LACE INDUSTRY OF KALIMPONG

SANDIP C. JAIN

The missionaries that made Kalimpong what it is today, were people of great vision and foresight. They knew that just educating the masses and preaching to them Christianity, would not actually lift the masses out of the economical hardships that they were facing. Hence they initiated moves to train the locals in various trade skills. One type of skill that they started to impart knowledge on, to the people of Kalimpong was in the art of Lace making.
Not many are aware but Lace making was a big time business in the town during the early part of this century. Since 1905, the outstanding industry undoubtedly was Lace making. Mrs. Katherine Grahams who founded the Kalimpong Home Industries in the year 1894 was also the prime mover behind this industry. To teach the women folk of Kalimpong the finer points of this art, Mrs. Grahams searched out teacher who was an expert in not just the ordinary Torchon and Cluny laces but the finer kinds like Brussels, Italian, Honitan and many others. The expert, a Ms. Catherine Channer, was employed and her salary and other expenses were taken care off by the government, which was requested for by Mrs. Grahams.
After laying the foundation for the industry and running it for four years Ms. Channer had to leave for home due to ill hearth but not before she had trained a successor in Miss Gladys Korb and several other locals, who continued to train others in this fine art of lace making .
By 1913, three hundred workers were engaged in this trade and in that year the sale of laces in Kalimpong along gave a profit of Rs. 9000.00 (a sum which was really big at that time). The laces from the town had acquired such fame by then that special orders was received by Kalimpong for laces to decorate the dresses of Her Highness, Queen Mary.
Unluckily, this industry did not survive too long after the missionaries went back. May be if the trade had continued to flourish in the town, Kalimpong would today have been spoken in the same breath as Nottingham or Brussels.
Rev. D.G. Manuel, the author of the much acclaimed books “Eastern Impressions” and “the Gladdening River” wrote “with the increase in time, the name of Kalimpong will be as much associated with the making of lace in Nottingham, Honitan or Brussels.”