In Search of Wild Silk: Exploring a Village Industry in the Jungles of India
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By Karen Selk, Schiffer Publishing
Karen Selk traveled to India for the first time in 1988 and has made numerous visits since to the states of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha, and Assam, both as a weaver and a tour guide focusing on the wild silks of India. This book is an autobiography of her journey to discover the three wild silks of India – Tussar, the wildest and most complex of the three; Muga, revered for creating a golden cloth; and Eri, the poor man’s silk. Through the 270 pages and almost 400 photographs, Selk takes the reader through the history and transformation of these wild silks.
The most interesting chapter is that on “Sericulture – Raising Silkworms,” which gives a detailed explanation of the life cycle of a silkworm from an empathetic perspective by expanding on the relationship of the silkworm farmer with the silkworm from the egg, larvae, pupae, and finally, the moth stage. There is a social angle to this journey too where Selk explores the role and responsibility of a female moth as the procreator and how she perishes within days of laying the eggs.
The Central Silk Board of India (CSB) is Selk’s primary contact for and her fellow travellers. She dedicated a chapter to the government body, calling the engineers and scientists of the board “Humanitarian Scientists,” suggesting that if it was not for the CSB, it’s possible that wild silk–rearing in India would be extinct. But this is just one side of the story, and, as a foreiger, Selk’s experience is coloured by the privilege of attention, support, connection, and networking opportunities provided by government agencies.
Chapters 6, 7, and 8 give detailed, easy-to-read information about the three wild silks and each of the species from the egg to the woven fabric. Selk provides first-person accounts of the sericulture farmers, reelers, spinners, and weavers, inviting the reader to hear from them in their own voices. For the farmer, rearing the best cocoons is no less than caring for a newborn baby untill it becomes an adult. The reelers or hand spinners are deeply involved because the yarn is remarkable and makes special cloth with a strong historical and cultural connection; for the handloom weavers, the process is a pride, joy, and a unique identity.
Selk also details the deep relationship etween the silkworm and the trees and plants on which it thrives, calling the Eri silkworm “lazy fellows.” She includes stories of how the Muga and Tussar silk farmers stay nights in the jungle to keep a lookout for the larvae so they do not fall prey to predator. These stories humanise the silkworm to an extent where one almost wants to give a name to each larvae and moth that comes to life in the journey of the silk.
The book is personal and heartfelt, as well as an accessible information resource on the wild silks of India, it also offers personal insights into Selks travels. She includes inserts from her journal where she explains her amusement about a situation with the shower in a hotel bathroom to running along a railway platform and boarding the wrong train, eating betel nut, and trying on traditional wraps in tribal communities.
It is important to remember that the book is about one person’s journey into the jungles of India in search of silk. However, the larger picture of the story of silk, especially the wild silks of India, is still to be unravelled. This book is a great introduction to the subject for designers, entrepreneurs, and social development professionals, as well as for the central and state government officers of India to inspire more robust systems beyond offering grants, schemes and stipends to the communities who are the true custodians of this remarkable species – the silkworm.
••• Juhi Pandey