ancient Kamrupa where the best quality of Patrorna (pat) was produced. This Suvarnakudya of Arthasastra was probably known later on as Swarnakuchi- a village naow in the bed of the Brahmaputra after the angle like bent of the river at Agiathuri was straightened towards Hatimura by Chilarai in 1562 (and the river by side of Hajo gradually dried up) and the name Sualkuchi /Soalkuchi is guessed to be derived from Swarnakuchi which in turn might have been derived from Suvarnakudya mentioned by Kautilya. The antiquity of Sualkuchi is also proved by the Asam Buranji by Gunabhiram Barua according to which the Basarioya (Basattar Gharia) Brahmins of Sualkuchi were granted land by one king Dharmapal probably of the 10th century AD. Three chronicles also testify that three was a Tanti community who were weaving silk cloth and Momai Tamuli Bezbarua and some other Ahom officials were punished by the Ahom King Pratap Singha for removing some Tanti families in 1636 to other places during the second phase of the Ahom-Mughal war. Anyway, Sualkuchi had 16,717 silk looms in 2,968 households out of 4023 families as per our field survey in 2002. And what is more, seeing the benefits of the industry, many families of 15 neighbouring villages have also undertaken silk-weaving, leading to the growth of a silk industry cluster since the seventies of the last century. The cluster had 23,872 silk looms, besides 3,915 cotton looms in the year under reference. However the number of active looms was 19,168/ in the cluster (Sualkuchi had 13,767 looms) Out of these looms 14,910 were producing pat fabrics, 2,817muga and and 1,441 tasar cloth besides 85 semi-commercial eri looms. The maximum numbers of looms, 15,017 were engaged in weaving mekhela chadar, 2,902 producing saree, 1,216 weaving thaans or plain sheets and only 33 looms had woven Khasi dresses. Total quantity of fabric production in the year was 30 lakh square metres worth Rs. 7,060 lakh in round figure. Production of mekhela chadar was 3.37 lakh pieces, saree 78,000 pieces, 76,000 pieces thaans while the weaving of Khasi dress was negligible compared with other products. Marketing of these products is done mainly by the private silk stores spread over the towns and cities of the Brahmaputra Velley. They sell 59 percent of cloth 0of the fabrics; other private agents like ferriwalas sell 31 per cent. While the co-operative societies provide the market with only 3 per cent of the remaining 7 per cent are returned to the yarn suppliers who engage the looms of the poor households working under sub-contract or putting out system.
The importance of the handloom industry lies in its employment potential. A silk loom of the cluster provides employment to 1.76 persons as weaver, helper, yarn winder and muga reeler and a person on management. Out of 19,618 weavers of the active looms, family weavers were 5,341 (27.86 per cent) as against 13,827 (72.13 per cent) hired weavers. Female weavers (10,496 or 54.75 per cent) as against 8,672 or 45.24 per cent male weavers generally dominate the weaving profession. It is interesting to note that 5,343 Bodo weavers forming 27.87 per cent are earning an income for supporting themselves as well as their families. The allegation by some Bodo organizations that the Bodo weavers are kept “under bondage” is not correct. About 42 per cent of the Bodo as well as non-Bodo weavers are in the habit of taking advance from the ‘Mahajans’ and 32 per cent of the latter complained that they could not recover the advances as the weavers could not be traced after leaving the factory without information. As regards annual income of the weavers, majority (55.55 per cent) working for 9 months in a year earn about Rs. 12,000, 42.5 per cent earn about Rs. 15,000 and 3 per cent weavers earn about Rs. 18,000.
Any way the market of the silk products remains confined within the Brahmaputra Valley although some sarees and plain sheets are purchased by non-Assamese customers. As the silk expert Max-well Lefroy had remarks in 1916 some of the products of Sualkuchi could have markets in Europe but as Sualkuchi remained in a corner, it was not known to the outsiders. Certainly no entrepreneur has come forward to sell the products outside the state while Gujarati sarees and sarees of West Bangle under the trade name Tanuj are sold in Guwahati and other markets of Assam. Recently the ARTFED is reported to have exported some plain sheets produced in Sualkuchi. This is not doubt an encouraging endeavor. In view of removal of quota system on export and import handloom products under multifibre arrangement of the World Trade Organisation, prospects of exporting silk fabrics and garments have brightened. This prospect calls for product diversification from traditional mekhela-chadar to weaving and printing bedcovers, bed sheets window and door screens, sofa covers etc and garments like sarees, maxis, churidars and churnies etc. It is hoped that the government agencies would try to motivate the conservative entrepreneurs of the Sualkuchi silk cluster to innovate new products by introducing semi-automatic looms and calico printing tools etc.