Srinagar, Sept. 26 -- By Mohammad Hanief

A Kani shawl can take a craftsman months to finish, sometimes years, worked bobbin by bobbin on a loom that has changed little since the Mughal court first prized it.

Sozni embroiderers bend over the same length of pashmina for weeks, adding motifs so fine that a single square inch can hold hours of labour invisible to any buyer glancing at a price tag.

This is the plain economic problem sitting beneath the poetry of the Kashmiri shawl: a market built on speed is asking a craft built on time to compete, and it cannot win on those terms without help it is not currently getting.

The Kashmiri shawl earned its place in the world in a different economy altogether. Persian, Central Asian and Mughal e...