Archives at NCBS | Talk Series | The Politics of Muslin Cloth | Sonia Ashmore - Video

Archives at NCBS | Talk Series

The Politics of Muslin Cloth
-Sonia Ashmore

Thursday, Jan 23, 2025. 4:00 PM
Lecture Hall – 1 (Haapus), ELC, NCBS

Abstract:
For an insubstantial cloth, Bengal muslin, has had a remarkably political history, its fate controlled not by its makers, but by powerful rulers and foreign trade and colonising interests. This presentation traces the sources of muslin cloth in (undivided) Bengal, the symbolic importance of fine muslin during the Mughal era and the progressive intervention of the East India companies, particularly the English East India Company (EIC), in the trade, and eventually, production of Bengal muslin. This diaphanous fabric had a revolutionary impact on European fashion, notably in late 18th and early 19th century France, where the association of classical antiquity and ideas of liberation were expressed in (muslin) dress. Western admiration evolved into industrialised imitation designed to replace Indian cloth. The talk will consider the decline and survival of muslins and the future of this and other handcrafted textiles today.

Bio:
Dr Sonia Ashmore is a London-based design historian with a particular interest in Indian textiles. As a research fellow at the Victoria and Albert (V&A) Museum, she investigated the formation of the museum’s South Asian textile collections and subsequently helped to catalogue a large part of them. She published and lectured widely on these important collections and her pioneering book on Muslin was published by the V&A in 2012. Sonia has lectured regularly on V&A courses and elsewhere, and is currently Chair of the Muslin Trust. As collaborator on a project based in Kolkata, India, Textiles of Bengal: a shared Legacy, she is co-editor of a book being launched with a major exhibition and symposium at the end of January 2025.