Following the Map: A Postcolonial Unpacking of a Kashmir …

Following the Map APostcolonial Unpacking of aKashmir Shawl

Abstract

PAUL SHARRADPaul Sharrad is Associate Professor in EnglishStudies at the University of Wollongong Australia Heteaches postcolonial literatures with an emphasis onIndia and the Pacific His book on Raja Rao is soon tobe joined by one on Albert Wendt and they accompanya wide selection of articles and reviews on works byWilson Harris Peter Carey Kamau Brathwaite AnitaDesai Witi Ihimaera and others

Textile Volume 2 Issue 1 pp 64ndash79Reprints available directly from the PublishersPhotocopying permitted by licence onlycopy 2004 Berg Printed in the United Kingdom

T his article traces the stories inand around one of four Srinagar

ldquomap shawlsrdquo (c 1870) bringingpostcolonial discourse analysis tobear on reading its changing andcontending meanings Its technicalbrilliance sits amongst changes inshawl production as a result of East-West trade particularly during thenineteenth century The shawlrsquosmeanings draw upon courtly dressand gift exchange the socialfunctions of cartography localtraditions of painting the pomp ofthe Raj commodity capitalismpersonal souvenirs gallerypatronage and residual post-colonial rivalries Its complexsignificance is ldquomappedrdquo acrosstrans-regional exchanges of powerand cultural traditions in Kashmir

its use as a sign of conquest inimperial exhibitions and itscontemporary status as a prizedwork of exotic fabric artRehistoricizing and repoliticizingthe Godfrey Shawl reveals a densernarrative than often circulatesaround Asian textile ldquocollectiblesrdquomdashone that lends itself to comparisonwith literary uses of textiles as signsof history and culture SalmanRushdiersquos novels MidnightrsquosChildren and Shame also draw ourattention to the Kashmir regionthrough the device of texiles assymbolic inspiration and modes ofstorytelling ldquosubalternrdquo to dominanthistories Attention to suchnarratives reveals limitations insome Western gendering of fabricarts

66 Paul Sharrad

Many people despite centuries ofembedded linguistic links betweennarrative and weaving (as in thedouble meaning of ldquospinning ayarnrdquo) turn from deepinterpretations of poetry and printfiction to look at a textile work as aself-evident surface Especiallyperhaps when the work is hangingon a gallery wall a fabric is taken asoffering a ldquopresentrdquo experienceremarkable primarily for culturalexoticism design elegance andortechnical virtuosity In hisdeconstruction of some of thecultural assumptions and scientificmethods behind Western colonialexpansionism Jose Rabasa (1986)makes the point that maps are notmere mimetic surfaces of naturalspatial reach but that they arepart of a technology producing theidea of a universally present gaze asa meaningful possibility They arealso histories of all the journeysthey summarize and all the mapsthey displace Here I would like tobring together ldquoflatrdquo fabric andldquoflatrdquo maps under a readinginformed by postcolonial literarytheory (that is an awareness of thehistorical and present culturaldynamics engaged with colonialistlegacies of power differentials) toshow how textile art can carry arichly textured narrative full of thekinds of contending meanings wecommonly expect from literarytexts1

In the National Gallery ofAustralia (NGA) there is a large

ldquoshawlrdquo which is a woven andembroidered map of Srinagar themajor city of Kashmir It usesMughal painting conventions ofmultiple perspective under a birdrsquos-eye viewpoint and is of sufficientdetail for thirty weavers to havetaken a year to complete (Brand1995 120) It was commissionedaround 1870 for the court ofMaharaja Ranbir Singh (ruling1857ndash85 Crill 1993 93) and wasproduced from the workshop ofSayyid Hussain Shah and SayyidMuhammad Mir (Crill 1993 94) Theshawl was donated to the Gallery bythe descendants of Major StuartGodfrey in 1992 Godfrey had been apolitical officer (the AssistantResident) in Kashmir and hadbought the shawl from the Statetreasury in 1896 It is known to havebeen exhibited at the Delhi Durbar1902ndash3 and at the Crystal Palaceexhibition of Empire in 1911 TheGodfrey shawl is one of only fourldquomap shawlsrdquo its supposed pairbeing in the Victoria and AlbertMuseum (VampA) London which alsoholds another example on loan fromthe royal collection The fourth is inthe Sardar Pratap Singh Museum inSrinagar itself (Crill 1993 91Maxwell 1995 70)

For all their materiality objectsare slippery their meanings changeaccording to the circumstances weencounter them in From a Westernperspective ldquoshawlrdquo meanssomething worn usually by womenldquocashmererdquo turns the humble


67Following the Map A Postcolonial Unpacking of a Kashmir Shawl

knitted shoulder drape into a luxuryfashion item carrying with itnotions of secluded beauty spotslakes and hills and intricatelyswirling ldquopaisleyrdquo patterns InIndian context up to the end of thenineteenth century at leastldquocashmererdquo was simply pashminamdashgoat hair admittedly brought downfrom the mountains and so costing

more than cotton padding say butnot an uncommon source of clothand one that could be anything fromstored lengths for ritual distributionat court to floor coverings and wallhangings Major General W GOsborne visiting a palace in 1838for example observed ldquoThe floorwas covered with rich shawlcarpets and a gorgeous shawl

canopyrdquo (Crill in Stronge 1999 115)In the Sikh kingdoms that grew toinclude Kashmir art was seen ascontinuous with both everyday lifeand the spiritual world There is ahymn by Guru Arjan which statesthat ldquoliberation is attained whilelaughing playing dressing up andeatingrdquo (hasandian khelandianpainandia khavandian vice hove

