History (Craft Traditions of India)

Craft Traditions
of India
Past, Present and Future
Textbook in Heritage Crafts

for Class XII
C ONTENTS
Foreword iii
Introduction v
Unit I: O VERVIEW OF THE P AST 1–39
1. Crafts in the Past 3

2. Colonial Rule and Crafts 15
3. Mahatma Gandhi and Self-sufficiency 31
Unit II: C RAFTS R EVIVAL 40–85
4. Handloom and Handicrafts Revival 43

5. The Crafts Community Today 55
6. Production and Marketing 73
Unit III: S TRATEGIES FOR THE F UTURE 86–133
7. Crafts Bazaars 89
8. Craft in the Age of Tourism 103
9. Design and Development 119
Annexure: Treasure Troves of Indian Craft 134

UNIT I
O VERVIEW OF THE PAST
1 CRAFTS IN THE PAST
L E T us begin by understanding the myriad roles a

craftsperson plays in the society as a designer, a problem-
solver, a creator and as an innovator, leave alone the maker
and seller of craft objects. The craftsperson therefore is
not just the maker of an object, and a craft object is not
just a beautiful thing—it has been created to serve a
particular function to meet a specific need of a client.
For instance, the client or the consumer may ask the
craftsperson to make him/her a cup which he/she can
comfortably hold and from which sip a hot drink. The
craftsperson, in this case, a ceramicist, will design a cup
with a handle comfortable to hold, and shape the cup in
such a way that it is neither too heavy nor too big.
In this example you can see that the client has given
the craftsperson a problem to solve—to make a cup for a
hot drink. The craftsperson has found a good solution to
the problem by designing a cup with a handle. The design
elements in this case are the handle, the
shape of the cup, its weight and a suitable
size to make it comfortable to use. If the cup
is pleasing to look at, that would be an
additional benefit and we could say that the
cup designed by the craftsperson is also
aesthetically pleasing. The critical factor,
however, is not the motifs and decoration on
the cup, but rather the craftsperson’s skill in
finding appropriate and innovative solutions
to the client’s problem.
4 CRAFT TRADITIONS OF INDIA: P AST, P RESENT AND F UTURE
R ELATIONSHIP BETWEEN C LIENT AND

C RAFTSPERSON
There are three important factors to be considered in
this case: (i) the client and his/her needs, (ii) the nature
of the problem to be solved, and (iii) the craftsperson
who is skilled and innovative enough to find a solution
to the problem. Close exchange between the client and
the craftsperson is very important for the end product
t o b e a p p ro p r ia t e . T h e c li e n t h a s t o in s p ir e th e
craftsperson to produce, innovate and create new and
exciting objects all the time. The craftsperson, in turn,
needs to understand the demand of the client. If the
client orders a hundred diyas for Diwali every year, the
order is quite routine and boring. Should the client ask
for one stand with a hundred diyas instead, the potter
has to work out how to make a stand that will hold a
hundred diyas and still be easy to
transport, to be repeatedly filled with
o il a n d s o o n . T h e r e fo r e th e
relationship between the client and
the craftsperson is vital.
A craftsperson therefore has a very
important set of skills by which he/
s h e c a n d e s ig n , in v e n t , s o lv e
p ro blem s, c re ate, an d se ll. Ev ery
country in the world needs such people
who are skilled in creating practical,
e ffic ie n t s o l u t i o n s to e v e ry d a y
problems. Craftspersons skilled in
fabricating with different materials,
and communities who can constantly
innovate and design new products to
meet changing needs are necessary
in all societies, ancient or modern. For
instance, the everyday problem of
having to carry large quantities of
w a t e r o v e r lo n g d i s t a n c e s w a s
uniquely solved in Kutch—the matkas
(water pots) fit into one another and
can be balanced on the head of a
w o m a n , le a v in g h e r h a n d s fr e e !
C RAFTS IN THE P AST
Similarly, today we appreciate the talent of a person

who designs a new computer application, or makes a
breakthrough in technology.
In this chapter you will see that India has always
had a large community of innovative craftspeople from
the earliest periods of recorded history. It was the crafts
communities of different regions who designed homes
for the poor and the rich that suited the climate, built
places of worship for any god that the community wished
to worship, who made cooking utensils that simplified
food preparation, created items for the home, and for
people to wear, like textiles for different occasions and
varying climates, and jewellery of all kinds.
C RAFTS FOR PROBLEM -SOLVING

