The under-layer wool on the skin of special Ladakh goat is called pashmina after it is refined. Pashm is a Persian word meaning wool and pashmineh in Farsi means super fine wool. It is renowned throughout the world for its softness and warmth. The special pashmina goat is mostly found in Changthang in Ladakh area. Obtaining this special wool from special goat is an old practice. However, the real merit lies in the hand woven pashmina that has won the world market. Cleaning, spinning, weaving and marketing are mostly done by the experts in Kashmir. Kashmiri women are said to have no parallel in spinning very thin strand from pashmina wool. And the ultimate art lies in the deft fingers of pashmina weavers who have been weaving finest pashmina shawls and doshalas. Customers from parts of Europe would come to make selection of woolen stuff in Srinagar.
But against this background, Kashmir pure pashmina is faced with serious challenge of extinction. Wealthy businessmen in Kashmir favoured by some influential political and bureaucratic segments with considerable clout have set up machines to produce spurious pashmina to make quick money at the cost of the quality of famous Kashmir pashmina. Businessmen reputed for their professional expertise in Kashmir pashmina business have expressed woe on degrading Kashmiri pashmina’s fair name and stuffing markets with spurious machine made pashmina despite the fact that producing machine made spurious pashmina is disallowed by the law.
The Government should immediately intervene in this critical matter and save pashmina industry of Kashmir from total destruction and bad name. The worst part of this story is that with an aim to check the authenticity of genuine Kashmiri Pashmina, a testing centre had been setup by the Union Ministry of Commerce at Crafts Development Institute (CDI) in Baghi Ali Mardan Khan, Srinagar. However, the local artisans allege that the centre is there for namesake only and no quality checks of any sort are carried out there. The Union Ministry should mount attention on this sordid story and ensure that the unit serves the purpose for which it has been opened. Somebody has to be made accountable for not doing the job assigned to them. Incentives need to be given to those who are directly involved in producing hand woven pashmina.
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