Abstract
The case presents a typical problem that a new-generation entrepreneur faces if he wants to enter a traditional Indian industry working on the lines of business framework that has remained unchanged till now. The main topic in study is to understand the challenges faced by the traditional textile industry of India. The study concerns chikankari textile, a subsection of the vast traditional textile industry of India. The chikankari has been awarded a geographical indicator status and belongs to the Lucknow district located in the state of Uttar Pradesh, the most populous state of India. The data have been collected through a series of surveys and in-depth interviews of major players in the industry. As the information was largely qualitative in nature, hence case study method was considered to be the most suited for its analysis and description of the results. The collected information was transcripted and themes identified aligned with the challenges before the respective textile form. The case highlights such challenges to find feasible solutions to set up a sustainable business venture. The case is developed from the perspective of a budding ambitious entrepreneur, Rahul Rastogi, interested in a start-up. The case describes the dynamics of the industry and closes with Rahul thinking about plans to enter and establish a start-up in the current state of affairs.
Introduction
Rahul Rastogi has just completed his studies in business management and is keen to start a business on his dream project. 1 His family has been a native resident of the region, and many of the relatives have been working as entrepreneurs in different aspects of the chikankari industry. Besides, being a native of Lucknow, Rahul had always known chikankari from childhood and its vocabulary was familiar to him. His perception of the industry had undergone a change when on a recent visit to Ludhiana, the largest city and a prosperous industrial town in the northern state of Punjab, he accompanied his relative took him to a garment showroom. He realized the importance and dignity of the handicrafts his native city of Lucknow produced. Amongst the various varieties of stitched apparel the shop displayed, there was also a look-alike chikankari embroidered suit. Only Rahul could immediately make out the difference between the real and the look-alike, whereas his accompanying relative was busy appreciating the garment. He investigated more about the reach of the product in this part of India and found out that most of the shops in the area were involved in such practices, some intentionally capitalizing on the ignorance of the customers and others fooled by the wholesales they relied on the supply of chikankari garments. His visit to Ludhiana provided him a new angle to explore and discover new knowledge about the age-old industry which could be capitalized.
The starting point of his exploration was the Lucknow’s Chauk market known as the hub for chikankari embroidered garments and his own eagle-eyed observations, this time more as a potential entrepreneur, to discover the customers. His discoveries were astounding:
Both the wholesale and retail shops were selling duplicate and substitute machine made embroidery work under the name of chikankari. The virtual market domain was flooded with chikankari garment websites but none exhibiting any designer innovation or modern approach to the product. His friends, neighbours and acquaintances were rarely dressed in chikan even in peak summers. Relatives who were interested in chikankari were interested in it as a gift item for someone else, and emphasized on low cost than on quality of the product. Presence of commission holders was one of the most irritating parts of the total shopping experience. The commission holders are middle-men who make out their living on encouraging potential customers. It is common occurrence to see your tour-maker at Agra, the Taj Mahal city to entice a tourist to his choice of a shop dealing in carpets or marble miniatures of Taj Mahal or other marble artefacts, as he gets a commission from the selling-shop on your total sale. Chikankari replaces the carpets or marble items at Lucknow.
Rahul decided to go deeper to know more about the craft and the trade. He decided to meet and find out more details from the four major players of the chikankari wholesale trade. For a native of Lucknow, it is not difficult to zero in on the top four places:
Motamal the only wholesaler with a registered brand name and who owns a centre in Chauk, the city hub of the trade Bhawanidas and Sons Nand Kishor Agrawal: the chairman of Traders Association and Adab Chikan Studio.
Together with his visits to the various websites, library of Lucknow University, an accomplished place for higher learning in oriental disciplines, and the interviews that he held with four of the top businessmen in the trade, the basic information as gathered was revealing to Rahul in many aspects. The information was also unique in many aspects as the same had not been collected and disseminated as a study. The following sections sum up this information.
Origin
Chikankari has a very interesting history with two major downfalls in its history and its revival after every blow. Lots of stories are woven around its origin. Some say it came from Persia, others trace that it was taught to a farmer by a sufi-saint. However, the trade is united to trace its usage and popularity in India to the Mughal rulers. Fashion conscious, beauteous and graceful Empress Noorjahan, escort of Emperor Jahangir, the fourth of the rulers in Mughal dynasty is said to be associated with it, as she is said to have provided a look of fashion to otherwise thin muslin cloth reserved for the hot summer months of Indian plains that were under the Mughal regime. The account is plausible as the chikankari artisans still make visits to copy and to get inspiration from the original chikankari designs depicted in marble mehrabs of the tomb of Itmad-ud-daula at Agra built by Noorjahan in 1622 in memory of her father. Pure chikankari is fine dexterous needle work which comes with high skills on thin cloth. Noorjahan had developed the skills and practiced in the regime of Emperor Akbar, the third in Mughal dynasty. Hence the arts origin dates back to the sixteenth century. The flowers were very close to the Mughuls, both in architecture, in perfumes and in literature (persion-itr: perfume from the roses is again traced back to Noorjahan). Chikankari needle work uses mostly flower motifs.