Whenever you look at a craft item try and discover what
problem the craftsperson has solved and, what the client
may have asked for. You will recall that in the textbook,
Exploring Indian Craft Traditions—Field Study and
Application in Heritage Crafts, the first chapter, ‘Crafts
at Home’, was a detailed exposition of the design aspects
of the lota by Charles Eames.
Living Bridges
Here is how a curious problem was solved in Meghalaya, where the
climate is hot and humid most of the year, where Cherrapunji was
once the wettest place on earth. They needed bridges over their little
streams and rivers so that people could cross with their belongings
and animals. As you know, bridges around the world are built of
wood, steel and concrete. However, in Meghalaya they could not use
wood because it would rot, nor could they use metal of any kind or
metal nails as these would rust. The problem was how to make a
strong bridge across fast-moving rivers without wood or metal?
The solution they found is ingenious, brilliant and so useful!
They learnt how to train the aerial roots of the Ficus Elastica tree to
form a living bridge across the river that would not decay or
deteriorate in the humid rainy climate. Over several years they had
to train, bind and care for their bridge as it linked across the stream,
then they placed flat stones on the cradle-like bridge to create an
even footpath. This living bridge of roots lasts years and uses no
dead wood or metal!
When we say that India has a long and ancient

tradition of crafts we mean that we always had creative
and innovative people who found interesting ways of
solving problems.
The crafts and craftspeople of India are a deeply integrated part
of folk and classical traditions and historical assimilations
which together span many millennia. As articles made purely
by hand for the daily use of both the common people in an
agrarian economy and the urban elite, crafts reflect the cultural
ethos of India. While the craftspeople have been cradled by the
caste system, their skills were fostered by cultural and religious
needs and the im petus provided by local, national and
international trade.
–J AYA J AITLY
Visvakarma’s Children
C RAFTS S PECIALISATION
In India, as in most other parts of the world, the artisan
as a specific social group emerged only when people
began to settle and cultivate the land. While most people
in these communities would busy themselves with
C RAFTS IN THE P AST 7
actually carrying out the various activities related to

tilling the soil, a few began to specialise in different
crafts. Some would make containers with straw, reed
or clay to hold agricultural produce, another would make
footwear, yet another would specialise in iron-mongering
to create scythes and sickles, and yet another in the
manufacture of cloth from flax and cotton.
Even today, in India, handicrafts form an alternative
source of earning an income, providing the backbone of
t h e e c o n o m y fo r m a n y c o m m u n it ie s . T h e ru ra l
c ra fts p e rs o n c a n e a s ily p la n h is / h e r p ro d u c t io n
schedule according to the local agricultural calendar
and the seasons of the year. Craft production can be
organised in those months when agricultural activity
is low thus providing additional income to the family.
Many women work at their crafts in their spare time,
after completing their housework. In recent years there
has also been a tremendous increase in the number of
people turning once again to their traditional craft as
th eir sole means of income. However, others on ly
s u p p l e m e n t th e ir e a r n in g s w ith th e ir h a n d i c ra ft
products. This economic factor greatly contributes to
the continuation and the alteration of the character
and the production of the same craft, i.e., to make it
market-friendly.
By the time of the Indus Valley Civilisation (3000–
1500 BCE), a developed urban culture had emerged that
s tr e t c h e d fr o m A fg h a n i s ta n to G u ja ra t. H e r e
archaeologists have found votive figures of clay as well
as clay seals, beads made of semi-precious stones,
garments of cotton and earthenware of all shapes, sizes
and design, all of which indicate a sophisticated artisan
culture. The crafts community also worked out simple
solutions to take waste water out of the houses by
creating clay pipes. The waste water was carried by the
drainage system under the city streets, and out of the
city. To supply water to everyone in the city, builders
and masons dug wells in the courtyard of every house.
Five thousand years ago specialised crafts communities
answered social needs and requirements with ingenuity
and practical solutions that enhanced the lives of the
people.
T h e S a n g a m c la s s ic s w ri tt e n b e tw e e n
100 BCE–600 CE refer to the weaving of silk
and cotton cloth. Weavers were already a
recognised and established section of society
with separate streets for them named karugar
vidi or aruval vidi. In both the Chola and
Vijayanagar empires (ninth to twelfth century)
the weavers lived around the temple complex,
weaving fabrics to dress the idols, drape as
curtains, clothe the priests and the people of
the locality, as well as to cater to trade from
across the sea.
T h e m a n u fa c tu re o f t e x ti le s w a s
concentrated in three areas: Western India,
with Gujarat, Sindh and Rajasthan as its
fo c u s ; S o u t h In d i a , in p a r ti c u la r th e
Coromandel Coast; and Eastern India including Bengal,
Orissa and the Gangetic plain. Each of these areas
specialised in producing specific fabrics and specific
motifs. There is evidence that various forms of economic
organisation and methods of integrating craft production
in to th e m ac ro-system of th e econ om y existed at
different points in Indian history.
S HRENIS OR T RADE G UILDS

