Journal Archive

God is Omnipresent. Quite literally in Pen. Everywhere you look in the quiet by-lanes of Pen, you see idols of the Hindu God of Luck and Prosperity, Ganesha, in various stages of production. Watching you from the parapets of houses while waiting for the the paint to dry; peeping through the windows, while the artisans provide finishing touches; and of course, establishing their presence in full glory atop the many small trucks which are transporting them, in various shapes, sizes and colors, to all parts of Maharashtra, and even to places as far as half way around the world to the US.

Located about 80 kms. Southeast of Mumbai, this small town in Raigad district is pretty much a cultural focal point owing to these "divine creations".

What culminates as 11 days of festivities, seen at its most pronounced form usually in Hindi movies, and felt at its most sublime form at Chowpatty in Mumbai every year, actually begins here as soon as the festivities finish. Lives of more than 30,000 Indians in Pen are centered, directly or indirectly, around the creation of the idols.

While the karkhana/ workshops exist aplenty, and one does get a feeling of industrialization due to the mass production through earthen casts, the process in its entirety is still largely a form of art. From the selection of pose, size and color of Ganesha, to accompanists, fragrances and time taken to make different idols, everything has a very human element in it, something that machines will find very hard to emulate. Anything to do with Ganesha can, simply, not be taken lightly. For, he is the Lord of Good Luck. All Indian Gods have a charming physique and yet chequered mythology. And here is a God, pictured as pot-bellied, with a twisted trunk and mouse as the official vehicle, yet the first to be worshiped and never spoken grey of in any mythological literature. Ganesh is the most unusual God in Indian mythology, and Pen is most unusual place for it to be the hub of Ganesha industry because no raw material is produced locally, and there is no long-tanding tradition of art in Pen. The clay used to come from distant places in Gujarat and the colors were bought from the market. I wonder if this is irony, or a rather fitting meeting of odd friends.

Beginning 1970, the opening up of transport options from Pen to Mumbai and Pune gave the place a strategic locational advantage and turned this nascent art into a booming business. The artisans of Pen seem to firmly believe in the "Work is worship" dictat and have given it a different dimension by adding, "worship is work." Looking at the artisans go about their day with the concentration only a devout believer can portray, is transcendental in its own way. However, things have changed with time. Yet, the more things change, the more they remain the same. The process remains the same; the output looks a little different.

The God remains the same, worship is now more a festival. So while earlier, it was all about one design, but different sizes, it is now about adding fluorescence, modern crack resistant material like zinc oxide and sittings beyond the traditional "one-handed blessing" Ganesha. All in the lively spirit of festivities. God created man. Pen is one of the few places where God accepts to be created by Man. Acknowledgement: Mr. Shrikant Deodhar (Kalpana Kala Mandir, Pen)

‘India’ and ‘international’: terms redolent with implications of tradition, modernity, identity, change, promise and challenge. The generation that participated in achieving Freedom, including the founders of the India International Centre, were confident that India had a message about the meaning of a democratic, syncretic society as well as what resurgent India could represent to the world outside. The Centre was intended as a space within which dialogue could enhance an understanding of diversity and tolerance, help develop capacities for managing difference, and assist measurements of progress relevant to a just society. Through the years, IIC has served this mission admirably. Yet recent events remind us that as a nation, managing difference and diversity is perhaps a greater challenge today than it was in 1947. IIC often appears as island of sanity surrounded by troubled waters, and a new generation cannot take for granted the concepts that brought the Centre into existence. They have come of age during years that have challenged the qualities and assumptions on which free India was founded. Additionally, they must deal with major new challenges: the degradation of our environment, the rise of terror, the impatience of communities left for too long at the margins of society, the impact of transforming technologies, the rush to convert citizens into consumers, and a pace of change that is entirely new to experience. The young are thus being challenged to re-discover their heritage, and to re-state the postulates on which India can move into its future. While unparalleled opportunities await them, youth seems caught between a society that lurches between alternative identities and histories of ‘India’ and the pressures that threaten their nation and planet. Within such chaos, can IIC be a catalyst for an Indian identity and an Indian confidence? Loss and Opportunity There are political, social, cultural, environmental and indeed spiritual dimensions to this quest that cannot be captured in a brief note. Amidst hope for alternatives free of ideological baggage, there is concern over values lost to cynicism and corruption. Alarming signs cannot be ignored. The abysmal state of Indian education inhibits turning classrooms and universities into spaces within which each generation rediscovers India. The implications are still with us of a masjid destroyed seventeen years ago and of pogroms conducted to establish majority dominance in 1984 and again in 2002. A great artist, his paintings celebrated at IIC, lives in exile. A great play performed at IIC is banned, even as its author’s passing is the loss of a national treasure. The largest sector of the economy after agriculture --- hand production, employing uncounted millions --- is confined to the margins as a ‘sunset’ activity irrelevant to super-power aspirations. Media promotes every conceivable notion of modernity (from western fashion to skin colour) that can degrade an Indian sense of self-worth. We remain unable to feed, clothe or house our citizens in anything approaching dignity while an expanding middle-class races toward waste and greed. A pattern of consumption is being thrust upon us that threatens everything we know about protecting the planet we will leave to our children. Millions suffer and die without sanitation, even as Gandhiji made this the foundation for true freedom more than a century ago. When IIC was founded, India could boost of a cadre of great Indian scholars. Today this class has diminished to the point of extinction, and India has begun to depend on foreigners to interpret its past. What does that portend for the future of an ‘India International Centre’ in which scholarship is accepted as the enduring foundation for understanding and peace? Surely we cannot continue to drift in this manner, afraid and incapable of taking greater charge of a “tryst with destiny”. Despite the gloom, there are forces that can support and lift a contemporary search for quality. History justifies the Indian experiment, and the global relevance of India’s commitment to managing diversity within democratic frameworks. The environmental movement has brought to the fore concepts of development that were first articulated in India’s struggle for freedom: sustainability understood as justice and as a balance between nature and human society. The understanding of progress has finally moved beyond measurements of production and income to indicators of human development that can track movement toward justice, security and identity within change --- just as Gandhiji had urged. Global movements to empower the marginalized and to protect the planet have supported and often been inspired by Indian example. The ‘idea of India’ has taken a universal relevance. “A discipline of Modernization” Thirty years ago Romesh Thapar, one of IIC’s founding spirits, examined the challenge of an Indian identity within the processes of modernization. He insisted that “the attempt to interpret modernisation in one stereotype model must be defeated”. He warned that “vulgarity, in all its frustrations, its duplicity and imitation” has “the propensity to return with redoubled fury. It returns on the basis of the slogan that variety is the spice of life. It returns by dressing bad taste in modernization, making it fashionable and competitive. It returns by surreptitiously entering other areas of creativity and aesthetic. It returns because of an embedded inferiority complex of people’s rule for long by alien powers…..” Romesh called for the need to “draw upon the great heritage of the world knowledge and experience to create a discipline of modernization which dissolves the division between rich and poor, the contrast between waste and want and the repetitive patterns of ugliness and beauty which constitutes the violated environment of our planet...” Romesh Thapar’s warning of thirty years ago has lost none of its urgency. A “discipline of modernization” is more critical to India’s survival than ever before. It can offer hope and opportunity. Can IIC pay itself and its founders the tribute of reviving a dialogue toward such a goal? I am suggesting a dialogue that reaches out beyond the Centre, appealing to young people in all parts of the country through like-minded institutions, and in as many languages as possible. The Centre can be a space that both initiates dialogue and then draws collective wisdom together, using that wisdom to help transform our nation and to inform IIC’s own agenda for the years ahead.

The Deccan Herald of Bengaluru last month published an excellent article by Geetha Rao on the Ilkal saree, which reminded me of my visit to that legendary weaving center in March 2001. Here are my notes of the visit: The Guleds of Ilkal are textile merchants. Phaniraj Konappa Guled’s father was Konappa Guled, and his father was Chandappa, son of Rajappa. Chandappa began working, while he was still a teenager, as a gumastha [clerk] in a saree business, and then went on to set up his own business at the age of 50 in 1875. Phaniraj, today, is about 60 years old. The next generation continues in the business: Phaniraj’s son Vijay Kumar and his brother’s son Praveen. Praveen has a degree in Textile technology from a Raichur college. The Guleds belong to the Swakula Sali jati. The product they deal in is just one, the Ilkal saree, characterized by its indigo dyed cotton yarn and its distinctive design of a plain, striped or checked body, the indigo cotton in both warp and weft being alternated with silk or with ‘chamka’, art silk [rayon]. At its peak, which Phaniraj reckons to have been in the 1950s, the family business was running a hundred looms and producing and selling about a thousand sarees a month, mostly to the Maharashtra market, but also to Gujarat. Even today there is a demand from these markets: just the other day someone came from Kutch looking for these sarees. In keeping with Maharashtrian and local tradition, most of the sarees are 7 metres long. On the streets of Ilkal about one in ten women that I see, all from the working class, are wearing the Ilkal saree, a few with khand cholis. Today the Guleds sell 300-400 sarees a month. The Guleds were different from most of the other entrepreneurs in the region in that they dyed the yarn, ran their own looms, and marketed the end product themselves. By controlling all the aspects, they were able to maintain the quality of each, and thus became the most respected as well as the largest merchants in Ilkal. The more common arrangement was for the entrepreneur to have the yarn dyed by an independent dyehouse, and then have it woven on his own looms. “What a business it was”, Phaniraj reminisces, “good weavers, good wages, good sarees, a good business and good returns!” The Guleds live in a spacious and well-ordered stone house with teak rafters, cornices, and columns, built on those ‘good returns’. They could not afford to build such a house today. Nor could R B Gottur, the dyer, nor on a much more modest scale the Muslim Patels, ex-weavers now following such trades as paan-shopkeeping and taxi driving. It was the thriving textile trade of the region on which they all prospered. The Patels’ houses, small though they are, are built of stone, and are their own. These are now being lost because of increase in debts. The main occupation in the villages around Ilkal: Ameengarh, Sillibari, Dotihara, Kamathgi, was indigo dyeing and weaving, with perhaps 400-500 looms in each village, and 5,000 in Ilkal town itself, making a total of around 10,000. It is Vijay Kumar’s opinion that even today there are the same number of looms, or even more, in Ilkal, though in the villages around, it has sharply declined. The new factor in the last five years is the emergence of the powerloom: according to Vijay there are 3,000 in Ilkal town, all weaving the Ilkal saree. In Guledgudd alone khand [brocade used for the choli blouse that is worn with the saree]is woven along with the indigo vat dyeing which is still practiced using German ‘indigo’. There were upto the 1970s some 3,000 looms weaving khand in Guledgudd, according to Phaniraj. For the dyeing the Guleds had a separate house, with 38 indigo pots, each 4’ deep. They used to dye the yarn, enough not only for the looms which they themselves ran, but also to be given out to the weavers in the villages around. The process of indigo vat dyeing began with the breaking up of the indigo cake into bits. The cake comes from Tamil Nadu, from Udayar, and the one they showed me was the usual heavy, adulterated indigo that the Tamil Nadu suppliers in recent years have been supplying. The bits are then soaked with chunam-water and sudda-matti water, warmed, and stone-ground. The appropriate quantity is then measured out into the pot, with more of the water, and left to ferment for 3-4 days. This stage, of vat preparation, is the most skilled part of the whole exercise, and needs years of experience to tell how much of each ingredient is to be added, how to correct the vat if it goes wrong, how to renew a running vat, when the vat is to be completely re-started, etc. Dregs of used vats are used to start new ones. The yarn is prepared by washing, and by soaking in an emulsion of soap-oil & water for a day, and then dipped into the pots, a dip a day, drying out in the sun in between each, upto 7-10 dips. The deep black of the Chandrakali needs 14-15 dips. German indigo replaced the natural product in the 70s, but that didn’t last long. The decline of indigo dyeing began at the same time. Why did the sarees we had got from them in Chandramouli’s time, about 1994, have white patches? And why were we having the same problem with our vat dyeing in Chinnur? “White patches come either from not loosening the tie of the hank enough, or from omitting the soap oil treatment”, says Guled.

Each design of the Ilkal saree has a name:

Rasta – fine warp lines

Double rasta – as above, double

Jhabra[zebra] – wider stripes

Popadi rik – squares in fine double lines with a different colour between them

Dhapda – a bolder version of the above

Kondichikki – fine checks

Chandrakali – indigo black body, the most prized of all Why indigo? I wondered if there was some ritual significance to it, but was told that it was because “women from all walks of life liked it”. An Ilkal saree was a valued possession, conferring status on the wearer. Richer ladies collected the silk version, and working women the cotton & chamka. The local kasuti embroidery was done on the black Chandrakali. The border is always red, and usually of silk or chamka, with either zari or thread design, and with a silk or art silk pallav. The pallav is always of the traditional design. Within these boundaries there are several permutations and combinations of colour, design and of the three materials, producing a pleasing variety. The Guleds have a rich collection of samples, collected over generations. The earlier ones are of course of indigo dyed cotton, mixed with silk, or of silk alone, some with zari. Some of the borders even in the sarees that are of chamka and cotton have silk pallavs in both warp & weft, entailing a costly attaching process. The border which is now in vogue is ‘pharas petti’ or ‘chikki pharas petti’, a narrower version and ‘godu pharas’. Before that was ‘Gomi’, and earlier ‘rui phool.’ The red border of the saree was originally dyed with a vegetable colour made from ‘piste ka phool’ and haldi, made into a paste, a process which took upto 8 days, according to the senior Guled. The material was imported from abroad, and was replaced in the 1950s by ‘kirminj’, a crimson acid dye from the factories of Geigy, ICI and others, sold through an agent from Bombay. “Ghadial [clock] chaap ‘Kirminj’ came in 50 kilo packs, and needed 2 days’ soaking,” says R B Gottur, of Hospet galli, Banikatti road, who still runs a dyehouse. Since the 1970s the acid dyes too have been replaced by naphthol dyes. “We had to stop indigo dyeing for only one reason,” says Phaniraj “and that was that the workers refused to do the hard work that indigo dyeing takes any more, even for good wages, they were just not prepared to work” The Guleds gave up indigo dyeing in the mid nineties. “Even one of the naphthol dyers quit yesterday”, complains Vijay Kumar. “It was hard work” confirms Gottur, “and the dyers used to get TB”. Gottur is not from a traditional dyeing family, but took it up when he was thirty, thirty years ago. “Pitambarsa Katwa, Vitthalsa Chauhan were traditional kshatriya dyers, now they are all dead and their children are running soda shops” I’m told, in Gottur’s dyehouse. Here chamka is dyed in vivid naphthol colours. On my way to the old town I cross a bridge over a dried-up stream bed strewn with discarded plastic. This is what remains of the Hirehalla stream. “The water of Hirehalla nala of Ilkal was what gave our indigo dyeing its sheen” says Phaniraj. “Fluoride,” adds Vijay Kumar,“it had a high fluoride content”. Now the stream is dry. It has been dammed upstream at Balkundi, sometime in the early 1970s. “The government’s policies are all wrong” says Guled senior, shaking his head. Debbie Tyagarajan of Dakshinachitra has been in touch with them, they have set up a loom for her at the Crafts Village in Chennai. She has invited them to take part in exhibitions there, from which they have had good sales. Dastkar used to invite them for exhibitions too, but hasn’t for a long time. The Spanish couple who stayed for 3 days and learnt the process from them does not reply to their post-cards, and when Guled visited them in Pondichery, they did not let them see the vat. They often get requests to explain the process of indigo dyeing, in fact a letter announcing the arrival of someone who wanted to set up her own vat arrived while I was there. But there is little done for them in return.