Another proof of the origin of the art is lies in Burhan’s classical dictionary of 1651 which describes chikan as ‘a kind of embroidery with gold thread, Quilting’ (Nayak et al., 2007). In India, the word chikan first was used in John Richardson’s Persian/English dictionary published in Calcutta in 1806. It had defined chikan or chitin as ‘a kind of cloth worked with the needle in flowers’ (Nayak et al., 2007).
Passages of Time
Soon, it became the signature of the elite ruling class of Indian subcontinent. It flourished and it became the dress of the rich zamindars (landowners), the Nawabs, the rulers and the power wielders. This unique embroidery art has an age not of around 400 years and has seen various phases in its life cycle. There have been two major downfalls and revivals:
The first downfall came with the de-jure fall of the Moghal empire at Delhi. It was split of the empire into several seats of power, with the Moghal king enjoying only a de facto power. The power wielding and the men who mattered in statehood moved away to other destinations: Hyderabad, Agra, Lucknow, Murshidabad were the major places. In absence of the patronage of the court and royalty, chikankari moved from Delhi, the seat of the Moghuls to the new seats of power. The down fall of the Mughul empire in 1857 completed this phase. The first downfall also meant and led to the revival of the art under the patronage of Nawabs of Lucknow. The ruling Nawabs were a different lot; given to merriment, celebration with people of their state, dance and music. Chikankari also spread and alongside came commercialization. Block printing joined chikan work. The period was, however, short lived as the Britishers took over the country completely. The aristocracy, in tune with new masters changed their dresses to show affinity with the British. For the first time, however, the chikankari came closer to the common man. The rise of the art and the culture to take pride in chikankari can be traced to the period of independent India. There was an upsurge to take pride in the ethnic. Commercial practices surfaced a movement to bring down the prices and meet the demand of various sections. Innovative usages on different dresses were discovered. Table 1 provides milestones on chikankari usage.
Milestones of Chikankari Work
Innovation in Stiches
The commercialization brought innovatory usage not only in a variety of dresses, but also led to the discovery of new stitches and a variety of choice before the customers. This is what is advocated in customization. The names of few of the stitches used in this embroidery are ‘Sidhual, Makra, Mandarzi, Bulbulchashm, Tajmahal, Phooljali, Phanda, Dhoom, Gol murri, Janjeera, Keel, Kangan, Bakhia, Dhania Patti, Lambi Murri, Kapkapi, Karan Phool, Bijli, Ghaspatti, Rozan, Meharki, Kaj, Chameli, Chane ki Patti, Balda, Jora, Pachni, Tapchim Kauri and Hathkati & Daraj of various types’ (Arya & Sadhana, 2012).
Geographical Indicator Guide
During the long period of neglect of the chikankari, the trade fell in poor demand and low returns leading to poverty amongst the artisans who had inherited the art from their forefathers. There was exploitation from the middlemen. The initiatives to revive came from the government by creating elementary cluster in the form of designating an area to carry out the trade. Geographical Indicator Guide (GIG) has helped in bringing together all the specialist workers at one place for easy communication and to provide a recognition. The authorized areas where chikankari is allowed to be practiced under the GIG lines is Lucknow district and its peripheral areas. The area’s radius ranges about 125 km in and around Lucknow district. Lucknow is the main centre and a hub point of almost all kinds of transactions taking place in the business, be it in terms of raw material for manufacturing or finished goods for sale. The production process of the craft is highly scattered geographically throughout this authorized area. The process is divided into stages depending on the nature of work done over the product and each stage is performed at a different geographical location where the craft men specialized in performing the task are stationed (it is mostly the residential area of the craftsman). Pedal rickshaw pullers work as the connecting links between these work stations in this production layout.
The Process
The following sections provide technological details of the process, highlighting the equipment, procurement process, the skills needed and various activities to complete the chikankari embroidery. Table 2 provides brief details of various process activities.
Type of embroidery used—hand embroidery
Equipments used—needle, wooden/plastic frame, wooden blocks
According to Pankaj Arya and Shilpi Sadhana, the chikankari art is responsible for the bread and butter of 2.5 lacs artisans if only the hand embroidery part of the process is considered. Besides, around one million other non-craft-related artisans (involved in washing, dyeing, transportation of the raw material, finished and semi-finished goods during production process, etc.) generate their employment from the trade. The craft serves as one of the biggest rural employment sources for housewives in Uttar Pradesh. More than 90 per cent of the work is carried out by rural women at their home. Work centres, established by the intervention of government for providing a training and production area for the craft are merely working as distribution and collection centres as opposed to their original purpose.
Process in Chikankari
Worker Profile
The worker profile as deciphered from the collected information is detailed in Table 3a. Table 3b lists the social and occupational profile of the employees.