The Ramayana and many plays from the Gupta period
and Tamil Sangam literature write in detail about the
trade guilds or shrenis. These were professional bodies
of jewellers, weavers, ivory carvers or even salt-makers
who came together to control quality production, create
a sound business ethic, maintain fair wages and prices,
sometimes operated as a cooperative and controlled the
entry of newcomers by laying down high standards of
c ra ft s m a n s h i p a n d e n fo r c i n g r u l e s re g a rd in g
apprenticeship.
Each guild had its own chief, assisted by others. These
functionaries were selected with great care. Guild
members were even entitled to impeach and punish a
chief found guilty of misconduct.
The shrenis were not necessarily restricted to a
locality, and were known to move from one town to
another, over a period of time. Occasionally, shrenis (of

m erch an ts and artisans) came togeth er in a join t
organisation, called the nigama, or the equivalent of a
chamber of commerce and industry. Some nigamas also
included a class of exporters, who transported the
specialities of a town over long distances, and sold them
at higher margins of profit than those they could obtain
locally. By all accounts, the shrenis were very sound
and stable institutions, and enjoyed considerable moral
and social prestige not only among their own members,
but in society at large. This conclusion is borne out by
their records, preserved in inscriptions all over North
and South India.
The institution of guilds came under severe strain
over the last five centuries. Writing in 1880, Sir George
Birdwood observed, “Under British rule... the authority
of the trade guilds in India has necessarily been relaxed,
to th e m arked detrim ent of those handicrafts th e
perfection of which depends on hereditary processes
and skill”.
Artisans’ guilds are almost unheard of in India today.
The cooperatives promoted by the government, may be
viewed as the modern avatar of artisans’ guilds, but
their success, so far, has been limited.
T HE S OCIAL D IMENSIONS OF C RAFT P RODUCTION

The bulk of craft production in India, until the colonial
period, was for the immediate rural market, and craft
items were produced in small units using very
little capital. S in ce h eredity determ in ed th e
artisan’s choice of trade in most cases, the family
naturally developed as the work unit, with the
head of th e fam ily as th e master-craftsman,
providing the necessary training to other family
members.
The Arthashastra of Kautilya (written in the
third century BCE) makes a distinction between
two types of artisans: the master craftsperson who
employed a number of artisans on a wage to do
the actual work for the customer and the artisans
who financed themselves, and worked in their own
workshops. Artisans were remunerated either in kind

or in cash. Nevertheless, in those areas where the use
of money had not been introduced, service relationships
and exchanges in kind may have existed. It is likely
that the jajmani system evolved from these service
relations.
T HE J AJMANI S YSTEM
In many parts of India the jajmani system defined most
of the transactions in the craft sector. The jajmani system
is a reciprocal arrangement between craft-producing
castes and the wider village community, for the supply
of goods and services. The caste system did not permit
the upper castes to practise certain occupations. As a
result the patrons or jajman were dependent on purjans
(cultivators, craftsmen, barbers, washermen, cobblers,
sweepers, etc.) to provide essential goods and services
for the village/urban economy. In return a fixed payment
in kind was assured. This could be rent-free land,
residence sites, credit facilities, food or even dung! Since
most upper-caste people owned land, the jajmani system
provided them with a stable supply of labour. Today
this system still holds sway over several parts of the

c o u n tr y , thou gh colon ialism , competition , better
communications a n d im proved civ il law s h a ve a ll
transformed it in their own ways.
In the Sultanate and Mughal empires of North India
karakhanas (factories) were maintained by the State.
This practice was followed by several other Indian rulers
of the same period.
The slow decline of the Mughal empire meant a loss
of patronage for the highly specialised crafts of shawl-
making, stone-carving, jewellery, meenakari, luxury
textiles, and miniature painting. In search of royal
clients, craftsmen moved away from the Mughal court
to find employment all over the kingdoms of Rajasthan
(Jaipur, Udaipur and Jodhpur in particular), in the
Deccan and in Bengal. But much of this was to change
with the advent of colonialism.
The Mughals found on arrival in India that indigenous Indian

art was as decorative as the arts of China, Iran and Central
Asia. Since the number of foreign craftspeople coming to India
was small, they depended largely on the skills of local people
and the products that emerged from their work were neither
imitations of foreign forms nor a mere continuation of Indian
ideals. The Indian factor, however, became fairly strong in
Mughal art and Emperor Akbar was a particularly keen patron.
The Ain-i-Akbari tells us that the Emperor maintained skilled
craftsmen from all over India. Akbar personally inspected the
work of his men and honoured the best with bonuses and
increased salaries. Special types of arm our, gilded and
decorated weapons, royal insignia, and a vast range of woven
and embroidered textiles were commissioned for the royal
household as well as for gifts. The shawls of Kashmir received
a new lease of life, while the artisans of Rajasthan and Delhi
made the finest court jewellery.
Fine handicrafts were the most sought after objects of high
Mughal society. The emperor, his family and the nobility were
its principal patrons and it was the indigenous artisan working
in Mughal workshops who contributed substantially to the
aesthetic character of the designs, bringing to his art a tradition
of ideas and attitudes.
– J AYA J AITLY
T REASURE T ROVES OF INDIAN C RAFTS

