Bypassing Jaipur

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Bypassing Jaipur: Changing Castes, Natural Dyeing and Bum-Chik-Bum in Kaladera

Sunny and Meeta

They had never seen white soldiers before. Once they had passed by on horseback. That’s all they knew of the Raja of Jaipur, to whom the village as gifted. They neverBritish Raj.They knew very well the Baiji, the sister of thehad a Thakur over lording them. Nearby villages aisinghpura, Narsinghpura were probably all named after some Rajput scion. The nearest town Chomu, too had its small palace and reigning Rajput, who had sold the palace to a Bania who turned it into an atta mill. Kaladera. Never really found out why it was called that. Me and my spice (better than the word spouse!) had first gone there in early 1994 to carry on our work in hand block printing and natural dyeing. Kala-black, dera-campsite/settlement. We preferred to think of it as Kala-art. Kaladera is a big village with a population of around ten thousand. It has a mix of forty castes and sub-castes which do not intermarry, both among Hindus and Muslims.
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