India was the greatest supplier of textiles
to the rest of the world at one time.
Sixty percent of the world exports was Indian textiles 300 hundred years ago.
It was systematically destroyed during the British Era.
India is poised If we do the right things,
to be able to clothe the world once again,
in a sensible way, in a natural way.
Thumbnail: How to be Your Own Style Icon?
Questioner: This question is for Sadhguru - the Style Icon
Sadhguru: Ooh (Laughter).
Questioner: Nowadays Fashion is a multi billion dollar Industry
At the same time,
in the name of fashion, purely unappealing,
gross trends also come out
In the name of fashion,
are we crossing the line, and
how do we identify the line?
Sadhguru: Hmm. the first sentence,
withdraw that one
– I’m not a style icon or something
(Laughter).
See, for those of you who do not know this,
the third largest polluter on the planet is
fashion industry, right now.
It's estimated across the world,
compared to how many clothes,
how much clothing our grandparents had,
how much clothing we have is,
on an average, five times more.
All of you seeing that, isn’t it?
They’re saying by 2025,
that will double,
that means
we’ll be ten times more than our grandparents.
Out of this,
ninety-five percent is poly-fiber.
Poly-fiber has entered our bodies,
has entered the plants,
has entered the animals,
has entered the food chain, water, soil, everything.
This is one thing that’s gone under the radar
– everybody is trying to shoot at
that little plastic bag.
Which must be done, of course, but
the poly-fiber cloth is the largest polluter
which is going under the radar.
It is sitting on our clothing… on our bodies,
constantly polluting everything,
because the micro-poly-fiber is just getting into everything.
There are no poignant pictures
of a turtle being trapped in a plastic bag or something like that,
but we are all those turtles,
stuck in these things.
So one of the things
that we are doing is…
you know, as you know
from your history, that
India was a greatest supplier of textiles
to the rest of the world at one time.
Sixty percent of the world’s exports was Indian textiles
three hundred years ago.
It was systematically destroyed during the British era.
Over three to four million people died in about fifty years,
simply because
the industry was systematically knocked down.
And
that’s one reason why,
when the English left,
nearly ninety-one or
ninety-two percent of the people were in agriculture,
because all these weavers went back to agriculture
just for sustenance.
That is why such small holdings all over the place,
and agriculture being in such disarray.
One reason is because of destruction of handloom industries
to a point where one of the governor-generals said,
“The fields of India are bleached by the bones of the hand weavers,”
In 1860, because millions died.
So having said that,
we still have the skills.
India is poised,
if we do the right things,
to be able to clothe the world once again,
in a sensible way, in a natural way (Applause).
And in the sense,
this can be economically fantastic.
We could completely stop farmer suicides and
the distress of the farmer
if part of the agriculture is towards
generating natural fiber.
We have various natural fibers in this country.
Fortunately, I am seeing the more high-end
fashion designers recently – I don’t know if you saw
we had conversation with Sabyasachi
– and people like this are promoting natural fiber.
Well, and now that
you called me a fashion icon,
let me admit this.
In the month of October,
we are having a fashion show in New York city.
Woo (Laughter)!
This fashion show…
I’m not going to walk the ramp (Laughter), okay?
This is not about showing the apparel,
but this is about
exposing the top designers in
America to Indian textile, the fabric.
So thirty varieties of fabric we already have
already transported to United States,
it’s waiting there.
We going to display this and (Applause)
give this material to them…
of some part of it
free of cost,
so that they can try
what they want and to promote this.
This could be a game-changer for India’s economy.
Questioners: Yeah absolutely… yeah absolutely.
Sadhguru: It need not necessarily be handloom
– even if it is machine-woven,
but natural fiber.
If natural fiber comes back,
there is no other nation on the planet
which has the skills
that we have.
Over a hundred-and-twenty (Applause)…
Over one-hundred-and-twenty distinct varieties of weaves we have in this country.
Nearly fifty of them will die anytime
in the next ten to fifteen years,
because only one
old person, one little couple are doing something.
Their children have become software engineers.
And it will die in the next ten-fifteen years
unless we revive
because we must understand this…
I don’t know
if you’ve ever been to a hand loom weaving thing.
Have you been there? Questioner: Yes.
Sadhguru: In Bangalore,
there’s a lot of silk saree weaving.
You must go and see.
At one time,
you know,
my father believed that
I will go into this because
my family’s…
the larger family was involved in silk weaving.
So I went there to see.
I was just seventeen.
I wanted to see how they do it.
I was, you know, cocky and like that (Laughs).
He’s working on the loom,
they we... weaving a silk saree.
He’s just doing choo choo choo choo choo choo choo choo (Gestures) (Laughter).
I’m just (Gestures)...
I think…
At that time I think I’m smart.
Then I realized, that’s different (Few laugh).
And I’m playing full attention and looking.
Simply he’s doing this (Gestures).
Simply one flower opens up in that cloth.
Another flower opens up here.
Geometrically perfect!
If you have to put this into a software,
it will take so much effort.
This guy has got it in his head, simply.
So we have destroyed this
mainly because of compulsory education.
Okay?
If a child…
if a son or a daughter with their father or mother,
goes to the loom or
to the agricultural field to work with their parents,
the parents could be arrested
because child labor.
So we are determined
to destroy all the skills in the country,
and have a millions of graduates
who have the attitude of the educated,
and who don’t know
how to do a damn thing in their life (Laughter/Applause)!
So we pushed the education system towards
only fifty percent of the time
that you spend in the school should be academics,
rest of the time in villages – agriculture, craft,
music, dance, folk arts, many things.
For the first time the central governments announced
about a month ago,
fifty percent of the time is academics
but to implement that it’ll take.. .
the way, the speed at
which we move
it may take ten-fifteen years
because infrastructure, training,
you need teachers and everything.
So coming to fashion,
I think all of you must be style icons in some way.
That means
you are not just imitating some rubbish
that some model or somebody does.
Something that fits you.
Because each body is made differently,
there is a certain way to arrange the aesthetics
for your own self,
for your body and style is also
for your mind and emotion, isn't it?
It’s not just about your body.
So it must arrange itself like that
and please…
maybe right now
it’s not possible for everybody,
at least one day in a week,
please wear natural fiber.
Hmm?
Many farmers will not die
if you do just this one thing (Applause).
At least one day in a week,
wear natural fiber,
you may save many farmers’ lives
because this will be a steady market.
If you grow more vegetables,
it goes on the street.
If you grow less, yes?
It’s always a struggle.
But if part of it goes into producing natural fiber
as it used to be in this country…
We were the largest cotton and jute manufacturers
in the world, but all wiped out.
Time to get it back (Applause).