(TAILORING
PROFESSION AND KASHMIRI PANDITS )
(Photo 1911...A Kashmiri Pandit tailoring shop at
Batyaar, Alikadal in Srinagar The tailor master is at work with his Singer foot
pedal sewing machine while a group of Pandits are seated on the shop front and
busy in gossiping )
According to Walter Lawrence ( From “Valley of Kashmir “
published in 1895 ),
‘The vast majority of the Pandits belong to the Karkun
class and have usually made their livelihood in the employment of the state.
But as state employment became harder to obtain and the numbers of the Pandits
increased, the Brahmans of Kashmir sought other occupations. Briefly, it may be
said that a Pandit may follow any trade or occupation except those of the
cobbler, potter, corn-friar, porter, boatman, carpenter, mason, or
fruit-seller, etc.
The Pandits have been known to adopt the profession
of acting and music, and a Pandit now in my employment was once a cavalry
soldier in the army of His Highness the Maharaja of Oodeypore ( Udaipur ). As
time goes on, these intelligent and quick-witted people will no doubt take to
new occupations. But the present Karkun Pandit regards the pen as his natural
destiny, and though many have taken to agriculture and many more are looking to
land as a means of employment and subsistence, they would infinitely prefer to
spend their lives as clerks in some office. The Pandits of the villages consider
it no degradation to follow the plough and to carry manure, but the city
Pandit, who has not severed himself from the literary atmosphere of the
capital is inclined to look down upon the Brahman agriculturist, and though he
will take a wife from the villages he will not, if a man of any position,
permit his daughter to marry into a village family.
The future of the city Pandits is a matter of some
anxiety. They have not the keen trading instinct of the natives of Punjab and
may neglect the chances of commerce which easier communications with India
should now offer. ’
From the above statement of Walter Lawrence, it appears
that Kashmiri Pandits had no hesitation towards taking up tailoring as a
a profession in the 19th century.
I have also read that cinema actor A K Hangal (
1914-2012 ), born in a Kashmiri Pandit family of Peshawar, started his early
life as a tailor. This Kashmiri Pandit family had migrated out from Kashmir
valley long back and as such was far away from the mainstream and core Kashmiri
Pandit society.
For sure, Kashmiri Pandits had some aversion towards
joining any business activity. A job that required a pen in hand or meant
writing work was generally sought after by them. That is why no Kashmiri Pandit
was an artisan. By artisan I mean carpenter, tailor, mason, blacksmith, papier
mache artist, shawl embroider, carpet weaver, plumber, etc. During my
childhood, I could see just one mason, one carpenter and one shawl embroider
from the Kashmiri Pandit community.
Although many Pandits had bakery ( Kaandhar Vaan ) shops
or worked as professional cooks but for marriage within the core Kashmiri
Pandit society, these men could not get a match. Accordingly, most of them had
to get married to girls from nearby hilly areas of Kishtawar, Bhaderwah and
Ramban.
You can see from the above photograph clicked in 1911
that there were Kashmiri Pandit tailoring shops in Srinagar city. I am informed
by elders that there was a problem for boys engaged in this business when they
had to look for a match to get married. Kashmiri Pandit society considered this
business as something inferior and later shunned this occupation altogether.
But then again, Sometime around 1940, Lamboodhar Nath
Tikoo, an educated and enterprising Kashmiri Pandit, belonging to an affluent
and influential family, surprised his community members when he opened a
tailoring shop under the name and style of ‘ Navyug Tailors‘ at Habba Kadal
Srinagar. Pandit Kashyap Bandhu, a reformist leader amongst Kashmiri Pandits
during those days, personally attended the opening ceremony of this shop at
Habba Kadal. To attract VIP and European customers, the business location was
immediately shifted to posh Amira Kadal in Srinagar city.
Son of an engineer who had built the Banihal Cart Road
during Maharaja's rule, Lamboodhar Nath went to Bombay to study engineering but
returned to the valley after learning professional tailoring. He would cater to
VIP customers and was much in demand for stitching stylish three-piece suits,
coats and fashionable shirts. Very soon, Navyug Tailors opened another branch
at Residency Road in Srinagar city. Pandit Triloki Nath Tikoo, a young Kashmiri
Pandit with a modern outlook, joined his brother Lamboodhar Nath Tikoo in this
venture from day one. For Tikoo brothers, it was also a step towards reforming
the community and motivating youth for starting such like business ventures
that were traditionally shunned. Tikoo family was from Reshi Peer Mohalla in
downtown Srinagar.
Pandit Laxman Joo Tikoo ( father of Lamboodhar Nath and
Triloki Nath ), felt sad and disillusioned at the venture of his sons.
Lamboodhar Nath had to start an Urdu Newspaper ‘ Navyug ‘ simultaneously to
protect his father from recurring satires from relations and friends for this
tailoring venture that was looked down upon by orthodox Kashmiri Pandit society
during those days. Young Nand Lal Wattal ( who later joined as editor of Urdu
newspaper Khidmat ) from Rainawari was brought in as editor of this newspaper.
Tailoring business of Tikoo brothers was directly hit by the second world war
as most of their European clients had to move out of Kashmir. The tribal raid
of 1947 dried up almost all the residual clientele of Navyug Tailors. The The newspaper had to be closed down for various reasons. ‘ Navyug Tailors’ also
pulled down its shutters permanently after some time.
Some Muslim boys, who worked as apprentices at
these shops became excellent tailor masters and opened independent tailoring
shops in Srinagar city.
The noted scholar, Dr Shashi Shekhar Toshakhani informed
me as under:-
“ Pandits have been throughout taunted and stereotyped as
people who despise all manual work or business and prefer only to wield the
pen, their objection to other jobs being that they are ‘derogatory to their
Brahmin identity.’ This, however, is highly exaggerated. While Pandits living
in rural areas would cultivate their fields, tend their cows and attend to
other farming jobs, many among those living in urban areas had long discarded
their objection to occupations other than white-collar jobs. Though belonging
to an ‘intellectual class’, there were many who would even go for work in the
factories like the silk-weaving factory of Srinagar, for instance, or take up
jobs like that of a plumber, electrician, mechanic, driver, etc. besides work
as shopkeepers or small traders. Of course, being Brahmins they may still not
"engage in polluting activities such as barbering, removing and skinning
dead animals, making shoes, winnowing pans and drums, slaughtering goats and
sheep as eminent sociologist Prof. T. N. Madan has pointed out in his study of
the Pandits of Uttarsu-Umanagri. I knew a Kashmiri Brahmin who worked as a
barber and had his shop at Fateh Kadal, Srinagar. He sported a rather large
Tilak on his forehead, perhaps to attract Kashmiri Pandit clients. I have had
several haircuts done at his shop when I was in my teens. ”
Up to 1975, there was a tailoring shop at Kraal
Khod, Habba Kadal run by one Shamboo Nath Ji under the name and style of
Lakshmi Tailors. Pandit Shamboo Nath Ji was himself an expert tailor master who
could stitch fashionable three-piece suits.
( Avtar Mota )
CHINAR SHADE by
Autarmota is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License.
Based on a work at
http:\\autarmota.blogspot.com\.
.jpg)