Figure 1Workshop of Sayyid Hussain Shah The Godfrey Shawl c1870 Cashmere wool natural dyes 208 times 185 cm Gift of the Godfreyfamily 1992 National Gallery of Australia Canberra 1992281

68 Paul Sharrad

mukti Guru Granth cited in Stronge1999 41) The artistic images thatexpress union with the Divine inSikh scripture therefore emergefrom everyday chores Dyeingfabrics and stitching them acts ofdressing and applying make-upworking in a smithy or churningbutter at home symbolize completedevotion and single-mindedattachment to the One Theimmutability of Truth may beperceived through a task asmundane as sewing ldquoTruth iseternal once sewn It never getsripped asunderrdquo (Guru Granth citedby Nikky-Guninder Kaur Singh inStronge 1999 41) With this in mindwe can see that the Srinagar mapshawls might mean more than just adisplay of wealth or political powerThey may in fact express whatcolonial romance came to imagineabout the Vale of Kashmirmdashthat lifearound Srinagar under benign rulewas close to and coextensive withreligious inspiration If however westart our reading of the shawl textfrom the ldquoreceptionrdquo end of theimperial history that brought theSrinagar shawl to an Australianaudience we begin to track a lessharmonious complex of shifting andcontending meanings

The Godfrey shawl is acombination of woven pashminaand embroidery Originally shawlswere woven in one piece (kanikar)and took a year or more tocomplete Then men began sewingtogether sections of an overalldesign woven on different looms(tilikar or ldquopatchedrdquo shawls) as away of speeding up production (Crill1993 91) Needleworked shawls(amlikar) are reputed to have beenintroduced to Kashmir in 1803 byKhwaja Yusuf an Armenian

merchant who merely extended theexpressive range of rafugarmdashthemen who stitched pieces togetherand embroidered extra work into theweaving Embroidered shawlsescaped the 26 tax on fully wovenones and became possible whenRanjit Singhrsquos unification of theNorth West in 1819 dispossessedsome landholders turning them toartisanal labor (Irwin 1955 3ndash4)Embroidered designs at firstimitated woven ones but ldquoa newgenre arose in about 1830 thatincorporated motifs with humanfigures and animals This pictorialstyle was mostly used for patkas(sashes) and the edging of chogas(robes)rdquo It then extended to largeall-over patterns (Buie 1996 45ndash7)the most elaborate examples ofwhich are shawls depicting maps ofSrinagar and the Kashmir valley(Crill in Stronge 1999 127ndash8)

In galleries objects are ldquofrozenin timerdquo (as with Keatsrsquos Grecianurn) and abstracted from theirstories despite the best efforts ofmodern curatorial practice Thismateriality and autonomy of thething is perhaps accentuated in theexhibition of fabric arts theyassume a quality of completion andself-sufficiency even as they alsosilently express the hands and thetime that went into their making Inthe case of the Godfrey shawlresplendent on wall or back-roomtable the self-presence of theartworkmdashthe overwhelming detailcoupled with the dominating size ofthe piecemdashpresents its map as aflat totalized image But the shawlcan also be read as a map ofstories a palimpsest of changesand differences It includes thetomb of Sultan Zain-ul-Abidin andthe Shankaracharya Hindu temple


(thus indicating the multiculturaltradition of Kashmir) shows the fortHari Parbat built by Emperor Akbarwho annexed the valley in 1588 andvisited the same year depicts thefamous gardens constructed byemperor Jehangir contains in itsfabric memories of Ranjit Singhwho took Srinagar in 1819 (drivingworkers away to Lahore AmritsarRawalpindi because of taxes) andthe British who annexed it after thefirst Sikh war (1846) but sold it tothe Dogra Maharaja of JammuGulab Such was the revenue fromKashmir that this ruler decreedweavers could not leave unless theyfound a replacement to do theirwork (Irwin 1955 9) PresumablyRanbir Singh was the beneficiary ofthis not always popular move andhis commissioning of the shawlswould thus be a display of hissuzerainty to local Kashmiris and ifwe credit the reason given for theirproduction a token of fealty to theRaj for establishing his dynasty Theself-contained work of art is thusalso a catalog of exchanges ofpower

One of the stories hidden in theGodfrey shawl is of course theldquoromance of exotic authenticityrdquoanother is the story of constanttransregional exchange TheKashmir shawl has taken on aspecial signification of localidentity even though it has been atoken of trade and Westernadaptation When early attempts torelocate pashmina goats to Franceand England failed (Buie 1996 49ndash50) and substitute combinationswere adopted for European shawlproduction the specific regionalityof the fully pashmina shawl wasassured Nonetheless this sign oflocal identity is itself a product of

imperial conquest and culturalexchange Sultan Zain-ul-Abidinwho ruled Kashmir from 1420 to1470 and is credited withdeveloping shawl production in thevalley had been taken into exile byTimurTamerlane He spent sevenyears in Samarkand and after takingcontrol of Kashmir sent artisans toIran and Central Asia to learn how toproduce the artworks of Islamicculture (Ali 2001 18 Buie 1996 39)The wool itself is imported toKashmir from Ladakh and WesternTibet (Buie 1996 41) This originaryexchange was followed by Britishand French incursion on thesubcontinent during which timeRanjit Singh rose to integratedistricts of the Punjab into a unifiedkingdom (1780ndash1839) Howeverthis unity was based on Muslimartillery Sikh cavalry DograGurkha Sikh and Muslim infantryplus 200 military advisers fromFrance Italy the US and the Anglo-Indian population (Stronge 199923) The distinct identity of Kashmirbecame one of multiple traditions