It would be interesting and instructive to compare and
contrast craft products of different materials as they were
produced in the past with those of today. To see wonderful
examples of crafts of the past you could visit museums
that have specialised crafts collections. There are fabled
roy al co lle ction s o f a rt trea s u res , a rc h iv e s an d
memorabilia housed in palaces throughout India that
will give you an idea of what a famous tradition of crafts
existed in India through the millennia.
In the past 150 years over 700 museums have been
established in India. Of these there are a few specialised
c ra ft s m u s e u m s . E a c h o f th e s e h a s a d i ffe r e n t
focus — concentrating on one craft, a single person’s
collection governed privately, or those established by
the government. Information on some of these have been
provided in the Annexure. Amongst the most famous of
these m u seu m s are the Nation al H an dicrafts an d
Handlooms M useu m (Crafts M useum ), New D elh i;
A s h u t o s h M u s e u m , K o l k a ta ; C a l ic o M u s e u m ,
Ahmedabad; Utensils Museum, Ahmedabad; Salar Jung
Museum, Hyderabad; Dinkar Kelkar Museum, Pune; and
Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangrahalaya, Bhopal.
EXERCISE
1. Investigate and find an example of an innovative design
solution to an everyday problem devised by craftspersons in
your vicinity. It could be adding a tap to a matka, creating a
sequence of bangles aesthetically linked together so that they
do not need to be individually worn, etc. Describe the ‘problem’
and the creative design innovation and purpose.
2. Through conversation with local artisans record a short ‘oral
history’ of the development of a craft in your neighbourhood.
Describe the evolution of craft products to meet contemporary
needs.
3. Investigate the concept of crafts as a seasonal or part-time
activity in the working pattern of craftspeople in your
neighbourhood. How many are fulltime, part-time, seasonal?
Make a table/pie chart of the same.
4. Make a list of crafts in your state that
 are made by specialised crafts communities;
 bring additional income to agricultural communities;
 are made exclusively by women;
 are made by men;
 are made by a single artist;
 are made by groups of craftspeople.
5. Describe how you would set up a museum corner for your

school.
6. Explain why you think there should be a crafts museum in
every state and whether it should have an all India perspective
or focus on those local crafts that are disappearing.
2 COLONIAL RULE AND CRAFTS
W H E N you see the wonderful displays in the crafts

museums of India you will not be surprised to learn
that crafts formed a major part of our exports throughout
history. In fact, India’s crafts communities produced
such fine and artistic objects that merchants travelled
from far to acquire these goods. Seventeenth century
courtly patronage, trade, the jajmani system and the
demand for everyday utility crafts by the rural population
(until the second half of the seventeenth century),
resulted in a steady home market and a worldwide
reputation for Indian crafts.
Tavernier, a French traveller in Mughal India, states that the

Ambassador of the Shah of Persia (CE 1628–1641), on his return
from India, presented his master with a coconut shell, set with
jewels, containing a muslin turban thirty yards in length, so
exquisitely fine that it could scarcely be felt by the touch.
TRADE
India has had a long history of trade in craft with other
countries beginning from the Harappan Civilisation 5000
years ago. Over the centuries,
trade with Greece and Rome grew
and historical evidence can be
fo u n d in li t e r a t u r e and
a rc h a e o lo g i c a l e x c a v a t io n s .
Flourishing trade led to overland
routes like the Silk Route and
brought silk from China through
A s i a in to E u r o p e . T h e r e a r e
a c c o u n t s o f c a ra v a n s , a n d
traders speaking different languages, meeting at trading

stations along the route. Ship-building centres and ports
developed along India’s long coastline. Sea routes to
the Mediterranean countries, Sri Lanka, Myanmar,
South-east Asia and China are mentioned both in
Sangam literature and foreign accounts.
By the time of the Mauryan empire (300 BCE) traders
and craftsmen groups, who had become wealthy and
p o w e r fu l th r o u g h t ra d e , w e r e a b l e to d o n a t e
substantially for the building of Buddhist monasteries.
There were carpenters and blacksmiths, jewellers and
goldsmiths, weavers and dyers, perfumers and stone
carvers among others. Constant trade with the Middle
East and South-east Asia was already an important
cornerstone of the economy.
In the area of textiles, to South-east Asia we exported
sarongs, to the Middle East went the finest and most
expensive muslins, to West Africa went Christian altar
fron ts , to Eu rop e s ilk an d w oo lle n fa brics, dre ss
COLONIAL R ULE AND CRAFTS 17
materials and bed-hangings. All these fabrics were

