Native cotton in the spotlight

'Threaded Tales of Vidarbha' documents the region's saris but leaves you asking for more

- Pooja Singh

At the Crafts Museum in New Delhi, three long tables come into view. They feature an assortment of natural dyes, snatches of fabric, and samples of indigenous cotton varieties. On one of the tables, there's an assortment of tools. Usually, popular imagination does not go beyond the charkha or the loom in this context. However, there is a wide variety of equipment which has been used for centuries in the processing and weaving of indigenous cotton.

The three-table installation, titled Cotton 0.0., is based on grassroot insights by the likes of Kora Design Collaborative, a design and research practice headquartered in Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam, that works in the textile and craft sector. Cotton 0.0 showcases the journey of 12 native varieties of cotton seeds from harvesting to processing and finally weaving. Underlying these exhibits is a story of intangible heritage, inherited knowledge, and adaptation.