Having a long tradition of silk weaving, Sualkuchi, in Assam, houses the state’s largest and the oldest silk industry. This silk industry is the provider of employment to local weavers. In the recent years, exploitation of this industry had greatly affected the people as the originality of the silk was compromised with. The local weavers of the silk village have recently breathed a sigh a relief, after a saga of protests demanding a ban of textile products produced outside has ended with the decision of the Controller General of Patents and Trade Marks to issue a trademark to the handloom products.

History

Around March-April, 2013, violence agitated the silk village of Assam. The root cause leading to the violence at Sualkuchi was the procurement and sale of Banarasi silk clothes under the brand of Sualkuchi silk or Assam silk and misleading the people at large. Hundreds of silk weavers of Sualkuchi came out to the streets and burnt down silk products procured from Varanasi, which some local traders were marketing as genuine Assam silk. Heaps of such silk products that were stored in showrooms and godowns of these traders were burnt down to ashes. Local weavers alleged that the traders have indulged in the practice of taking away samples of the indigenous Assamese designs and motifs to traditional silk weaving pockets in places of Varanasi, engage silk weavers of these places to produce adulterated Assamese silk products, and finally taking back the finished products to Assam to sell as genuine Assamese products. The adulterated products were relatively lowly priced.  These aggrieved the local weavers and compelled them to protest such practices.

These events urged people to take steps to rather popularize their craft. It was then, that the initiation of the process of registering a trademark for the original Assamese products started. The “Sualkuchi Tat Silpa Unnayan Samity” applied for the trademark on September 6, 2013. The application was registered against the number 2592761 under class 24. The word “SUALKUCHI’S” will now be found on these silk products woven by the local weavers and artisans of Sualkuchi, as per the provision of the trademark.

Conclusion

Although the hostility that took place is condemned, the CGPDTM’s decision has played an important role in providing the local weavers a ray of hope that their efforts will be recognized nationwide by their registered trademark.

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