Craft Category: Handmade Textile

Craft Location: Maheshwar

Specialization: Silk & cotton handloom textile with dobby design

Name of Artisan: Gangaram kanere

Contact No: 9165837863

Email-id: ganga.kanere@gmail.com

Address: 65, Malhargunj, Maheshwar-451224, Madhya Pradesh,



Gangaram comes from a neighborhood of Malhargunj, the home of the most skilled weavers of Maheshwari handloomed textiles. However, the weaving situation was not the same during Ganga’s grandfather time when most of the weavers were weaving floor covering, rugs and other heavier textiles for the royal family of Maheshwar. After Indian independence and the end of the royal Holkar family’s ruling the area, weavers from Malhargunj migrated to Khandwa in search of work once. Many of the traders, money lenders and other important people in the handloom community who prospered in the time of the royal family rule also migrated from Maheshwar to Indore in search of better opportunities. They left the lands to the local people including Ganga’s grandfather who further became a farmer from a weaver.

Ganga’s father helped with the family’s agriculture work and frequently visited a carpenter who made and repaired agricultural equipment. He then became very interested, learned to be a carpenter himself and is now known as skilled carpenter for making and repairing Mahewshar’s looms.

Ganga was not very fond of weaving in his school days, but he had a passion for education. He became a tutor during his university education. That work went very well and he employed other tutors as well. After a few years however, he decided to close his educational institute because parents did not pay enough tuition to keep it going.

Though he didn’t consider weaving as a prosperous profession, he realized it gives a reliable income, which is of foremost importance to him and his family. Finally, in 2009 when he was 28 year old, Ganga decided to weave. His father continued the handloom making and repairing work, whereas Ganga and his elder brother installed two looms at home and started weaving for one of the master weavers of Maheshwar.

Bright and entrepreneurial, Ganga has increased the number of looms to eight, giving employment to other weavers in the area. He has a dream to have his own weaving center which he will build on a piece of land near to his house. He feels that the center will allow him to collaborate with more clients who are more interested in customized weaving, and will attract urban clients because he is excellent in communicating in English and efficient in social media. He believes weaving at a center instead of at home will help weavers maintain quality and give more opportunity to develop new designs.

Currently he is weaving for a few clients from metro towns which he has found though social media and continues selling to local traders and master weavers. Ganga feels that selling to local traders is a great help for a fast and weekly cash flow but offers very low margins. However, he is hopeful that slowly he will attract clients from big towns who will work with him more closely and would pay well for the complex and custom-made fabrics that are his specialty.