Jain Silk, Ahimsa Silk

Interesting article from the WSJ:

Taking the Violence Out of Silk

Do you know how many silkworms are normally killed to make a silk sari? Kusuma Rajaiah, a 55-year old government officer from India’s Andhra Pradesh state, does: “Around 10,000.”

Mr. Rajaiah estimates that around 15 silkworms are normally sacrificed to produce a gram of silk yarn. For years, he’s been battling against what he describes as the “cruel killing of millions of innocent worms.”

But there’s no need to give up silk: Mr. Rajaiah has long come up with an alternative. He realized the lure of silk was too strong to persuade people to give it up altogether so he came up with a technique that spares the life of the silkworm.

Kusuma Rajaiah displayed a fabric woven from nonviolent silk yarn. He’s the man who invented “Ahimsa” – or “nonviolent” – mulberry silk, a fabric which has since reached temples in Tamil Nadu and red carpets in Hollywood. Read more...