KHES: forgotten pride of an undivided land.

To decipher “ Khes” as a domestic textile, one made as a labour of love ,affection and pride by the womenfolk in the northwestern belt of the undivided India, one needs to know the land , it’s people and their beliefs with as much sincerity. As one set out to learn about this textile that was a part and pride of almost every household of the undivided Punjab , the realisation that the absence of much written or visual documentation came in rather early in the process of research. A textile that was considered precious enough to be taken along with the absolute essentials when communities crossed each other while fleeing to their newly built nations and one that was essential both to their needs and to their identities had never been recorded. What was common with each Khes that was discovered on the way and brought out with pride by their possessors, were the memories and stories that were preserved in the folds of those Khes- some imagined, some engraved in their hearts, but mostly true. The  generations that were born before and survived the partition of India & Pakistan, remembered grew up seeing the textile being made and being used as shawls, coverlets, bedding or bed liners and sometimes also as floor coverings. Their stories resonated the memories of Khes that were taken along and ones that were hurriedly packed in trunks which they would come back to- not knowing that...