In Context

Advocacy, Crafts, Handlooms, Art, Economics, Employment/ Livelihood

In Context: Practicing Craft Today

Sethi, Dr. Ritu

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 th...
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