Read the passage and answer the questions given below it.
A Banarasi sari is slow to make and quick to copy. On a handloom in Varanasi, a heavy brocade piece can occupy a weaver for several weeks, and the skill is usually passed down within a family. Into the silk goes zari, a thread once wrapped in real gold or silver. The motifs seem to sit on the cloth rather than inside it.
A powerloom can produce something that looks much the same in a fraction of the time, and cheaper imitations are now sold everywhere. At a shop counter the difference is far from obvious. This, more than the machine itself, is the weaver’s problem. When the old patronage of courts and wealthy families faded, the craft came to depend on strangers who could not tell what they were paying for.
In 2009 Banarasi saris and brocades received a Geographical Indication (GI) tag, which limits the name to goods made in the region. The step was necessary, but its reach is tenuous: a name is easy to borrow and hard to police, and a certificate does little at a crowded counter.
What has helped more is visibility. Designers have carried the weave into contemporary clothes and named the people who made it. Some weavers now sell directly online, with short videos of the loom at work, so that the weeks of labour are seen rather than merely claimed. A buyer who has watched a sari take shape over a fortnight is less inclined to bargain it down to the price of a copy. National Handloom Day, marked every 7 August, gives the effort a yearly push. The looms are still slow, and in many weaving families the young are still weighing other work.
Which of the following is the most suitable title for the passage?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → Easy to Copy, Hard to Judge: Keeping the Banarasi Loom Alive
This title covers both the problem and the response in the passage.
- “Easy to Copy, Hard to Judge”: powerloom copies look much the same, and buyers cannot tell the difference.
- “Keeping the Banarasi Loom Alive”: the GI tag, designers, online sales and National Handloom Day are the efforts to help the weavers.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 1: Gold and Silk: How a Banarasi Sari Is Made — Incorrect. Too narrow: How the sari is made is only the first paragraph. The passage is mainly about copies and buyers.
Option 2: The Handloom Crafts of India — Incorrect. Too broad: The passage deals with one craft only, the Banarasi sari of Varanasi.
Option 4: A Name Protected: The GI Tag and Banarasi Silk — Incorrect. Too narrow: The tag gets one short paragraph. The writer says visibility has helped more.