While there is important need to protect the cultural heritage of Indian crafts against predators; it is essential that this is combined with similar action on the design and marketing options for products like the Benares saris. This, perhaps, is the second leg of support. I am still wondering what the third leg might be to create something eminently sustainable. This is complicated by the very nature of the product and its important place in the history of India. It may be that the very tradition of which it is a part may be the cause of the decline in sales. Very often tradition is not realised to be endangered until it is slipping into oblivion, usually without the interference of cheap copies from elsewhere.

When resident in India I had many debates with supporters of Indian crafts took me to task for "working towards the destruction of Indian crafts by the introduction of modern designs."

Tradition is a definition which is slippery. For example, the British preoccupation with the pound is misplaced. It is not much more than 100-150 years old, but the fuss is out of all proportion to its real values in our society.

In my work with any craft group I was always scrupulous in insisting that as long as there was a market for their original products, then artisans should continue making them. Unfortunately many artisans find the market for heritage items are dwindling in many countries. The skills which are used to produced the items can be used to make other products which are expected to fill the slowly decreasing sales. For tradition to survive it must evolve to suit the environment in which it finds itself.

In Hong Kong during the 1970s, I was told about the rapid decline in the use of traditional red embroidered wedding dresses, because of changes in traditional dress usage and the adoption of European wedding dresses as a sign of sophistication. The Design Council of Hong Kong presented the tale of a transistor manufacturing enterprise which had trained embroiderers in the manufacture of transistors, their precision needlework skills being transferrable to modern technological industry.

• Cultural shifts to modern dress for fashion and ease of use reasons,
• Slow-down in purchase of many saris as trousseaus for brides,
• Declining use of truly expensive saris in Indian culture etc,

It is difficult to imagine market trends being slowed or reversed by an appeal. I have never known customers be that selfless. I have been affected by years of watching failed appeals to selflessness by customers in the Fair-trade movement. Watching new designs by the same producers being sold in shed-loads led me to this way of thinking. And I still believe in the Fair Trade movement; but it is taking too long to be accepted in this global economy of ours. We cannot rely on the charity or sympathy sale. Crafts are forced to evolve into competitive enterprises, as professionally managed as any commercial operation.

Has anyone done a survey of these cultural shifts in Indian society:-

• Which market group is the main user of Benares products?
• How many are there in this social group?
• To see why sari use has declined?
• Have they determined what is replacing this sari among users?

I doubt that many Indian women use western wedding dresses, but they might use western cut modern evening dresses, but tailored to a more Indian decorative motif. I have attended many Indian ex-pat events over the years, usually finding that the over-forty-fives seem to be users of expensive saris, but the young and wealthy Indian ex-pat women have wonderful cross cultural garments. It is probable that they are made up by the tailor favoured by the family at home in India.

It might be interesting to find out whether there is a market for non-traditional fashion products using materials of similar quality to the Benares sari, but of an evolved design more acceptable to a modern customer base. I can imagine modern cut evening gowns made from specially woven fabrics from Benares, customised for cutting to dress panels. There is considerable meterage in saris, with immensely beautiful bordering at specifically placed points to obtain the look of the worn sari. The same evolution and re-application can be applied to making daily wear products, such as trouser suits, jackets and coats, dresses and skirts.

Imagine being the Shyam Ahuja of the Indian garment industry. The evolution of durrie design to fit a global market by this company was splendid and diverse, changing designs and colourways, but using the same technology with superb quality control. John and Faith Singh have had similar success with Monsoon in the UK. There is no reason why the same evolution techniques could be applied to the sari industry.

I have Indian friends who have successfully used sari fabrics to develop striking ensembles of their own design. These have combined modern style with Indian tradition very successfully. I am sure that there are global customers who would be fascinated by a derivative Indian modern fashion range, with suitably applied or reduced quantities of the famed Benares decorative work closely following the market trends for fashion seasons.

I find that here are many Indian fashion design graduates here in UK attempting to launch their own ranges of cross-cultural dress. It might be possible to find wonderfully creative people in both India and overseas who could establish and successfully run a network business eventually capable of penetrating the mainstream fashion industry. I do not believe that the likes of Dior, Chanel, Dolce & Gabbana, Yves St. Laurent etc are the only people capable of commanding lead positions in fashion.

Below are a number of websites found by googling the words 'traditional', 'crafts', 'protection' together. ironically the Chinese feature quite heavily in the protection of their own cultural heritage.

Web sites
The Chinese Government has adopted a policy of integration of protection with development and improvement of traditional arts and crafts....
www.wipo.org/documents/en/ meetings/2002/igc/doc/grtkfic3_14.doc

UNESCO/WIPO Regional Consultation on the Protection of Expressions of Folklore in the... agriculture, handicrafts and other traditional crafts and trades....
www.unesco.org/culture/copyright/folklore/html_eng/quito.shtml

Some of the state governments are already involved in extending protection to some traditional craft products. The Geographical Indications Act was passed...
www.india-seminar.com/2003/523/523%20aparna%20bhagirathy%20&%20nirmal%20sengupta.htm - 22 Feb 2006

Protection of Traditional Arts and Crafts. The Philippines has, at this stage, instituted legal frameworks for the protection of traditional knowledge in...
r0.unctad.org/trade_env/docs/philippines.pdf

Filières Innovantes - Protection and recovery of traditional crafts and local knowledge (textiles, ceramics, agrifood)....
www.euromedheritage.net/activities/en/arts_crafts.htm

...the Protection and Defense of their Cultural Identity and Traditional Knowledge, ...The arts, crafts, dress and other forms of cultural expression of...
www.ichrdd.ca/english/commdoc/ publications/indigenous/lawPanama.html