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.
The main purpose of the passage is to:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → show that the craft suffers most from buyers who cannot see the work, and what helps
The passage uses the facts of the craft to make one point about buyers.
- Powerloom copies look “much the same”, and at a shop counter the difference is “far from obvious”. The writer says this, “more than the machine itself, is the weaver’s problem”.
- The GI tag did not fix this. “What has helped more is visibility”: designers who name the weavers and videos that let buyers see the weeks of labour.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 1: describe how a Banarasi brocade sari is woven and what materials go into it — Incorrect. Too narrow: Only the first paragraph describes the sari. The rest is about copies, the tag and buyers.
Option 3: argue that the GI tag given in 2009 was the main reason the craft has survived — Incorrect. Contradicted: The writer calls the tag necessary but says visibility “has helped more”.
Option 4: warn that cheaper powerloom copies will soon put an end to handloom weaving in Varanasi — Incorrect. Not mentioned: The passage makes no such prediction. It describes what is helping the weavers today.