Stories of the growth and declineof European consumer demand forshawls and the effects on Indianproduction are by now well known(Irwin Levi-Strauss) EastndashWestinteraction is reflected in Indianweavers quickly adopting theJaquard loom and working withFrench pattern books at their sideby the 1840s (Buie 1996 47) and theapparent fact that green coloring inshawls was derived from boilingEnglish baize and broadcloth (Buie1996 42) By the 1830s amlikarpashmina shawls had acquiredpictorial patterns of their own(hunting scenes and soldiersmarching scenes from Persianromances such as the 1852

Srikandar Nama picture shawl ofGulab Singh Stronge 1999 128) aswell as the standard ldquopaisleyrdquostyles (Crill 1993 91) The Srinagarmap shawls sign both fixed placeand moving trade

Postcolonial literary studies andits attendant theorizing stressesideas of resistance and subversionto colonial power exploring thecontradiction that anticolonialmovements often end upreproducing the politics andpatterns of representation andrepression of those they seek tooverthrow (Ashcroft et al 1989)Hybridity ambiguous complicity inpower structures subversivemimicry are central ideas and wecan use these to discern otherpossible meanings in the Godfreyshawl and the interests inproducing them (Bhabha 1994) TheAustralian curators for examplereading from an ambiguouslydecolonized colonial positioncelebrate the ldquoglories of the Raj andcourtrdquo imperial past represented inthe shawl but also note that it mayhave been produced as a subtleassertion of local power against Rajdomination Without officialrecords it is not possible to makedefinite pronouncements but it isthought that one spur to productionof this map shawl was the survey ofKashmir carried out by Britishgeographers between 1855 and1864 as part of the GrandTrigonometrical Survey of India(Maxwell 1995) In itscommissioning we may thereforeread a counter-assertion of rights ofsurveillance and ownership of theforce of traditional culturalknowledge versus the scientificmeasurement of Western modernityThere is an implicit statement in the

70 Paul Sharrad

teeming and peopled detail of theshawlrsquos map and its pre-modernmultiple perspectives thattrigonometrical reproductions oflandscape do not captureeverything in their uniform andabstracting art The embroideredmap affirms the importance ofintimacy of local knowledge and therichness of lived detail Wrapped insuch a shawl Ranbir Singh wouldvisually confirm the unity of rulerand city its crafts rivers and landPerhaps more probably the shawlwould have been a wall hanging ortable cover or even a carpet beforethe throne (Rosemary Crill personalcommunication) in which casethere would still be a telling contrastbetween the ldquosoft furnishingsrdquo ofdomestic comfort and artisticdisplay on the one hand and thecold functionality of a militaryldquoparchmentrdquo spread across acampaign table or office desk

It is notable that once the shawlsfall into gallery hands they acquirea competitive edge sharpened bydifferent stories The VampA notes thatthere are only four extant mapshawls and claims that its own isldquoarguably the finestrdquo (Crill 1993 9091) while the curator in the NGAmakes the same claim for itsantipodean counterpart (RobynMaxwell personal communication)Both evaluations stress raritytechnical skill (wealth of detail)and liveliness of figures as thecriteria for supremacy (the Royalshawl on loan to the VampA isdepreciated ldquoit lacks the charmof the tiny vignettes and itsdesign is much more staticrdquoCrill 1993 94 n 5) Less scholarlyworks are not ashamed to recycleOrientalist enthusiasms ldquoThebooming industry in [Europe] was

producing extraodinary shawlsand yet those from Kashmirsteeped in all the mystery andperfumes of the Orient retained acertain aura of authenticityrdquo(Werther 1983 8) This is thelanguage of the collector and ofhumanist realism uniquenesssuperabundance of content themirror to social lifemdashplus the exotictinge of armchair tourism you canldquotravelrdquo to the Shalimar GardensDal Lake and Akbarrsquos fort in thepanoramic ldquosnapshotrdquo This fabricldquosnapshotrdquo however is prizedbecause it is not a mass-repeatableitem of ldquosoullessrdquo moderntechnology it speaks of humaneffort care whimsy even

Perhaps it is significant that theVampA (a royal foundation collectingunder imperial aegis) suggests theldquotwinrdquo shawls of Ranbir Singh werecommissioned as a gift for the visitto India of the Prince of Wales (laterKing Edward VII) By its ownargument that the Royal shawl isclearly meant as a gift to Britishrulers because its landmarks arelabeled in English (Crill 1993 94n 5) the opinion of the Englishmuseum seems at leastquestionable since its own shawland the ldquotwinrdquo in Australia are bothlabeled in Persian script and it isperhaps unlikely that a prince wouldorder a couple of shawls three yearsin advance on the off chance that avisitor might reach Kashmir (Wattand Brown 1987 [1902ndash3]) SirGeorge Birdwood (1880 367)alludes to the fact that His Majestyactually did receive during his tourin India a shawl worked with a mapof the city of Srinagar (p 352)mdashpresumably the one on loan fromthe royal collection The storybehind the Australian shawl is


interestingly different as we shallsee

What is worth noting from theVampA commentary is that pilgrimsbought ldquotown planrdquo paintings of theregion they visited depicting themajor shrines as souvenirs anddevotional mementos This stylewas also part of Indian mappingfrom the 1600s on (Crill 1993 95)From Hall (1996) we also know thatthere was some production ofpalace murals and embroideredbattle scenes in the northern Panjabregion from the late 1600s at leastThus there was a cartographicpanoramic tradition already in Indiaand in textile practice before RanbirSingh ordered his twin shawls TheVampA map shawl is described asaltering the topography to includethe Nishat Bagh and Shalimar Baghwhile the Royal Collection shawladds ldquothe nearby beauty spots ofMartand and Vernag in separatecompartments on the siderdquo (Crill1993 91) By contrast the NGAshawl appears to have no majorreorganization of the map with thebody of the shawl centered on thecity and its social life and namesgiven to key bridges What we mighttentatively conclude from this is thatone shawl at least may have beenintended as a souvenir gift of leisurefeatures not unlike the pilgrimagepaintings while the other wasdesigned to be kept in the Rajarsquospalace as a more political signing oflocal authority