considered ‘luxury goods’ in these countries.
The pattern of trade from the Coromandel Coast was
triangular. Arabs carried gold and silver (bullion) to the
Coromandel Coast, exchanged these for textiles, and
then exchanged the latter in Malaysia for spices, with
which they returned to the Middle East.
Throughout the ancient and medieval periods the fame
of Indian cotton textiles, gems and jewels, and spices
like pepper and cardamom, ivory and sandalw ood
continued to make trade a lucrative business. Gems
like pearls, and precious stones like diamonds gave to
India the reputation of a fabled land of riches and
natural resources. This reputation of being a land of
riches and extraordinary skills, tempted traders from
Europe, who were willing to go to war, and to risk their
lives in order to get a share of the profit from Indian
trade.
Marco Polo’s (1254–1324) account of his travels to the East makes a

reference to Golconda, now in Andhra Pradesh.
This kingdom produces diamonds. Let me tell you how they are
got. You must know that in the kingdom there are many mountains
in which diamonds are found, as you will hear. When it rains the
water rushes down through these mountains, scouring its way
through mighty gorges and caverns. When the rain has stopped
and the water drained away, then men go in search of diamonds
through these gorges from which the water has come, and they
find plenty. In summer, when there is not a drop of water to be
found then the diamonds are found among the mountains.
Then in a more fanciful mood he records
Another means by which they get diamonds is this. When the eagles
eat the flesh, they also eat—that is they swallow—the diamonds.
Then at night when the eagle comes back, it deposits the diamonds
it has swallowed with its droppings. So men come and collect these
droppings, and there they find diamonds in plenty.... You must
know that in the entire world diamonds are found nowhere else
except this kingdom alone.
– R ONALD L ATHAM
Marco Polo: the Traveller
INDIA AS A T EXTILE P RODUCTION H UB

“Everyone from the Cape of Good Hope (in Africa) to
China, man and woman is clothed from head to foot, in
the products of Indian looms,” is how a Portuguese
traveller put it. India was, till the advent of colonialism,
the largest exporter of textiles in the world.
In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries it was
trade in textiles and in spices, essential for preserving
meat when refrigeration did not exist, that initially
brought European traders to India. A triangular trade
developed with Britain transporting slaves from Africa
to the Americas, to make enough profit and to get the
b u l li o n n e c e s s a r y fo r th e p u r c h a s e o f I n d ia n
manufacture.
The adoption and rate of increase in the consumption of Indian textiles

in the Western world during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
was one of those astonishing processes of diffusion which is
comparable to the discovery and spread of tobacco, potato, coffee or
tea.
– K.N. CHAUDHURI
With the founding of the British East India Company

in 1599, the English, and later the Dutch and the
French, started exporting Indian textiles to London, for
re-export to the eastern Mediterranean. Very quickly,

they realised the huge market for these textiles whose
colours were permanent (i.e., they did not run). In Europe
at the time, the techniques of ‘fixing’ dyes were unknown
to craftsmen who applied coloured pigments to the
textile, which ran or flaked off when the fabric was
washed.
By 1625 a revolution in taste began in England. Most
imported Indian textiles were used to decorate beds,
the most precious item of household furniture. People
were attracted by the bright colours and new floral
patterns, which did not exist in European fabrics. From
the second half of the seventeenth century, the demand
for Indian chintz increased in England, France and the
Netherlands.
Astute merchants realised they could reach an even
bigger market by commissioning special designs. The
East India Company therefore selected and guided the
making of the palempore—the branched tree which
b e c a m e t h e fa m o u s t re e -o f-life d e s ig n . I m ita t io n
Kashmiri shawls even began to be woven in England.
FACTORIES AND T RADE

Simultaneously in the seventeenth century the British
East India Company and other trading companies from
France and Holland established factories and new
townships around the Indian coastline, where goods
created specifically for the export market were stored.
T o pro du c e th e se go od s th ere w as an in cre as in g
co n cen tration an d loc alis ation , an d a large -sca le
migration of crafts communities. Urban centres and
coastal towns attracted craftsmen as a number of
affluent consumers and a vast export market could be
accessed from here.
By the nineteenth century several age-old crafts
began to undergo change: the traditional patua artists
of Orissa and Bengal picked up the skill of woodcut,
block printing and created what we now called Kalighat
A rt , th a t t h e r i c h z a m in d a rs in r u r a l B e n g a l
patronised—while the markets of Varanasi specialised
increasingly in brocades for the noveau riche of Awadh
and Bengal.
Adjusting to Change: the Traditional Patua

