Daily Times

Sindh is renowned for producing beautiful textiles that also includes the production of ralli quilts. Ralli quilts are traditional blankets made by artisans in the southern provinces of Pakistan including Sindh, Balochistan, Cholistan Desert as well as the southern border of Punjab and its adjoining states of Gujarat and Rajasthan in India. Interestingly, every ralli quilt tells a story. It tells of the natural creativity and love of colour and design of the woman who creates it. Every ralli quilt tells the story of the strength of tradition and motifs of rallis which have been passed from a mother to her daughter and from one woman to the other, perhaps for thousands of years.

Recently, I had a chance to visit some of the oldest villages of interior Sindh and got to meet different artisans, who were able to reveal a lot about the nature of this craft being practiced in Sindh. I visited Khairpur Mirs and some of its villages which are famous for making beautiful “Ralli quilt”. However, this production of ralli can also be found in Umerkot, Badin, Halaand Tharparkar.

On way to Khairpur Mirs from Sukkur, one can find unstitched beautiful and colourful ralli quilts on the roadside. However, if anyone is interested to buy, then do keep your wallet loaded with money. These ralli quilts typically represent Sindhi culture as they are prepared by putting together old fabrics, particularly old ajrak.

It is a way of recycling the fabric. The layers of old material are stitched together first and then to hide it’s imperfections there is the patchwork on top of bright coloured pieces of fabric. These days these women also use motifs in the form of fancy embroidery while including glasswork or beadwork. It just depends on how creative one is. Most of the times it requires teamwork where several women can be seen sitting on a floor in a circle with the rally spread out between them as they chat or hum while they go about their work. This is the most amazing style of making ralli in interior Sindh.

On way to Khairpur Mirs from Sukkur, one can find unstitched beautiful and colourful ralli quilts on the roadside. However, if anyone is interested to buy, then do keep your wallet loaded with money. These ralli quilts typically represent Sindhi culture

“BaghoDaro” a place in Khairpur Mirs is most famous for rally-making and I was shocked to see that one single piece made here is sold of minimum1 to 2 lacs. While talking with few artisans they said it takes a week at most for a single bed sheet while it may takes over a month for a double bed sheet. Most of the women in this area prepares ralli bed sheets, cushion covers and shirts. From floral designs to birds such as peacocks, different symbols grace the fabric. These womenmake these quilts rely on their own memories and the memories of their mothers to learn pattern making. They do not use paper or any tools to make their patterns. There could be a great variety of patterns and styles of Rallis even in a small village or community within Sindh.

Thousands of women, regardless of religion, occupations, tribes and castes, living in towns, villages and nomadic settings, make rallis in Sindh. All those actively involved in this textile craft belong to the marginalized, under privileged and poor segment of our society. This activity of rally-making is considered as there income generation.

Within Sindh one can find several categories of designs of rallis but most beautiful design is of appliqué, embroidery and patchwork commonly known as Ghajs. Mostly appliqué is used on male and female shirts and people wear on traditional events as this style is the most common design like by the people of Sindh. The ralli quilts are available in different colours; traditionally it has seven colours that known as Satrangi quilts. The colours are white, red, black, yellow, orange, blue, purple, and dark green. Recently, Sughar Foundation in collaboration with Marvi Rural Development Organization has taken initiatives such as linking rural women of Sindh who are associated with rally-making with the market directly and also training these women with latest designs and methods. Training centres for these women will be established where they will come up and learn and explore. The idea behind such trainings is to add value to these women by turning out different ralli products like fashion apparel, handbags, embellishments on shawls and bedroom accessories that include table lamps shades, cushions and toys. Moreover, within this program these women will also be trained on modern designs and will be guided on different marketing channels. Interestingly, their products will also be displayed at a women hunrimela to get the market feedback and media highlights.

I personally believe that more civil society organisations and most importantly, women of Sindh need to speak up and work for the entrepreneurship and skill development of rural women of Sindh as these handicrafts are just now getting international recognition. We as a nation should support these women.

The writer is a social and political activist based in Lahore. He can be reached at salmanali088@gmail.com and Tweets at @Salmani_salu