{"id":4736,"date":"2021-09-19T14:39:09","date_gmt":"2021-09-19T09:09:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/museumofmaterialmemory.com\/?p=4736"},"modified":"2021-09-19T15:16:36","modified_gmt":"2021-09-19T09:46:36","slug":"the-majnu-khes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/museumofmaterialmemory.com\/the-majnu-khes\/","title":{"rendered":"The Majnu Khes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

TEXT AND PHOTOGRAPHS BY ARJUNVIR SINGH
<\/strong>Jalandhar, Punjab, India<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was in July 2018 when I, along with my batchmate, Rashi Sharma, started researching Khes, as a part of our Textile Design course, “The Khes Project<\/a>“. The project began as a classroom project where students were supposed to work in pairs and research any one textile craft of India, preferably from their native place. Rashi and I decided to research the Khes weaving tradition of Punjab because we realised that whenever it comes to Punjab, people talk about Phulkari, Punjabi Jutti, Nada<\/em> but not many people know about Khes. Rather, people don’t consider it a craft as important as, say, Phulkari, because it is seen as an everyday use object. There was nothing \u2018special\u2019 about it. So we took it up as the subject for our project to discover the story of this almost forgotten craft. As we went ahead and discovered things that we couldn’t have even imagined, we knew that this project was not going to end with that one college course. Both of us decided to take it ahead as our graduation projects in 2020, two different projects academically, presented to everyone else as a joint effort. While I worked with the story of the textile craft itself and its relation with the partition of the sub-continent, Rashi worked with the Partition narratives we collected during our research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Khes<\/em> is a cotton bedspread that was (in some cases still is) traditionally handwoven in Punjab, both western and eastern, and some parts of Sindh. Khes <\/em>had multiple uses around the home, despite originally being meant to be used as a bedcover. When there were no mattresses available, a Khes <\/em>was spread over a talai <\/em>(a thin form of bedding) instead. It was also used as a shawl, a floor mat, and even as back support when sitting on the floor. It was mostly woven by the village weavers (the Julahas<\/em>) and was later bought by the locals. But at the same time, it was also practiced as a home-based craft and a version of it was woven by the womenfolk. Khes <\/em>was also an integral part of a bride\u2019s trousseau. It is usually a heavy fabric, with the texture being quite coarse, imagine touching an Aida fabric that has been cross-stitched on. One can actually feel the yarn as all Khes pieces were made with low-count cotton yarns. The fabric is very sturdy and even in the pieces I discovered at my home, which were woven some eighty years ago, there is hardly any wear and tear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n