Hanaphabi and Saidambi Naik, two middle-aged ladies from the Kalaghatgi taluk in Karnataka’s Dharwad district, have been stressed at first to talk in entrance of a digicam. A couple of whisper-filled moments later, Saidambi took the lead in telling their story of sewing reminiscence.
“We’re each from the Siddi group in north Karnataka however our origins are in Sindh, Pakistan and components of Africa. We have now left our village to come back to Chennai to indicate our kavands (quilts),” Saidambi says within the Siddi dialect, which has a mixture of phrases borrowed from Konkani, Marathi, Kannada, Urdu and Hindi.
The 2 ladies not often get the possibility to go away their village as a result of the group tends to mistrust outsiders. Bearing distinctly African options, the Siddis have been traditionally discriminated towards by colonisers and locals alike. “We generally journey to our family members’ homes near our villages however in any other case, we simply work within the fields and sew the quilts,” says Hanaphabi.
Since 2015-16, as their quilts began to be recognised as crafts, Siddi ladies have been slowly venturing exterior their villages to showcase their craft. Main the way in which is artwork historian and group practitioner Anitha N. Reddy, who has been working with the group, throughout 15-20 villages. Reddy first noticed a kavand at a buddy’s residence within the Western Ghats, 15 years in the past. “Throughout a visit to a Siddi village, I had given away a bunch of my garments to my buddy’s household. The following time I arrived, I used to be admiring a quilt that my buddy’s spouse had stitched. She pointed to the blanket, exhibiting me scraps of my garments which had made it to the piece. It was amusing but additionally fascinating,” she says.
That set Reddy on a journey of understanding the quilt. Elaborating on the importance of the kavand, Saidambi says, “Essentially the most ornate quilts are reserved for marriages. It’s an heirloom handed on to our daughters. If you don’t take a quilt to your in-laws’ home, you won’t be handled nicely. Additionally, you will not have a sheet to cowl your self with within the winter. We additionally make quilts for our newborns.”
The artwork exhibition ‘Threads of Confluence’ was held at DakshinaChitra Museum in Chennai final month.
| Photograph Credit score:
B. Jothi Ramalingam
In December, the duo, together with 20 others, got here to Chennai’s DakshinaChitra museum to show 50 vibrant, tiled quilts as part of Threads of Confluence, a travelling exhibit. For the primary time, the Siddi ladies, made use of Madras Checks, a definite fabric from the erstwhile Madras Presidency, of their hand-stitched kavands. Madras Checks have been exported the world over because the sixteenth century.
No two kavands ever look comparable. One can discover Roman alphabets like ‘A’, ‘E’ and ‘H’ as part of the combination. “To the Siddis, it’s merely a design,” says Reddy. What was as soon as a software for survival is now an artwork, and a possible livelihood.
Assembly of two worlds
Bringing the Siddi quilters’ craft and Madras Checks material collectively was the brainchild of Anitha Pottamkulam, director (tradition), DakshinaChitra, who roped in Reddy, and the producers of the fabric, Outdated Madras Buying and selling Firm (OMTC).
Though the Madras Checks and the Siddis don’t overlap in historical past, there’s a metaphorical connection. If the Siddis have been dropped at India from Africa, the Madras Checks travelled to the Caribbean from India through the colonial commerce route of the Coromandel Coast. Now a premium material, this peasant/fisherman clothes from twelfth century Madraspatnam village (later Madras/Chennai), left the shores of a colonised India centuries later, and have become widespread in Nineteen Sixties America.
“When Anitha [Pottamkulam] and I spoke about this exhibit coming to Chennai, we realised that we’d like to include a component from the town. The colourful Madras Checks, a cloth with wealthy historical past, was our fabric of alternative. It has a protracted historical past of export from South India to many components of the world, and is particularly considered as a logo of status within the African nations,” says Reddy.
One can discover Roman alphabets like ‘A’, ‘E’ and ‘H’ as a part of the design mixture of a kavand quilt.
| Photograph Credit score:
B. Jothi Ramalingam
Earlier than it went to the Caribbean and have become part of nationwide costume, Madras Checks went to Africa. Reddy provides, the Actual Madras Handkerchief was referred to as injiri which means ‘actual India’ and was utilized by the Nigerian Kalabari tribe to wrap infants.
Rising from scraps
For the exhibit, OMTC offered the material. Its co-founder Ranvir Shah, who’s within the pursuit of reviving unique hand-woven handloom Madras material, now owns these 55 quilts. Till now, the leftover garment-fabric bits have been used for making stuffed toys. This time, the scraps have been minimize up and used to create eclectic, tetris-like patterns by Siddi ladies. At their Chennai manufacturing unit, the fabric-weavers and the Siddi quilters interacted by songs of their mom tongues, within the absence of a typical language.
On the OMTC Chennai manufacturing unit, the Tamil fabric-weavers and the Siddi quilters interacted by songs.
| Photograph Credit score:
B. Jothi Ramalingam
The traditionally poor Siddis, with just some assigned the Scheduled Tribe standing, have struggled to construct a life exterior of their financial constraints. The intention is survival. “The principle intention for them to come back to Chennai was to grasp their historical past with the materiality,” Reddy says. Each Shah and Reddy are eager on placing this quilting custom from South India on the worldwide map. Whereas Shah is promoting and exhibiting the kavind quilts made utilizing their Madras Checks, Reddy is individually doing different reveals with these Siddi quilters, which aren’t related to OMTC. She says, “Some ladies have travelled in India to comparable reveals, and train different artwork practitioners their quilting fashion. It has made them worth themselves extra.” She hopes to take a handful of Siddi ladies and their quilts to The Worldwide Folks Artwork Market in Santa Fe, U.S. Presently, the exhibit is at Kadari Artwork Gallery, Telangana, until February 19.
Saidambi Naik (left) and Hanaphabi, Siddi quilters from north Karnataka travelled to Chennai, for the primary time of their lives, they’re travelling exterior their village to showcase their craft.
| Photograph Credit score:
B. Jothi Ramalingam
Essentially the most ornate quilts are reserved for marriages; an heirloom handed on to daughters; quilts are made for newborns, too.
| Photograph Credit score:
B. Jothi Ramalingam
The kavand quilt exhibit is at present at Kadari Artwork Gallery, Telangana, until February 19.
| Photograph Credit score:
Particular Association
No two kavands ever look comparable.
| Photograph Credit score:
Particular Association
Even though a lot of them are incomes by the craft, Hanaphabi and Saidambi are “undecided how that is going to resolve their larger issues” of extreme rains and extreme flooding and landslides uprooting properties and lives. A lesson from these ladies is their resilience as they discover pleasure in studying the artwork of sewing.
For particulars in regards to the travelling exhibit, comply with @anithanreddy on Instagram
sanjana.g@thehindu.co.in
Revealed – February 05, 2026 06:03 pm IST
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