In Uttar Pradesh's Muslim silk saree hub, a great Saudi exodus unfolds

With many handlooms temporarily closed, weavers earning a pittance have been forced to seek employment elsewhere

For a village in Azamgarh, Mubarakpur is an aberration. Its streets are clean, roads well-paved, and no open sewage drains are visible anywhere. Although a few houses look derelict, most bear signs of relative affluence, some even opulence. But that is not attributable to the village’s marquee industry — silk saree weaving, which is sold as the “Banarasi silk saree” across India. Rather, it’s because of the exodus of its residents and those of neighbouring villages to Saudi Arabia and the money repatriated back home. While there are no official estimates, talk to anyone in the village and the person