The Calico Museum of Textiles is located in the city of Ahmedabad in the state of

Gujarat Gujarat (, ) is a state along the western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the fifth-largest Indian state by area, covering some ; and the ninth ...

in western

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. The museum is managed by the Sarabhai Foundation.

History

Calico Museum of Textiles, Ahmedabad, 1952

The museum was founded in 1949 by the enterprising siblings

Gautam Sarabhai Gautam Sarabhai (4 March 1917 – 28 August 1995) was an industrialist and businessman from the Sarabhai family of Ahmedabad. Birth Gautam was born to industrialist Seth Ambalal Sarabhai and Sarladevi on 4 March 1917. He was the fifth child an ...

and

Gira Sarabhai Gira Sarabhai (11 December 1923 – 15 July 2021) was an Indian architect, designer, and a design pedagogue. She was born into the Sarabhai family and was the youngest of eight siblings. She is known for contributing to several industrial and e ...

. Ahmedabad at that time had a flourishing

textile industry The textile industry is primarily concerned with the design, production and distribution of yarn, cloth and clothing. The raw material may be natural, or synthetic using products of the chemical industry. Industry process Cotton manufacturi ...

. The museum was originally housed at the

Calico Mills The Calico Mills, officially Ahmedabad Manufacturing and Calico Printing Mills Ltd and M/S ILAC Ltd, was one of the earliest textile mills established in Ahmedabad, India by Sarabhai family. Established in 1888, it closed in 1998. The land, pla ...

in the heart of the textile industry. But as the collection grew the museum was shifted to the Sarabhai House in Shahibaug in 1983.

Story of the Calico Museum

The museum was inspired by

Ananda Coomaraswamy Ananda Kentish Muthu Coomaraswamy ( ta, ஆனந்த குமாரசுவாமி, ''Ānanda Kentiś Muthū Kumāraswāmī''; si, ආනන්ද කුමාරස්වාමි ''Ānanda Kumārasvāmī''; 22 August 1877 − 9 Septem ...

, who, in conversations with Gautam Sarabhai during the 1940s, suggested the founding of a textile institute in the city of Ahmedabad, a major trading centre of the textile industry of the sub-continent since the fifteenth century. In 1949 Gautam and Gira Sarabhai and the great industrial house of Calico acted founded the Calico Museum of Textiles in Ahmedabad, as the specialist museum in India concerned with both the historical and technical study of Indian handicraft and industrial textiles. Gira established and curated the Calico Museum of Textiles which houses a historic collection of Indian Fabrics. It is also the centre for design knowledge, resources, research and publication. In addition to this, Gira also designed the building. It was built around a courtyard to facilitate contemporary gatherings and functions. It was populated with traditional facades and other carved wood elements dismantled from old residential Gujrati Houses. By the early fifties the museum discovered its original intent, encompassed too large an area and concentrated its energies on the vast and vital field of handicraft textiles, devoting less and less time to industrial fabrics. By the second decade of its existence the museum launched an ambitious publications programme. The programme worked on two series, namely Historical Textiles Of India under the editorship of John Irwin, then keeper of the Indian Section of the Victoria and Albert Museum; and the second, under the editorial direction of Dr Alfred Bühler, fümer Director of the Museum Für Volkerkunde Und Schweizerisches Museum Für Volkskunde, Basel, who conducted a Contemporary Textile Craft Survey of India Inaugurating the museum in 1949,

Jawaharlal Nehru Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru (; ; ; 14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was an Indian anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat— * * * * and author who was a central figure in India during the middle of the 20t ...

stated, "The early beginnings of civilization are tied up with the manufacture of textiles, and history might well be written with this as the leading motif." And indeed, so well had the Calico Museum of Textiles fulfilled this brief that by 1971 the House of Calico decided that the excellence of the fabric collection and the invaluable research conducted by the publications department were such that the museum should be an independent society. The museum's publications, which have now taken two distinct directions, give some indication of where the next surge of activity will take place. While the number of publications concerned with historical studies continues and increases, the second direction has resulted in research and publication of studies preoccupied with the technical and scientific examinations of textile processes such as looms, dyeing, printing techniques, etc.

Textile collection

The textiles on display include court textiles used by the Mughal and provincial rulers of 15th to 19th centuries. Also on display are regional embroideries of the 19th century, tie-dyed textiles and religious textiles. The galleries also have exhibits on ritual art and sculpture, temple hangings, miniature paintings, South Indian bronzes,

Jain Jainism ( ), also known as Jain Dharma, is an Indian religion. Jainism traces its spiritual ideas and history through the succession of twenty-four tirthankaras (supreme preachers of ''Dharma''), with the first in the current time cycle being ...

art and sculpture, and furniture and crafts. There are also textile techniques galleries and a library. The museum has played an important role in determining the curriculum taught in the textile designing courses at the prestigious

National Institute of Design The National Institutes of Design (NIDs) are a group of autonomous public design universities in India, with the primary institute, founded in 1961, in Ahmedabad, with extension campuses in Gandhinagar and Bengaluru. The other NIDs are loc ...

also located in Ahmedabad. The items on display are well protected by the museum authorities. The textile are protected from dust, air pollution and fluctuations in temperatures by the trees around the museum complex. The relative humidity inside the museum is also controlled and lights are dimmed between visiting hours to extend the life of the textiles.

References

Bibliography

* John Irwin, P.R. Schwartz, ''Studies in Indo-European Textile History'', Calico Museum of Textiles, Ahmedabad, 1966, 124 p.

External links