Coping COVID-19: Karur in the Past, Through the Present and into the Future

Abstract

Karur, one of the oldest towns in Tamil Nadu, a southern state in India, embedded with its rich cultural history and heritage of over more than 2000 years can be considered a key textile hub in present times. Being perennially busy with home furnishings and garment exports, like any other “Textile” town of India or other textile players of the world, Karur was pushed into lockdown one after another from March 2020 for a few undecided months owing to the pandemic outbreak of the disease Covid-19 with a new class of corona virus, known as SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2) being responsible for the occurrence of this disease. With uncertainty and a lack of clarity looming over their heads, many owners with the backing of their employees of the textile firms and industries jumpstarted their lives trying their best in beating the odds laid on themselves in quite successful ways backed with technical innovations. Though it happened for few, it didn’t realize for some. This paper attempts to track and research on some of the life stories of achievement and the unprecedented misery few were suddenly pushed into. While this town’s success stories as a meticulous process of change in its people’s mindset in desperate times toward themselves and those around can be studied to be implemented as a role model for other towns, the future lying in its unpredictability can never be ascertained thereby only making the successful solutions of those a base study of learning for the next.

Keywords:

• Karur
• weaving
• textile
• COVID-19
• handloom cloth
• cotton
• town
• lockdown

Acknowledgement

The authors would like to thank the following people for their sincere involvement and cooperation: Mr. P.Nallamuthu, Managing Partner, Mr.Pradeep.G, Director and Prof.T.Saravana Kumar, Technical Consultant – Abhinav Fabrics Pvt.Ltd, Karur, Mr.L.Sivasamy, Proprietor – Ptex, Karur and Mr.HarishKumar M.Alagarsamy, Bangalore. The authors would also like to thank all the participants of the case studies mentioned here – owners in sparing their time to discuss their experience over the last year and all the employees amidst their busy deliverable schedules and their personal grievances to talk to us about the same.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of this paper.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

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Notes on contributors

Malavica Shreewatsav

Malavica Shreewatsav is a Landscape Architect by profession with over a decade experience in the industry and currently working as an Assistant Professor at the BMS College of Architecture (BMSCA), Bengaluru, India. With an adorable childhood in the town of Coimbatore, an affinity to her spouse's native textile town Karur and their adjoining ancestral village of Panchamadevi, she is naturally drawn to the people, their lifestyles, their dedication to work feeling a part of herself to be their unspoken voice. She continues to research on these millennial old towns in possible ways, inspiring her to connect to them and study their survival and successful growth patterns. [email protected]

Vaseem Anjum Sheriff

Dr.Vaseem Anjum Sheriff works as a Professor in the BMS College of Architecture (BMSCA), Bengaluru, India. She has an avid interest in the design disciplines of interior design, product design and textiles. The pandemic situation has been a challenge to explore the impact on the textile industry with respect to the people and its designs motivating her to research on the journeys of the associated people.