Thread That Binds

200 Muslim families of two UP villages make the kalainara, the holy thread of Hindus.

It’s a red-and-yellow thread you see in temple towns which Hindus tie  around their wrists and also offer to deities. The red in it represents the mother goddess, and the yellow Lord Vishnu. Hinduism is an abundance of such symbols but the kalainara is unusual. The thread, believed to protect the wearer from evil, is made with cotton waste by 200 Muslim families from two villages of Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh.

The 2,000-odd villagers of Ahladganj and Khan Jahanpur belong to the Rangrez community, traditional dyers who migrated from Sanganer and Chandpole in Rajasthan two centuries ago. The entire population of the two villages are related to each other. No outsider is employed. “The business dates back several generations and is believed to be about 200 years old,” says Mohammad Tahir of Khan Jahanpur, a major producer of kalainara.

Cotton waste from cotton mills forms the raw material. It is spun into yarn, which is then rolled into strands and immersed in water tanks and left overnight to remove starch. The next morning, softer and more flexible, these strands are spread out and readied for dyeing. The dyes arrive by train from Kanpur. After they are dyed, it takes eight hours to dry on a sunny day. In winter and monsoon, when production is lowest, it takes 16 to 48 hours.

The colour of water in the drains of these villages are neither black nor muddy—it is red or yellow and sometimes, orange when both the dyes drip from the threads together.

The kalainara is packed into water resistant sacks, which contain about a hundred strands each. Each strand weighs between 1,300 and 1,500 gm and costs between Rs 45 and Rs 50 when sold loose. These are then dispatched to Ayodhya, Gorakhpur, Varanasi, Vindhyachal and other temple towns all over India. 

There are lean and boom periods for production.  The two to three months following Durga puja and Dussehra, business is at its lowest ebb. So is the period following the Navaratras in March-April. Business picks up during Navaratras, Durga puja and Dussehra and peaks up during Magh Mela in Allahabad in January-February.  In the months when the villagers are not producing kalainara in large quantities, they prepare for the next season.

“Kalainara is a dying art,” laments Fahimuddin of Ahladganj.  “We get no assistance from anywhere.  Even banks refuse us loans. We have to finance our business from our own sources by borrowing from relatives and friends.”  Indeed, this must not be allowed to end. For, kalainara is not just any thread.  It is a sacred thread that  binds Hindus and Muslims together.

About The Author

Vincent Van Ross