By Design: Sustaining Culture in Local Environments

Issue #004, Winter, 2020 ISSN: 2581- 9410

Many of the contributors to this collection of essays have highlighted the positive results of the efforts made in India since Independence to sustain traditional crafts and textiles. Abduljabbar Khatri and his son, Adam, for example, have expressed this most eloquently in their essay. But as I reflect on the business of craft and craft practice in today’s context, the tenor of my essay is cautionary. Injecting a note of prudence in this short piece, I focus on just four issues that may pose a threat to how the crafts are managed and sustained as they negotiate globalization, urbanization and an enhanced modernity in the years to come. 1 The Paradox of the Digital India has leapfrogged into the digital world like duck to water. As of January 2019, the country had over 560 million internet users, a figure that is projected to grow to over 660 million users by 2023. Second only to China, its current internet footprint covers up to eighteen thousand cities and over two hundred thousand villages. The power of the internet is increasingly reflected in new possibilities and greater opportunities on offer for communication, for business and the speeded-up transmission of ideas; it is unsurprising then that this is shaping and shifting traditional craft practice. Craftspeople are googling, carrying on business conversations, accessing new markets and materials, receiving designs, sending photographs and fulfilling orders online. While few craftspeople manage their own websites, large numbers have Facebook pages. However, the number of commercial online sites selling craft products has proliferated, opening up new channels of sale and often generating entirely new customer bases - all of which increases the digital footprint of their crafts. Online dissemination of information on crafts and its practitioners has also played a key role; one such effort is Asia InCH, the online encyclopedia of traditional craftsmanship in South Asia that is the initiative of the Craft Revival Trust (CRT), the organization with which I work (and founded in 1999). Asia InCH has information on over two thousand one hundred living and endangered crafts and their practitioners in the eight countries of region - India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Maldives, Laos, Sri Lanka. With mobile subscriptions in India topping 87% per 100 inhabitants further seismic shifts can be expected as plans for even more affordable smart phones are being rolled out. Ranked as having the lowest mobile data rates in the world (US$ 0.26 for 1 GB) we can expect far greater change as many more Indians come online. And therein lies the paradox; while there is an all-round delight with speeded-up communication, the other side of the coin is the disruptive force of digital technologies on the handmade – a threat perhaps equal to, or greater than that encountered at the time of the Industrial Revolution of the late eighteenth century when the great transition from hand production to new machine manufacturing processes took place which led to the proliferation of factories and the advent of mass production. Digital technologies are the disruptive phenomenon of our times. A double-edged sword, we cannot do without them anymore and yet, as we speak, new technologies are being developed to transfer and to reproduce with unimaginable accuracy and at lightning fast speeds: 3D printing is already old hat. The shifting digital sands are likely to bring in increasingly fundamental social and economic change in the way that we produce and consume. The question that faces us today, therefore, is what the effect of these juxtapositions between the traditional handcrafts and ever mushrooming digital developments will lead to? If I were to extrapolate into the future based on evidence from the present, two broad scenarios seem to be emerging: the first that excellence in crafts will continue to rule. Time taken to slow-produce handicrafts with minute attention to detail will continue to have a great cachet and the demand for bespoke, customisation heritage products will continue to excite attention in the future. On the other hand, the situation that we already face – that of copying and faking - will only escalate. 2 Copying and Faking Leading on from the digital is the age-old issue of replicated and fake craft products – now made more urgent. The stories are endless from power-loom copies of hand loom, resin casts duplicating wood carvings, digital and silk-screen prints of embroideries, of appliqués, of shawls and of weaves; transfers of tribal and folk art, lost wax metal figures made in molds, and the many other instances that are replicated in thousands and marketed as handcrafted, hand-woven and traditional at far lower prices than the original. Copying is a profitable business for many. This freely available cornucopia of heritage goods requires no investment in product development. Furthermore, the instant recognition and ageless appeal of these products and designs that are replete with cultural and symbolic value offers a ready market. This replication with no fear of reprisal thus makes for a win-win business model! For craftspeople and their communities who are at the receiving end of this free-riding it has led to a huge economic loss of income and livelihood - a loss that can and does threatened hand-production. This has clearly emerged in the NCAER Hand loom Census 2009-10 where over 33% of the weaver households interviewed felt that the greatest threat to their livelihoods was from the mill and power loom sector. This is further compounded by craftspeople’s feelings of marginalization and helplessness because of their inability to prevent or effectively deal with this copying and faking. It is equally a loss of the collective knowledge of their forefathers. . Stakeholders, craft communities and others no longer have the luxury of time to deal with these issues as we are now faced with a digital present in which these cases of copying and ‘passing off’ will only multiply. To illustrate the point, several images have been included in this essay that readers will recognize as some of the iconic crafts and weaves that have been replicated by machine processes but are passed off as handmade. In common with many other countries, India too has some legal recourse. The Geographical Indications of Goods Act (G.I. Act), a sui generis intellectual property right legislation was notified in 2003. This Act is applicable to products which corresponds to a specific geographical location or origin be it a village, town, region, or country. The use of a Geographical Indications Act as a certification that the product possesses certain qualities, is made according to traditional methods, or enjoys a certain reputation, due to its geographical origin. Often associated with agricultural and food products (Champagne, Basmati Rice, Mizo Chilli, Alphonso Mango, Darjeeling Tea, etc.) its extended protection includes products of traditional knowledge that are associated with or deriving from local cultural traditions. In the case of craft (and others) the Act protects the moral right and intellectual property of communities and the potential economic benefit arising from their creation. Of the 343 G.I.’s that have been granted to date in India a little over 60% of the total are in the area of heritage arts, crafts and textiles. A noteworthy number as IPR protection is being taken seriously by craft communities and as part of government policy. The G.I. Act is historic as for the first time in India it provides a means of protecting the trade-related intellectual property of communities as a public collective right as it confers exclusive legal right to the holders of that particular G.I. to produce and market the G.I. goods. Once a G.I. is registered it forms the basis for ownership and production and sale by anyone other than the producers concerned can form the basis for initiating action, thus curbing fakes as well as the entry of spurious goods into the market by others. I would go as far as to say that this Act has started the process of leveling the playing field for the creative producer community of traditional handicrafts, folk and tribal arts and the weavers, among the others it covers. However, more than sixteen years after the enactment of the Act we are confronted with many challenges. The first among these is a paradox; the registration of G.I.’s is developing apace yet no handicraft G.I. has been used as a powerful tool and a marketing opportunity: why? Iconic heritage crafts associations have not taken the next logical step after registration to benefit from the provisions of the Act to brand and market under their own powerful logo – a right conferred on them alone. Additionally, why have none of the registered handicraft G.I.’s used the law to proceed with legal action against counterfeiters infringing the Act? There has not been a single case to date. This under-utilisation of a powerful legal instrument is an indication of opportunities lost, rather than of competitive advantages gained. We need to close this G.I. gap, to acknowledge that heritage crafts are valuable business assets and prized brands and enforce the legislation. 3 Dealing with success: regulations and compliance In the past many of the traditional crafts were largely produced by extended families, within tight-knit patterns of professional kinship in which business and production was arranged. With craft production now increasing year-on-year, workshops and karkhanas (ateliers) are expanding and the old order is changing. In the rising production and export graph the share of hand loom in total cloth produced in the country has increase from 11.82% in 2015-16 to 12.61% in 2016-17. Export statistics of handicrafts too reflect a per annum increase of 10.8%. On the ground in Bagh, Madhya Pradesh, for example, Ibrahim Khatri, master block printer, states in his latest CV that he employees 4500 people to fulfil the many orders he receives from urban customers. With success comes greater scrutiny and like Caesar’s wife, heritage craft businesses need to be beyond reproach. The business of craft is required - like other businesses - to follow the law of the land. The Factories Act of 1948 applies to any workshop or karkhana that has 10 or more artisans. A plethora of other laws and Acts are also obligatory, including: Contract Labour Law (1970); Apprentice Act (1961); Child Labour Act (1986); Employees’ Provident Fund Act (1952); Minimum Wage Act (1948); Air Emission and Control of Pollution Rule (1982); Chemical Management (15 Acts and 19 rules have been laid down) ; Water Prevention and Control of Pollution Act (1974); Environment Protection Act (1986); and so on, and so on. While we talk of the ‘zero carbon footprint’ and the ecological- and environmentally friendly nature of the crafts, we will sooner rather than later have to back up these claims with on-the-ground proof supported by facts and figures. This is not helped by newspaper reports, field research and anecdotal evidence which reveal widespread water pollution, dismal work conditions, use of toxic chemical and dyes and in addition, below minimum level pay. For instance, the exploitative daily wages of weavers in Bodo land, Assam and in the outskirts of Banaras of INR 35-50, sweatshop type conditions, poor lighting and ventilation, lack of sanitation, are only some of the problems on a long-list. As large retailers themselves come under scrutiny to sell and source ethically, the onus will fall on them, as well as non-governmental organisations (NGOs), and master crafts persons and weavers, to ensure that norms are followed. Regulation will range from the use of responsibly-sourced raw material, pollution and environment standards to work conditions, better ergonomics, and fire and safety issues. Adherence to child labour laws, minimum wages, and basic human rights, etc, will, likewise, become essential. It is only a matter of time before heritage crafts producers will need to fulfill these basic expectations. In addition, with increasing interest overseas in heritage craft products, the need to comply with international codes of business will soon be the norm – or orders will dry up – as these are the necessary prerequisites that importers will demand. Regulatory compliance and standards are an essential part of an ethically-driven business approach – thus adherence to them will serve to make the cultural heritage tag more meaningful. 4 Hierarchies of value: formal education v. received knowledge At a seminar titled ‘Craft Nouveau : A decade of education for artisans’, a number of those who had been involved in some way or the other with design education for artisans in India came together. Organised by the Craft Revival Trust it was held in collaboration with Somaiya Kala Vidya (SKV) the artisan design and business management educational initiative in Kachchh district, Gujarat and its founder-director, Judy Frater. (See Ruth Clifford’s essay for discussion of SKV and other initiatives for artisans). The focus of the seminar was to reflect and take stock of the decade of education for crafts persons and to map the road ahead. There were many points of interest to take away but here I address only three that are of particular relevance to the discussion of how cultural heritage is managed and the role of design in sustaining India’s craft traditions. The first is to highlight the amazing vitalization wrought by education on young craftspeople and their transformation into designers and business graduates. themselves, by the SKV faculty and their advisers, as well as by representatives of NGOs, designers, domestic and international marketers and others who had interacted with them. The second point to address is the impact of education on status and power experienced by the SKV graduates, an issue returned to by many of them and the craft patriarchs present like Shyamji Vishramji Siju (master weaver), Dr Ismail M Khatri and Irfan Ahmed Khatri (both master ajrakh printers) and Dayabhai Kudecha (weaver and entrepreneur). While economic success was being achieved by many, without relevant and appropriate education there remained an inequality between their status as craft practitioners and others such as designers and design-entrepreneurs involved in crafts. “New” inputs into their craft were assumed to be exclusively in the ‘others’ domain while they - the craftspeople whose tradition was being explored - were relegated to a biddable, subservient role as labour hired to do a task directed by others. Education gave them back their rights. The third key point to take away from the seminar was the aspirations of these young men and women. Currently the Indian crafts sector is the second largest source of employment after agriculture; the numbers are uncertain but it is estimated that about twenty million craftspeople and weavers continue in twenty-first century India to be educated in skills that are learned through oral transmission and apprenticeships outside the mainstream educational system. There is no policy in place that recognizes and acknowledges this oral learning – now called ‘received knowledge’ – within the formal educational system or, indeed, the employment process. It is common knowledge in India that there is an increasing lack of interest in the younger generation to continue in craft practice; this is due to several reasons, not least among which is the perceived prejudice and inequalities of status experienced by craftspeople. Among the problems they have to contend with is the widespread belief that information garnered from text books is superior to received oral knowledge. The dissociation between these different forms of learning and knowledge has been inimical to us all but especially to the rising generation of crafts persons. The question that arises is - what can we do to fill this huge aspiration gap? It is not only critical that methodologies are developed that contribute to design education frameworks but also that they are sensitive to the sheer complexity of the sector. They need to make a meaningful and sustained contribution that is free from tokenism - taking a leaf from SKV and Kala Raksha Vidyalaya (KRV) in Kachchh, and the Hand loom School in Maheshwar, Madhya Pradesh which also offers design education for artisans. Study of the processes and models adopted in other countries that have realized the value of handicrafts now the number of craftspeople has been decimated may also be of benefit; for instance, Japan supports rigorous training in over two hundred traditional crafts; France awards the title of Master Of Master of Art (‘Maître d’Art’) to those with an exceptional mastery of techniques and know-how who further transmit their skills and knowledge to students who will be able to perpetuate them; Sweden has National Folk Craft institutions; Korea, and now increasingly China, invests heavily in training the next generation of craftspeople that are open to traditional practitioners and their families as well as new entrants There is an urgent need for a move towards greater equity between different types of learning and knowledge, requiring a removal of the barriers in academia, and elsewhere, that are currently weighted against the bearers of traditional knowledge. Similarly, it is imperative that we in India move beyond tokenism and create enduring and substantive change through institutional development, the formation of indigenous technology Conclusion While we in India have experienced the huge effort made by the Government of India (and other organisations) at sustaining traditional crafts and textiles, craft futures continue to present considerable challenges. As a nation we cannot forge ahead unless we push to establish a more equitable, even-handed and inclusive environment for craftspeople to work in. It will require meaningful initiatives and a concerted effort to ensure that this essential part of our cultural fabric is sustained and that these keepers of our traditional knowledge are nurtured, taking their rightful place in the near future. Our future depends on how these issues are tackled - we must build to our advantage and not let our unique cultural heritage be frittered away. List of illustrations laboratories, the endowment of University Chairs to the bearers of traditional knowledge as well as awarding them honorary doctorates in recognition of their expertise. In this collection of essays, we have a contribution by hereditary block printer, Abduljabbar M. Khatri and his son, Adam; Jabbar’s brother, Ismail Khatri, was conferred with an Honorary D. Art by De Montfort University, Leicester, UK in 2003 in recognition of his knowledge and contribution to textiles scholarship. Footnotes https://www.statista.com/statistics/265153/number-of-internet-users-in-the-asia-pacific-region/ Statista : The Statistics Portal. Accessed on 2 March,2019 The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is a specialized agency of the United Nations. India Profile (Latest data available: 2018) https://cis-india.org/telecom/knowledge-repository-on-internet-access/intnl-telecom-union Accessed 2 March, 2019 Cable : https://www.cable.co.uk/mobiles/worldwide-data-pricing/ Accessed on 2, March 2019. Sethi, Ritu. Deconstructing GI to create value for the handmade. http://www.craftrevival.org/voiceDetails.asp?Code=219. National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER): Handloom Census of India 2009-2010. Table 6.14. Pps 136-137. NCAER, New Delhi. Report on Chikan embroidery of Lucknow :https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/national/lucknows-chikankari-industry-hit-by-cheap-chinese-imports/article8102824.ece Report on weaving in Sualkuch, Bodo weaving and Chennapatna Lacquer toys https://www.thebetterindia.com/69817/handlooms-and-handicrafts-in-india/ Accessed on March 5, 2019. Signatories to the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), administered by the World Trade Organization (WTO) can set in place international legal instruments like the GI to provide the judicial framework of rights and principles with associated policies and procedures to prevent misuse. Introduced in India in 1999. The GI Act was notified on 15th September 2003. Geographical Indications have been in existence, in various countries across the world for several decades GI is defined as “A geographical indication (GI) is a name or sign used on certain products which corresponds to a specific geographical location or origin (e.g. a town, region, or country). The use of a GI may act as a certification that the product possesses certain qualities, is made according to traditional methods, or enjoys a certain reputation, due to its geographical origin”. The GI has been granted to iconic products like Kancheepuram silk, bidri, Madhubani paintings, Molela clay plaques, Kani shawls, phulkari, chikan embroidery as well as to the lesser known Solapur terry towel and the Bhawani jamakkalam. http://ipindiaservices.gov.in/GirPublic/ Accessed on 15 March, 2019. Sethi, Ritu. Deconstructing GI to create value for the handmade. http://www.craftrevival.org/voiceDetails.asp?Code=219. Offences under the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999 are punishable with imprisonment for a term of not less than six months, extendable to three years. Also enforced is a fine – this may not be less than Rs. 50,000 but may extend to Rs.2 lakhs.Cases other than those relating to the traditional crafts on GI tagged products like Darjeeling Tea, Scotch Whiskey and other have been brought to the Law courts. Actual cloth production increased from 7638 million square meters to 8007 million square meters in the same period http://texmin.nic.in/sites/default/files/AnnualReport2017-18%28English%29.pdf. Ministry of Textiles Annual Report, 2017-18, p.51. Accessed: 30.3.19. An increase of Rs. 31038.52 crores (2015-16) to Rs. 34394.30 (2016-17) http://texmin.nic.in/sites/default/files/AnnualReport2017-18%28English%29.pdf. Ministry Of Textiles Annul Report 2017-18. Page 200. Accessed : March 30,2019 Also refer to Abduljabbar Khatri and Adam Khtri’s essay (http….). Organised by the Craft Revival Trust at the India International Centre, New Delhi on November 30, 2016. SKV was instituted in 2014. Kala Raksha Vidyalaya, its precursor, setup in 2003, was also founded and directed by Judy Frater. See also: Chatterjee, Ashoke – ‘Kala Raksha and Kala Raksha Vidyalaya’, 11 October 2017. https://asiainch.org/article/kala-raksha-kala-raksha-vidyalaya/ For YouTube link to the seminar, see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3AU3FcuzTs Also read: Ashoke Chatterjee: The currency of Dil Bhavana. 11 October 2018 https://asiainch.org/article/the-currency-of-dil-bhavna/ see also: pallasmaa, Juhani (2009), The Thinking Hand: Existential and Embodied Wisdom in Architecture. London: Wiley. Created in 1994 by the French Ministry of Culture to preserve intangible cultural heritage, the title is awarded for life.

We understand that you employ craft techniques and processes in your collections. Which craft techniques have you worked with? I work with a variety of printing and embroideries - block, kantha, kutch embroidery etc. I employ women who have migrated to the city from smaller towns and rural areas. They all have some basic skills with the needle and at my studio they develop these skills to do intricate needlework using beads and creating patchwork patterns.
	You are a NIFT graduate. Were handlooms and traditional textiles included in your formal education at NIFT? I was in NIFT from 1994-97. In our first year we have to undertake the documentation of a craft. I researched the textiles in North Bengal, specifically the Tibetan community settled there. Though I have kept no direct links with them one does imbibe the design and colour sensibilities. I also work with Sasha in Kolkata and have had an association with Dastkar though I do not have a formal interaction with the crafts. I have also begun work with Karam Marg and that might develop.
Do you feel that an awareness of traditional hand skills is important for today's designers? Why? Any designer in any country must be aware of their specific cultural context, at the very least. If they don't then they are missing a vocabulary, a language.Do you actually employ craftspeople or do you work through commissions? I employ ten women at the moment. Most of my work is done inhouse. We have flexible working hours, they can take work home if they choose or if the need arises. I do not create in bulk. The work is about accents, details. For instance, in a skirt we might add details just at the end.Do you give them the designs or do you work with the existing traditional repertoire and then modify them within your creations? Though I give them a pattern, design is a symbiotic process where ideas grow while in process. They have an interesting colour sensibility. In the west colour is viewed mathematically, combinations strictly adhere to the codified colour palette. In India colour is more playful, more adventurous.

While incorporating craft skills in your design, do you seek to retain the traditional character of the craft? And how much scope is there to incorporate the spontaneity/ creative instinct of the artisan, even as (s)he molds the skill as per your requirements. Some of the processes are instantly identifiable like embroideries of Kutch or Bengal. But I also innovate. Though I hand print I make my own blocks which have a geometric pattern. So I follow the technique not the design directory.

What is your experience with craftpersons? Do they deliver on time? Are they open to ideas and suggestions? The first point to remember is that you cannot hurry the craftsperson. They have their own pace at which they work and making it overtly professional would kill their work ethos. Yet on the other hand you have to set deadlines. This interaction requires sensitivity.Is the debate surrounding the ethics of isolating a living cultural tradition and using it as mere embellishment a valid one?It is a valid one. But it is tricky. The dichotomy lies between economics and purity. I have no answers.

What are your thoughts on the future of crafts in India? There are two kinds or categories of crafts. One is the highly specialized, very expensive which most people are unable to work with as they are hard to commercialise and sell cheaply. They need patrons. The other are easier to incorporate and sustain.

Kolhapuri chappal look alikes made in rubber and sold by a large shoe chain, Ajrak hand-blocks printed on a roller machine, powerloom masquerading as a Banaras handloom, Kantha printed by silk screen, Dhokra lost wax statues made in moulds that replicate it in thousands…the stories are endless. For many copying is a profitable business. A freely available emporium of ready made goods that require no investment in product development ; goods with an ageless appeal with cultural and symbolic values that add up to a sum that is greater than its parts. The instant recognition and mass appeal of handcrafted products duplicated with mass production technologies churning out replicas at a low cost, with no fear of reprisal, makes for a win-win business model! Craft activists and craft communities no longer have the luxury of time to deal with issues of copying and faking. Faced with increasing consumerism and demand for new products cases of copying will only multiply. For craftspeople and their communities who are at the receiving end of this free-loading it has lead to not only huge economic loss, but even greater to a loss over their ancestral ‘property’ - the collective knowledge of their forefathers. This is further compounded by feelings of marginalisation and helplessness due to their inability to prevent or effectively deal with this copying and faking. We in India now have some recourse to this.

THE PURSUIT OF GI FOR PRODUCTS OF TRADITIONAL CRAFTSMANSHIP

The promulgation of the Geographic Indication Act (GI) of 1999 that came into play in September 2003 has provided some succour under the law as it affords GI holders protection under the law. This GI law protects the GI holder by conferring exclusive right to brand, market and certify the quality and genuineness of the GI goods to the holders of the registration. Production and sale by anyone other than the producers is a punishable offence under the GI Act. A decade after the promulgation of the Act, 155 arts, crafts and handlooms have received a GI status with 17 applications pending. Of the total GI’s registered across India 70% are of handicrafts and handlooms, a noteworthy number, implying that the application for a GI is being taken seriously by the sector. This then begs the question of why no handicraft GI’s have proceeded to use this powerful tool as a marketing opportunity? Why have none of the registered GI’s used the law to proceed with infringement action against cheats and counterfeiters? This is a huge gap, a space on post-GI registration action where joint action by NGO’s and GI holders is now the need of the hour. As pioneers who will have no markers to go on perhaps the first step could start with the adopting of a GI registered craft cluster, working with the community to develop a process methodology that leads to the leveraging of this powerful marketing tool. Developing the GI’s economic potential to help craftsperson’s regain their Rights over their community knowledge, provide guarantees to consumers on the genuineness and quality of the product, create a brand, promote and market it and empower the community. Developing a methodology for others to follow I have attempted to put together some questions on the challenging issues that confront us on the protection that needs to be awarded to products of craftsmanship and additionally to the protection of the traditional knowledge associated with the production of these products. A slow but careful understanding of GI is essential so that we do not rush in where angels fear to tread. Two criterions informed the framing of the questions. The first is the need to keep at the heart of this protection the ultimate well-being of the craftsperson in this rapidly globalised world. The second criterion used was to deliberately take a long view - so that through thoughtful deliberation we can get to the heart of the challenge and create a roadmap that stands us in good stead over the years to come.

THE STATE OF PLAY

QUESTION 1: The first and fundamental question is to identify what to protect and why we need to protect it. Some of the reasons why crafts need protection could include:

The protection of crafts and craftsmanship could be to ascribe ownership to communities.

The prevalent system of community ownership of craftsmanship in India has over generations led to its conservation and sustenance. It has promoted the use and furthered the development of knowledge and technologies associated with it. It is an essential part of the craftsperson’s community and their identity. This craft knowledge has been preserved, transmitted and has evolved, generation by generation within communities and castes. Community rights and responsibilities that have governed crafts and craftsmanship have existed since millennia, long before concepts of intellectual property or ownership have come into being. This continues to play a vital role.

The protection of crafts and craftsmanship could be to bring equity to essentially unjust and unequal relations.

However modern norms do not seem to place value on community based knowledge, widely regarding it as available in the public space, freely available for all to use. The situation at present is that what should be considered as the craft communities natural, pre-existing and primary rights over their craft knowledge and practice, is currently in a nebulous space, and their control over it is tenuous, to say the least. They lack the voice and the recourse in establishing their rights over what can be considered their millennia old ownership. This has resulted in an increasingly unjust and unequal equation.

The protection could be to accord recognition of craftspeople as holders/authors of the knowledge associated with traditional craftsmanship

Protection could provide a moral recognition of the authorship/ownership of the knowledge and technologies associated with traditional crafts and craftsmanship.

The protection could be to prevent appropriation by controlling piracy, copying, faking and passing off

Copying, faking and passing off have arisen as a result of the invisibility of craftspeople based as they largely are in villages and remote areas across India. There is lack of access and till the promulgation of the GI Act there was limited recourse to appeal in cases of infringement. The need for protection could therefore be to prevent the unauthorized appropriation through piracy, copying, faking and passing off as. It could also perhaps include derogatory use. This should necessarily include issues relating to the sharing of economic benefit with the community of craftspeople that accrues to infringers. Additionally issues of credit sharing can be part of this point. We will need to identify cases of misappropriation and the harm they have caused e.g. Handloom vs. power loom; block printing vs large scale copying by big textile mills, silk screen printers and other examples.