It is possible that Ranbir Singhhad inside information and apersonal agenda He had beenpresent at the 1846 Treaty ofBhairowal with the young princeDalip Singh (Stronge 1999 25) Afterthe second round of fighting withthe Sikhs the British annexed the

Punjab incorporated the Sikh armyinto its colonial forces and exiledDalip Singh to England where hebecame the darling of society (Jonesin Stronge 1999 152ndash63 Singh inStronge 1999 26) Dalip may havealerted Ranbir Singh to thepossibility of a visit and as thebeneficiary of Britainrsquos transfer ofpower after the Sikh Wars Ranbirmay well have sought to use theoccasion to validate his rule to thelocal population and express fealtyto his imperial sponsors Certainlythe making of twin shawls suggestsa direct allusion to his predecessorRanjit Singh who hadcommissioned a pair between 1819and 1835 to commemorate hisvictories (Crill 1993 91) But by thetime the Godfrey shawl appears inthe Delhi Durbar exhibition of 1902its meaning has changed itbecomes an example of ldquonativecraftrdquo and a sign of imperialpossession

George Watt (Watt and Brown1987 [1902ndash3]) elaborates in hiscatalog of the Exhibition

Picture shawlmdashMajor Stuart HGodfrey has sent to theExhibition a shawl that hasexcited the greatest possibleinterest As a piece of colour it isvery admirable but in point ofdesign it is devoid of artisticinterest The remarkable featureabout this shawl however is thefact that it is a panoramic map ofSrinagar and depicts the citywith its palaces peoplemountains lakes rivers and evenavenues of trees with the namesembroidered beneath eachMajor Godfrey says of thiswonderful fabric ldquoThis specimenof the Kashmir hand-worked

shawl was purchased at one ofthe sales of the surplus shawls ofKashmir held by the Accountant-General Jammu and KashmirState An account andphotogravure of this shawl waspublished in the Magazine of Artin August 1901 The design is aplan to scale of the city ofSrinagar as it stood in the time ofthe Maharaja Sir Ranbir SinghGCSI by whose orders theshawl was made The shawl wasit is said designed forpresentation to HM the KingEmperor then Prince of Waleshad the Royal visit to Jammuextended to Srinagar The chiefplaces in and around the city canbe easily identified from theshawlrdquo

George Wattrsquos Preface to the DelhiExhibition catalogue describes itsfunction as a ldquopractical account ofthe more noteworthy art industriesof Indiardquo set out ldquoin a systematicsequence under certain classesdivisions and sections to afforddescriptions by which the variousarticles might be severallyidentified rather than to furnishtraditions and historic detailsregarding themrdquo He regrets the lossthereby of ldquomuch of the beauty andpoetry that appertains to the artcrafts of this countryrdquo (Watt andBrown 1987 [1902ndash3] v)

The quote is of interest for itsunstable terminologymdashindustrialarts art crafts art manufacturesbeauty and functionalitymdashin whichEastern art production is bothrecognized and kept at a distancefrom Western high culture Inawarding prizes for ldquoartistic meritrdquobeauty is acknowledged butplacing the awards in the context of

72 Paul Sharrad

an exhibition of the produce of acountry divided into ldquoLoansrdquo andldquoMain or Sale Galleryrdquo art issubordinated to trade (vi) AsNarayani Gupta also makes clear inher ldquoIntroductionrdquo the exhibition(labeled after the museum inRudyard Kiplingrsquos Kim (1987 [1901])the Ajaibgharmdashthe ldquowonderhouserdquo xiv) estranges their own artfrom the Indian people even as itmakes them aware of thecontinuities and regionaldifferences of culture across thesubcontinent Moreover it is basedon a double project that lookedforward to trade and backward tosalvaging dying crafts In thiscontext the Srinagar shawls mapenthusiastic self-congratulationcolonial bad conscience and well-meaning patronage2 Imperialspread and modernizing economicshad given access to cities and artsof wonder removed princelypatrons and displaced artisans hadcreated both overseas markets andobstructive trade barriers favoringBritish goods all in the name ofspreading universal well-being

The Magazine of Art in 1901rehearses the usual story of thecollapse of the shawl industry at theFranco-Prussian War but alsoconcentrates on the economics ofproduction in Kashmir (cheap forcedlabor under feudal control) (Levi-Strauss 1901) British limitation ofprincely powers and civil reformsmeant agriculture carpet-making orsilk factories were more profitableactivities than weaving RanbirSinghrsquos commission of 1870 thenmay have been also an attempt tosubsidize an industry of great localcultural significance but decliningviability under the globalization ofimperial economics The Magazine

of Art notes however that ldquoTheKashmir State still sends an annualtribute of shawls to the BritishSovereign Some of these have beenvalued at pound300 eachrdquo (p 452) Herewe have a likely explanationindependent of rumors of a royalvisit (dismissed in the article asldquolegendrdquo) of the meaning andprovenance of the Royal map shawlif not also the VampA half of the ldquotwinrdquoSrinagar shawls

The NGA on information fromGodfreyrsquos grandson is of theopinion that Godfrey bought itsexhibit himself3 The circumstancesare outlined by the 1901 Magazineof Art

A considerable number of Stateshawls collected in the lateMaharajarsquos time were sold a fewyears ago by the advice of theAccountant General in order toprevent deterioration and loss ofinterest on unproductive capital(p 452)

