When the Managing Director of Nagaland Handloom and Handicrafts Development Corporation, wanted me to come to Dimapur to explore a design assignment, I was both thrilled and apprehensive. Thrilled because I always wanted to visit the interiors of North East India and wanted to savour the sights and crafts of the place first-hand. Apprehensive because […]
Until recently the general view of the future of handlooms was gloomy. Though people saw the production of cloth on the handloom in India as a matter of pride in its heritage, they also saw it as an aberration in an industrializing economy. It will inevitably decline, was the general view. However, even today handlooms […]
Discussion on India’s handloom heritage swings between extremes. Some influential minds would have us believe the fabric is doomed to extinction, given the versatility, speed and economy of computerized production on powered looms. A contrasting conviction is of millions dependent on India’s second largest source of livelihood, serving a huge market at home and abroad, […]
THE INDIAN LOOM- A FORGOTTEN EPISODE Dr Lotika Varadarajan is a passionate and quietly determined scholar whose seminal work on Indian textile and cultural traditions is a must-read for all of us. Her recent talk on the Indian Loom was awe-inspiring but also sad. Awe-inspiring because of the sheer range, diversity and technical virtuosity of […]
Craft practices are an integral part of any cultural setting. They provide an identity to the people belonging to a particular culture. India has a vast variety of cultural settings resulting in diverse craft practices. At the beginning, craft items were produced by different cultural groups to serve specific purposes. Later, with time and changes […]
Indian traditions are all-encompassing in their essence. They are without and beyond religion, yet they draw from the well-springs of ultimate truths, applicable to all religions and schools of philosophy. They reach out across many disciplines, from the arts to science and mathematics, and apply, in the ultimate, to all sentient beings. Whether a human […]
Changing lifestyles and market structures mean that weaving is not a viable profession anymore. What’s the way out?Hand-woven fabric is the product of Indian tradition, the inspiration of the cultural ethos of the weavers. With its strong product identity, handlooms represent the diversity of each State and proclaim the artistry of the weaver. It is […]
Nestling in rural Bengal, amidst the verdant paddy fields punctuated by picturesque pukurs (ponds) and grandiose antiquity, are entire weaver villages engaged in creating the equivalent of poetry on fabric. Triumphing over the trauma of partition, weaver families, which migrated to West Bengal in the 1950’s, have helped keep alive a priceless heritage of highly […]
Geographical Background Bishnupur is an earthy town, 110 kilometers from Kolkata and situated in Bankura district. The town is well connected with cities like Kolkata, Durgapur, Burdawan by train and bus. The climate here is hot and dry. Not enough rainfall takes place here during monsoons. Places around Bishnupur are mostly barren and the plateau […]
Background: Avani means ‘The Earth’ in Sanskrit. All our activities support the environment and the people of the area where we are working. Avani has been working with integrating sustainable livelihoods and appropriate technology. The focus of our work has been creation of livelihood opportunities in remote rural areas where supplementary cash income for daily […]