The protection could be for Preservation of traditions and culture

Craftspeople who have been subject to the onslaught of powerloom, manufactured crafts, duplication, replication of designs have lost livelihoods and traditions. The objective of this protection could therefore include the maintenance of practices and knowledge of craftsmanship and the cultural heritage and contexts manifest in its practice.

The protection could be for Promotion of crafts and craftsmanship

While the protection of crafts and craftsmanship does not necessarily be seen as an end in itself, its protection can be used as a form of promotion, as focus is brought on issues that have been dormant for decades.

The protection could be for Economic benefit

Copying and faking takes place as there is economic benefit to be had by the appropriating person/organisation. So the aim here could be to prevent unauthorised use; or/and to enable commercial use on fair terms; or/and to regulate the manner of use; or/and to receive attribution. Or to ensure that these benefit accrue to the craftspeople

The protection could be for any other considerations that is valid for craftspeople

QUESTION 2

Does the rationale of the GI regime in India serve its objective of protecting the intellectual property of the holders of traditional craftsmanship and their product?
Does it serve the broader objectives that civil society and other stake holders seek for the sector?

On reading the above considerations for the need of protection it becomes apparent that the GI Act fulfills the above stated requirements in a very limited way. This is because the fundamentals of GI are historically rooted and oriented towards agricultural produce and not to traditional knowledge. However though the GI Act is inherently flawed when linked to the arts and crafts, at least we are fortunate in India that we have in place some regulatory framework for this Sector. Before the GI we had little or no legislation to protect crafts and community knowledge On the other hand while the GI does not fulfill all our stated needs its strength lies in it being Trade, Brand and Marketing related as GI promotes the special qualities of a product, its uniqueness, its quality, its distinctiveness, its USP False use is now punishable under the Act. In the past a product could be passed off, copied, faked, now once the GI is registered it becomes an offence to do so. This is a great positive if used well. QUESTION 2 : Who can apply for a GI? The craft must lie in a defined area historically as provenance of the location of craftspeople has to be provided for; the specification of technique and process must also be defined. Once the applicant is able to prove that they have been located in a particular area and have historically practiced the craft their they can apply for a GI QUESTION 3 What, if any, has the impact been on those crafts and craftspeople who have obtained a GI registration? As the next step after GI application seems not to have taken place in any of the craft clusters we are unable to answer this question. However in examples of agriculture e.g. Darjeeling Tea –several case studies exist. This is an area which needs work - Perhaps start with looking at those GI that were awarded in 2004 -2005. The gestation has been long enough for an impact assessment. QUESTION 4

What, if any, is the recourse of those crafts and craftspeople who are practitioners of the same/similar craft, but fall out of the ambit of the registered GI location?
Can they apply for additional GI’s?

Again we have no answers here and need to conduct some case studies

We need to study the case of Pochampally Ikat and all the other ikat traditions; study the files on Bandhini and other tie-dye traditions and many other instances where same/similar traditions exist in different geographies.
Thewa in Pratapgarh, Rajasthan vs. the family that practices it in Madhya Pradesh
What about those craftspeople who reside outside the the latitude and longitude specified in the GI

QUESTION 5 What, if any, has the impact been on those of those crafts and craftspeople who are practitioners of the same/similar craft, but fall out of the ambit of the registered GI location? Case Studies to be looked at: Application No 52 For Nakshi Kantha Registered by the Kaaru-Kul foundation for the district of Birbhum in West Bengal. In effect excluding all the other districts and places in West Bengal where Nakshi Kantha is practised. Note that several National Awards have been awarded to embroiderers in Chattisgarh for the craft of Nakshi Kantha! A real mess here… QUESTION 6 What are the Next Steps required to obtain the intended benefits for registered GI holders?

By Government
By the Holders themselves

Who will manage the Rights? Who will provide the certification? What role can the Office of the DC (handicrafts) and DC (Handlooms) play? QUESTION 7 Given that craft practice across the sub-continent is connected what are the bilateral issues at stake in the Region? While we ‘share’ crafts with our neighbors the GI is valid only within the sovereign National boundaries. To move it to the international level India will have to apply for a GI in each country. This is because there is no second tier protection in place for crafts in the international GI system. This second tier protection is ONLY applicable for wines and spirits, which are supported by a multi-national register. Our neighbors (who are all signatories of the TRIP agreement) have yet to introduce the necessary legislation in their countries as India has done vide its GI Registration and Protection Act of 1999. The first step for our neighbors is to put in place the GI Act through legislation. Once the legislation is in place then India will need to sign individual bi-lateral treaties with each country on GI. Until then there can be on further step in this area. However, the point to note is that there is no first player advantage. So our neighbors are fortunate that they can learn from our miss-steps.

WAY FORWARD

Besides working on GI as it is a tool we have in hand we need to take the long view. Once we have defined the different reasons for seeking protection, we need to determine the scope and the extent of protection required to achieve the objective? We need to ask ourselves the question:

In an ideal world, what moral bindings, policies, legislations would we like to see in place that is appropriate for the crafts sector given the ethical, economic, environmental and social concerns?

Through the process of consultation with craftspeople, NGO’s and others articulate the requirements and principles that need to be followed for an effective system of protection. Determine the rights and consider the exceptions

The hesitation I feel when taking up a tough challenge is outweighed by the excitement and intellectual curiosity of being able to explore new ideas to build upon older ones. Therefore, I must thank the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, and Prof Vijaya Ramaswamy, for offering me this opportunity and especially the honour of speaking at the opening of what I am sure will be a fascinating conference. Prof Ramaswamy has devoted a lot of time to the study of Visvakarma. You find her studies referring to the Visvakarma community often described as a unified grouping of five sub-groups - carpenters, blacksmiths, bell metalworkers, goldsmiths and stonemasons - who believe that they are descendants of Viswakarma, through his sons. Manu was said to have worked with iron, Maya in wood, Tvasta in brass, copper and alloys, Silpi in stone and Visvajna who was a goldsmith and jeweller. The kammalars in South India, who claim to be their descendants, are well versed in the shilpa shastras, the art treatises in Sanskrit laying out all the religious and technical processes to be followed in their work to achieve perfect results. Forms and formats were rigid and the process of creating an object was considered a part of a spiritual exercise. The Visvakarma community worships various forms of this deity and follow five Vedas: Rigveda, Yajurveda, Samaveda, Atharvaveda, and Pranava Veda. While these are the specifics, Visvakarma has a grander title. It says in the Rig Veda (10, 81, 7) “Lord of sacred speech, thought swift Viswakarman: the All-maker, let us invoke him to our aid today. May he, the maker of Good Things and giver of great joy, may he gently hear these, our invocations”. He is the god of all architects, engineers and crafts people. He is the supreme architect of the universe, Brahma in another form. He thus provides an overarching umbrella to include everyone involved in the act of work and creative expression. Visvakarma has always held a fascination for me. It began when I saw simple workers from different artisanal professions, shop floors and construction sites pausing work for a day dedicated to his name to clean their machines, tools and instruments and adorning them with flowers. Then they prayed to them since Visvakarma enabled their skills to flourish through them. It seems so fundamental an act, imbued with the utmost respect for one’s own work environment, and recognition that the blessings of a higher being are needed to successfully execute one’s skills at work. Visvakarma is obviously a concept that is depicted as an elderly figure sporting a white beard. It is a concept honouring work and the encouragement of creativity and excellence. So we should see Visvakarma Day, celebrated immediately after Ganesh Chaturthi, as honouring creativity, manual skills and thus the dignity of labour. This day always seemed more important to me than the innumerable holidays accorded to appease different communities and religions in our secular country. To stop work for just a day in order to respect the workplace and the materials that enable the work to happen seems to me a highly sophisticated concept that is only partially matched by the western concept of Labour Day which refers essentially only to the working class in organized environments. Equally importantly, Visvakarma Day brings together artisans and crafts people, mechanics and carpenters, architects and artists of all communities and religions to celebrate their patron and guardian, the architect of the universe. Descendants of the professional artisan castes associated specifically with Visvakarma who today may be involved in wholly unrelated work also take pride in celebrating this day With the belief that all gods displaying different attributes in the Hindu pantheon are ultimately one, and the soul of the One resides in each of us, Visvakarma too can be appropriated by all artisan groups apart from the original five, and indeed, by anyone involved in creative expression. It is from this position that my study of what Visvakarma means to crafts people began. Being an activist in the field, and spending more time in dusty villages and narrow lanes of small and big towns in search of people who uphold India’s craft traditions than in libraries and among books, I found that not only is the ‘progeny’ of Visvakarma spread far and wide, but that crafts people do not need to go to temples to seek him. The true manifestation of ‘work is worship’ is found when one watches crafts persons at work. The silence, the meditative quality of their concentration, the systematic and meaningful application of techniques, the choice of traditional colours, make the final product an offering to a higher being. The earnings from this work are then attributed to this higher being thereby making traditional knowledge and skills, workmanship, spirituality, income, and livelihood part of an integral whole that constitutes a meaningful creative life. This perspective is wholly and satisfyingly Indian. It is this that has cradled and nurtured our crafts inclusive of and beyond castes and religions. We refer to the ‘mapping’ of crafts. I began my quest for the reach and spread of Visvakarma’s progeny and products through the very literal process of creating maps. It began when I saw a map of the markets of Bangkok presented in water colour art by an American artist Nancy Chandler in the early 90s. It struck me that if shopping in such a small country could be presented in this attractive fashion, India offered a multitude of crafts, arts and textiles that should be actually mapped to lead people to them. These maps took on a slow and steady momentum of their own. It took 15 years to complete all the states. Some new states were formed in between and Telangana now will have to be created separate from Andhra Pradesh. Political and geographical evolution repeats the evolution of India’s arts and crafts over millennia as an ever-changing phenomenon responding to the times and needs of the people. At one level these maps were meant as shopping guides, with locations of manufacture and sometimes even some guidance on how to get to a certain village or locality. At another level it had to bring out interesting differences in processes of manufacture depending on local cultures, availability of raw materials and histories. We discovered that in Odisha, women of a certain tribe wore similar blue saris for a festival, while their priestess wore saris specially woven in yellow. Colour becomes spiritually meaningful beyond mere aesthetics. I wanted these maps to be inexpensive and accessible to young students and travelers who cannot afford coffee table books that just look beautiful but serve no great purpose. By coincidence, they came in useful to UNDP and state governments after the Odisha super cyclone and the Gujarat earthquake to easily locate artisan pockets that could be provided relevant relief for crafts people to carry on their traditional vocations. I would like to believe that Visvakarma was ensuring the continuity of their creativity. Coming around full circle, these maps have now been combined with a new freshly expanded text to create the Craft Atlas of India. It was selected by Choice, the premier review journal in the USA which recommends books to colleges and universities all over the country in which they choose around 600 from over 25,000 publications for its excellence of scholarship and presentation. All the maps were done in different art forms of India by artists from the particular state, and every known craft, art and textile was covered. It was nice to know that knowledge about our crafts and their practitioners would reach many students through our initial and very modest attempts at mapping in an artistic way. The Surveyor General of India’s office had to certify all international boundaries of the maps as accurate so there was some scientific accuracy involved within the art work. The major caveat I will add here is that I am fully aware that we could not possibly have discovered all the crafts of India. Some crafts that have been recorded may have since disappeared. Others would have sprung up after the time of documentation and hence remain unrecorded on these maps. But that is the very beauty of the creative craft process of India. It is like a mighty river that forever absorbs new material, throws some away onto its banks, changes course and meanders as it wishes depending on the pulls and pressures of the surrounding environment. Sometimes, like the Varuna and Assi rivers that gave Varanasi its name, crafts dry up and become pathetic and sullied representations of their initial selves. At other times new channels open, providing people with fresh opportunities for creativity and earnings. This is their beauty, and discovering them brings constant excitement. Change too is constant and the search for ever evolving progenies and legacies of Visvakarma continues, like a river, forever. I have come across cultural histories in unintended and interesting ways. Some of you may have heard of a project I did in 2012 called Akshara, Crafting Indian Scripts. It was inspired by my reaction to the constant lack of self-worth expressed by crafts people who felt they were poor and illiterate despite being excellent in craftsmanship. They felt at a disadvantage not knowing English or the computer. They also believed that if their children went to school, craft skills were no longer relevant and yet there were hardly any honourable ‘jobs’ available for many of the literate let alone the semi or neo literate. To persuade them to turn to their linguistic roots, study the scripts of their regional tongues, and apply these through creative calligraphy using their craft skills, we mobilized more than 70 practitioners, in 21 different skills like weaving, embroidery, carving, metal work, ceramics, folk art, and many other forms, using 15 of the 22 official Indian languages. Out of this exploration came over 150 museum-quality objects that opened up a whole new design vocabulary. But this was not all. When I told them to use their own scripts in the form of alphabets, verses, names, phrases, shlokas, songs and local stories deeply embedded in their local cultures a wealth of ideas and cultural histories turned up from this freshly tilled soil. To give you some examples: Bihar’s women do simple forms of embroidery which are being developed into more sophisticated products than mere quilts for a charpai. Applique is one of them. I asked them to create wall hangings based on local stories or festivals and embroider the words of songs in their local dialects. They came out with religious songs sung while standing in the water at Chhat puja and Madhushravani, a festival when a newly married girl first returns to her mother’s home to be seated among flowers. They also brought out a moving old folk song telling of a potter, a farmer and a boatman, lamenting the fact that Sita’s fate would have been very different had she been married into their family where she would have been tended with love and care, rather than meet the unhappy end after marrying into a royal household. The intelligent nuances of challenging existing attitudes of caste, class, and gender set to verse in gentle tones and accompanied by poignant embroidered images are as sophisticated as any brought out by the intellectual community. Likewise traditional artists came up with calligraphy in Kalamkari offering snippets of a song that described a bride’s face adorned with turmeric as yellow as a marigold. In Kashmir kani weaving we created a shawl in the colours of a pigeon. The weaver found a dead pigeon since he could not capture the colours of a live one on his mobile phone. He took it to the dyer who faithfully created yarn in shades of grey with touches of salmon pink since the pigeon’s legs were that colour. A new colour palate came into being. An old folk song welcoming the monsoon in Gujarat when it was advisable to eat karela to ward off malaria, and a hidden welcome to visitors to a home lovingly carved into a wooden door handle were the many forms of communication through craft and calligraphy that came about. Crafts found a new avenue of expression on fresh artefacts and objects of daily use and have since spawned a variety of spin offs that took inspiration from a single idea of how to apply old skills in a new way within a very Indian, very local, perspective. A search for traditional names given by handloom weavers to colours of their saris evoked an era of aesthetic sophistication that would far outshine any Parisian fashion palette or marketing phrase. To express the subtle differences in shades within a similar colour old documents reveal names like kapursafed, camphor white, makkai, creamy corn and subzkishmish, fresh raisins. Old texts describe white further by referring to the colour of white mist, or of steam rising from boiled milk. To neglect, and worse, to ignore such subtle and sophisticated terminology coming from often non-literate weavers and dyers who honour hand work and creativity, and to do this in the face of seasonal colour diktats from the fashion world of the West, is to do disservice to our own heritage that Visvakarma encompasses. Looking at trends in the publishing world, and in government policy-making for the development of crafts, I began to spot a gaping hole that was widening as crafts became more commercialized, imitative and export oriented. To be like the Chinese seemed to be the goal. How can we be like them? We are Indian. We have our own identities and cultural histories from which our crafts are created. It came to me that the Visvakarma’s terrain had no institution of national importance to recognize research, document and add value to crafted objects. Cultural histories and stories add immense economic value to the object. Everyone wants the story behind its maker and its making. I proposed the idea of setting up the Hastkala Akademi on the lines of the Sangeet Natak, Lalit Kala and Sahitya Akademis, but in a new environment free of unwarranted governmental influence, and bureaucratic death traps. Happily the 2014 budget announced its allocation of Rs 30 crore for this purpose with the intention of a public-private partnership model where enlightened patrons would fund but not control the work of the Akademi. It is still in its baby pram - not even taking baby steps yet - but I sincerely hope we can collectively relate the outcomes of conferences such as this to enrich and enlighten such an institution when it begins its work. Every journey into the crafts persons world is one of discovery and wonderment. There must be something that drives these children of Visvakarma to remain true to their traditions and processes of work, never mind how harsh, difficult or tedious they may appear to be. On recent tours to 25 places in India to photo-document different craft, art and textile forms that expressed the meaning of success, for a Google Project for its Art& Culture platform, we found practices motivated by the drive for excellence, marketing opportunities, community demand and support and a love of their own heritage. If anyone visits a tiny village in Chhattisgarh called ……….they will find an indigenous craft form that sprang simply from a woman’s desire to express herself in a world where she found herself isolated. Her eyes roamed over the soil she stood on, the water that flowed nearby, the colours made by leaves and spices in her kitchen. Putting all these to work, her fingers deftly created toys for her child, then a shelf, or a lamp, and finally a wonderland of birds, animals, gods and mortals, leaves and flowers and geometric shapes that became a home that was a museum of her skills. It did not stop there. Her work took her across the world, and inspired others in the village who are today creating similar magical decorations on their walls, windows and doorways . A new art form, close to tradition rather than modernity, was born. In a weaver’s home in Bengal or a terracotta artisan’ hut in Odisha, there will always be a decorated area at the entrance or in the courtyard, where the tulsi plant grows and the evening lamp is lit in prayer. There are no images of gods or goddesses there, but an aura of prayer and the seeking of blessings automatically and wordlessly, are directed towards the god who takes care of artisans. In Bagh, In Madhya Pradesh, printing processes go through 16 stages, with hard labour involved in soaking meters of cloth, drying them, treating the surface, printing in many stages with carved wooden blocks, drying them again, then washing them in a stream of clear water, and drying them yet again. Bell metal workers in Kerala go through many elaborate processes to make lamps that adorn the nearby temple, and ornaments for traditional dancers. These cultures, fostered by the all-pervading spirit of Visvakarma, keeps Indian heritage and culture alive amidst a fast changing world of automation and technology. But here again, the person who uses these work, will pray to it as a tool he needs to use to earn an honest livelihood. To end, I would like to complete the lines of what Prof Viyaya Ramaswamy has quoted at the beginning of her concept note for this conference. They are Ananda K Coomaraswamy’s words on Visvakarma: ....Beauty, rhythm, proportion, idea have an absolute existence in an ideal plane, where all who seek may find. The reality of things exists in the mind, not in the detail of their appearance to the eye. Their inward inspiration upon which the Indian artist is taught to rely, appearing like the still, small, voice of god, that god was conceived of as Visvakarma. He may be thought of as that part of divinity which is conditioned by a special relation to artistic expression: or in another way, as the sum total of consciousness, the group soul of the individual craftsmen of all times and places. Conference on Vishwakarma at Nehru Memorial Centre and Library.