Godfrey picked up his ldquoNakshardquo ormap shawl at one of these sales Itis valued for its ldquominutely finerdquowork ldquoartistic blending of coloursrdquoand rare use of only vegetable dyesMeanings have shifted then fromcourtly symbols of fealty to artworkvalued for technical skill that can beconverted from the culturalobsolescence of ldquounproductivecapitalrdquo (as determined by amodern and British Accountant-General) into hard cash

As a gift by the Godfrey family tothe Durbar and the exhibition theshawl becomes a sign of collectiveBritish control of a region validatedby the fact that the article appearsin the ldquolanguagerdquo of the native andframed by the pomp of Raj political


ceremony on the one hand andpanoptic imperial surveillance onthe other It speaks of the power ofEmpire to collect all kinds of thingsfrom all around the world to surveythe native ruler even as he surveyshis own territory and to wrest thatview from him (Maxwell 1993) Onthe wall of another former colony inan era when both India andAustralia are independent nationsthe shawl becomes an artworksignifying the past glories of Asiamdashan example of a genre of artisticproduction (the shawl) and a periodof art history (the Mughal then Sikhkingdoms) It is valued for its skill ofexecution the curiosity of itsdifferent sense of perspective andthe vibrant colors of north Indianart Perhaps there is also anexchange with the viewer in whichhe or she is subtly coopted into theview of the native maker seducedby the beauty of the thing into aldquobarbarousrdquo appreciation of theimaginary space of the mapWithout program notes howeverthis space is not meaningful exceptas a general signifier of the exoticelsewhere with them it is still notthe history of the text that isimmediately available so much as aset of ldquotouristicrdquo images of ldquopalehands I lovedrdquo and earthly paradisewhich the viewer has to draw on

NGA curator Robyn Maxwell addsto this popular culture archive thefamily story that Godfrey marriedthe daughter of the Resident Giventhe nineteenth-century custom ofgiving shawls as wedding presents(Werther 1983 6) we might guessthat the Srinagar shawl became agift to cement a professionallypropitious marriage This is aninteresting possibility since itunderlines the fact that trade under

imperialism was not all one waythat those in power were subtlyinfluenced by those they ruled andless subtly influenced While theBritish had consistently reducedcourtly symbolism to commercialbarter they themselves took overmuch of the panoply of orientalgrandeur and ritual performance

Apart from a present for his wifeor an attractive souvenir to takeaway at the end of his tour of dutymaybe the Major was also acquiringby proxy the idea of aristocracyelegance and belongingrepresented in the textile Maybe itwas a way of expunging bycommodification the messageimplied by the Maharaja or inferredby his colonial advisers that ldquoYouBritish may have power but it is thepower of the barbarian It will takecenturies before this place civilisesyourdquo Of course having to deal incash to obtain the shawl merelyconfirmed the truth of this evenas it also showed the steadydecline of old ways and symbolsof authority

The practices of the Raj whilethey reduced princely rituals toeconomic exchange as befitting aldquonation of shopkeepersrdquo alsoborrowed the ceremonial shows ofIndian rulers Under the Mughalemperors and princely statesauthority was symbolized as amutually binding relationshipbetween ruler and vassal by ritualexchange of cloth for tokensSometimes sewn into gowns orcaparisons for horses andelephants these ldquorobes of honourrdquowere specifically produced for thepalace and kept ready forceremonial distribution intoshkhana treasuries (Waghorne1994 18)

The Mughal would present akhelat which narrowly construedconsisted of specific and orderedsets of clothes including a cloakturban shawls various turbanornaments a necklace and otherjewels arms and shields butcould also include horses andelephants with variousaccoutrements as signs ofauthority and lordship Underthe mughals and other Indianrulers these ritual prestationsconstituted a relationshipbetween giver and receiver andwere not understood as simplyan exchange of goods andvaluables The khelat was asymbol ldquoof the idea of continuity depending on contact of thebody of the recipient with thebody of the donor through themedium of the clothingrdquo (Cohn1996 635ndash6)

Having not long ago battled toshed the mystique of kingship andwith the increasing Victorian senseof personal space according tocodes of the puritan genteel it isnot hard to surmise how amercantile empire might misreadsuch an exchange Reduction ofcourtly symbols to cash value hadbegun in the Sikh kingdoms ofnorth India long before Ranbir Singhfound himself advised of a cash-flow problem The French generalJean Franccedilois Allard accumulatedgifts of cloth from his thankfulmaster (Presumably he wassupposed to make a living from giftsfrom underlings and pillage inbattle but also his savingsdisappeared in a bank collapse)Court gifts assumed the significanceof ldquopayrdquo and Allard became a clothmerchant in France in order to gain

74 Paul Sharrad

the cash on which to support hisfamily (see illustration in Crill inStronge 1999 121)

After the 1857 ldquoMutinyrdquo LordCanning began the process ofreplacing Mughal power with Britishrule by combining the ldquoroyal tourrdquoshow of power with the pomp of aMughal durbar In distributingprivileges and titles to loyal princeshe also handed out khelat Howeverthe Western sense of equity andprobity detected in the ritual ldquogiftrdquoand the return of nazar andpeshkash (coin and preciouspossessions) the threat of anEastern ldquobriberdquo (Thomas Roeemissary from the English courtrejected the gift of a gold shawl bythe Governor of Surat in 1616 forfear he would be under obligationbefore he had determined thereliablity of trade there Irwin 195510) Worried by the excesses of itsprofit-driven planters and thecorruption of its nabobs (as seen inthe trial of Warren Hastings) theBritish government sought topreserve an even-handed distanceas it adopted the outward display ofOriental rule It converted khelattokens of fealty to cash-value itemsfor which exact recompense wouldbe made Gifts presented would bestored in the state exchequer andavailable for sale Rewards forservice became ldquoobjectsrdquo subject tosigned bonds that could bedemanded back (Cohn 1996 650)The map shawls therefore tellstories of both a new imperial powerof a different more calculating kindand beneath that an older symbolicmode ritual allegiance

