Smt Suraiya Hassan Bose, fondly called Suraiya Aapa, received the prestigious 23rd Yudhvir Memorial Award by the Yudhvir Foundation on April 30.
The award has been conferred to Smt Suraiya Hassan Bose for her contribution to the revival of handlooms of the Deccan and for the welfare and education of the families of handloom weavers, farmers and their families.
The octogenarian Smt Suraiya Hassan Bose is credited with single-handedly reviving the nearly extinct Nizami-Persian techniques for Himroo, Paithani, Jamavar and Mashroo fabrics. She has also worked extensively in the village of Kanchanpally, close to Warangal, encouraging the local weavers to use their skill to make durries. Today, over five hundred weaver families in Kanchanpally make their living through durries and other weaves. In addition, several hundred other local Andhra families visit Suraiya’s workshop at Dargah Hussain Shah Wali, a village on the outskirts of Hyderabad, to learn the intricate art of weaving Himroo, Mashroo and Paithani, weaves alongside Ikat and Kalamkari techniques.
She also runs the Safrani Memorial School at Raidurgam for children from poor households.
Suraiya Hassan Bose comes from a family of Gandhian freedom fighters. Her father Badrul Hassan set up the first khadi unit in Karimnagar and it was in front of her home that Gandhiji lead the Swadeshi movement in Hyderabad and a bonfire was lit with imported fabrics.
Suraiya was married to Subhash Chandra Bose’s nephew Aurbindo Bose. After her wedding she moved to Delhi where she worked with the department of handicrafts and handlooms and then with the Cottage Industries Emporium. She returned to Hyderabad many years later following the death of her husband.
Gandhiji has been Suraiya’s idol and she gives great importance to Gandhi’s ideals of preserving traditional handlooms. She cherishes the Gandhian dream of “A loom in every home”.
Her Kalamkari prints have made this art of block printing a household name across the country. And, thanks to her, many a groom has looked resplendent in sherwanis made from Himroo and Mashroo fabric. These are ancient Persian weaves which came to India and Hyderabad through Iranian migrants and royalty. She is solely responsible for reviving a dying art, which completely vanished from India after partition.
She started training young widows who were economically backward to weave and then included Mashroo as well. Suraiya Aapa also runs the Safrani Memorial School. This English medium school offers free education of workers and has an intake of 600 students. It is one of the best schools in the State which gets 100% SSC results with almost all students scoring first class marks.
Her Kalamkari, which is block-printed in Machlipatnam, is sold to Fab India, designers and other leading stores. The product range includes sarees, stoles, dupattas, tunics, bags, table and bed linen, and wall hangings in hand-painted Kalamkari.
Suraiya Aapa shrugs off the accolades and insists her true satisfaction lies simply in the fact that she was able to revive Kalamkari, Himroo, Mashroo and Ikat, another old weave. But she is deeply worried about their future.