Directions: Study the following information carefully and answer the question given below.
Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow:
In the narrow, humid mohallas of Madanpura in Varanasi, the rhythmic clack-clack of wooden handlooms echoed like a persistent communal heartbeat. In a ground-floor pit loom workshop, Master Weaver Mukhtar Ansari sat cross-legged, manipulating thousands of fine mulberry silk warp threads with deft calloused toes and fingers. Before him unfolded a ceremonial *Kinkhab*โan opulent brocade woven with real silver and gold zari threads that caught the warm slant of morning sunlight. For five generations, Mukhtarโs family had translated Persian floral motifs and Mughal paisley arabesques into luminous silk heirlooms destined for royal bridal trousseaus across the subcontinent.
Yet across the lane, the deafening drone of computerized Chinese power looms operated around the clock, churning out synthetic polyester replicas in fractions of an hour at a tenth of the price. Commercial textile merchants had repeatedly urged Mukhtar to abandon his labor-intensive pit loom and install automated Jacquard attachments. Mukhtar had steadily refused. Power looms operated with mathematical velocity, but they flattened the fabric into sterile uniformity. They could never replicate the tactile breathing density of hand-spun zari, nor the micro-variations where a weaverโs human thumb gave a motif its subtle, organic life. As he threw the heavy rosewood shuttle across the warp, Mukhtar whispered the traditional weaverโs benediction, knowing that in an age of disposable synthetic speed, slow human patience was the ultimate act of aesthetic defiance.
What was Master Weaver Mukhtar Ansari's primary reason for refusing to adopt automated Jacquard power looms?
๐ก Solution & Explanation:
Correct Answer: (D)
Core Concept: Reading Comprehension โ Character Motivation & Aesthetic Philosophy
Step-by-Step Solution:
1. Paragraph 2 explains Mukhtar's refusal: 'Power looms operated with mathematical velocity, but they flattened the fabric into sterile uniformity. They could never replicate the tactile breathing density of hand-spun zari...'
2. Option (D) captures this exact aesthetic rationale.
3. Options B, C, and D are contradicted by the text.
Key Shortcut / Exam Tip: Note why power looms produce 'sterile uniformity' lacking human thumb variation.