Joanne Punzo Waghorne (1994)makes a detailed analysis of ritualsin a south Indian princely stateshowing that the outward dress of

courtly decoration was a kind ofperformance of spirituality throughicons She extends her argumentinterestingly to suggest that theVictorian mantelpiece and clutter ofdomestic display was a substitutefor Catholic and kingly pomp whichborrowed from the paraphernalia ofthe Hindu court encountered incolonial administration (pp 249ndash55)ldquoThe rituals the British contrivedboth at home and in India wererituals that literally clothed theempire with sanctity They dressedand redressed their subjects andthemselvesrdquo (p 113) In doing sothey adopted the esotericunderstanding of their Indianvassals that ldquoThe spiritual body isnot inside or underneath the fleshlybody it is layered on top of itrdquo(p 254) To what extent was thedisplay of the Srinagar shawl inMajor Godfreyrsquos drawing room anattempt to take on the aura of goldthread and hilltop temples as adignifying cover for raw materialpower

The exhibition of the Godfreyshawl brought out from a modernstate ldquotreasuryrdquo in an art-museumcontext also reproduces in secularcultural terms something of thereligious experience (darshan) ofthe public given a sighting of theRaja or his regalia At the sametime it signifies several kinds oflossmdashthe reduction of the sacred tothe secular the severance of ties toplace in the globalization ofcommerce and cultural exchangethe colonial disruption of communalties and traditional art practices theloss of links to a romantic past andimperial grandeur the loss entailedin the shift from handcraftproduction to mass machineproduction


When we consider the multiplestories and readings of an objectsuch as the map shawl we havealso to think about how thosemeanings alter according to contextIt is worth reflecting on the fact thatthe NGA calls its prize exhibit notthe Ranbir Singh Shawl or theSayyid Hussain Shah and SayyidMuhammad Mir shawl but ldquotheGodfrey Shawlrdquo after the family thatdonated it If we look at this from apostcolonial viewpoint it amountsto a preservation of colonialistattitudes in which natives wereanonymous only white colonialofficers had their names recorded inphotos historical accounts etc Italso perpetuates the craftndashartdistinction in which craftwork wassupposed to have been produced byanonymous peasant workers forlocal collective consumption andldquorealrdquo art was made by famousnamed individuals (Gurian 200127) In this case the two masterembroiderers are recorded but in aprovenance hierarchy favoring thecommissioning ruler and thedonating imperial agent Namingthe shawl after its donor howevercontinues a tradition of honoringthe gift rather than the commoditycash purchase So the gallerydownplays the Maharajarsquos rolesince he has descended from giftgiver to cash-strapped merchantand acknowledges the symboliccultural wealth of gift giving thatwas originally inherent in themaking of the shawl In this respectthe Godfrey shawl recuperatestraditions of textile usage in Indiancourts which were destroyed by themodernizing trading Empire thatGodfrey represented and that ledto the arrival of the shawl inAustralia

Another reason for the naminglies in Gurianrsquos observation thatexhibited artifacts are assignedvalue on scales of uniqueness andrepresentativeness Artworks tendto be valued as unique whilemanufactures are examples of anindustry (Gurian 2001 26)However an artwork is also valuedbecause it is representative of theoutput of the artist (ldquotypical of hisher geniusrdquo) and handcrafts whichin colonial times were exhibited asldquonative manufacturesrdquocharacteristic of production from aregion or colony were then andincreasingly now valued asunique to a place or worker (andthese days for their raritymdashldquotheonly surviving examplerdquo) TheGodfrey shawl occupies a smalland contested zone of valuationat the intersection of these criteriaIt is a prime example of the art ofthe shawl and Kashmiri textileproduction and of a very smallsubset of ldquomap shawlsrdquomdashonlyfour It is exhibited as arepresentative item amongst acollection of Asian textiles butpresented as the best (andtherefore unique) example of its(discontinued and thus doublyunique) kind To call it by any othername (the ldquoSrinagar shawlrdquo forexample or the ldquoRanbir Singhshawlrdquo) would ldquodevaluerdquo theNGArsquos holding by indicating itsrepresentativeness of the othershawls in other places This isparadoxically to highlight thecommodity value of the shawl asunique art object since the natureof the ldquoethnographicrdquo Asian textilecollection is to present arepresentative selection of objectsldquoacquiredrdquo rather than bought andvalued for their exotic colors

elaborate techniques and culturaltraditions

Bringing postcolonial writing tobear on our readings of the Godfreyshawl rehistoricizes andrepoliticizes its status as isolatedart object valued principally for itsexotic splendor and gloriouslyelaborate technique Reinvesting itwith some of its density of narrativealso allows us to see it alongsideother narratives We can think forexample of how Salman Rushdie(1982 [1981] 1984 [1983]) uses thesame kind of map of Kashmir withina deconstructive fantasy of nationalhistory as contending stories(Midnightrsquos Children and Shameboth refer to key sites on theSrinagar map shawls and useshawls as central symbols ofinspiration and resistantstorytelling)

At a more theoretical level wecan read from the Srinagar shawland its male rafugar and weaversonto works such as Sadie Plantrsquos(1998) Zeroes + Ones to suddenlysee how Eurocentric muchgendering of textile work is In theinterests of breaking the Westernbinary of ldquoblokes do machinesand birds do embroideryrdquo shepoints to the origins of computertechnology in a femalemathematician and a history ofweaving which she generalizesas female Chandra TalpadeMohanty (1993) and others havecautioned feminist criticism againstunwitting neocolonialism inimposing Western middle-classassumptions of Enlightenmentuniversalism on Third-Worldwomen Plant provides a slightlydifferent instance of this in erasingfrom the record the place of men intextile production even now in