Artist in Anglo-Indian Calcutta*
Within the rural folk tradition of the pat painting, the Kalighat
paintings constituted a major departure. The inventiveness
of this art lay in the way these migrant village patuas adapted
to their changed urban environment, to its new facilities and
pressures, from within the enclosed space of their traditional
community and practice. The basic imperative of producing
pictures cheaply, quickly and in vast numbers to cater to the
growing market of the city, caused the main changes in the
form and format of their work. It led, for instance, to the use
of paper vis-à-vis cloth, to the adoption of watercolours in the
place of gouache and tempera, and to the shift from the
continuous narrative of scroll painting to single-frame images
against blank backdrops. It also brought on a range of new
themes and images in Kalighat pictures, some of which were
draw n from subjects typical of British and Com pany
paintings, while most emerged from the immediate social
scenario of Calcutta’s babu society in which these patuas
struggled to orient themselves.
Pitted against the new society of Anglo-Indian Calcutta,
the sharp sense of moral discomfort and disorder of the patuas
expressed itself in a powerful repertoire of satirical images...
Their resilience against the wayward ways and demands of
the city showed itself at the two important levels at which these
painters stayed enclosed within their inherited community and
conventions. Transferred to the city, these painters continued
to stick rigidly to the village clans from which they had emerged,
with the same hereditary and caste affiliations. Artistically, too,
they continued to work within a markedly non-naturalistic, two-
dimensional style, transforming on their own terms whatever
new elements they drew on. Thus, the borrowed medium of
watercolours was made to lend itself to the traditional format of
flat, bright colouring; and shading was used along outlines
mainly to highlight the rhythm of lines and the bloatedness of
faces and figures—this lent itself brilliantly to the nature of their
satire...
The main clientele of these cheap pictures was the common
people of the city, who felt equally alienated from the changed
values and westernised ways of Calcutta’s high society.
–T APATI G UHA -THAKURTA
The Making of New Indian Art
* now, Kolkata
The Kashmiri Shawl

The Kashmiri shawl was the mainstay of the valley’s economy
from approximately 1600 to 1860, over 250 years. It was a
luxury textile, patronised by the Mughal, Afghan, Sikh and
Dogra dynasties that ruled Kashmir successively. By the
nineteenth century, it was popular in princely courts and
commercial cities all over South Asia, leave alone Europe. As
a result those in charge of the shawl manufacturing units
strongly influenced the economy of this State, as the sale of
shawls brought in more money than the entire land revenue
of the State! At its peak in 1861 it generated an enormous
revenue.
Aware that the shawl trade dominated the Kashmir
economy, the Dogra rulers created a department, the Dagh-
Shawl, that tried to control and extract taxes at every stage
of the manufacture of every shawl. Duties were imposed on
the import of pashm, on the dyeing, even on the completion of
every single line of embroidery! These taxes became so
oppressive that the ordinary shawl worker was paying five
rupees out of every seven he earned to the State. Compounding
their misery, the distribution of subsidised grain was also
limited to shawl manufacture.
In spite of this tax, however, the Kashmiri shawl industry
prospered towards the end of the nineteenth century with
the increasing European demand for these prized articles of
fashion.
But it was the imitation shawls manufactured in the
Scottish town of Paisley that had a strong negative impact on
the production of the Kashmiri shawl in the valley.
The shawl traders prospered and it was because of them
and the tremendous demand for their luxury end product that
the State stayed afloat. The percentage of their profit was
typically 500 per cent. By 1871, shawls worth 28 lakh rupees
were exported! By 1890, the State withdrew entirely, abolishing
the department of the Dagh-Shawl.
In the Indian catalogue of the Colonial and Indian
Exhibition, 1886, the serious consequences of abolishing the
department has been described as follows:
The manufacture, which formerly brought half a million a year
into Kashmir, is now well nigh moribund. Unless means are
taken by government to preserve it, the art of weaving the
finest shawl will probably be extinct fifteen to twenty years
hence. The warehouses of London and Paris are full of shawls
which find no purchasers, and the value in Kashmir has
consequently fallen to a third of what it was ten years ago.
FROM C RAFT PRODUCER TO SUPPLIER

