Geopolitics at the Loom: Banarasi Silk, Cultural Prestige, and the Dispossession of Varanasi’s Weavers

Currently the Banarasi silk product is carrying greater cultural significance, while the livelihoods of weavers have never been more fragile. This paper traces that divergence across two centuries and three opposed political formations. These are British trade reorganization after 1813, anti-colonialism and post-independence developmental nationalism (1905–1991), and liberalization after 1991 under WTO rules. Each period saw the promotion of Banarasi silk through colonial exhibitions, the Handloom Reservation Act, the Geographical Indication and the India Handloom Brand. Such measures benefited the product but not the producers. The weavers’ position remained the same under these opposing political systems, which indicates that their marginalization is structural not ideological. The paper considers these measures as auratic prostheses. They stand in for an authenticity the cloth can no longer prove. David Harvey’s accumulation by dispossession separates producers from the value they make. Walter Benjamin’s cult value belongs to a unique object, exhibition value to display. Powerloom production eroded the uniqueness of the product. Thus, the Banarasi weavers are deprived of both the markets and authorship. Drawing on archival, census and legislative sources as they appear in the historical scholarship, the article offers a framework for artisanal economies where cultural protection and producer marginalization are linked.