Baron of Benarasi : Jay Ramrakhiani
Hailed as an activist for the impoverished and severely exploited class of Benarasi sari weavers, designer Jay Ramrakhiani has worked selflessly over the years to upgrade their lives and craft. Ajit Ramachanddran shines a light on the reformer
Ajit Ramachanddran
Baron of Benarasi: Jay Ramrakhiani
Hailed as an activist for the impoverished and severely exploited class of Benarasi sari weavers, designer Jay Ramrakhiani has worked selflessly over the years to upgrade their lives and craft.
Ajit Ramachanddran shines a light on the reformer
At 14 - an insouciant age when teenagers routinely have a whale of a time - Jay Ramrakhiani figured out early that a stitch in time saves nine. And bravely fled off to Paris, no less, to create a career in fashion for himself.
Dressed to the nines, he always was. But dressing others to the nines - or better still, ninety - was more his idea of fun, rather than toeing the line and joining the slew of businesses that his illustrious family owned.
Presently, he’s beaming widely amid a clutch of shimmering Benarasi drapes, fielding a fusillade of queries centred around Benarasi weaves & their originators…
Woven Exploitation
“The first time I went to Benares we made no headway with the weavers, although I had learnt of their plight via a TV documentary, that they had gone down to the extent of selling their blood to fend for their families! On our second visit, we moved to another village where an NGO from Pondicherry was doing some work for the Benarasi sari weavers. I tied up with them. But it did not work out, because I soon found that they were just exploiting them. I didn’t want to be in the same gambit.”
Upscaling Benarasi
“I started working with four weavers,one graphic artist and started designing. I sketched the motifs of a peepal tree leaf and a kairi (mango). We used aquamarine, blue, maroon, gold thread and natural dyes. Uttar Pradesh is power-stricken and we would often work on the looms post-midnight using candlelight or oil lamps.”
Hurrah Taj!
“Once I completed the Benarasi saris, I had them approved by the Tatas for the Taj Hotels. I incorporated these Benarsi weaves in both the men’s and ladies wear. The uniforms were cleverly designed with subtle differences to mark various designations within the organisation. The fact that my Benarasi saris are being favoured by the Taj Group till date, speaks for itself.”
Wows For Weavers
“We got rid of the middlemen and brokers completely. We paid the weavers directly by cheques in their bank accounts. We gave half the amount to the man and half to the wife, because it is the wife who runs the house.Many of them had debts from money-lenders and we got it all cleared for them, through their wages. The weavers felt so free and liberated! I had started with four weavers and scaled it up to 135.”
Get In The Government!
“I had addressed the issue with the Government too. I had to literally coax and lure the weavers with free schooling of their children, weaving classes for their kids, water pumps, solar lamps, bank accounts and PAN cards to go ahead with my plans for them.”
Global Spotlight
“After I stepped in to revive the Benarasi weaves, the world forum opened up to notice that they are in a class apart. I was connecting Europeans, Americans, and the world, at large, to the Benaresi weavers, via me. But with China flooding the market with cheap, power-loom imitations of the Benarasis, the business of these weavers suffered drastically.”
Chic Heirlooms
“Preserving Benarasis is easy. If you’re keeping them for a long time, roll it on a wooden roll. If you plan to keep them in folds, then open the sari and keep a mulmul fabric inside, then put a mulmul on top and keep it away. But the best way to keep a Benarasi sari for life is to put them on a full-sized roll.”
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