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of our area was spun and woven into crinkly khadi
and hence the name
Gudi Mudi,
which means
scrunched in the local weaver language – Nimardi.
The late Ganesh Bicchwe, a senior member of
Paramparik Karigar and a very valuable leader of
Maheshwar’s weaver community was responsible
for this wonderful name.
WomenWeave presently has over 60 weavers
in Maheshwar and 96 more in two areas of
remote, rural Madhya Pradesh, namely Dindori
and Balaghat. The majority of those weavers are
tribal women and the products they produce are
presently sold in almost 30 countries around
the world.
The Handloom School
The whole REHWA/WomenWeave experience
is living proof that there is hope for India’s
handloom; because it shows, beyond a doubt that
long and skilfully nurtured handloom can thrive
and not just survive.
This sort of change requires continuity, patience,
persistence and a lot of personal interaction
with both the weaving community and their
markets. It also requires education, innovation and
collaboration in designing, weaving and marketing.
So in 2015, we started The Handloom School
(THS) as a division of WomenWeave Charitable
Trust. The goal of THS is to educate India’s finest
The hitherto unutilised locally grown
cotton of our area was spun and woven
into crinkly khadi and hence the name
Gudi Mudi
, which means scrunched in
the local weaver language
- Nimardi.
