Hashmat Ullah Khan
Hashmat Ullah Khan was born in 1954 in Nawab Bazaar, the Heart of Srinagar City. He started his early education in Islamia School Nawab Bazaar. He did his BSC from Islamia College of Science and Commerce. He had a passion of Learning right from his childhood. He joined his father's Business in 1972 when he was a mere 18 year old lad. His father (Ahmad Ullah Khan) was into Kashmir arts.
Hashmat Ullah Khan has been working to revive the world's most exquisite and famous Kani shawls of Kashmir. The Kani shawls are woven with special woolen needles called Kanis in Kashmiri, hence the name Kani shawls. Made by special weaving techniques one Kani shawl takes at least a year or two to make depending on the design. It is virtually a piece of art woven into a shawl. These exquisite Kani shawls have been a favourite of Mughal emperors. These shawls owing to heir extraordinary beauty and time consuming making the process very exclusive as well as quite expensive, purchased mostly by the very affluent. Over the years by the early 20th century the production of these shawls became a thing of the past. It was Hashmat whose persistence and enterprise finally revived this long lost fabulous shawl making art and by the mid-1990s the Kani shawls started reappearing in the market. Hashmat belongs to the illustrious and well known shawl making family of Ahmed Ullah Khan of Srinagar, Kashmir. He and his family own the only heritage Kashmir shawl shop in Delhi - the Kashmir Shawl Store, with its business headquarters in Srinagar, Kashmir. Widely internationally traveled, his interests include social work, reading, writing and traveling. His priorities are revival of heritage design and trends in shawl making. Through systematic checks Hashmat ensures the welfare of his near 2000 odd workforce. Hashmat is an authority on pashmina shawls and has lectured on Kashmir shawls and culture in various gatherings in India and abroad.
In 2009, He was conferred the Padma Shri, India's fourth highest civilian honour.[1]