76 Paul Sharrad

South-Asian handloom andembroidery work

Viewed from this contemporaryperspective the map shawls tellanother story of changingmeanings For example theproduction of chikan embroidery inthe Lucknow district hasprogressively moved from malemaster craftsmen to femalepieceworkers under pressure ofmass production Feminist concernscertainly apply in this context (sincework is regarded as ldquospare timeactivityrdquo and not worthy of properlabor regulation) but are crossedwith religious factors (mosthandwork is done by Muslimwomen who are able to work athome thereby affirming purdahtradition as gendered ethnicity) andclass differences (some womenbecome agents distributing andcollecting materials and taking acommission) (Wilkinson-Weber1997 51 53 60) In other aspects ofthis textile production howeverand in other weaving craftsparticularly amongst Muslimworkers men continue to take amajor role (Bismillah 1996Wilkinson-Weber 1997 49)

In the same spirit of historicizingand contextualizing throughfollowing intertextual traces themap shawls of Srinagar with theirdreams of paradise gardens andcourtly elegance plus lost artisanalexcellence push out to us in todayrsquosworld They hint at the fact that inthe name of universal ecologicialinterests the West has put anembargo on the production of finerluxury pashmina beggaring mastercraftworkers in part because withChinarsquos involvement with globalcapital Chinese hunters aremassacring the goats for wool

previously collected from sheddingson rocks and bushes (Macdonald2000) The Srinagar maps also pointto the fact that very few of us arenow likely to see the fourth exampleor the city it is housed in becausethe multicultural harmony ofKashmir has become a war zone inwhich tourists can be hijack pawns(Ali 2001) The materiality andmultiple contending stories of theshawls show us how in realpolitiktheories of hybridity offer nocomfortable solution and debateson textual performances ofdiasporic identities mask all kindsof suffering At best we only everhave an uneasy syncretism andthere are forces that push to resolveeven this into simple oppositions oftotalizing uniformity Aga ShahidAlirsquos poem (1997) can be readagainst the texts of the Godfreyshawl Ironically it carries the title ofthe place that helped create itsstatus as a priceless art object bydecimating the craft productionwhich gave shawls their fame

Their footsteps formed thepaisley when Parvati angryafter a quarrel ran away fromShiva He eventually caught upwith her To commemoratetheir reunion he carved theJhelum river as it movesthrough the Vale of Kashmir inthe shape of paisley

You who will find the dark fossilsof paisleysone afternoon on the peaks ofZabarvanmdashTrader from an ancient market ofthe futurealibi of chronology that vain


collaborator of timemdashwonrsquot knowthat these

are her footprints from the daythe world began

(Oh see it is still the day theworld begins

and the city rises holding itsremainsits wooden beams already theirown firersquos prophets)And you now touching sky deafto her ankletsstill echoing in the valley deaf tomenfleeing from soldiers into dead-end lanes

(Look Their feet bleed theyleave footprints on the streetwhich will give up its fabric atdusk a carpet)mdashyou have foundmdashyoursquoll thinkmdashthe first teardrop gemthat was enticed for a moguldiademinto design

three men are discussingbetweensips of tea undiscovered routeson emeraldseas ships with almonds withshawls for EgyptIt is dusk The gauze is torn Aweaver kneelsgathers falling threads Soon hewill stitch the air

Notes1 One of the things that has

happened in postcolonialstudies since the early 1980s isthe mixing of disciplinarymetaphors and critical practices

so that literary criticism nowaffects how historians read thepast and both are borrowingfrom movements inanthropology with everythingbeing brought to bear under arubric of cultural studies onphenomena such as museumexhibits and gallery curatingThis article follows such atheoretical hybridizingattempting also to bringtogether a field criticized for itsoverly textual practices (Parry2002) with a historicized tracingof the meanings of and aroundldquothe Godfrey shawlrdquo as aparticular item from materialculture

2 Globalization led toprotectionism with LockwoodKipling and others appointed toschools of art training with theaim to ldquorescuerdquo Indian art andcraft (Watt and Brown 1987[1902ndash3] xiii) although theresulting market for salt cellarstie boxes cigarette cases andserviette rings threatened toerode the higher skills of Indiancraftsmen The museumexhibition offered a way of bothpromoting and containing Indiancultural production so that itcould supplement but notinterfere with the work of Empireor Britainrsquos image of itself as thecenter of world production Cohnnotes that Lockridge Kipling wasassigned the task of designingthe uniforms and decorations forLord Lyttonrsquos ImperialAssemblage (Cohn 1996 [1987]668) As art school and museumdirector Kipling senior wasalso part of a movement throughthe 1870s to categorize all ofIndia

3 Rosemary Crill claims theGodfrey shawl was bought byldquothe Governor of Kashmir wholater sold it to Captain Godfreyan official at the KashmirResidencyrdquo (1993 95)

BibliographyAli Aga Shahid 1997 ldquoA History ofPaisleyrdquo In The Country without aPost Office pp 66ndash7 New YorkW W Norton

Ali Tariq 2001 ldquoBitter Chill ofWinterrdquo London Review of BooksApril 19 17ndash26

Ashcroft Bill Gareth Griffiths andHelen Tiffin 1989 The EmpireWrites Back London Routledge

Bhabha Homi 1994 The Location ofCulture London Routledge

Birdwood Sir George C M 1980Indian Industrial Arts Handbook tothe British Indian Section of theParis Universal Exhibition of 1878London Chapman amp Hall