Professor Ramaswamy has devoted a lot of time to the study of the Vishwakarma community. You find her studies referring to this community, which is often described as a unified grouping of five subgroups—carpenters, blacksmiths, bell metal workers, goldsmiths, and stone masons- who believe that they are the descendants of Vishwakarma , through his sons. Manu was said to have worked with iron; Maya in wood; Tvashtha in brass, copper, and alloys; Silpi in stone; and Vishvajna was said to be a goldsmith and jeweller. The kammāḷars in south India, who claim to be their descendants, are well versed in the shilpa shastras, the art treatises in Sanskrit laying out all the religious and technical processes to be followed in their work in order to achieve perfect results. Forms and formats are rigid and the process of creating an object is considered a part of a spiritual exercise. Till date, the Vishwakarma community worships various forms of this deity (Vishwakarma) and follows the fiveVedas: Rig Veda, Yajur Veda, Sama Veda, Atharva Veda, , and Pranava Veda. Vishwakarma is mentioned repeatedly in the Rig Veda 10.81.7, but it would be best to quote from the Mahabharata, as used by Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, which is, ‘Visvakarma, Lord of the arts, master of a thousand handicrafts, carpenter of the gods and builder of their palaces divine, fashioner of every jewel, first of craftsmen, by whose art men live, and whom, a great and deathless god, they continually worship.’ He is said to be the god of all architects, engineers, and craftspeople, the supreme architect of the universe, Brahma in another form. He, thus, provides an overarching umbrella, including everyone involved with work and creative expression. Vishwakarma has always held a place of fascination for me. It began when I saw simple workers from different artisanal professions, shop floors, and construction sites pausing work for a day dedicated to his name, to clean their machines, tools, and instruments and adorn them with flowers. Then they prayed to him, since it was Vishwakarma who enabled them to flourish their skills. It seemed so fundamental an act, imbued with utmost respect for one’s own work and a recognition that the blessings of a higher being are needed to successfully execute one’s skills at work. Vishwakarma is obviously a concept that is commonly depicted as an elderly figure sporting a white beard. It is a concept honouring work and the encouragement of creativity and excellence. So we should see Vishwakarma Jayanti, celebrated immediately after Ganesh Chaturthi, as an occasion honouring creativity, skills, and thus, the dignity of labour. This day always seems more important to me than the innumerable holidays accorded to different communities and religions in our secular nation. To stop work for just a day in order to respect the workplace and the materials that enable one to work seems to me a highly sophisticated concept that is only partially matched by the Western concept of Labour Day, which refers essentially to the working class in organized environments. It is also equally important to note that Vishwakarma Day brings together artisans and craftspeople, mechanics and carpenters, and architects and artists from a number of communities to celebrate their patron and guardian. Descendants of the professional artisan castes associated specifically with Vishwakarma, who today may be involved in some wholly unrelated profession, also take pride in celebrating this day. On the basis of the belief that all gods having different attributes in the Hindu pantheon are ultimately one, and the soul of the ‘one’ resides in each of us, Vishwakarma too can be appropriated by all artisan groups apart from the original five, and indeed, by anyone involved in creative expression. It is from this position that my study of what Vishwakarma means to craftspeople began. Being an activist in the field, and spending more time in dusty villages and narrow lanes of small and big towns in search of people who uphold India’s craft traditions than in libraries and among books, I found that not only is the ‘progeny’ of Vishwakarma spread far and wide, but that craftspeople do not need to go to temples to seek him. The true manifestation of ‘work is worship’ is found when one watches crafts persons at work. The silence, the meditative quality of their concentration, the systematic and meaningful application of techniques, and the choice of suitable colours make the final product almost like an offering to a higher being. The earnings from this work are then attributed to this higher being, thereby making traditional knowledge and skills, workmanship, spirituality, income, and livelihood part of an integral whole that constitutes a meaningful creative life. This perspective is wholly and satisfyingly Indian. It is also what has cradled and nurtured our crafts, inclusive of and beyond castes and religions. We often refer to the ‘mapping’ of crafts. I began my quest for the reach and spread of Vishwakarma’s progeny and products through the literal process of creating maps. It began when I saw a map of the markets of Bangkok, presented in water colour, by an American artist Nancy Chandler in the early 1990s. It struck me that if shopping in such a small country could be presented in this attractive fashion, the multitude of crafts, artworks, and textiles that India offered should be actually mapped to lead people to them. These maps took on a slow and steady momentum of their own. It took fifteen years to cover all the states. Some new states were formed in between, and the map of Telangana now will have to be created, separate from Andhra Pradesh. Political and geographical evolutions reflect the evolution of India’s art and crafts over millennia as being an ever-changing phenomenon, responding to the times and needs of the people. At one level, these maps were meant as shopping guides, with the locations of manufacture of crafts and sometimes even with some guidance on how to get to a certain village or locality. At another level, the maps had to bring out interesting differences in the processes of manufacture of crafts, depending on local cultures, availability of raw materials and histories. For example, we discovered that in Odisha, women of a certain tribe wore similar blue saris for a festival, while their priestess wore saris specially woven in yellow. Thus, colour becomes spiritually meaningful beyond mere aesthetics. I wanted these maps to be inexpensive and accessible to young students and travellers who cannot afford coffee-table books that just look beautiful but serve no great purpose. Coincidentally, they came in useful to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and state governments after the supercyclone in Odisha and the Gujarat earthquake. The maps made it easier to locate artisan pockets which needed to be provided with relevant relief for the craftspeople to carry on their traditional vocations. I would like to believe that it was Vishwakarma who was ensuring the continuity of their creativity. Coming around a full circle, these maps were combined with a new, freshly expanded text to create the Crafts Atlas of India. It was selected by Choice, the premier review journal in USA, which recommends books to colleges and universities all over the country, in which they choose around 600 from over 25,000 publications for their excellence of scholarship and presentation. All the maps were done in different art forms of India by artists from respective states, and every known craft, art, and textile was covered. It was nice to know that knowledge about India’s crafts and their practitioners would reach students through our initial and very modest attempt at mapping in an artistic way. The Surveyor General of India’s office had to certify all international boundaries of the maps as accurate, so there was some scientific accuracy involved within the art work. The major caveat that I will add here is that I am fully aware that we could not possibly have discovered all the crafts of India. Besides, some of the crafts that have been recorded may have since disappeared, while several others may have sprung up after the time of documentation and hence remain unrecorded on these maps. But that is the very beauty of the creative craft process of India. It is like a mighty river that forever absorbs new material, throws some away onto its banks, changes course, and meanders as it wishes, depending on the pulls and pressures of the surrounding environment. Sometimes, like the Varuna and Assi rivers that gave Varanasi its name, crafts dry up and become pathetic and sullied representations of their initial selves. At other times, new channels open, providing people with fresh opportunities for expressing their creativity and earning their livelihood. This is their beauty, and discovering them brings constant excitement. Change too is constant, and the search for ever-evolving progenies and legacies of Vishwakarma continues, like a river, for ever. I have come across cultural histories in unintended and interesting ways. My project ‘Akshara, Crafting Indian Scripts’ (2012) was inspired by my reaction to the constant lack of self-worth expressed by craftspeople, who considered themselves illiterate despite being excellent in craftsmanship. They felt themselves to be at a disadvantage, not knowing English or not having the knowledge to operate computers. They also believed that if their children went to school, craft skills would no longer remain relevant, and yet there were hardly any honourable ‘jobs’ available for many of the literate, let alone the semi- or neo-literate. To persuade them to turn to their linguistic roots, study the scripts of their regional tongues, and apply these through creative calligraphy using their craft skills, we mobilized more than 70 practitioners in 21 different skills, like weaving, embroidery, carving, metalwork, ceramics, folk art, and many other forms, using 15 of the 22 official Indian languages. Out of this exploration came over 150 museum-quality objects that opened up a whole new design vocabulary. But this was not all. When I told them to use their own scripts in the form of alphabets, verses, names, phrases, shlokas, songs, and local stories deeply embedded in their local cultures, a wealth of ideas and cultural histories turned up from this freshly tilled soil. To give you some examples: women in Bihar do simple forms of embroidery, which are being developed into more sophisticated products than mere quilts for a charpai. Applique is one of them. I asked them to create wall hangings based on local stories or festivals and embroider the words of songs in their local dialects. They came out with religious songs sung while standing in the water at Chhat Puja and Madhushravani, a festival when a newly married girl returns to her mother’s home for the first time, to be seated among flowers. They also brought out a moving old folk song telling of a potter, a farmer, and a boatman, lamenting the fact that Sita’s fate would have been very different had she been married into their family, where she would have been tended with love and care, rather than meet the unhappy end after marrying into a royal household. The subtle challenges to existing attitudes of caste, class, and gender, set to verse in gentle tones and accompanied by poignant embroidered images, are as sophisticated as any brought out by the intellectual community. Likewise, traditional artists in southern India came up with calligraphy in kalamkari, offering snippets of a song that described a bride’s face adorned with turmeric as yellow as a marigold. In Kashmiri kani weaving, we created a shawl in the colours of a pigeon. The weaver found a dead pigeon since he could not capture the colours of a live one on his mobile phone. He took it to the dyer who faithfully created yarn in shades of grey with touches of salmon pink, since the pigeon’s legs were of that colour. A new colour palate thus came into being. An old folk song welcoming the monsoon in Gujarat, when it was advisable to eat karela to ward off malaria, and a hidden welcome to visitors to a home lovingly carved into a wooden door handle were some of the many forms of communication through craft and calligraphy that came about. Crafts found a new avenue of expression on fresh artefacts and objects of daily use and have since spawned a variety of spin-offs that take inspiration from a single idea of how to apply old skills in a new way within a very Indian, very local, perspective. A search for traditional names given by handloom weavers to colours of their saris evoked an era of aesthetic sophistication that would far outshine any Parisian fashion palette or marketing phrase. To express the subtle differences in shades within a similar colour, old documents reveal names like kapur-safed (camphor white), makkai (creamy corn), and subz-kishmish (fresh raisins). Old texts describe the colour white further by referring to the colour of white mist, or of steam rising from boiled milk. To neglect, and worse, to ignore such subtle and sophisticated terminology coming from often illiterate weavers and dyers, who honour handwork and creativity, and to do this in the face of the seasonal colour diktats from the fashion world of the West, is to do disservice to our own heritage that Vishwakarma encompasses. Looking at trends in the publishing world, and in government policy-making for the development of crafts, I spotted a gaping hole that was widening as crafts became more commercialized, imitative, and export-oriented. To be like the Chinese seemed to be the goal. How can we be like them? We are Indian. We have our own identities and cultural histories from which our crafts are created. It came to me that the Vishwakarma’s terrain had no institution of national importance to recognize research, document, and add value to crafted objects. Cultural histories and stories add immense economic value to a work of art. Everyone wants the story behind its maker and its making. So I proposed the idea of setting up the Hastkala Akademi on the lines of the Sangeet Natak, Lalit Kala, and Sahitya Akademis, but in a new environment free of unwarranted governmental influence, and bureaucratic deathtraps. Happily, the 2014 budget announced its allocation of Rs.30 crore for this purpose, with the intention of a public-private partnership model where enlightened patrons would fund, but not control, the work of the Akademi. Every journey into the crafts persons’ world is one of discovery and wonder. There must be something that drives these children of Vishwakarma to remain true to their traditions and processes of work, never paying any heed to how harsh, difficult, or tedious they may appear to be. On recent tours to 25 places in India to photo-document different craft, art, and textile forms that expressed the meaning of success, for a Google project for its Art & Culture platform, we found practices motivated by the drive for excellence, marketing opportunities, community demand and support, and love of the people for their own heritage. If anyone visits a tiny village in Chhattisgarh called Ambikapur, in Sarguja district, they will find an indigenous craft form that sprang simply from a woman’s desire to express herself in a world where she found herself isolated. Her eyes roamed over the soil she stood on, the water that flowed nearby, the colours made by leaves, and the spices in her kitchen. Putting all these to work, her fingers deftly created toys for her child, then a shelf, or a lamp, and finally a wonderland of birds, animals, gods and mortals, leaves and flowers, and geometric shapes that became a home which was a museum of her skills. It, however, did not stop there. Her work took her across the world and inspired others in the village, who are today creating similar, magical decorations on their walls, windows, and doorways. A new art form, closer to tradition than to modernity, was thus born. In a weaver’s home in Bengal or a terracotta artisan’s hut in Odisha, there will always be a decorated area at the entrance or in the courtyard, where the tulsi plant grows and the evening lamp is lit in prayer. There are no images of gods or goddesses there, only aura of prayer and the seeking of blessings automatically and wordlessly, are directed towards the god who takes care of artisans. In Bagh, Madhya Pradesh, the printing process comprises sixteen stages, with hard labour involved in soaking metres of cloth, drying them, treating the surface, printing in many stages with carved wooden blocks, drying them again, washing them in a stream of clear water, and then drying them yet again. Similarly, bell metal workers in Kerala follow many elaborate processes to make lamps that adorn temples and ornaments for traditional dancers. These cultures, fostered by the all-pervading spirit of Vishwakarma, keeps Indian heritage and culture alive amidst a fast-changing world of automation and technology. Here again, the person who does this work, will pray to it as a tool he needs to use to earn an honest livelihood. To end, I would like to quote Ananda K. Coomaraswamy’s words on Vishwakarma:

Beauty, rhythm, proportion, idea have an absolute existence in an ideal plane, where all who seek may find. The reality of things exists in the mind, not in the detail of their appearance to the eye. Their inward inspiration upon which the Indian artist is taught to rely, appearing like the still, small, voice of god, that god was conceived of as Vishvakarma. He may be thought of as that part of divinity which is conditioned by a special relation to artistic expression: or in another way, as the sum total of consciousness, the group soul of the individual craftsmen of all times and places.

Endnotes

The hesitation I feel when taking up a tough challenge is outweighed by the excitement and intellectual curiosity of being able to explore new ideas to build upon older ones. Therefore, I must thank the Nehru Memorial Museum & Library, and Prof Vijaya Ramaswamy, for offering me this opportunity and especially the honour of speaking at the opening of a fascinating conference.
Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, Visvakarma: Examples of Indian Architecture, Sculpture, Painting, Handicraft, New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers, 1978.
Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, ‘Religious Ideas in Craftsmanship’, in The Indian Craftsman, London: Probsthain & Co., 1909.

My love for textile craft brought me to Rayagada district of Odisha in 2006 to see the beautiful textiles (locally called as kapdagonda) and the Dongria Kondh women engaged in the making of it. This sacred world of Niyamgiri was my first craft yatra in Odisha which opened up several nuances about Dongria Kondh relation with the nature god- Niyam Raja (King of Niyamgiri). Fortunately that one day trip followed with three week workshop in Rayagada after two months (supported by Directorate of Handicrafts and Cottage Industries, Govt. of Odisha) with twenty two Kondh women from different villages. In spite of language boundaries, gestures and sign language gave us immense opportunity to interact with each other in person as friend. It was interesting to note how each of them from different villages in their gesture, approach, dressing and experience of outside world and inside world (outside world- I am referring to town or cities or places unfamiliar to Kondhs living space) reflected distinctive character and behaviour. The villages located closer to plain areas (low hill) such as Khajuri and Kurli interact frequently with the developing bodies, Dombo and other communities in their mundane life. Their manner of wearing kapdagonda (shift in wearing style and covering their upper part with blouse), adapting to external influences such as using products (such as applying fair and lovely crème) and humming Hindi and Odiya songs showed strong influence of external factors. Based on these observations, it segregated them from Ghortoli, Hundijali and Kadrakuma Kondh women to some extent. I guess they have experienced infrequent intrusion of developing bodies. I saw less pollution and changes in their lifestyle though influences of external factors are evitable. It was difficult to create product intervention with people who believe in simple living with minimalistic need. Farming is priority and textiles are their symbolic legacy. I started the conversation “Would you like to make a jhola (bag) or muna (pouch) in your pattern which you could use it for yourself”? Kondh women nodded. That positive response created the need of product intervention and it was the only way I could begin my workshop. Being an observer and participant in the entire workshop I learned varied meanings and vivid expression about the women and their relation to the textile material culture. Indigenous kapdagonda is an expression and recreation for Dongria Kondh Adivasi women. It would be too narrow to limit this artistic tradition or bracket under the word commodity. It is more than a textile. How can I or the other coming from usual product-commodity world understand this relationship of women and their narrative textiles? Kondh women explained to me how every line and pattern had a name and meaning. The purpose of rendering textile is not to show their excellence, it is their artistic expression – a legacy of tradition, an identity which is what I want to stress. My interaction and time spent with the Kondh women embarked me into another realm of contemplation. Navigating between my design world and deeper meanings of kapdagonda, I was not able to understand my position where am I leading to. There was a language beyond the designs and patterns which I wanted to know. Without any background in Anthropology I pursued my interest as a self-taught Anthropologist. It all started for cause and passion, my interest and inclination to know about the people and culture. Travelling to villages was always part of my work and now my interactions with Adivasi, weavers and other people in my years of craft yatra became my way of learning. I pursued my interest to know the sacred world of Niyamgiri- human relationship with the nature and how it reflects in their practices and belief. My ethnographic research work is premised on documenting oral narratives cited by elderly women and recording native’s point of view. Whilst living with Dongria Kondh Adivasi I realised human’s relation with the environment and my own understanding of nature and culture relation. The language of verbal and visual art forms reflects the intangible sacred world of Niyamgiri. In 2007 while documented Meriah sacrifice (buffalo sacrifice) in the honour of Niyamgiri Raja in Khajuri village I had another chance to meet my old Kondh friends; I gave their photographs individually and greeted them again. I also climbed five hills to reach Hundijali village to meet other group of women and in turn they treated me with a big feast-It was Adivasi food festival for me. In addition to this I had to take permission from the local Special Officer S.N Sahoo to take Kadraka Ando to Delhi along with an elderly lady and a helper for the child artisan Kamala Devi Puraskar by Delhi Crafts Council. After innumerable calls, with the help of Ms. Anita Agnihotri (IAS) and S. N.Sahoo, Kadraka Ando travelled to Delhi and received her award from Delhi Crafts Council. My Niyamgiri visit restarted in 2012 with the support of one year Tata Fellowship in Folklore by Dorabji Trust, Administrated by National Folklore Support Centre (NFSC) under the guidance of Dr. Muthukumarswamy. The following article is a gist of my earlier research work which was published in Imaging Odisha book, Praffula Publication in 2013.