OF R AW M ATERIALS
Between 1800 and 1860, the Industrial Revolution

transformed the manufacturing process across England
and Europe, adversely impacting the craft trade in India.
In 1813, under pressure from the local textile industry,
the British Government began imposing high taxes on
the import of Indian textiles. British goods, on the
other hand, had virtually free entry into India. The
shattering results are well known: between 1814
and 1835 British cotton goods exported to India rose
from one million yards to thirty-one million yards;
while the value of Indian cotton goods exported in
the same seventeen years fell to one-thirteenth its
original size. The thriving textile towns, Dacca,
Murshidabad, Surat, Madurai, were laid waste.
Britain’s Industrial Revolution demolished India’s
textile trade, and from being exporters of handloom
textiles we became exporters of raw cotton and a
market for imported mill-made cloth, which even
undercut domestic textiles.
The new taxes that were imposed by the British,
and the shifts in textile production left the peasants,
who were now solely dependent on agriculture, even
more vulnerable. In Europe, handloom weavers who
had been displaced found jobs in the new industries,
which also employed many women. But in India
even men had few such alternatives. They flooded
into the already impoverished agriculture labour
market, making wages even lower. Not only were
many thousands of people affected by the collapse
of the textile industry, but also of the iron, glass,
paper, pottery and jewellery industries.
“The misery hardly finds a parallel in the history
of commerce. The bones of its cotton weavers are
bleaching the plains of India,” William Bentick, the
Governor General himself wrote in 1834.
T HE IMPACT OF C OLONIALISM ON THE

T EXTILE T RADE
Before 1860, three-fourths of raw cotton imports into
B ri ta in c a m e fr o m A m e ri c a . B rit is h c o tt o n
manufacturers had for long been worried about this
dependence on American supplies.
In 1857, the Cotton Supply Association was founded
in Britain and in 1859 the Manchester Cotton company
was formed. Their objective was to encourage cotton
production in every part of the world suited for its
growth. India was seen as a country that could supply
cotton to Lancashire if the American supply dried up.
India possessed suitable soil, a climate favourable to
cotton cultivation, and cheap labour.
When the American Civil War broke out in 1861, a
wave of panic spread through cotton circles in Britain;
raw cotton imports from America fell to less than three
per cent. Frantic messages were sent to India and
elsewhere to increase cotton exports to Britain. In
Bombay*, cotton merchants visited the cotton districts
to assess supplies and encourage cultivation. As cotton Bombay harbour: a late-
prices soared, exports increased to meet the British eighteenth-century drawing
* now, Mumbai
demand. So advances were given to urban sahukars,

who in turn extended credit to those rural moneylenders
who promised to secure the produce.
These developments had a profound impact on the
Deccan countryside. The ryots in the Deccan suddenly
found access to seemingly limitless credit. They were
given `100 as advance for every acre they planted with
cotton. Sahukars were more than willing to extend long
term loans. By 1862 over 90 per cent of cotton imports
into Britain came from India.
C REDIT DRIES U P
However, within a few years the American Civil War
ended, cotton production in America revived and Indian
cotton export to Britain steadily declined.
When the Civil War ended Britain resumed trade in
cotton with America for two reasons: American cotton
was a superior type (due to the longer, stronger fibres
of its tw o dom esticated n ative A merican species);
secondly, cotton from plantations in the United States
a n d th e C a rib b e a n w a s m u c h c h e a p e r a s it w a s
produced by unpaid slaves. By the mid-nineteenth
century, in the United States, cultivating and harvesting
cotton had become the leading occupation of slaves.
Export merchants and sahukars in the Deccan were
no longer keen on extending long term credit. So they
decided to close down their operations, restrict their
adv an ces to pe asan ts , an d dem an d rep aym en t of
outstanding debts, further impoverishing the farmers
and the craftspeople.
Industrialisation in Britain
The advent of the Industrial Revolution in Britain transformed cotton manufacture,
as textiles emerged as Britain’s leading export. In 1738 Lewis Paul and John Wyatt
of Birmingham, England, patented the Roller Spinning Machine, and the flyer-
and-bobbin system for drawing cotton to a more even thickness using two sets of
rollers. Later, the invention of the Spinning Jenny in 1764 enabled British weavers
to produce cotton yarn and cloth at much faster rates. From the late eighteenth
century onwards, the British city of Manchester acquired the nicknam e
‘cottonopolis’ due to the cotton industry’s omnipresence within the city, and
Manchester’s role as the heart of the global cotton trade. Production capacity in
Britain and the United States was further improved by the invention of the cotton
gin by the American, Eli Whitney, in 1793.
A spininng factory in 1830

Improving technology and increasing control of world
markets allowed British traders to develop a commercial
c h a in i n w h ic h r a w c o t to n fi b r e s w e re ( a t fir s t )
purchased from colonial plantations, processed into
cotton cloth in the mills of Lan cash ire, an d then
re-exported on British ships to captive colonial markets
in West Africa, India, and China (via Shanghai and
Hong Kong).
The Industrial Revolution in England led to the
reversal of trade in which cotton was exported from
India to England and manufactured machine-made
cotton cloth was brought back to India and sold. The
colonial policy of supporting production of raw material
in India for British industries and the consumption of
British products in India greatly damaged the Indian
economy. This along with devastating famines, over-
taxation and diversion of revenues back to England were
the primary factors for the deteriorating condition of
the Indian crafts community. It was this devastating
effect of industrialisation that influenced Gandhiji while
h is p h il o s o p h y d e v e l o p e d d u r in g th e fi g h t fo r
independence from colonial rule.
RISE, FALL, RISE…

