In her talk for Karwaan, Dr. Sanghamitra Rai Verman describes how the Vedas personify Night and Day as two sisters: they weave together as sister night serves the warp and sister day serves the woof (Atharva Veda X. 7, 42). Going back to ancient times, India has been the centre for textile production. As far back as the 5th century, Herodotus describes: "India has wild trees that bear fleece as their fruit and of these Indians make their clothes." Of course, that fleecey fruit was cotton. Fast forward to the early days of industrialisation, and the British Empire brought the raw cotton from India and their other colonies to be made into cloth in the cotton mills of the metropole. The British benefitted from new technologies to produce cloth quickly and efficiently while creating jobs for those living in the British Isles, and so they could turn a hefty profit by selling that cloth back to the same colonies that they got that raw cotton from.
This situation is what brought about Gandhi's fervour in promoting homespun cloth as an act of rebellion; he hoped to break India free from dependence on the British by manufacturing textiles from their own cotton. Before the British colonial period, the Indian subcontinent was the top exporter of finished textiles (not just raw cotton) to the rest of the world. Production of textiles occurred both in workshops and at home. Aari embroidery, for example, was largely a male art done in karkhanas, or workshops, for the Mughal state. However, in Kashmir, the famous chain-stitch embroidery on wool was mainly done by women in their own homes.
The feminine side of textile manufacturing is what brings me to an article by Richard M. Eaton: "Sufi Folk Literature and the Expansion of Indian Islam." What do textiles have to do with Sufism? More than you'd think. Today, most of the Sufi texts we have access to were esoteric writings in Arabic and Persian that would not have been accessible to average people. But this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Sufi thought. Historically, Sufi practitioners spread their not through this academic sort of literature, but through ecstatic public practice and song. As women in the villages of the Deccan (Southern India) did the laborious work of spinning cotton into thread or grinding grain into flour, they would sing songs to pass the time, and many of these songs were actually derived from the Sufi poetry of that region.
Women of all backgrounds, Hindu, Muslim, or otherwise, would flock to dargahs, or Sufi centres, as part of their spiritual practice. Since it was commonly believed that these visits could increase a woman's fertility, it was well worth a trip from the village. Dargahs were generally open to people of all castes, religions, and genders, so it was much more accessible than many other religious structures.
To officially become a dervish or Sufi initiate, it is necessary to complete numerous stages on a journey under close supervision from a Sufi practitioner. While most of these rural women were not doing this formal initiation, songs that described these various stages of initiation were adapted to coincide with the various stages in their daily work. Religion at this time had a greater degree of flexibility, and rural women may not have known or cared if they strictly belonged to Islam or Hinduism, but rather took whatever practices were helpful to them. These songs for spinning and grinding could be a way for all the women to get through long days and enrich their social life. Their habit of singing devotional songs while working reminds me of my own mother in law, who continuously does dhikr, (recitations in remembrance of God) while she cooks and works about the house. When you can easily ask Google for music or a podcast, these practices are becoming less common. However, in a world where work, religion, and state have all been divided into neat categories, it's comforting to think that devotion doesn't always have to be formal and rigid; it can go well beyond the church, temple, or mosque. Like these women, even in our day to day work there is an opportunity to worship a higher power that connects us all.
Further Reading:
A study of Mughal Imperial Costumes and Designs by Pooja Chaudhary
The Age of Homespun by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
"Sufi Folk Literature and the Expansion of Indian Islam" by Richard M. Eaton
"Karwaan LIVE: Historicising Indian Textile Arts" A talk by Dr. Sanghamitra Rai Verman https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jC56_o-ymw4