What can India do with an industry that offers employment to millions dispersed in primarily rural locations, with an immense export potential and a low carbon footprint, contributing competitive skills to range of key industries, and offering a huge social and political safety-net? Does India take it to the top of its planning agenda? Or relegate it to the backburner as a ‘sunset’ activity not in keeping with super-power aspirations? No prizes for a winning answer. Craft Considerations Consider that craft represents an unbroken Indian tradition going back centuries, that hand production was central to India’s struggle against colonial domination, and that after Independence, India pioneered craft planning as a development strategy. Consider that handcraft is acknowledged as the largest source of employment in India after agriculture --- confirmed most recently by none other than the President of the Republic. Consider the vital contribution of crafts as alternatives as well as seasonal supplements to agricultural employment (and thus as a brake on the misery of migration), and that crafts often take advantage of local and re-cycled materials. Consider again that women, minorities, Dalits and tribal communities constitute the majority in this employment-intensive industry --- the very communities the Government is committed to empower. At last count, craft contribution to Indian exports was over a whopping Rs21,000 crores, and that excludes exports of gems and jewellery, another hand-intensive activity. India’s cultural and trade diplomacy worldwide through Festivals of India as well as the current ‘Incredible India’ campaign would be unthinkable without crafts at their center. Consider further that hand skills shelter the mainsprings of Indian creativity and innovation, and that talent from this sector has enriched a range of industries including machine tools, hospitality and tourism, space, construction and now nano-technology. Consider further that today hand production represents a green industry with major ecological advantages at home and in markets overseas --- as well as links to movements that are inspiring the world: women’s empowerment, the recognition of indigenous people and traditional cultures and knowledge, protection of the planet, using the hand to revitalize education, and for progress with a human face. These factors have helped the craft market to remain reasonably stable during the recession. Consider that the human development indicators (HDI), which now drive UN systems for assessing progress, embrace an understanding of sustainable livelihoods that is powerfully represented by the case for India’s crafts. All this, and we haven’t yet considered craft as a core factor in national identity, deeply rooted in Indian thought and in its finest cultural, social and spiritual expressions. Consider finally the awful reality that decision-makers know very little about the scale, impact, potential or significance of a sector so encompassing in its significance. Six, thirty or 220 million? The key to recognition is often scale. No one is sure of how many millions are involved in the processing and production of textiles, wood, metal, textiles, fibres, stone and innumerable combinations of these and other materials. Or of the contribution artisans make to GDP. The only certainty is that despite their numbers, the dispersal of artisans robs them of any political clout. Some suggest over 6 million artisans now, while estimates in 1994-95 based primarily on National Sample Survey data suggested over 8 million. The Eleventh Plan targets 8 million in handicrafts and 7 million in handlooms, or a total of 15 million by 2012. An estimate in 2005 was 30 million. Contrast this with a figure of 173 million suggested by a speaker at a September 2009 forum to discuss IPR implications of craft trade. Others guesstimates range from 200 to 220 million. (Perhaps none of these figures acknowledge the entire adult population of the Northeast states, where every women and man is an artisan, weaving textiles and fibres and making products, homes and even high-tension bridges of cane and bamboo). Estimates of turnover vary widely, except for exports. Available statistics reflect lists of crafts selected according to administrative fiat. Others fall between the cracks despite their scale: ubiquitous clay pots, chiks and garlands familiar at urban street corners, the products made of re-cycled waste and sold in haats all over the land, and those that embellish India’s year-round festivities. (Kolkata alone is estimated to spend some Rs200 crore on ephemeral products handcrafted for a single Durga Puja --- what does that suggest for the combined worth of other festivals, or the revenues generated by stone artisans building temples and mosques worldwide?) Definitions, players, data Defining crafts with any precision may therefore be the dilemma that has driven the sector into the black holes of planning. A UNIDO classification includes beedi rolling, fireworks and even fishing hooks, while Lakshadweep has an ancient tradition of boat-making that literally sews timber with rope. The Office of the Development Commissioner (Handicrafts) offered a workable definition in the Eighth Plan: “Items made by hand, often with the use of simple tools, and generally artistic and/or traditional in nature. They include objects of utility and objects of decoration”. Workable to be sure, but what the definition leaves out may be much larger than what it includes. The dilemma is that nobody knows for sure. Part of this mystery may be the private sector, which handles the overwhelming bulk of India’s craft trade at home and abroad and yet is seldom seen at the tables of development planning. Often accused of being exploitive middle-men responsible for the misery of artisans, private entrepreneurs are kept at arms length by both authorities and NGOs, even as they continue to provide major access to market channels, finance and risk coverage. Huge craft empires have been built out of cities like Moradabad, Agra, Kanjeevaram, Varanasi and Jaipur. Yet few of these entrepreneurs divulge either their experience or their future directions. A handful of Indian craft brands --- including Shyam Ahuja, Fabindia and Anokhi --- have won worldwide reputations for excellence but are absent from planning circles. The major efforts at public awareness have come through pioneering NGO struggles that have taken several into active retailing. Contemporary Arts and Crafts, Sasha, Dastkar, Dastkari Haat Samiti, Crafts Council of India, and SEWA are among the examples. It is their experiences which today provide voice to both the current crisis of neglect as well as to the enormous potential of the sector toward national wellbeing. Partnering as well as confronting authority, these institutions are dependent on the very Government schemes and programme that as activists they find inadequate to need. The responsibility for craft planning is vested primarily in the Offices of the Development Commissioners for Handicrafts and Handlooms, both Offices situated in the Textile Ministry. Grappling with confused definitions and jurisdictions, they have set ambitious directions for the years ahead. Government estimates suggest that craft production in 2007 had increased to over Rs36,000 crore from about Rs20,000 crore five years earlier. The 11^th Plan target is over Rs82,000 crore, representing an estimated average annual growth rate of 18%. Exports in 2006-07 were Rs21,000 crore as against at about Rs12,500 crore in 2002-03, again a growth rate of almost 18% annually. The target by the end of the 11^th Plan is Rs44,000 crore, doubling India’s miserable share of global handicraft trade from 1.4% to 2.8%. Investment during the 11^th Plan period is an estimated Rs1,812 crore (up from Rs447 crore in the 10^th Plan) with an emphasis on developing geographic clusters, support services in marketing, design and technology, R&D, training, and welfare schemes. Handloom production estimated at over 6,000 million sq m in 2005-06 is to rise to over 8,000 million sq m by the end of the Plan, an estimated annual growth of 5%. Handloom exports are expected to grow annually at 15% from over Rs4,600 crore in 2006-07 to over Rs9,200 crore by 2012. Added to these are investments by the Ministry of the Industry in the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC), the Ministry of Rural Development’s reported proposal to set up a Rs50,000 crore fund for skilled workers, and the craft-related programmes in each State. The impression could be of an India ready and willing to take crafts to scale. Growth: the barriers and hope The reality can be very different. Official schemes remain hugely difficult for artisans to access, and several benefits are nullified by policies and practices of other authorities --- tax and octroi are prime examples. While so-called organized industries receive single-window facilitation by governments and trade federations, there is nothing of the kind to serve scattered artisans who must run from pillar to post to access finance, design, technology and market access. Corruption is rife, and needy artisans have become familiar with the culture of bribes. If private traders can be exploitive, well-meaning NGOs can lack the know-how that a stringently competitive marketplace demands, or resist the for-profit attitude that sustainability requires. Research into buyer trends is little practiced, and most often confined to individual buyer-maker relationships rather than shared across the sector. Marketing, the key to survival and growth, is a discipline still rare to Indian craft. The predominant attitude is a charity syndrome of “Please buy” at cluttered melas and haats. The need instead is for design and production responses to needs clearly identified through research, supplied at the right price and place through all the channels of contemporary retailing. Global recession has further underlined the critical importance of marketing competence including unfamiliar challenges such as IPR threats (primarily from Chinese factories) that face every major Indian craft including Banarasi brocade, Moradabad brass, Kanjivaram textiles and even traditional festival and puja items. Problems of definition, the inability of official schemes to reach those for whom they are intended, the absence of strong marketing capacities within Government and NGO agencies (both of whom are at the fringes of craft trade), and the near-invisibility of the private sector in craft planning despite handling the bulk of production, export and development are all factors contributing to current concerns. The hope lies in demonstrations of what can be done. These have been well made by teams of Indian artisans, designers, traders, authorities and activists over many years. The challenge is to bring scattered demonstrations together into the realm of policy, and take them to a scale worthy of India’s craft heritage and ability. The single largest challenge the sector faces is to build the marketing systems (including design, product development, finance, production, distribution and merchandising) that can link Indian artisans with growing opportunities at home and abroad. To resolve it needs investments and management skills at a scale well beyond anything presently on the horizon. To encourage major investment, and to manage investment well, requires policy changes and new institutional structures. Such changes are unlikely unless the case for Indian craft is strongly made, and is based on facts rather than on guesswork. Historical quirks History offers clues to the current crisis. When planning commenced in India some 60 years ago, handcrafts were brought under what was then the Ministry of Commerce & Industry. The perspective applied at that time was to meet the need of earning scarce foreign exchange through exportable Indian crafts. Later, as this Ministry transformed, the Offices of both the Development Commission of Handicrafts as well as the Development Commissioner of Handlooms came to be placed in the Ministry of Textiles. A major range of non-textile crafts are thus today under a Ministry totally unrelated to its materials or manufacturing processes. Handlooms, although textiles, are under the purview of a Ministry preoccupied with the needs of the mechanized sector. The Khadi & Village Industries Commission, which is responsible for a large number of hand activities, is supported by the Ministry of Industry. Official statistical compilation reflects these historical and administrative quirks: monitoring, licensing and taxes often do not distinguish hand activity and powered small manufacture. Unlike the formal manufacturing sector (which is organized, legally constituted and protected toward share holder interests), handicraft, like farming activity, is not premised on the guarantee of minimal returns. The rate of suicide among Indian farmers and weavers indicates the extent of calamity that has been reached, a calamity underlined by national income calculations which are similarly biased to estimates of production and value addition from the formal sector. Despite historic accomplishments in national census statistics, the absence of focus on the hand sector remains a glaring omission. This fractured approach extends from the Centre to the States, compounded by the near-zero recognition by authorities of the cultural heritage and knowledge dimensions of those who practice hand activity. The result is that at a time of unprecedented challenge – as well as of great opportunity – the sector lacks the coordinated, professional direction that is essential for its survival. Crafts are considered ‘unorganised’ despite their systems of organization that have lasted for centuries. There is no space in Indian planning that can bring together the range of economic, social, political, environmental, cultural and ethical concerns required for nurturing crafts as a ‘sector of sectors’ of enormous future significance. All this, despite the growing literature of cultural economics as a discipline which appreciates that cultural goods and services actually add much more value than what is realized in the market. Cultural industries: the concept This situation becomes all the more extraordinary in the light of India’s initiative in 2005 to host a world symposium that culminated in the Jodhpur Consensus. Through it, 28 nations together resolved to recognize cultural industries “as a source of capital assets for economic, social and cultural development” as well as “a vital source for the cultural identities of communities and individuals which lead to further creativity and human development….What cultural industries have in common is that they create content, use, creativity, skill and in some cases intellectual property, to produce goods and services with social and cultural meaning”. (Remember the Mahatma and khadi?) The Consensus reflects an awakening within the West and in international agencies on the importance of craft and the expanding range of cultural industries that include, for example media and entertainment. The Jodhpur Consensus was an outcome of a joint initiative by India with UNESCO, UNIDO, WIPO, ADB and the World Bank (which went through a cultural awakening during its Wolfenson era). Japan, Taiwan and Korea have long attributed their success in electronics, computer and the automotive industries (including of players like Sony, Honda and the I-O Data Device) to craft attitudes embedded in the national psyche. Japan has recently registered the city of Kanazawa has a ‘City of Crafts’, recognizing that “the spirit of artistic production made possible Kanazawa’s own industrial revolution” and made it the home of top engineering companies. Switzerland, Scandinavia, Germany and Italy recognize their craft heritage in the success of precision and engineering industries as well as in design leadership. Thailand and China are making major investments in craft strategy (the latter encompassing their own and anyone else’s that can be copied). The USA and UK are rediscovering the potential of their craft sectors. The Smithsonian Institution (Washington DC), long an advocate of indigenous and world crafts, states that “Cultural institutions are more than the anchors of an improved quality of life. While often so heterogeneous that their collective contribution goes unnoticed, they are fundamental contributors to the economic health of the communities in which they are found”. In England and Wales, a mere 32,000 makers generated in 2003 a turnover of L826 millions “which is greater than the fishing department, the forestry and logging division, the manufacturer of motor-cycles and bicycles or the manufacture of sports goods.” All this is still to be reflected in India, despite having the economics as well as the ethic of craft handed over on a platter almost a century ago by the Mahatma and Gurudev. Marketing quality: the foundation for hope Efforts to apply the advantages of history to current opportunity provide the evidence and hope for new directions. Government’s support efforts for artisans and weavers, however inadequate, can claim credit for sustaining craft awareness and demand over several decades of change. Almost every craft achievement has taken advantage of official schemes that range from underwriting product development efforts and training to subsidized promotions through fairs and exhibitions as well as benchmarking quality with awards and incentives. A whole generation was influenced by the Central Cottage Industries Emporium that helped make craft part of middle-class India’s aspirations. A range of official outlets put ‘Cottage’ and ‘Irwin Road’ on the itinerary of every visitor to New Delhi. Government’s Handloom & Handicrafts Export Corporation (HHEC) was the catalyst for early global attention, using its Shona shops in world capitals to showcase Indian excellence. Dilli Haat has served some 60,000 artisans with sales opportunities in the heart of the capital, achieving sales of over Rs600 crores in its first decade. Clones have sprung up around the country, while Pragati Maidan’s Crafts Museum ranks with the greatest collections in the world, underlining the critical importance of reference sources to underpin the integrity of future development. This opportunity for fine craftspersons to demonstrate, sell and interface with buyers and traders within a museum environment suggests an important strategy for quality. Master artisans and shilp gurus first recognized through official channels have taken their skills around the world, occasionally succeeding to attract candidates of a new generation to remain within tradition. Even the usually sullen staff behind dowdy counters of the Khadi & Village Industries Commission offer the advantage of unmatched excellence at subsidised prices. Government support encouraged the National Institute of Design to integrate crafts into the development of India’s design profession. NID’s pioneering work in product development stimulated many young designers to make careers in the craft sector, a pattern that continued as design education spread throughout the country. New institutions have emerged, including the NIFT chain, the Institute of Craft & Design in Jaipur, Srishti in Bangalore, and the Kala Raksha Vidyalaya in Kutch. The output as well as the limitations of early official interventions encouraged private effort that by the 1960s had introduced elements of modern marketing to Indian artisans and craft activists. Contemporary Arts & Crafts in Bombay, Fabindia in Delhi, Anokhi in Jaipur, Sasha in Calcutta were among the trend-setters later emulated by scores of other craft entrepreneurs as well as by NGOs such as Dastkar, Urmul, Dastkari Haat Samiti, SEWA and the Crafts Council of India (CCI). This collective experience of Government, civil society and a massive if largely invisible private sector now offers the foundation for a craft economy. It conveys two crucial lessons for the future: survival demands the highest level of marketing competence, and quality is what counts --- at home or anywhere else. The image and supply of craft has to move out of an association with chaotic piles of trash sold at distress prices into quality available at the distribution channels where today’s consumer makes her purchases. Haats and melas need to be supplemented with access to India’s equivalent of ‘High Street’ locations. It is there that money-spinning and year-round opportunities lie. The target must go beyond reaching those who will buy because a product is made by hand to all others looking for quality, whether created by hand or machine (or a combination of both), at an affordable price. Even at a time of recession, the market for quality handicrafts has remained relatively stable in India as well as overseas. This suggests the advantages of a marketing message that is finding its time: the economic, ecological, ethical and aesthetic advantages of hand production. Using these messages, a new chain, Mother Earth, has just opened in Bangalore, Delhi and Kolkata. It builds on the experience of a small Rs12 lakh enterprise that began as Industree in 1994 when two activists decided to provide year-round market opportunities beyond the limitations of the exhibition/mela syndrome. Using prime locations and the advantage of a 43% buy-in by Kishore Biyani’s Future Group, Mother Earth rides piggyback on the retail savvy of Big Bazaar and Pantaloons, and the conglomerate looks ahead to a revenue target of Rs200 crore by 2013. CCI has been encouraged in 2009 to expand its ‘Kamala’ activity beyond one store in New Delhi to others in Hyderabad, Kolkata and Chennai. The All India Artisans & Craftworkers Welfare Association (AIACA) has introduced a ‘Craftmark’ guarantee to help the competitiveness of Indian artisans. Dilli Haat continues to attract thousands, and artisans vie for opportunities there and at the Crafts Museum. In July 2009, the two-day Santa Fe Folk Art Festival (USA), the largest craft market in the world, sold products worth over $2M, attracting 23,000 buyers looking for quality. Artisans from all over the world (including India) went home with an average of over $10,000 earned through excellence in 48 hours, that too in market suffering recession! The signal is clear, at home and abroad. With tradition, experience and resources perhaps unmatched anywhere in the world, India’s crafts offer a sunrise prospect --- even at a time of economic downturn. Facts for change These examples risk being disregarded without clear evidence of the aggregate which they represent. Changes in attitude at the policy level require strong proof on the table. The Crafts Council of India is one of several activists working for such change. A current CCI project is directed at finding the systems that can build a foundation of reliable data for the sector. The effort draws on past studied that include an excellent sector survey on the condition of artisans by the NGO Sruti in 1995, followed by Maureen Liebl and Tirthankar Roy’s report for the Policy Sciences Center, funded by the World Bank in 2000-01. An intensive exploration of India’s creative industries was conducted by Rajeev Sethi through the Planning Commission in 2006. Census studies provide a wealth of data that needs to be extracted and interpreted in a current context. Working with the Planning Commission and concerned Ministries, CCI’s effort is to locate a methodology that can provide reliable national estimates of the numbers of people and incomes derived from hand manufacture. The study will attempt to estimate craft contributions to the national economy, establishing a theoretical ground for the emerging discipline of cultural economics. Geographic dispersal, demographic characteristics, details of activities and livelihood patterns will be attempted to indicate the potential earning power of artisans. Pilot work has begun in selected districts, applying concepts that can lead on to larger national studies. Hopefully, India can then look forward to a detailed status report on artisans, their current livelihood and income status and the impact of liberalization on these communities. With reliable estimates of employment and contribution to national income, the case for priority could put an end to ‘sunset’ speculations, moving artisans into sunrise opportunities by clearly identifying essential areas of both strength and vulnerability. Intervention priorities and support systems can follow, providing a far more appropriate policy framework than anything that currently exists. The clinching argument: common sense The context of these efforts is the current prospect within a ‘shining India’ of 836 million Indians remaining poor and vulnerable, most of them SC/ST, OBCs minorities and Muslims (the communities to which the vast majority of Indian artisans belong). Only ignorance and indifference can prevent the use of the craft sector to help meet their needs, providing both a massive social safety-net and a powerful economic engine. Yet the final word may not be about mere economics. Speaking to a group brought together by CCI in Kolkata to kick-start its study of the sector, Gopalkrishna Gandhi observed:

“Today an attitude faces craft and artisans in India. This is the argument of economics, of sustainability, of marketability, which is the argument of financial survival. It is the argument of material as against what is made from and with material. This argument is overtaking all other arguments. What is not self-financing, not sustainable, is regarded as being in natural decline, almost as if in some immutable scientific principle. People talk of such avocations as being in a ‘sunset’. To assess them to dip into the horizon is then regarded as something of a kindness. (The argument) is one-sided, it is shocking but in logic it is not a wrong argument. We have to examine that argument and see how and what is unacceptable about it so it can be shown to be so to those who advance it, and to those who count. Let us not adopt an attitude of aesthetic or cultural superiority when it comes to the economic argument. Arguments of the market cannot be wished away: they are reality. We have to show that arguments of the market are nonetheless misapplied when it comes to judging the work of artisans, hurting not just the artisans but the whole country. (The argument) is misapplied because in India, rather more than elsewhere, craftsmanship and artisanship reside among the poorest of the poor. How are today’s artisans to be given a sense of purpose, a sense of ‘sunrise’ rather than of ‘sunset’? We will wrong if we think that artisanship and craftsmanship are about aesthetic judgment and sentiment being on one side and commercial judgment and reason being on the other. If that is the understanding, the game is lost. The hard argument which overrides all others is about common sense. And that is that common-sense tells us that whatever we do in terms of economic planning and development in India, there will always be several hundred million people in this country, the figure being unverified, who cannot but live with and through the work of their hands. Now, it is a great compensation of nature that these hundreds and millions of people have a talent in their hand, which the assembly liners and the free-marketers do not quite concede. And that talent is the unexplored reservoir which needs to be used for their good which means the greater good of the great number of the people of India….”

Three days before Handloom Day, industry leaders, Bollywood stars, designers, media, and other influencers, were sent letters urging them to support a digital campaign by sharing pictures of themselves wearing handloom With the government scrapping the Handloom and Handicrafts Boards ahead of National Handloom Day can we expect a new and dynamic platform for craftspeople? Three days before Handloom Day, industry leaders, Bollywood stars, designers, media, and other influencers, were sent letters urging them to support a digital campaign by sharing pictures of themselves wearing handloom The craft world is reeling from the Development Commissioner for Handlooms’ notice, announcing the abolishment of the AIHB , the almost 70-year-old All India Handloom Board, established in 1952 by Pupul Jayakar and nurtured by Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay. Done without a whisper of warning, it was a total surprise even to those directly part of it. It was followed by a notice that the All India Handicrafts Board had been similarly dissolved. With unconscious irony, the news broke just before Handloom Day. The notification, going viral on social media and WhatsApp, evoked both emotion and questions. It was a sign of how much the Indian public, even jean-clad millennials, still care for handlooms and handicrafts and the people who craft them. For the cultural heritage that shapes us as Indians. Among handloom weavers themselves, there have been protests and demonstrations, showing the importance they gave that official forum for their voices. Finding answers It’s true that all these years on, the Boards had become increasingly moribund, toothless and politicised. Successive governments appointed members as a reward to loyal constituents. The Boards hardly met. Nevertheless, AIHB and its twin, the Handloom Board, had more than historical value. They remained the one official forum, however watered down, where the voices and views of weavers and craftspeople could be shared directly with Government. One place where they were present in considerable numbers, actually mandated to advise bureaucrats on policy and sectorial spending. The given rationale for “abolishing” the AIHB (the wording is stark; it doesn’t say “re-constituting” or “dissolving”) is that the move is “in consonance with the Government’s vision of Minimum Government and Maximum Governance” and “a leaner Government machinery”. Somehow, this is not reassuring.

AIHB and its twin, the Handloom Board, remained the one official forum, however watered down, where the voices and views of weavers and craftspeople could be shared directly with Government Such spaces where people themselves can interact directly with Government, or be part of their own governance, are increasingly fewer and fewer. Rather than abolish them, we need to revitalise and revamp such institutions; seeking inspiration from their original objectives. Setting up the AIHB, it was intended that those members (it currently has a strength of over a 100) who were not serving officials were makers and practitioners, who could speak with authority and a knowledge of ground realities. The Cottage Industries Emporia, the HHEC, our SONA shops abroad, the Design Centres and Weavers Service Centres, the magnificent Vishwakarma exhibitions, the National Award for master craftspersons, were all initiatives that emerged from those early discussions. That pool of collective wisdom is much needed now, at a time when craftspeople and the sector are struggling for survival and imaginative solutions, while the gulf between the Government and the people it serves seems to be widening. Beyond digital campaigns Ever an optimist, I postponed too much dismay regarding the AIHB notification, expecting an announcement on Handloom Day (August 7) of some new handloom policy, institution, or think-tank to replace the AIHBs. Sadly, that hasn’t happened. What we got was the Textile Minister tweeting that “handloom can enrich our daily lives and surroundings in many ways; from clothing to furnishing to Masks in Covid times to wall hanging.” That we should “bring home handmade in India!”.

Handloom Day however, is not just about wearing pretty saris and posting selfies on social media. It needs to actively promote the professional skills of the people who make them, and ensure that they receive recognition. Part of this is giving them a voice and presence. Acknowledging that India’s skilled handloom weavers deserve the same respect and support that other professional sectors receive. A Textiles Ministry quiz on ‘know your handlooms’ and promised online opportunities are not an equivalent. Meanwhile, the Prime Minister also saluted handloom, saying it was “a symbol of India’s glorious cultural heritage and an important source of livelihood in the country”. He too encouraged people to use handmade products and spread awareness, adding that they will help India be a self-reliant country. “Let us all be #Vocal4Handmade and strengthen efforts towards an Aatmanirbhar Bharat,” he tweeted. The onus is on us.

