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This book attempts to understand communalism and communal violence from the viewpoint of the victims themselves in the context of the city of Banaras, best known for its sari industry, but also characterised as a 'Hindu city' prone to Hindu-Muslim violence. Through the metaphor of tana-bana, or the warp and the weft of the Banarsi sari, the author looks at the impact of violence on the lives of Banaras Muslims and the growing concern with identity and the 'othering' of an entire community.

Located at the confluence of three processes - the impact of communal violence accompanied by an insidious communalisation, growing concerns with indentity and the gender dimensions of the processes - this book is a fascinating investigation into the phenomenon of communalism, particularly since the 1990s when the question of Hindu-Muslim relations resurfaced in the aftermath of the destruction of the Babri Masjid. The actors are the Muslim weavers of Banaras and the site is the Banarasi sari industry.

The ethnography is located in the city of Banaras in Uttar Pradesh, best known for its sari industry. Two contradictory aspects of Hindu-Muslim relations are significant in this city. On the one hand Banaras has the reputation of being riot-prone, exacerbating tensions between the two communities, while on the other there is a mutual dependence on each other; on the one hand it has been characterised as a Hindu city, while, on the other, it has seen the evolution of a cosmopolitan urban culture in an essentially artisanal and pre-industrial milieu with its characteristic fluidity and communication across social boundaries. Appropriately, the dominant metaphor used by the author is tana-bana-the warp and the weft of the Banarasi sari as reproduced in the interweaving between the two communities.

The author documents how Banaras has been imaged and represented over the past two centuries and more; demonstrates the disjunction between a sacred city of Hindus and its essentially plural character; examines in depth the lives of Banaras Muslims in the social and economic matrix of the sari industry; highlights how women negotiate between home and family and their place in the artisanal industry; and most importantly, shows the fast-changing world of the weavers in the context of the crisis in the sari industry and their responses to it. Finally, the richness of the ethnography is complete with the oral narratives of two remarkable women of Banaras.