Bismillah Abdul 1996 The Song ofthe Loom trans Rashmi GovindMadras Macmillan

Brand Michael 1995 The Vision ofKings Art and Experience in IndiaCanberra National Gallery ofAustraliaLondon and New YorkThames amp Hudson

Buie Sarah 1996 ldquoThe KashmirShawlrdquo Asian Art and Culture 9 (2)39ndash51

Cohn Bernard S 1996 [1987]ldquoRepresenting Authority in VictorianIndiardquo In An Anthropologist amongthe Historians and Other Essayspp 632ndash82 Delhi Oxford

Crill Rosemary 1993 ldquoEmbroideredTopographyrdquo Hali The International

78 Paul Sharrad

Magazine of Fine Carpets andTextiles 67 FebMarch 1993 90ndash95

Gurian Elaine Heumann 2001ldquoWhat is the Object of this ExerciseA Meandering Exploration of theMany Meanings of Objects inMuseumsrdquo Humanities Research 8(1) 25ndash36

Hall M 1996 ldquoThe Victoria amp AlbertMuseumrsquos Mahabharata HangingrdquoSouth Asian Studies 12 83ndash97

Irwin John 1955 Shawls LondonVictoria amp Albert Museum

mdashmdash 1973 The Kashmir ShawlLondon HMSO

Kipling Rudyard 1987 [1901] Kimed Alan Sandison Oxford OxfordUniversity Press

Levi-Strauss Monique 1987 TheCashmere Shawl London DryadPress

mdashmdash 1901 ldquoAn Extinct Artrdquo TheMagazine of Art 25 452ndash3

Macdonald Sarah 2000 ldquoWrappedin Controversyrdquo Sydney MorningHerald Good Weekend December 92000 95ndash6

Maxwell Anne 1993 ColonialPhotography and ExhibitionsLondon Leicester University Press

Maxwell Robyn 1995 Catalogueessay In Michael Brand (ed)Traditions of Asian Art p 70Canberra National Gallery ofAustralia

Mohanty Chandra Talpade 1993ldquoUnder Western Eyes FeministScholarship and ColonialDiscoursesrdquo In Patrick Williams andLaura Chrisman (eds) ColonialDiscourse and Post-colonial Theorypp 196ndash200 Hemel HempsteadHarvester Wheatsheaf

Parry Benita 2002 ldquoDirections andDead Ends in Postcolonial StudiesrdquoIn Goldberg David T and AtoQuayson (eds) RelocatingPostcolonialism pp 66ndash81 OxfordBlackwell

Plant Sadie 1998 Zeros + OnesLondon Fourth Estate

Rabasa Jose 1986 ldquoAllegories ofthe Atlasrdquo In Frances Barker PeterHulme Margaret Iversen and DianaLoxley et al (eds) Europe and itsOthers pp 1ndash16 ColchesterUniversity of Essex

Rushdie Salman 1982 [1981]Midnightrsquos Children LondonPicador

Rushdie Salman 1984 [1983]Shame London Picador

Stronge Susan (ed) 1999 The Artsof the Sikh Kingdoms London VampAPublications

Waghorne Joanne Punzo 1994 TheRajarsquos Magic Clothes Re-visioningKingship and Divinity in EnglandrsquosIndia University Park PAPennsylvania State University Press

Watt George and P Brown 1987[1902ndash3] Indian Art at Delhi 1903being the official catalogue of theDelhi Exhibition 1902ndash03 NewDelhi Motilal Banarsidas

Werther Betty 1983 ldquoPaisley inPerspective The Cashmere Shawl inFrancerdquo American Craft 43 (1) 6ndash9

Wilkinson-Weber Clare M 1997ldquoSkill Dependency andDifferentiation Artisans and Agentsin the Lucknow EmbroideryIndustryrdquo Ethnology 36 (1) 49ndash65

Abstract

PAUL SHARRADPaul Sharrad is Associate Professor in EnglishStudies at the University of Wollongong Australia Heteaches postcolonial literatures with an emphasis onIndia and the Pacific His book on Raja Rao is soon tobe joined by one on Albert Wendt and they accompanya wide selection of articles and reviews on works byWilson Harris Peter Carey Kamau Brathwaite AnitaDesai Witi Ihimaera and others

Textile Volume 2 Issue 1 pp 64ndash79Reprints available directly from the PublishersPhotocopying permitted by licence onlycopy 2004 Berg Printed in the United Kingdom

T his article traces the stories inand around one of four Srinagar

ldquomap shawlsrdquo (c 1870) bringingpostcolonial discourse analysis tobear on reading its changing andcontending meanings Its technicalbrilliance sits amongst changes inshawl production as a result of East-West trade particularly during thenineteenth century The shawlrsquosmeanings draw upon courtly dressand gift exchange the socialfunctions of cartography localtraditions of painting the pomp ofthe Raj commodity capitalismpersonal souvenirs gallerypatronage and residual post-colonial rivalries Its complexsignificance is ldquomappedrdquo acrosstrans-regional exchanges of powerand cultural traditions in Kashmir

its use as a sign of conquest inimperial exhibitions and itscontemporary status as a prizedwork of exotic fabric artRehistoricizing and repoliticizingthe Godfrey Shawl reveals a densernarrative than often circulatesaround Asian textile ldquocollectiblesrdquomdashone that lends itself to comparisonwith literary uses of textiles as signsof history and culture SalmanRushdiersquos novels MidnightrsquosChildren and Shame also draw ourattention to the Kashmir regionthrough the device of texiles assymbolic inspiration and modes ofstorytelling ldquosubalternrdquo to dominanthistories Attention to suchnarratives reveals limitations insome Western gendering of fabricarts

66 Paul Sharrad











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Documents

Following the Map: A Postcolonial Unpacking of a Kashmir …