However pragmatic a gesture, telling a sector in acute distress to be “ aatmanirbhar ”, while simultaneously abolishing their only forum to articulate problems and suggest solutions, is actually sending a negative message. Coming at a time when sales and livelihoods are at an end, a celebration of Handloom Day called for something different. What weavers need today is not rhetoric or pats on the back, but practical assistance to work through these hard times. A re-constituted and active All India Handlooms & Handicrafts Board, with practical grassroots experience, youth and energy, representative of the diverse hand skills that are India’s richest resource, could be the first reassuring step forward.

One can not overstate the contribution traditional craft skills make to weaving, printing and ornamentation in contemporary fashion apparel and personal and home accessories in India. However, as being someone who is particularly fond of hand crafted products and a compulsive shopper of the same; many apprehensions come to my mind. Why is it that so many craft forms, alive and vibrant as they have been over the years are really deadpan and colorless and it requires a particular designer / fashion body to really elevate it to the status of it being an exciting fashion statement?

The craft skill of khari is a case in point. The so called 'ethnic', 'crafty', 'alternative ' consumer has been patronizing it for years, albeit through boring kurtas bought at monotonous 'craft' Blind School exhibitions. Yet it took designer labels to really contemporize it interestingly so that khari printed garments now find their way to the wardrobe of the trendiest style icons of today! Another example is chikan embroidery. Granted that in the 1980s, many NGOs promoting traditional craft skills as means of income generation for low income artisans pulled it out from the depths of degradation and gave it a new lease of life but how come they still make their outfits in the same, boring shapes that they did a decade ago? Again it is only when chikan was adopted by big labels and adapted to suit contemporary taste that it has been incorporated into high fashion garment ranges. It is healthy practice for large design houses to revive and reinterpret traditional craft forms, but designer prices can seldom be afforded by the burgeoning middle class. It is this consumer group which currently has spending inclination for conveniently retailed machine made brands. A large part of the money spent could be redirected to the craft sector. To achieve this goal the product line has to be trendy yet retain the essential character of the craft form, has to be competitively priced and must be conveniently located. Larger artisan organizations can actively achieve this because they have direct access to their target customers (including both retailers and end consumers), have access to design experts from the best design schools within the country and have considerable marketing expertise and know how vis-à-vis their market base. Many Rajasthan & Gujarat based cooperatives of printers, weavers and embroiderers have used the services of design talent from National Institute of Fashion Technology & National Institute of Design. The sample collection is generally brilliant but the actual produce falls way below the sample range in finish, quality, cut and fit. The organizations still make great sales due to lack of alternatives for that craft range, but upgradation would be hugely appreciated by consistent consumers like me. The middle class customer today is willing to pay premium prices for products which are high on aesthetic and style. This premium price would still be far below a 'designer' price tag. I would love to buy a hand-woven silk/ tassar skirt ornamented with khari motifs from a regular craft outlet (so in vogue today) and would not mind paying a price commensurate with the cost of the upgraded fabric used. But unfortunately it is available only at designer stores where prices incorporate a premium that the designer brand commands. The more mainstream craft stores continue to stock khari printed skirts in cotton, thereby losing the opportunity of upgrading the product and riding on a prevailing fashion trend, which could have translated into greater per unit margin. Mainstream retailers would be happy to retail craft, provided the product adheres to a standard quality (the standard could be decided mutually by the retailer and craft producers, while leaving enough room for individual innovation), the product range is appropriate for the season and target customer, allows an optimum retailer margin and is delivered on time in adequate quantities. Though this might not seem an unduly difficult goal, there are instances where a prominent retail chain of lifestyle goods (who has a store each in all the metros and in many larger cities) placed an order of home furnishings with a weavers group. The theme based collection included cushion covers, floor cushions, bolster covers and floor coverings. The consignment that arrived included random pieces with no color-wise nor size-wise coordination. Needless to say, it made a poor visual presentation in the store. It is often argued that since craft is handmade and is labor intensive, it is difficult to churn out the volumes required by large retailers, and hence it can be sold only through 'boutique' stores. The same reason, the predominance of the human element in its production and how craft is not assembly line, is cited for non consistency in deliveries. Then how is it that craft, when exported, acquires large volumes and consistency in quality and delivery? Do the factors vary while retailing craft in the domestic market? We might cynically ask what use are the much touted and often foreign funded training programs that are supposed to resolve the eternal problem of quantities. Agreed that all the above mentioned problems related to the production and marketing of hand crafted products are also associated with mill made mass products and brands. Also agreed, that handlooms and handicrafts have come a long way post independence in the areas of design, production and marketing. Hand made products provide a viable economic, functional and aesthetic alternative to mass brands which today dominate contemporary fashion and lifestyle. They provide for a vital human buzz, for that dash of individuality that assembly line cannot. But to save craft from sinking into mediocrity, it is time to take yet another carefully calculated leap forward by appropriately modifying, adapting to and integrating within current retail and marketing processes so as to maximize outreach and promote a healthier alternative to the 'McDonaldization' of our lives.

Welcome and Opening Welcoming participants to this Kamaladevi Centenary Seminar, CCI President Shri Ashoke Chatterjee said that it was entirely appropriate to hold the seminar simultaneously with the KAMALA exhibition, which reflected the issues and opportunities which are its subject. Karnataka was Kamaladeviji’s home in many respects, and therefore it was also fitting that this tribute should be located in Bangalore. Her pioneering efforts helped rescue crafts from neglect and the impact of colonial rule. Thanks to Kamaladevi and other pioneers, today crafts are living and vital part of India both in terms of cultural values as well as in importance to India’s economic development. Any consideration of crafts for the next generation needs to focus on the opportunities which the sector can provide to millions of young craftspersons. Without a sound economic foundation, a viable future was impossible. Despite its importance to the Indian economy (handcrafts are estimated to provide the largest employment outside of agriculture), no one is able to provide an accurate picture of the sector’s size and scope. The number of artisans estimated in various documents ranges from 4 million to 200 million! What we do know is that the turnover last year of a selected group of crafts has been estimated at Rs60,000 crores, of which exports comprises Rs8,000 crores and textiles some 50% of the total turnover. These large figures disguise a real crisis in the sector. Ignorance of craft economics is part of this crisis, compounded by uncertainties in a rapidly changing scenario. Stringent competition, huge changes in lifestyles, new trade regimes are all part of the reason why artisans are in distress, moving to other occupations and sometimes even to suicide. There are no organized, professional marketing systems to backup a sector of this size and importance. Finance, technology, raw material and management skills are all difficult to access. Yet there is another side. Rising living standards provide a huge domestic market opportunity, estimated to be worth Rs3,500 crores in a few selected cities alone. This reflects increasing disposable income among the urban middle class, as well as the attraction of craft products for urban and young audiences. Opportunities overseas are almost limitless provided artisans and traders can together cope successfully with market requirements and new trade regimes. In addition, the new United Nations system of international accounts --- the Human Development Indices --- provides a major opportunity for acknowledging crafts not only by statistics but equally as essential to a good quality of life. There is also the global interest in ecologically viable production systems, reinforced at the recent Earth Summit in Johannesburg. This seminar should therefore assist an integrated approach that can bring new opportunities to the service of artisans communities and help them to cope with the challenges and barriers that persist. These discussions as well as future NGO interventions can draw strength from the outcome of the November Golden Jubilee Seminar held in New Delhi. Indeed, this seminar takes forward that national and international reflection on the experience of the past 50 years. The focus at New Delhi had been on the Shilp Gurus. Here, we take that analysis forward to the Next Generation of masters. Dr Lotika Varadarajan opened the discussion with a presentation of the Kalashiksha concept of education for craftspersons, now to be implemented as an experiment in selected locations. Dr Varadarajan distinguished between craft and art, stressing the opportunities for synergy between them. Tracing the history of key government institutions and policies established for craft development, she pointed out the need to create educational opportunities specially for traditional craftspersons, to help them to bridge tradition and modernity with confidence. The transmission of tradition from one generation to the next requires fresh support systems in this complex environment. Kalashiska in an ambitious scheme not restricted to skill or design or income generation. Rather, it is about how tradition can transfer successfully and how it can merge with contemporary situations, always keeping the craftsperson at the centre of development. Group dynamics, transactional analysis, semiotics and other fields of knowledge would all be used in this approach at “kala sadhna”, not to duplicate mainstream education but to use a flexible methodology of workshops and “floating programmes”. The efforts would start in Gujarat, M.P. and Chattisgarh. Local school teachers and senior district officials would be key resources. NGO would play an essential role as catalysts in this experiment to support new generations of craftspersons.

Session 1: YOUNG CRAFTPERSONS- INHERITORS OF TRADITION

Moderator – Ms Jasleen Dhamija Inspired by Kamaladeviji, Ms Siva Obeyesekere (Sri Lanka) has tracked craft development in her country over three generations. The Sri Lanka experience suggests the importance of developing college-level craft education alternatives to conventional university opportunities. These would give young craftspersons (YCPs) the status they need as well as exposure to skills, culture, values and entrepreneurship abilities. Promoting the next generation will also continue to require protective policies in countries like Sri Lanka which are highly dependent on imported materials. Fortunately the Government of Sri Lanka’s policies and planning are very pro-craft. Ms Raja Fuziah Binti Raja Tun Uda (Malaysia) called for strong regional collaboration which could help young craftsperson to network with each other and expand their knowledge through new opportunities like websites, awards and other regional recognition. A working definition of “young craftsperson” in the Malaysian context are those who have the motivation, attitude, skills, cultural sensitivity, innovative abilities as well as entrepreneurship understanding to cope with market realities. She felt it was important for young craftsperson to be able to access their own business opportunities. Young craftspersons in Malaysia are a relatively small number (out of an estimated total of 1008 persons recognized as craftspersons) and they benefit from pro-craft government policies. Ms Aarthi Kawlra (NIFT) stressed the importance of avoiding blanket solutions for YCPs and of understanding the variety of socio-economic contexts within which they function. Four models of craft production were presented as examples of the range of Indian craft situations. This diversity requires that tradition be understood not in any narrow sense but rather as an attitude, and as a traditional ability of Indian artisans to respond to change and challenge. Development of community resources should be a priority for future development, and specific education and training recommended. (Note: Aarti please flesh this out with highlights of your paper.) The discussion which followed heard Sri Munuswamy (terracotta craftsman, Pondicherry) who had participated in the focus group discussions with YCPs organized by CCI as preparation for this seminar. He stressed the importance of educational opportunities as the key to YCP development. He asked for reserved seats in design institutions as well as faculty opportunities in craft and design institutions. The Kalaraksha Craft Museum proposal could be a model, and provide a major incentive as well as resource for access to design and technology. Joint ventures at the village level could bring together YCPs in their own organizations. He cited the failure of clusters and SHGs, which were basically not under the control of craft communities. Access was demanded to special financial benefits and reservations, similar to those available to SC/ST/BCs and freedom fighters. Sri Munuswamy was also critical of recognition that goes to “non-traditional craftsperson” rather that to those who are “like us”. There was consensus on the need to develop opportunities for YCPs that would include entrepreneurship development along with craft skills and creativity.

Session 2: A New Generation – Craftspersons from Non-Traditional Backgrounds Moderator – Shri Ashoke Chatterjee

Prof M P Ranjan (NID) provided a definition of crafts and craftspersons which he considered more appropriate to the current situation of entrants from within as well as from outside tradition. He described craftsmanship as a capability and capacity essential to many aspects of learning and professional practice. It was both an attitude as well as a skill. Fostering this quality was a major educational and training challenge. His paper focussed on an approach to regional crafts for economic and cultural re-generation through the experience of two craft institutions which NID has helped establish: The Indian Institute of Crafts and Design Institute in Jaipur and the Cane and Bamboo Institute in Agartala. Candidates entering these institutions may come from non-traditional backgrounds. They would learn from craftsperson who would act as core faculty. Prof Ranjan presented an appraoch which takes craft education and training into a context wider than the situation of any single community. He suggested the need to develop a cadre of craftspersons with sensitivity and respect for tradition as well as an ability for business success that could ensure sustainable livelihoods. Ms Surapee Rojanavongse presented the role of NGOs in Thailand to help promote the Government of Thailand’s approach toward reviving traditional skills as a poverty reduction strategy. She also described the activities of the Asian Handicraft Promotion and Development Association (AHPDA) which is an ASEAN effort at promoting tradition access and contemporary level to training opportunities for YCPs. A seal of excellence was one of the means used to demonstrate and promote quality standards. In the discussions that followed, Ms Raja Faziah appreciated Prof Ranjan’s educational models and suggested the need for greater interaction on them, perhaps through a joint opportunity in Malaysia which could help artisans to understand the concept and to respond to it. The need for political will for craft promotion at the highest level was emphasized, while several members called for a strong follow-up to South-South cooperation recommendations, and to the removal of tariff barriers which could obstruct craft trade in the Asian region. Sri Gurappa Chetty called for a recognition and quality standards that could reduce exploitation and provide for a sustained market for a high quality.

Session 3: Trade Experience in Promoting Quality Crafts

Moderator – Ms Raja Fuziah Binti Raja Tun Uda This session opened with Ms Hema Sankalya’s presentation of Contemporary Arts and Crafts (CAC) 40-year experience in crafts for a contemporary Indian market. Its pioneering approach began in an era which was still new to crafts as life-style, functional products. CAC’s early efforts involved artists, traditional craftspersons, and the first professional designers to enter the Indian market. As a commercial organization, CAC believed in recognizing traditional craft talent as well as working with NGOs and with designers toward product innovation and the use of new materials to create “contemporary craft products for modern life-styles”. Functional and aesthetic products of an ever-changing market included machine-made items finished by hand. The CAC experience was presented by a review of each decade’s outstanding product lines, highlighting the aesthetic nature of each collection as well as experiments with modern materials and processes in combination with traditional craft skills. Ms Neelam Chibber offered the experience of Industree as a much younger enterprise based in Bangalore. Its focus was on approaching the contemporary market through understanding existing craft resources in terms of skills, materials and artisans’ opennes to new challenges. Industree’s approach was defined as “wanting the artisans to earn more – full stop!” A strong understanding among craft communities of cost/price issues was critical to the market success of any product innovation. For export promotion, there was almost no margin for error in such judgments. Industree product innovations therefore reflect the situation of the communities with which it works as the primary resource and constraint, channelising them in a way that meets the demands of makers and markets while also setting contemporary benchmarks of quality. Discussions focussed on the importance of pioneers such as CAC and contemporary enterprises like Industree documenting their experience and processes. This must be an essential learning for new generations of both craftspersons and craft enterpreneurs. The absence of such institutional memory within the craft sector was recognized as a major problem, both in India and throughout the Asian region: “We look at the products and fail to appreciate the history behind them”. It was recommended that CAC in particularly ensure that its 40-year history is preserved for posterity.

Session 4: Support Systems – Role of NGOs in Craft Development

Moderator – Ms Vijayalakshmi Prabhakar Ms Subhashini Kohli of Sasha (Calcutta) spoke of Sasha early beginning when “money-making was considered a dirty word among NGOs”. Sasha began as a hand-holding effort with local craft communities. An early lesson was that in responding to market needs Sasha would have to break tradition more frequently than it could sustain tradition. Finding earning opportunities for craft communities demanded bringing technology, economics and management capabilities not only to producers but also to NGOs working with them. Sustainable livelihoods and poverty alleviation have since assumed even greater significance for Sasha in the present context of globalization and its trade implications. Inherent in this is the need for international as well as national cooperation toward fair trade practices. Sasha has been an active participant in several regional fora, examining the challenge of international trade practices that impinge on the future of craft communities. The need for regional cooperation was paramount. Ms Kohli illustrated the employment potential through the Sasha experience in ‘Kantha’, an experience which also demonstrated the challenge of bridging the gap between traditional and contemporary markets as well as linking the producer and the consumer more effectively. NGOs had a critical role in providing this bridge function. Ms Beth Gottschling presented the experience of Aid To Artisans (ATA, USA) in assisting artisan groups worldwide to forge international partnerships that could provide improved livelihoods, encourage craft traditions, stimulate cultural vitality and assist community wellbeing. ATA acts as a “marriage broker” between buyer and seller. ATA works to strengthen the capacity of producers to cope with export markets, particularly those in north America. A training methodology has been tested to assist artisans to overcome the gap between what they currently produce and what their potential markets demand. ATA provides market links, product development and design inputs, and business capacity-building through training. ATA works through NGOs in developing countries to identify interested and capable crafts groups so as to develop them as competent and trusted role-models who can in turn diversify and understand markets, adopt and adapt appropriate technologies, and help reduce risk factors so as to encourage long-term investments. ATA focus is on helping partners understand the business cycle and thereby promoting business partnerships that otherwise might not develop because of barriers of high investment and low return. Stressing the NGO role in this connection, Ms Gottschling said ATA concentrates its investment in those areas were the risk for the private sector is currently too high. It works with craft communities and business houses until the latter are sufficiently confident to take over. She stressed the importance of developing a relationship with business houses that are or can be sympathetic to and supportive of a craft mission. ATA’s experience was very positive in this regard and it was important to ensure that the profit motive subserves the artisan’s interests, which must always come first. Ms Dinara Chochunbaeva (President, Central Asia Crafts Support Association, CACSA) began her presentation by saying that if the former speakers thought they had problems, they should reflect on the challenges in her region! Crafts in Central Asia are in extreme crisis following the collapse of Soviet Union and its homogenized, fictional approach to indigenous cultures. She described the situation in three of the newly independent states: Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. Kyrgyzstan has a strong NGO foundation and a craft sector dominated by women. Uzbekistan has a most advanced crafts market and Kazakhstan is also fairly well placed. Tajikistan has suffered internal strife while Turkmenistan is still closed. The region needs to adapt its product range to the market, currently dominated by foreign tourists. Training is a major lacuna, for which regional cooperation as well as South-South cooperation is essential. India could provide strong support to these countries through opportunities for exposure to new technologies. Simplification of customs and tariff regimes between the Central Asian countries is another major need. In this region ATA has played a strong role in bringing craft communities together and assisting product development. The recent visit by Crafts Council of India representatives to the region has suggested several opportunities for future collaboration. An important initiative by Udyogini (New Delhi) to set up a marketing support system for crafts was introduced by Deborah Thiagarajan on behalf of Vanitha Vishwanath (CEO, Udyogini) Over the past year Udyogini has been working with a group of craft NGOs (including Dastakar, Sasha, Aditi and Dakshin-Chitra) towards understanding current market challenges and developing a national-level marketing mechanism which could help transcend the limitation of individual NGOs by providing joint financial, technical and institutional resources for developing marketing opportunities. The proposed national level organization would be involved with a variety of functions including market intelligence, showcasing and sales opportunities, design and technical services, and linkages with financial institutions. Helping individual NGOs toward better management systems would be a part of this service. Promoters of the new organization would initially be NGOs already enjoying close fraternal relationships. They would contribute to the capital, and the organization would be registered as a non-profit company, run on thoroughly professional lines. At present grants and contributions are being invited to enable the organization to commence work. In the initial stages of its development, the new institution would be looking for opportunities to piggy-back on partners and well-wishers so as to reduce administrative overheads and to help ensure a national coverage. In the discussion that followed there was a strong support for a follow-up on the regional cooperation suggestions made by Ms Chochunbaeva. There were several questions on ATA’s future plans in India. Recent experience with its Maker To Market fund has been very positive. A need for greater understanding of intellectual property right (IPR) issues in the craft sector was raised, a management need which perhaps both ATA and the Udyogini experiment could help address. NGOs working in the craft sector were again encouraged to document their field experience for wider learning across the Asian region. This would not only build the data base essential to all working in the sector, but also pave the way for capacity-building efforts in the craft sector.

Session 5: Role of Government in Craft Development

Moderator – Prof. M P Ranjan The session opened with a presentation by Mr Chinnaphat (Thailand). He presented the experience of the Thai Government in promoting crafts through (Note: Aarti – please fill in, based on material now received from him). Ms Ungku Abrizah Ungku Tahir (Malaysian Handicrafts Development Corporation, MHDC) presented Malaysia’s experience since 1958 toward raising the economic status of its rural population through craft development. The objective of the MHDC is to promote craft industry through strong marketing and entrepreneurship skill development. Young craftspersons receive guidance in production methods, management and marketing exposure. Consultancy in product design is available on a cost sharing basis and a trade promotion incentive scheme offers linkages to domestic and overseas marketing opportunities. A national craft institute offers two and three-year training courses at the certificate and diploma levels. A production incubator center provides works space on rental to craft enterprises at nine development centers, where the range of technical and management training opportunities are also made available. (Discussion - Aarti – please fill in if necessary.)