Profile of the Workers
Social and Occupational Level Problems
Identification of Problems
According to Rahul’s discussion, he could identify few problems inherent to the industry and others arising due to lack of up-gradation of the industry with time. The industry belongs to a highly unorganized sector. The process is too lengthy and scattered throughout the Lucknow district and other authorized craft centres around Lucknow. It takes around 3–4 months on an average for manufacturing one batch of finished goods. Automation of peripheral activities (like washing, dyeing, stitching, etc.) and up-gradation of processes have not taken place with time. Middlemen work as a link between the manufacturers, wholesalers and workers at every stage as the keeping track of the semi-finished product during its production cycle, availability of a chain of worker required at different stages and logistics management in the industry is a huge task to be handled single handedly by the manufacturers or wholesalers.
Geographical indicator status is available but its advantages like using it as a USP for sales or increasing awareness, brand or authentication mark development, banning of chikankari work in rest of the India except the authorized areas etc. are not tapped and utilized by the trade.
The product is majorly sold as a gift item or cheap alternative to wear. Designer pieces are very less and hard to find which shows the low creativity, risk taking ability and innovation in the markets.
Markets are filled with duplicate and similar looking products which are liquefying the brand chikankari. They form the biggest challenge for the craft as they are automated, machine made, less time taking and cheaper in cost than chikankari which is inherently a hand embroidery-based textile form. The mass segment of customers being price sensitive and less sensitive towards hand crafts finds value for money in the modern looking cheap duplicates.
One batch of finished products takes around 3–4 months for completion. The average cost of an authentic chikankari embroidered garment comes to anywhere between ₹500 and 2,000, whereas the selling price of an authentic chikankari embroidered textile can range from 100 to 30,000 and more. The average selling price of the product comes out to be ₹670. The industry is able to sell around 1,000,000 authentic chikankari embroidery in a month. At this rate, annual turnover could reach around ₹7 billion.
Another problem surfaced out of discussion is of the commission agents that are present all over the market. Their presence increases the cost of the product and causes difficulties for small retailers and upcoming wholesalers.
Artisans work for both, their own as well as other manufacturer’s businesses so their work time gets divided and biased. No proper training is given to the workers, only the expert embroiderer’s children get right type of training. The well-trained artisans are, on other hand, diminishing day by day due to lack of interest and diversification into other fields like centre owner, manufacturer, etc.
Many hands are involved in the manufacturing process of one unit of product. This persists not only at embroidery level (where three to five women of the family or neighbours join hands to complete the work over a single piece) but also at every stage of production as each step is performed by different kind of worker belonging to a completely different profession. Production of one unit takes 3–4 months, which is a long duration in an industry where every 15 days the fashion changes therefore all the more curbing the risk-taking initiatives of innovation and spirit of experimentation with the product. Here it is important to mention that the skill of embroidery differs from person to person and many a times for a special high priced piece or a particular difficult stitch specialized crafts specific artisans. Artisans are assigned the task to complete a product unit/batch.
Price of raw material keeps on fluctuating because of which price fixation and standardization becomes difficult. Standardization and categorization of the work is not present and is difficult to establish in the industry as the industry is highly skill intensive. This leads to wages and pricing left on the mercy of bargaining power of the entities involved.
Copying of design and stealing of the pieces is a common practice in the industry because of which the sunk cost increases. Wednesday Bazaar 2 provides a legal market to sell such stolen pieces in market in form of artisan made garments.
Gleam of Hope
The positive points that came out of the discussion were the inheritance of a well aware brand name which needs no introduction. The industry has fully developed framework of process with number of skilled workers available at its vicinity. There are many kinds of government aids working in favour for the industry. There are many designers working on chikankari for its promotion and development of the art. The existence of this industry over so many centuries speaks of its strength and importance. The scope of innovation and improvement is immense. The art has been given a geographical indicator status which gives a lot of rights and recognition to the art. The uniqueness of every piece prepared is the non-utilized USP of the art. The unique set of stitches used in making chikankari adds to its beauty and gives it an exotic touch which is non-replicable elsewhere in the world.
Path Ahead
The demand is still exceeding the production limits and this gap is working as an advantage for the duplicate and substitute products. Another gap that is being exploited by the substitute products is the lack of new designs and modern presentation of the product.
The international market is a blue ocean market for the product and has a great potential. Many other factors work in the favour of the competitors and many factors work as a challenge to the chikankari.
Rahul Wants to Know
The challenging picture that was exposed was exciting to work on as lot of gaps were present where Rahul could work on and capitalize them as opportunities. At the same time, the limitations were creating a risk factor in the way of his decision making. He could not imagine of letting the business idea go waste. ‘There has to be a way to develop a business plan that can be profitable in this scenario?’ or ‘Am I being naïve?’ Should I move into some other business venture or should I stay and find a new path? These were issues that were haunting him. Rahul seeks your advice.