[Kabir]

Haaaa India. Chance paile haat diye boisha pore!! Raise some awareness folks.

Jamdani, nakshi kantha and et al!


Ashfaqur Rahman

For sometime now, we have been told that three items which are very dear to every Bangladeshi have been registered by India as its own products. They are the famous jamdani sari, the exquisite nakshi kantha and last but not the least, the delicious fazli mango.

India has opened a register of what is known as Geographical Indicator (GI) of its products. Every member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) which abides by the Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement is required to do this. Under Sections 22, 23 and 24 of this Agreement, individual countries have now the right to protect and patent famous, exceptional and extraordinary products originating within the geographical territory of the country, under the GI Act 1999.

India has thus registered (uppada) jamdani sari as originating from Andhra Pradesh, the nakshi kantha from West Bengal and fazli mango from Malda district in West Bengal.

The GI helps producers differentiate their unique products from similar competing products. It enables their producers to build a reputation around such products so that they can fetch a premium price. So far India has listed 158 products in its registry located in Chennai.

Let us first consider jamdani, a handloom product. About 300 A.D. Kautilya, in his book Artha shastra, referred to this fine cloth and said it was made in Pundra (now Bangladesh). Arab, Chinese and Italian traders had also given detailed account of this fabric coming from what is now Bangladesh. Around that time a similar fabric was made in Mosul, Iraq, called Mousoulin. The Arab geographer Sulaiman mentions that Mousoulin fabric was developed simultaneously in Bengal and was called muslin. In his well known book Sril Silat-ut-Tawarikh he wrote jamdani design was stitched on muslin fabric in Rumy, which is the ancient name of Bangladesh.

When the Morrocan traveler Ibn Batuta visited Bangladesh in the 14th century he also saw the jamdani made here and praised its quality. An English traveler, Ralph Finch, also spoke highly about muslin and jamdani made in Sonargoan, near Dhaka. The fabric, however, attained its zenith during the reign of Akbar, the great Mughal Emperor. It had by then become such a sought after item that the British East India Company who came in later had to post a high official in Dhaka to buy mulmul khas. He was called the "Daroga-Mulmul." He was commissioned to also supervise the production of jamdani in each weaving factory.

The word jamdani is Persian, where "jam" means cup and "dani" means flower vase. Thus jamdani designs depict arrangement of flowers sewn with fine threads on muslin. When the surface of the muslin fabric is sewn with diagonally striped floral sprays, the jamdani is popularly known as "Terchha." The most exquisite design is "Panna Hazaar" (a thousand emeralds), where the floral pattern is highlighted with gold and silver threads. There are other coveted designs such as the "Kalka" and "Phulwar." The peculiarity of jamdani is the geometric design. The weavers do not draw the design before hand on paper. They work on the design from their memory, and express their creative genius.

Through registration of jamdani sari as an Indian product, the glorious history and the unique creativity of the Bangladeshi weavers have been ignored and in some ways belittled. Unlike a trademark, which can be owned individually or by a group of people, the GI gives the product a collective right owned by a concerned community. Trademarks are usually transferable or can be assigned to another right holder. But GI rights are perpetual collective rights. In theory, India, by holding the patent to jamdani sari is able to increase sales of the item and get higher income. To an outsider, a Dhaka jamdani could very well fetch lower price, as the uppada jamdani from Andhra has the GI registration. Uppada jamdani has only a 300 year old history behind it. At best it is a special type of jamdani sari.

Now let us take the case of the nakshi kantha, another exclusive Bangladeshi product. Poet Jasimuddin wrote his famous "Nakshi Kanthar Math" in 1929. Through this poem, the art form that had originated in the villages of Bangladesh became known to the world for the first time. The kantha is made out of old saris, lungis and dhotis. At least 5-7 saris usually make a standard size kantha or quilt. They are sewn together to attain the size and the layers required. The needle and thread is used to outline a design followed by focal points. The filling motif is then worked on. The designs are usually flowers, undulating vines, images of birds and fish, animals, etc. No two are the same. Each nakshi kantha is unique and often tells a tale. Nakshi kantha is quintessentially Bangladeshi.

The third product registered by India under the GI Act is the fazli mango. The Indians consider this mango variety as being indigenous to Bihar and West Bengal. It is a late maturing (August) fruit and is large with firm to soft flesh. The flavor is pleasant and the pulp is sweet and fibreless. Its keeping quality is good. But what about Bangladeshi Fazli mangos?

In our national anthem, penned by no other than poet Rabindranath Tagore, the beauty of Sonar (Golden) Bangla is described when he writes: "In Falgun (March) your mango gardens spread maddening aroma." Mango is, therefore, in the mind of every Bangladeshi. It occupies a special place in our food, literature and culture. The best variety of mango grown here is the fazli, which is grown in the Rajshahi region. But it is grown mainly for domestic consumption. There are virtually no exports. The world, therefore, is unaware that we are a producer of this mouth-watering variety. Due to asymmetric information, India could have taken advantage and registered it as their GI.

It is time that our ministries of industries, agriculture and commerce, separately and together, under the aegis of the Prime Minister's Office, start identifying products that originate in Bangladesh and which need to be urgently registered under the GI Act. But in order to do that, we need to first enact a GI protection law and frame rules under it. We then need to open a registry to inscribe items that are to be protected. So far as we know, a law has been drafted and has been under discussion for the last seven years. The draft outlines how these products need to be protected against any malfeasance by our own traders. It does not outline how we can protect these products from foreign claimants. GI law in Malaysia, Singapore and India incorporates all these provisions.

It is imperative however that we identify now some of the products which we could call as our own. Some of them that could find a place in our registry is the jamdani sari of Dhaka, the naskhi kantha from Faridpur, Monipuri clothes, khadi of Comilla, hilsa fish from Chandpur, the fazli mango of Rajshahi, curd of Bogra, dogs from Sarail in Brahmanbaria as well as honey from our Sunderban forest.

We have to move fast in our effort to prevent some other country from listing our unique products and calling them their own. Any affirmative action by our government in such matters will therefore be welcome. Coleridge had once said: "Silence does not always mark wisdom." We must heed his advice in this case.

The writer is a former Ambassador and a regular commentator on contemporary issues.

E-mail: ashfaque303@gmail.com

Source: http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesig...php?nid=245754