Session 6: Conclusions and Recommendations – Ms Lotika Varadarajan, Prof M P Ranjan, Ms Raja Fuziah Binti Raja Tun Uda, Ms Vimala Rangachar (Panelists)

Moderator – Shri Ashoke Chatterjee In the final session, four panelists were invited to contribute their insights on the directions which had emerged from the Seminar sessions. Dr Lotika Varadarajan stressed the importance of education as a foundation for craft development. She said each method presented at the Seminar had its own validity, and suggested the need for follow-up opportunities that could concentrate on linkages needed between education on the one hand and marketing competence on the other. The Crafts Council should consider organizing training opportunities for NGOs entering the craft sector, so that they could better understand the challenges and options available, as had been suggested by Ms Aarti Kawlra’s paper. A key role for NGO intervention must be to assist craft communities in accessing and coping with official assistance schemes. Dr Varadarajan suggested a special workshop on this issue. The pyramidical structure of Government’s financial system make it almost impossible for those at the grassroots to manage the complexities of access and disbursement. Dr Varadarajan referred to the Shilpa Guru scheme just introduced by the DC(H) and suggested that the first recipient, Sri Gurappa Chetty, share his experience with the Crafts Council, and the Council assist him and others (including the Development Commissioner) to ensure that this new opportunity works smoothly. Prof M P Ranjan reiterated the need for a new definition and understanding of the term ‘craftsperson’ to embrace the larger community of entrants in addition to those who enter through tradition and heritage. It was also important to recognize the contribution which craftsmen using their heritage are making to contemporary production methods and design challenges. Recognition was also important for the emergence of new crafts based on new materials and technologies, such as the use of plastics and re-cycled products/materials. The distinction between the so-called ‘artistic’ and ‘functional’ crafts also require better understanding in a shared context of appropriateness to use and purpose. Prof Ranjan stressed the importance of integrating crafts in school curricula to develop both sensitivity as well as manual abilities and understanding of materials. He suggested that schools include courses that encourage innovation and creativity, giving recognition to the crafts in this pedagogical context. He called on the Crafts Council to take the initiative. The insights of trade experience were important to document, such as those shared by CAC and Industree. Ms Raja Fuziah called for an action agenda through the World Crafts Council (Asia-Pacific Region) which could focus on the implications of the educational models presented in Prof Ranjan’s paper. She suggested the need to expand on this presentation, and to fill in the content for each of the models in an Asian context. Regional cooperation must also focus on the needs of young craftspersons and systems of incentive and recognition which regional cooperation could provide. Bringing the ASEAN and SAARC countries into a stronger framework of cooperation could be assisted through activating the recommendations of this seminar. Ms Vimala Rangachar (CC Karnataka) underlined the importance of a better understanding among activists in South Asia of the implications of fair trade practices, and particularly the impact of new trade regulations on issues such as those concerning the rights of the child and child labour. Guidance was needed and help NGOs to balance protection of children from exploitation with the protection of traditional channels of craft heritage that are passed from parent to child. Vocational training that could give young people new opportunities for sustainable livelihood needs active promotion. An issue raised in this context was a recent Government of Tamil Nadu law requiring all children to be in the official school system. Crafts Council of India’s center at Sriperumbudur has been affected as the children brought together there are now required to shift to government schools. Crafts Council has developed a curriculum which combined basic education with craft skill development. The future of this experiment has now become uncertain. Other speakers raised the impact of Government’s privatization intentions on the future of state-run craft emporia. Ms Jasleen Dhamijia asked whether Crafts Council and other NGOs would consider taking over some of these emporia. If this was not practical, atleast there was a need to suggest restructuring options to the notice of central and state governments. Bringing corporate houses into the dialogue may also now be essential, so that the private sector can be encouraged to play a constructive role. A task force to look into the new policy environment was suggested, which should include craftspersons and young blood. Ms Dhamija suggested that ATA might explore the possibilities of a permanent space in north America for showcasing Asian crafts. Prof M P Ranjan suggested that the ecological contribution of craft production be advocated strongly with planners and decision makers. Ms Raja Fuziah said that documentation efforts also include video tapes of production processes that could be exchanged between communities and countries. Issues and Next Steps In his concluding review of two days of discussion, Shri Ashoke Chatterjee highlighted the following issues that had emerged as priorities and as next steps:

Several aspects of India’s education system have come under review, both formal and non-formal. The Kalashiksha concept should be widely circulated among participants so that the idea could be encouraged and possibly used beyond the locations receiving official sponsorship. Importance of crafts within formal and non-formal learning systems requires fresh consideration, keeping in mind the interventions made by YCPs and Prof Ranjan. The impact of legislation requiring all children to attend formal systems needs special study in the context of craft-related efforts by NGOs directed at children of craft communities.

Dr Aarti Kawlra’s paper on alternative support system for young craftspersons now requires translation into next steps as well as into possible training opportunities for NGOs.

Prof M P Ranjan’s models of craftsmanship/craftsperson and craft education, and his call for new definitions of these terms to make them more relevant in the contemporary context, needs to move into a next phase of analysis and application, as suggested by Ms Raja Fuziah. This could require special brainstorming opportunities, nationally and regionally.

Strengthening regional cooperation has emerged as a major recommendation to help bring SAARC, ASEAN and Central Asian regions into closer South-South cooperation and exchange. Here again, we now need specific steps, based on suggestions made by speakers.

The fair trade concept presented by Sasha has important implications in the context of the emerging WTO regime. Most of us know little about this. Therefore partnership with other NGOs and experts will be essential. Sasha could perhaps help us to understand the possible next steps which craft NGOs should take to improve there own understanding. ATA’s access to US expertise might also be helpful in this regard.

Intellectual property rights (IPR) is a dimension of globalization and the WTO regime which could be critical to protecting craft traditions, which recognizing that these are difficult to enforce through legal channels. The concensus appears to be that Asian craft tradition needs protection through sensitising consumers and traders about authenticity and quality. Quality marks and certification schemes have been suggested. Implementing these is the challenge. One option would be for craft groups such as Crafts Council to include there own hallmark scheme as certification of authenticity and quality control. Regional and international support demands close cooperation within the region and with organizations such as ATA who are working with overseas buyers to establish ethical trade practices.

There is an urgent need to share information on craft training facilities and resources available within the country and the Asian region, toward better cooperation and outreach.

Documentation of trade experience will be an essential input for developing training programmes that can address priority needs. CAC, Sasha and Industree could make a major contribution by documenting the experience that they have shared at the seminar.

Reviewing existing government schemes in order to assist access by craft communities requires special attention, as recommended by Dr Lotika Varadarajan. The new Government scheme for Shilp Gurus deserves careful monitoring and support.

ATA has emerged as an important window to skills essential to craft exports. Close linkages with ATA’s training and product development programmes should be made by NGOs in this region.

The presentation of a national mechanism for craft marketing requires follow-up through Udyogini (New Delhi). This effort is of specific relevance to NGOs who have achieved a sales turnover of Rs25 lacs, who could now join as shareholders in the proposed non-profit company. Udyogini was invited to keep participants in touch with next steps.

Issues of social security (particularly pension and medical insurance) continue to be a major concern for most craft communities. These need to be looked at in the context of self-help clusters. Next steps could include a dialogue with government agencies on schemes available or possible through the cluster approach as well as closer liaison with NGOs specializing on social security issues.

The approach to craft intervention outlined by Prof David Baradas (Philippines) at the November seminar in New Delhi (attached) could be used as an important tool in managing NGO intervention in crafts. The approach helps NGOs to understand the cultural and commercial implications of their decisions, and to develop strategies that can see these as complementary rather than as conflicting options. The seminar has reinforced the validity of Prof. Barada’s approach.

The suggestion that craft NGOs intervene with policy and strategy suggestions on moves to privatize state-run craft emporia requires consideration.

Kamaladevi Centenary Celebration Seminar, Bangalore 4 & 5 April 2003

Issue #009, 2022 ISSN: 2581- 9410 Age-old practices of the natural world were not confined to science. Human societies across the globe have developed rich sets of experiences and explanations relating to the environments they live in. Practices that have emerged from these experiences are today often referred to as traditional knowledge or indigenous knowledge or local knowledge or traditional wisdom. Such local knowledge is unique to a culture or a society. Often rooted within this traditional wisdom is the principle of conscious living, which is today widely referred to as sustainability. Sustainability at its core may well be summarized as an empathetic relationship between man and nature. India, as a country with rich culture and diversity has been a conservative community in terms of living and lifestyle. The once dominant ancient Vedic culture prescribed practices that were embedded as cultural norms. The traditions that emerged from these practices though showcase regional diversity often blend into homogenous beliefs. Supplemented by religious/ ritualistic beliefs, it may be observed that these practices dominantly featured ground rules of sustainability such as preserving, conserving, reuse, recycle, hand-made or use of natural raw materials etc. Textiles play an overarching role in transmitting culture through visual reference of material and techniques. Traditionally Indian textile practices have dominantly featured an organic flair to enhance visual charm. This paper documents such cultural practices within the area of textile and clothing that showcase the principles of sustainability much before its existence in the modern world as a mega trend. Literature review: The proverb “Old is gold,” describes the priceless value of ancient Vedic wisdom which perfected the life style of “simple living and high thinking”. Reference to Earth as Mother in India, significantly implies the reverence bestowed on it. The Vedic literature prescribed reciprocal approach towards nature and consumption, through the parameters of such reverence. Centuries before the appearance of the likes of Greenpeace, World Environment Day, and what is known as the environmental movement, the Vedas and other religious scriptures instructed about co-existence, that the animals and plants found in the land are sacred and therefore all aspects of nature are to be revered. This understanding, care and reverence towards the environment is common to all Indic religious and spiritual systems, viz., Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. Thus, there is ample evidence to show that the earliest messages of the importance of the environment and the need for ecological balance and harmony can be found in ancient Indic texts. (Kermani, 2016) Sustainable and environmentally friendly practices and psyches still continue to be part of the lifestyle and culture. India has both a culture of hoarding (in case something might come in useful), and thriftiness(re-use and hand-me-downs). It is not an uncommon sight in an Indian household to witness an old cloth being used as a duster. Things which have absolutely no value, such as old newspapers and books, or utensils, can be easily sold off to a scrap dealers to be re-used or re-cycled. Bucket baths, sun- drying clothes, and hand-washing dishes are other widespread, sustainable practices. Culturally, there is also an aversion to wasting food. (Pandey, 2017) Concepts of minimal wastage, upcycling, repurposing, organic procedures, natural remedies, and many more practices have become customs in Indian households. Following are a few practices and un-noticed trivia of sustainable Indian practices:

Fresh banana leaves as dining plates is a prevalent tradition during rituals and ceremonies
In rural Indian settings, mud floors are layered with cow dung solution, as dung was considered a natural disinfectant.
Coconut or palm leaves are often woven or thatched to be used as mats, roof or fences within rural Indian households, and today have become a common style of traditional occasion décor.
Earthen pots, pans, glasses were the earliest utensils
Broom sticks made of clustered dried veins of a coconut leaves are prevalently used in rural and urban India
Neem twigs were natural dental cleansers and brushes much before the arrival of a tooth brush
Coconut fibre (coir) as a dish wash scrubber was repurposed from the coconut often used as ritualistic offering in Hindu custom.
Khadi, a hand-spun and hand-woven fabric that played an important role in India’s struggle for freedom. It is a fabric that causes close to zero damage to the environment.
Ayurveda, a natural system of medicine originated in India almost about 3000 yrs ago. Ayur meaning life and veda meaning science or knowledge laid emphasis on use of natural foods (herbs, spices, oils etc ) as a means of cure and well-being

[caption id="attachment_193055" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Banana leaf dining[/caption]	[caption id="attachment_193108" align="aligncenter" width="182"] Dung layered floor and thatched straw grass roof[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_193057" align="aligncenter" width="135"] Earthen pot cooking[/caption]	[caption id="attachment_193075" align="aligncenter" width="244"] Coconut broom stick[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_193076" align="aligncenter" width="240"] Neem twigs[/caption]	[caption id="attachment_193060" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Coir scrubber[/caption]

Discussion: Sustainability & community connect: Ethnically The Waghris, a nomadic community of Gujarat in India, identify themselves with the word ‘chindi’ who deal informally with old clothes recycling trade for a century-and-a-half now. However, sari clad women walking across the urban residential lanes, typically on a late afternoon, balancing a bundle of clothes on their head with a stack of utensils on their shoulders used to be an usual sight in many Indian cities. The basic purpose of this trade is that they meticulously bargain at the door steps of the urban households to collect old clothes, which are further sorted, stitched, darned, patched up, ironed and packed to be further sold in second hand markets. This informal trade was based on traditional barter system, wherein old clothes were exchanged for steel utensils. Though this casual form of barter trade was devalued and has gradually diminished, its ideology may have survived without acknowledgements to the original wisdom. Modern retail has adopted similar strategies and formalised these approaches under their sustainability commitments as fashion brands have initiated campaigns to collect used clothing for discounts on fresh purchases.

[caption id="attachment_193009" align="alignleft" width="214"]

Women barters used clothing for utensils Pic source: https://ruralindiaonline.org /en/albums/chindhiwalli-women/ Pic credit: Dipti Bapat & Abhishek Joshi[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_193012" align="alignnone" width="294"]

Recycle for rewards Pic Source : https://m.facebook.com/hmtheus/photos/now-get-2-discount-cards-of-15-off-until-feb-25th-when-you-recycle-unwanted-garm/2053638914874351/[/caption]

Sustainability through conservative practices: Rafoogari, is a traditional art of specialised ‘invisible’ darning. This is yet another unrecognised profession that falls within the modern sustainability umbrella. Rafoogari has existed everywhere in India for centuries. Yet not many would know the crucial role of rafoogars in the creation, maintenance and renewal of celebrated clothing styles. Najibabad city in Uttar Pradesh’s Bijnor district has been the hub of rafoogari —the traditional art of darning—for centuries. Described as a healer of damaged cloth the Rafoogar owned an intricate hand skill. Once a specialised skill catering to celebrated textile crafts, the art of darning also migrated into a wide spread commercial profession catering to mending or repairing minor wear and tear. Darning has been used to extend the life of a textile material (garment or fabric) out of social or economic necessity or for sentimental reasons. The skill of mending may have endured the times largely due to the sentiment of heirlooms, i.e., textiles that have been handed over from one generation to the next.

[caption id="attachment_193013" align="alignnone" width="287"]

Rafoogari a dying craft Pic source: www.thebetterkashmir.com/srinagars-dying-craft-rafoogari-to-get-new-lease-of-life-darners-from-up-to-impart-training-to-srinagar-artisans-from-today/[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_193014" align="alignnone" width="305"]

Commercial darning Pic source: www.indiamart.com/mehrabros-dry-cleaners/darning-service.html[/caption]

Old or new, expensive or affordable, a consumable piece of clothing is bound to wear and tear. The conservative remedies of the olden times were much in contrast with the current disposable attitude. The past that has functioned on the principle of preservation and upkeep is slowly gathering ground once again although under newer terminologies. The repair cafes, as are called today on a global level hence may be perceived as new initiative of an old Indian wisdom. [caption id="attachment_193015" align="aligncenter" width="330"]

Repair café Pic source : www.norwexmovement.com/repair-cafes/[/caption] Sustainability and indigenous knowledge: Extracting colors from natural sources may sound as an easy process, however application of the same on fabric with excellent fastness is an art that needs thorough understanding of the chemistry behind these natural colors. The technology of mordants for natural dyes was known to Indians in at least the 2^nd millennium BC. It is not certain how these beginnings evolved into the elaborately colored textiles of the 17^th Century, which involved patterning with mordants in combination with wax resist but the mordant process at least at this stage of research must be credited to Indian genius (Gittinger M, 1982). Usage of mordants such as myrobalan and alum have been effectively utilised in fixing colors with firm fastness and brilliance. Bark, root, leaf, flower, fruit, dried rind, mud etc were all the sources for generating an array of colors showcasing the wealth bestowed by the nature. The cultural traditions behind these practices have been upheld with utmost reverence and rigour. In Dhamadka village in Kutch Gujarat, India , Khatris- traditional dyers and printers taste and savor the dye to estimate the depth of the color. “A son of the Khatri dyer can never get a girl in marriage until he passes the test of being able to judge the right proportions of the ingredients by using his senses and not gadgets” – Khatri Mohammad Siddik (Fisher, N. etal., 1993)

The mastery of these skills has earned much fame to the Indian dyer, fame based on both the spectrum of colors and quality of fastness unmatched by dyers in any other areas. In the Western and Middle Europe use of mordants to patterns was not significant until the Indian textile imports of the 17^th Century began to excite industrial curiosity. (Gittinger M, 1982)

While, the new age term slow fashion has gathered prominence in the 21^st century, the history of its existence may be considered to be rooted in India.

The Indian chintz Coat (Wentke), 1720–40 Culture: Netherlands Medium

Picture source: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/172427

Sustainability and upcycling :

Adornment plays a significant role in the Indian culture symbolising prosperity. Hence home, dress, body, animals etc are well adorned on auspicious occasions as per ritualistic norms. Embroidery as a means of ornamentation is a common form of clothing adornment. Phulkari of Punjab, Kantha of Bengal, Sujni of Bihar, Kashida of Kashmir, Tribal embroideries of Gujarat, Banjara etc are all examples of such embroidered adornments.

The Kantha embroidery, from West Bengal, India in its truest form is an example of upcycled trend in textiles. Referred to as the art of rags this embroidery involves hand stitching and layering of old fabric to create something new. The layered white base fabric utilises used white saris or dhotis, and the threads used for quilting and embroidery are unravelled from the colored borders of the worn out fabrics. Practiced in the rural areas of West Bengal, India, this embroidered textile dates back to 1^st and 2^nd century AD (Agarwal R & Sharan M, 2018). A true form of upcycling, the Kantha has repurposed old used saris and dhotis, into quilts, coverlets, floor coverings etc. Simple running stitches are used to embellish the base surface which hold the layers in place. Motifs drawn from nature featuring floral and animal themes are rendered with colorful yarns drawn out of the old material. Developed as a folk domestic art the Kantha today is a well-established Indian textile often making fashion statements. [caption id="attachment_193068" align="aligncenter" width="640"]

Quilt, Kantha of West Bengal, India Pic Source: Chowdhury R D, Gurusaday Museum, Kolkata[/caption] With much attention on the ill effects of fast fashion on the environment global clothing labels have shifted focus on to sustainable fashion. Upcycled and recycled fashion is trending as sustainable fashion. Humble practices of repurposing and upcycling were demonstrated much before the establishment of any formal terminologies or theories, denoting that ancient wisdom holds much relevance in modern times. Conclusion: Sustainability is a dominating narrative in the Indian cultural context. Regular lifestyle practices have shaped generations leading towards customary principles that are followed as traditions. Principles based on worship of nature, its elements, minimal consumption, handmade, home-made, hand downs, etc have been enforced through belief systems that created the cultural connect. The modest principles of reuse, recycle or upcycle may be identified as key elements of this conservative thought process. Seemingly developed out of economic needs these practices stemmed from the local wisdom that is governed by conservation and preservation. The traditional Indian textile craftsmanship that has evolved from an indigenous framework is a rooted within traditional knowledge. The Indian knowledge of coloring with natural dyes dominated the Indo- European textile trade in the 17^th and the 18^th centuries. The hand painted (and subsequently printed) Indian chintz catapulted its way from a furnishing to a fashion dress fabric threatening the local textile industries in France, resulting in the ban over the import of the Indian goods. This complex process of coloring with natural colors stands as a testimony to the local knowledge, the complete origins of which are very old and untraceable. Many legendary crafts that have been initiated for purely domestic consumption have slowly progressed as traditional crafts offering livelihoods to its practitioners. The Kantha of Bengal, is an example of such embroidered domestic craft that has gained prominence today as an traditional embroidered textile. The principle of recycling the used saris and dhotis into an utilitarian upcycled home product had gained much popularity and today kantha is an established craft fashioning many product ranges. Mending fabrics or rafoo (darning) is also one such practice that needed extreme skills to remain unnoticed. This craftsmanship, a skill of mending wear and tear helped build communities around the skills, that were inherited within the family. Communities emerged trading within the societal norms. Professions were adopted as community traditions which helped in creating harmonious living systems. The Waghris, the Rafoogars, the dyers, printers, embroiderers have thus contributed in their own way in upkeep and maintenance of the environment. The future is often created by reinventing the past. The ability to observe, adapt, adopt and cultivate has helped communities evolve for living. Sustainability in India was perceived as a localised individual commitment as opposed to the predominantly collective industrial approach of the West. The conservative thought processes or the sustainable past practices though may have evolved out of an economic need today are identified as a crucial approaches, making the bygone wisdom relevant to the current times. These practices are now noticed to have been tweaked to suit the commercial policies and practices suitable to the current market interests. While green issues are the core of Sustainability, it is understood that Indian sensibilities on the matter were culturally anchored along the sentiments of wellbeing much before formalising the Sustainability pitch as a modern philosophy.

