A weaver’s eldest son
Farooq Ahmad Mir comes from a line of craftsmen for whom weaving is both a living and an identity. According to his official Padma citation, he was born on 9 August 1953 in the Khaiwan area of Srinagar. His father was a weaver, and as the eldest son he could not go to school; from a young age he had to help with the family’s work and look after his siblings.
Words in the weave
He worked to simplify the complex Kani weaving process and to develop new design techniques. His most distinctive innovation is bringing Hindi, Urdu and Sanskrit calligraphy into Kani weaving. Instead of keeping the traditional shawl to inherited motifs, he opened a new meeting point between script and visual design.
The next generation
The official record also links his work to creating livelihoods. Independent reporting by Kashmir Observer calls him a sixth-generation artisan with a craft journey of about six decades, and says he has directly trained about 350 artisans.
His sons went on to higher education and have won awards in Pashmina weaving themselves, according to the citation. A craft survives when the next generation can see it not as a poverty trap but as a skilled, creative profession.
Sources
- Padma Awards 2025: official citation
- Ministry of Textiles: Sant Kabir Awardees
- Kashmir Observer: 'Honouring preservation and perseverance'
- MyGov India: Padma profile
- padmaawards.gov.in/Document/pdf/CitationsForTickets/2025/202554.pdf
- handlooms.nic.in/assets/img/handloom%20awardee/Sant%20kabir%20Awardees.pdf
- kashmirobserver.net/2025/01/29/honouring-preservation-and-perseverance/