By Ines Keane
Ask three shops what pashmina is and you may hear three answers. A fibre. A blend. A shawl from Kashmir. The sources we read support all three, which is the first thing to know before a winter gift or a label gets you into trouble.
The word and the fibre
Wikipedia says pashm is the Persian word for wool. In Kashmir it meant the raw, unspun wool of the domesticated Changthangi goat, and today “pashmina” can mean either that material or the shawl made from it. The same article says goats shed their undercoat each spring and that it is collected by combing, not shearing, at roughly 80 to 170 grams per goat. Raw fibre goes to Kashmir, where combing removes guard hair and aligns the fibres. Spinning, weaving and finishing are traditionally done by hand, mainly around old Srinagar. One traditional 70 by 200 cm stole takes about 180 hours, it says.
Britannica’s article on the Kashmir shawl describes it as made partly or wholly from goat hair called pashm. It adds that in the 19th century shawls were sorted into pashm shala from domesticated goats and asli tush from wild goats.
How fine is fine?
Wikipedia gives typical cashmere as 12 to 21 microns. For pashmina it gives 12 to 16 microns, but that figure is attached to a 70 per cent cashmere, 30 per cent silk blend, not to the Kashmir fibre alone. So the number depends on which pashmina you mean. The page does not say how a shop should test it.
A short history
Britannica says tradition credits the 15th-century ruler Zayn-ul-Abidin with founding the industry and bringing in weavers from Turkistan, and that the first specific references to Kashmir work come from the 16th century. In the 19th century the shawls became fashionable in Europe. France and Great Britain then set up mechanised shawl industries, and Paisley in Scotland became a major centre for machine-woven copies, which competed with the real thing. By about 1870, Britannica says, the Kashmir industry had almost collapsed. A government-backed revival began in the mid-20th century.
Wikipedia adds that in France the shawl became a mark of bourgeois status from 1815 to 1870, and that a 1990s craze, known in Kashmir as shahmina, pushed demand past supply.
What the GI tag is, and what tests it
A Daily Excelsior opinion article says Kashmir Pashmina was granted a GI tag in 2008 to stop imitations being sold under the name. It says the Craft Development Institute in Srinagar helped register it, and that an artisan must register as an authorised user under the GI Act, 1999 to act against infringement. It gives 789 registered authorised users at the time of writing, without a date.
The more recent material is about testing. A report from ETV Bharat describes a Pashmina Testing and Quality Certification Centre in Srinagar that uses a high-resolution digital microscope to examine fibre and check whether a product is genuinely handmade, a condition for GI tagging. It says the lab can verify 100 to 120 products a day, and that the GI tag carries a QR code with details of the manufacturer, weaver, place and raw material. Greater Kashmir reports that the Handicrafts and Handloom Department announced the microscope on 26 March 2025. The ETV piece does not say what measurements the lab takes, and gives no micron thresholds.
A Tribune India report says the centre needs NABL accreditation to improve its acceptability in international markets, and that officials suggested tamper-proof labels showing features, place of origin and creator.
Where the rules are thin
The same opinion article says the Handicraft Quality Control Act of 1978 covers shawls but does not define what may be called pashmina, and that no state law bans powerloom weaving of pashmina. It argues powerloom goods are sold as handcrafted. That is an argument, not a ruling, and we report it as one. Wikipedia notes that in the United States “pashmina” is not a legally recognised labelling term and that fibre content must be disclosed accurately.
Dates in order
- 15th century: tradition credits Zayn-ul-Abidin with founding the industry, according to Britannica.
- 16th century: first specific references to Kashmir work, according to Britannica.
- 1815 to 1870: the shawl as a French status symbol, according to Wikipedia.
- About 1870: Kashmir industry almost collapsed, according to Britannica.
- 1978: Handicraft Quality Control Act, according to the opinion article.
- 1999: GI Act, according to the opinion article.
- 2008: GI tag granted, according to the opinion article.
- 26 March 2025: microscope announced, according to Greater Kashmir.
Side by side
Wikipedia gives the wool as Changthangi goat or fine Kashmiri cashmere, depending on the source it draws on. Britannica separates domesticated and wild goat wool. The Tribune report says nothing about whether the pashmina GI is in force, while the opinion article and the lab reports treat it as in force. Our reading: the Tribune piece was simply about something else. Neither article says so.
What kind of sources these are
Wikipedia and Britannica are encyclopaedias. ETV Bharat, Greater Kashmir and Tribune India are news outlets. The Daily Excelsior piece is opinion. A seller’s page we also opened offers seven home tests, among them a burn test, but cites no independent source, so we have not repeated them.
What we left out
Prices, export values, artisan wages, and the cost of the proposed electron microscope. We left out anything on the number of GI-tagged crafts that was not about pashmina.
Quick answers
What does pashmina mean? According to Wikipedia, pashm is Persian for wool. The word can mean the Changthangi goat’s fine undercoat fibre or the Kashmir shawl made from it.
How long does a pashmina stole take to make? Wikipedia says about 180 hours for one traditional 70 by 200 cm stole, with spinning, weaving and finishing traditionally done by hand.
How is Kashmir Pashmina tested for the GI tag? According to ETV Bharat, a Srinagar lab uses a high-resolution digital microscope to check fibre and whether the product is handmade.
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