Everybody seems to be celebrating 60 years of India's independence, especially the British. This summer England is besieged with India inspired events throughout the country. It is against this backdrop that one son of India has done her especially proud. Shabir Ali Beigh, a sozni embroiderer from Srinagar was visibly emotional when his piece titled "The Divine Garden" received the Best of the Best award at Art in Action, Oxford, July 2007.

Art in Action is a craft fair held every year at Oxford for four days. Organised mainly by a team of dedicated volunteers, the thrust of the event is to experience the act of creation. This year about 160 artists from England in different fields ranging from textiles, calligraphy, glass blowing, wood working, and jewellery demonstrated their craft. There were performances by musicians and dancers from different parts of the world. India and China have been given a dedicated space for the past two years. Dastkari Haat Samiti, a national federation of craftspeople based in Delhi coordinated the selection and funding of ten Indian craftspeople to participate at the event.

The breathtaking piece created by Shabir took about three and a half years to complete. Every inch of the Pashmina shawl was covered with very fine Kashmiri embroidery. The design depicts a garden consisting of twelve different flowers made from eighteen shades of threads. The use of colour is very subtle; the stitches appear as little marks of colour making up the lines and shapes. Each motif is made from minute stitches which are hardly visible to the naked eye. A combination of stitches is employed using very fine thread on a minute scale which prevents any single stitch from standing out.

Shabir's stall at Art in Action was busy with designers, customers and admirers at all times. This was not only because of his work but also his enthusiasm to communicate even without knowing their language. It made me proud as a designer and a fellow Indian that a traditional craft piece from India was rated the best at this event which had some very well crafted pieces made by western craftspeople and artists. The award was special also because it was selected by votes of the artists participating in the event.

The process of selection of craftspeople for the event is very organic. Traveling to craftspeoples' villages to conduct workshops and organizing various marketing events through the year, one comes across many talented and keen craftspeople. One has to create an interesting mix of experienced master craftspeople to showcase the excellence of our crafts, innovators who show the possibilities for the future and relatively unknown craftspeople who need the exposure.

Participating in an event like Art in Action not only provides a platform to create awareness about the rich traditions of India among people who enjoy art and creativity but it also helps us get new perspectives about our own culture. In UK craftspeople are either highly professional and individualistic makers or hobbyists. It is rare to find community crafts especially traditional crafts handed down for generations. There craftspeople identify themselves through the material or technique that they use, whereas an Indian craftsperson always identifies himself/herself through his community and the place where he comes from.

At Art in Action, people showed a keen interest in traditional Indian crafts; they looked for intricacy and decorative details as they associate Indian crafts with a high level of craftsmanship (and yet they also expect it to be cheap!). Varanasi brocade, woolen shawls from Kutch, thread jewellery from Rajasthan and stone inlay from Agra were very popular. Here people attach a great deal of significance in buying directly from the artist who created the work. The craftspeople also get encouraged and gain confidence by interacting directly and receiving appreciation from customers. On our return we received letters from the crafts people expressing their experience and we were glad to see that most of them overlooked the personal inconveniences to talk about larger issues. The pride they felt when their fellow craftsperson received the award, the inquiries they have received about their work since they returned, some of them had made special efforts to prepare new products for the event which received a good response. Given a chance they would all want to go back which means that they see this as a positive experience, whether this is a viable proposition in the long run is of course a different matter.

Issue #10, 2023 ISSN: 2581- 9410 In recent times, the search for local raw materials has become increasingly pertinent in helping global industries reduce their carbon footprints. For organizations looking to move away from dependence on imported raw materials or energy sources, investigatory research plays a vital role in uncovering potential options that are available locally. Although this process can sometimes take an extended period, it is often a necessary step in order to achieve long-term sustainability goals To help illustrate such a research endeavour, we can look to my own experience of searching for bast fibres in the region of Nagaland, although I did some amount of secondary research the materials weren’t quite complete let alone the artisans or the indigenous knowledge seems to have perished. During my scouting for unique and languishing crafts, I came across a bast fiber textile worn by the Khiamniungan Naga tribe during the Hornbill festival.

This unearthed a vast array of potential options, however before any design intervention it was essential to develop an understanding of the specific nuances of local artisans and craft. In my entrepreneurial pursuits I met a young entrepreneur from the community, providing an invaluable source of assistance in understanding the process behind crafting the textiles and what raw materials were being used and that’s how the plants were identified as Wild Orange Rhea plant (Debregeasia Longifolia) and Himalayan Stinging Nettle (Girardinia diversifolia) came into being, while the locals called it as Elloinui by the Khiamniungans. As a result, I dedicated a great deal of time and chose to be patient in order to ensure the smoothest possible transition before I stepped into their village territory. This required me to talking to experts within the community and the village they belong, about the foraging seasons, the physical structure of the fiber, understanding the process of its production and its uses in clothing and other woven products from the humble fiber into a value-added product that can ensure the highest quality.

As a designer, I have been fortunate enough to gain access to a wide variety of crafts, seen in different Naga communities across my state. Despite the wide variety of tribal dialects, I am blessed to have been able to connect with all of these artisans. Moreover, the further into the interior of these communities I go, the more the craft becomes purely authentic. It is fascinating to see the leveWild Orange, Rhea plant ,Debregeasia Longifolia , Himalayan ,Stinging, Nettl of detail, precision, and skill which goes into the utilization of raw materials. However, with the ever-increasing trend for the community to look toward the outside world with envy, it can sometimes be a challenge to maintain a traditional craft to languish.

The 2 non-timber forest products (bast fibres) Wild Orange Rhea plant (Debregeasia Longifolia) and Himalayan Stinging Nettle (Girardinia diversifolia) deserves to be recognised in gaining a better grip on the impact that raw materials can have on those who utilize and interact with them. An increased understanding of how to best use natural resources in a sustainable and responsible way. Additionally, a more comprehensive understanding of the materials involved has influenced artisans to push the boundaries of what is possible with certain materials. This has had a profound impact on how the material is seen, as it can elicit a vast array of reactions from those who come in contact with it. What is also intriguing is the indigenous knowledge with regard to raw material foraging and the context on how each community has interacted with its environment, which has been enlightening. By becoming aware of the impacts of the bast fiber and usage of raw materials, it has been possible to start considering the effects of our actions on the environment.

While exploring these cultures, it has become evident that raw materials have become a source of both pride and of envy. Raw materials evoke emotions and represent culture and identity, and understanding this relationship is critical to using these materials in a respectful and mindful manner. In terms of future opportunities, research and development can focus on enhancing the production techniques and exploring innovative uses for bast fibres. This could involve experimenting with different tools to blends, finishes, and treatments to improve the performance and versatility of the fibres. Additionally, collaborations between designers, manufacturers and local communities can foster the creation of unique and sustainable textile products, contributing to the growth of the market for bast fiber-based goods.

In a question posed to me: Q. After your research and understanding of the fibre from the community, in what way did you use it forward as a designer. A. The design intervention process was to involve working with the community to develop a new product category while maintaining authentic practices. Hence, I primarily focused on combining and permuting existing elements with value addition. As we progressed, we additionally, explored the use of ambar charkha cotton, natural dyes along with bast fibres in the warping process, resulting in a new warp weave pattern. As it involves high-labour and annual harvest, I needed to be mindful of the practical aspects and limitations of the community's resources and keeping the authentic craft practice intact, the aimed is to respect and preserve the traditional techniques and materials used by the community. However, to innovate and create something new within this framework, the approach involved experimenting with different combinations of fibres, colours, and textures to achieve a desired outcome and to be able to introduce sustainable and environmentally friendly elements into the process.

Issue 1, Summer 2019 ISSN: 2581 - 9410 There is something very intriguing about the innate creativity expressed by some artisans but not others. I have a great interest and some experience in developing training materials for use by enterprises in cultural sector, but have been working from the other end – the demands of the market. Why? That is how and where my experiences have led me. I too, believe in implementing ecologically sound and sustainable design, combined with the use of sustainable raw materials, non-toxic chemical products, low-energy tools and equipment, replacing consumer whim with real need. But I find that I can only truly implement such ideas where it can be achieved without inflicting substantial additional risks to the producer group than they have already. Unfortunately unless makers know that the ideas for products that one wishes to make are wanted, or indeed needed, by society, there is no safe way to proceed with their production, without risking a level of existence which most artisans find precarious. While I agree there are there are extraordinary designer/makers and artisans who have exceptional innate design skills combined with an astuteness in reading customers, based on a long tradition and sense of craft as a spiritual calling, the majority of the people practising as artisans rely heavily for product ideas on middlemen, as well those "designers (who) 'intervene' as honest brokers between traditional craft and modern markets" which you mention. Sadly, the transition from high-volume global economy to sustainable Fair Trade purchasing is taking far longer than activists would like. In the meantime artisans everywhere have to continue to work within the parameters of the globalised economy, in both domestic and export markets. While not forgetting the negative aspects of market-led design interventions, there is plenty of evidence to suggest that this particular design process historically produced results which have benefited maker and vendor alike. There is reason to believe that the artisan was not the sole shaper of the products he or she made. Is the history of innate design ability concealed within the way artisans worked originally. Product Function and Customer Participation in Design Early artisans made items of daily use: tools, clothing, furniture, utensils etc., which they either bartered for other products or for money. Many of these products were developed as commissions to individual customers’ specifications. Other customers saw the item being used and wanted some of the same artefact. As artisanship developed, some products became a standard design in a particular local or district market, leading to the batch production system; artisans pre-empting customer requirement by manufacturing small quantities in advance for sale in their markets. Further down the timeline, artisans experimented with product design and development. Products which customers found both beautiful and functional stayed in the range. Products which nobody found useful were consigned to the community refuse heap. But product development was always collaborative between artisan and customer until the industrial revolution generated factories, and further industrialisation generated marketing organisations as intermediaries between artisans and customers, leading to wholesaling, retailing, importing and exporting on mass scale as we know it today. Industry needed customer requirements if they were to develop compatible products. Somewhere in this period of change market research was devised for obtaining customer need/feedback as a practical aid to product development. But market research is no substitute for the direct relationship between artisan and customer. Perhaps this break in contact is more significant than we may realise. Some key artisans in UK made the transition from artisan to factory successfully: Josiah Wedgwood in ceramics: the engineer/maker John Newcomen designed and made steam powered deep lift water pumps to drain coal and tin mines. Shyam Ahuja became a great success in the Indian durry industry, while using hand manufacturing to maintain supply. Whether Shyam Ahuja designs can be classified as innately inspired depends on the observer, but there is no doubt that his business is successful because of the changes his company made in design of durries, offering a diversity of product to suit a wide range of taste evolving with market situations. By the early 20th Century artisans were already suffering the loss of direct contact with customers’ individual design requirements and input. The wealthy still commissioned products from the finest artisans, providing the makers with product ideas that somehow evolved to suit the changing times. As the wealthy were generally better travelled and possibly better educated, they knew about emerging changes in living environments, and could afford to invest in the new products. The interaction between client and maker was a delicately balanced one, where the client wanted a new item, while the artisan tempered the client’s enthusiasm with practical constraints of material and available technology to achieve the client’s dream. The results were often masterpieces of creativity in both function and aesthetic terms, but the product was still a product, not regarded as a work of art. The more average artisan was possibly drifting further out of touch with customers as industrialisation encouraged customers to buy the cheaper yet worse made factory products. Most customers can only buy what they can afford, even now. As an aside: in UK today a considerable proportion of artisan production is of beautifully made non-functional pieces, having no purpose other than decoration. Some crafts persons in UK are critical of this move away from the functional product towards “Craft as Art”, seeing functionality as the key definer of craft activity. There is also a marked expansion in the development of “decorabilia”, very expensive items, designed as amusing and entertaining trivia. By the 18th Century many of the finest makers in Europe were intensely aware of their competitors; every new product being studied closely for technological advances or novel design solutions in structure, function and aesthetic. The aesthetic was quite considerably determined by the demand by those “leaders of fashion” high in the market, each artisan hoped to catch a rich customer’s eye with a new ‘design’, hoping for commissions from clients and their friends. Even today, products advertised as being bought by the Rich and Famous fins sales customers swayed by the behaviour patterns of their idols. By the mid-20th century many artisans globally suffered from lack of direct contact with customers, as well as a diminished interest in crafts by local customers, whose eyes were being attracted by machine made items on ground of cost. The brass “Lotha” water pot of India has almost been replaced by the cheaper blow moulded plastic version. There is also much evidence of design stagnating, from “traditional” inlay woodwork in Saharanpur still being sold today, to embroidered and woven textiles, developed in Imperial China, remaining strong in the market even now, long after the PRC government denounced the “Four Olds” and ordered the destruction of Imperial crafts products during the cultural revolution. Reinforcing the Break There were many national and foreign agencies providing marketing and order processing, consignment packing and shipping services to artisan groups during the mid to latter part of the 20th Century. Many of them commenced their activity by offering the market whatever products the artisan presented to them, regardless of lack in market interest. In many cases some of these products did not even find markets in their country of origin. Some ATOs suffered severe difficulties as they learned that ordinary people will not buy what they do not want. So the majority of artisan groups appeared to have no understanding that product design is based upon research and study of market need, as well as the capacity to develop new and interesting products, even though they could have used market research methodologies in any market they chose. Products could be developed on the artisans’ own initiative without reference to the customers’ ideas, a considerable number of which were brilliant innovations, derivations or evolutions of traditional design rationale. Other makers were reduced to making variations of competitors' goods, in the wrong materials and of variable quality. So local and export ATOs and major commercial organisations used hired local and imported designers to develop new and adapted products which addressed customer needs in each specific market. Many of these agencies built strong and vibrant relationships with their artisan groups, providing the services that artisans were either unable or unwilling to learn. Fabindia in Delhi was a very early participant in such schemes with Habitat in the UK. The founder of Fabindia also built a very close relationship with producers who supplied Fabindia’s merchandise. One example of the need for artisans to have good market information was Hidesign in Pondicherry. Hidesign’s leatherworkers told me that Dilip Kapur, their company chief executive, could do things they could never do, travelling easily around the world, seeking information, discussing sales and shipments with importers in Manhattan. He, they said, had absolutely no ability in cutting and working leather. But he could come back to them from his talks with customers with ideas for new and stimulating products. Both manager/owner and worker alike each worked as best as they could for their mutual benefit; a symbiotic relationship which is still a strong company in the international travel goods market sector around the world. There are many examples of healthy relationships of this kind around the world. From my perspective, the current situation is that, given the slow emergence of Fair Trade as the most popular and mutually advantageous form of trading, it is still necessary to train artisans in developing essential business management skills or assist artisans by providing marketing services for them. The word "Middleman" in many countries is a term of abuse for entrepreneurs who exploit their workforce with low wages and atrocious working conditions, dropping them when the fashion for one craft skill declines in favour of another. This situation has an ancient a history, where one group of persons takes advantage of another. This can only be changed by people learning the need to respect every kind of individual on the planet. Artisan Training Training for artisans was traditionally apprenticeship based in just about any country you can name, where the master craftsman was regarded almost as a deity whose every word was treated with reverence. Apprenticeship seems to commence with learning how to clean workshops, fetch and carry, making inevitable cups of tea for master and customer. This led to being allowed to try one’s hand under supervision at various tasks with different tools on scrap materials, then on simple products. In one Burmese woodcarving shop in Mandalay, I watched the artisans sitting in rows all facing the same direction. The front row sitting facing me were the most junior, undertaking timber preparation and rough carving of decorative motifs. The second row made finer detailed carving and some joinery, while the finishing carving, assembly and polishing were the task of the owner of the workshop and his most skilled workers. All over the world there are countless artisans who have no need to market their products. Their reputation for products of excellence in manufacture and social or aesthetic criteria of the national culture is spread by word of mouth. Is there a clue? Not really, many artisans of the world are famous because the good news spreads. Japanese bow makers could conceal their signature within the laminations of their compound bows. Their customers knew their work by the quality of function and making, durability and special features of the bows they made. In Germany today there are still Crafts Guilds, whose members wear uniform, follow strict apprenticeship training and still walk round Europe to find work as day journeymen according to very old traditions. Why are these master artisans so successful? A master crafts person’s sense of quality extends into a broad spectrum of respect for, and seeking for perfection in:

Form: in relation to the raw material, production processes and a harmonic relationship with -
Function: the operation, ergonomic and environmental aspects of the item concerned, allied with -
Aesthetics: influenced by both long standing and latest trends, as well as emerging foreign influences arriving in the artisan community through trade contacts.
Raw materials: traditional and new, available, of finest quality and hopefully sustainable, though when material became unavailable, artisans either moved, changed materials, used inferior materials or closed down.
Tools and equipment: Purchased or self-made, of the best quality they could afford, were necessary as an adjunct to fine quality work. Well-ordered work space contributes to quality production. Health, safety and environmental issues must be given the same attention to quality as to the products’ qualities.
Working skills: Making skills of very high level are essential for the production of finely finished work.
Service to customers, their needs and ideas: This is not the interaction of the current marketplace, a vague knowledge of customer needs or desires. This is the ability to engage with the customer so that total service becomes part of the entire product quality, yet does not compromise the values of either customer or artisan.
Price and value: Two different qualities are involved. Firstly, a fair wage to the artisan reflecting a respect for their skill and integrity. Secondly, a price which reflects whatever values the customer has for the product. In the current situation this is known as “What the market will bear”. Some European artisans actually have no sense of any give and take in prices. Many of their customers have no understanding of the true value of the artisan made product when compared with mass production products.
Packaging and delivery, after sales service: The quality of provision of such ancillary activities must be as intense as those given to the design and development of products.

All these combine into an essence of a classic design process. These skills and attributes are absorbed by good apprentices, and maintained by dedicated makers. By paying due attention to detail of all the above, is not a good design result quite likely? But apprenticeship is a waning activity. In NE Thailand no one wants to work as a silk weaver when there is a uniform to be had and good regular money to be had at a multinational factory across the river. Many artisans do not want their children to follow them. Yet there are dynasties of master craft persons. What are the differences between the master and the average? Some UK artisans say that they can no longer find people willing to become apprentices; wages are poor, hours are long, and skills acquired over time have limited interest to young persons living in a social environment with many distractions. Apprenticeship in reputable workshops allowed apprentices to witness transactions, customer relations, and the politics of trading, all without having to risk their own money or reputation. They can learn frugality, prudence and caution in business dealings through observation. They also observe their master craftsperson making design decisions in all aspects of product development and design. They learn the technical nature and working of materials through trial and error and observation over time. The apprentice working in the woodblock printing industry in the “Floating World” of Edo in Japan was able to witness the creative skills of such masters as Hokusai and Hiroshige at first hand. Surely this should count for something as an impact on a young mind? If society recognises that young persons in slums run the risk of being contaminated by negative and criminal influences, then the opposite should apply; apprentices who associate with masters should absorb some of the less visible influences that make a master or mistress artisan. Perhaps creativity and design principle or processes are transmitted by osmosis from master to pupil, in the same manner as the qualities of honesty, openness, equality and fairness can be transmitted from parent to child, through both example and instruction. Today in many countries people can study crafts in college, and immediately after graduation set up in business to sink or swim. Many practicing UK artisans with very high skills have told me that their colleges or institutions taught them the most difficult task of any artisan:

Finding and convincing a customer that the product they are examining is the finest aesthetic and manufactured quality, technically functional, and best value for money – Market Research, Promotion and Marketing.

The UK Crafts Council now runs courses in enterprise management, which includes intense study of these subjects. So perhaps we come back to a situation where the nurturing of creativity in an environment wholly dedicated to quality is one of the answers we seek. Teaching quality?Should there be a holistic relationship of the artisan to the society in which they work? Teaching open-mindedness, humility, social responsibility and accountability and dedication as a holistic activity? Does an artisan need a mind that enquires beyond the boundaries of their workplace? Can one teach curiosity? A fourth aspect of master artisanship is a sense of spiritual worth, making products which are not necessarily of high financial value, but which present in their substance a sense of perfection. Teaching perfection and some form of spiritual quality? This puts me in mind of reading Robert Pirsig’s “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance”. The author admits that the book has precious little to do with Zen, and not much to do with motorcycling. But there was a great struggle with quality. Also evident was a considerable struggle with perfection and spiritual meaning. At this point I am not sure that I am any nearer to answering the question of innate design skills in artisans.