From the fifteenth to the eighteenth century, China and India controlled almost
half of the global trade. This pattern continued till India became a part of the
British Empire in the nineteenth century, and Chinese trade came to be
increasingly controlled by those who controlled the sea routes—England, France
and the U.S. India became independent and China turned to communism in the
mid-twentieth century and both began to rebuild their economies. In the
beginning of the twenty-first century, China and India have become the world’s
fastest growing economies and the centre of gravity of global trade appears to be
shifting east again. The following pages give a glimpse of the growth trajectory
of the Asian giants over 500 years.
Sixteenth Century As Arab traders ship Indian goods to Europe through

the Red Sea and Mediterranean ports, India’s economy
has a 24.5 per cent share of world income. It is the
INDIA world’s second largest after China. India enjoys a
favourable balance of trade—it earns gold and silver
from the textiles, sugar, spices, indigo, carpets, etc.
it sells.
Direct maritime trade between Europe and China

begins with the Portuguese, who lease an outpost at
CHINA
Macau in 1557. Other Europeans follow. India and
China trade with each other using overland routes.
Seventeenth Century At the turn of the century, Mughal India’s annual

income is greater than the British budget. As the
Mughal Empire reaches its zenith under Shah Jahan,
Indian exports exceed its imports—it is selling many
INDIA
more things and lots more of each. Chinese ships
dock at Quilon and Calicut, while in Khambat the
volume of trade is so high that more than 3000 ships
visit the port every year.
China continues to control a quarter of world trade.

The English establish a trading post at Canton in
1637. Trade grows further after the Qing emperor
CHINA relaxes maritime trade restrictions in the 1680’s. By
now, Taiwan has come under Qing control. But, the
s e a tr a d e m a k e s th e C h in e s e a p p re h e n s iv e o f
conquest.
Aurangzeb’s India had a 24.4 per cent share of world Eighteenth Century
income, the largest in the world. But as Mughal power INDIA
declines, the East India Company disrupts trade
relations between India’s mercantile community.
In 1760, as China’s share of global trade begins to
fa l l, t h e g o v e r n m e n t s e ts o u t r e g u l a tio n s fo r
foreigners and foreign ships. Canton is the only port CHINA
open to alien traders. After their War of Independence
(1776), the Americans begin to trade with China; this
is a setback for the British.
In 1820, India’s economy is completely controlled by Nineteenth Century
the East India Company—16 per cent of the world
income. The Indian agricultural pattern is changed INDIA
by the Company. By 1870, India has a 12.2 per cent
share of the world income.
The Qing king refuses to open all ports to foreign
traders and seeks to restrict the opium trade with
India. War breaks out twice between Britain and
China. A defeated China accepts the opium trade and
CHINA
gives Western merchants access. Tea exports increase
500 per cent in eight years, from 1843 to 1855.
In 1913, Indian economy had a mere 7.6 per cent Twentieth Century
share of world income. In 1952, five years after
Independence, it had 3.8 per cent. Though by 1973
the economy had grown to $494.8 billion, its share of
the w orld in com e fell to 3.1 per cent. In 1991, INDIA
economic liberalisation introduced and by1998, Indian
economy accounts for a five per cent share of the
world income. By 2005, India’s economy is $3,815.6
billion or a 6.3 per cent share of the world income.
Before communist China comes into being in 1949,
the country mainly produces yarn, coal, crude oil,
cotton and foodgrain. Mao Zedong puts the country
on a socialist path. In 1980, under Deng Xiaoping,
China changes track and the first Special Economic
Zones are established in Shenzhen. In 1986, Deng’s CHINA
‘O p e n - d o o r ’ p o lic y e n c o u ra g e s fo re ig n d ire c t
investment. In 1992, Deng accelerates market reforms
to establish a ‘socialist market economy’. For the first
time, China figures in the world’s top ten economies.
In 2001, it joins the WTO.
New Professions, Old Skills: from Silversmiths

to the Printing Press
By the 1860s and 1870s, the wood and metal engravers of
Bat-tala had emerged as the most prominent ‘artisan’
community in Calcutta’s art market.
Initially, traditional artisan groups like ironsmiths,
copper sm ith s , gold an d silvers m it h s (th e K ansaris,
S h a n k h a ris , S w a rn a k a r s a n d K a rm a k a r s ), f i n d i n g
employment in the new British-owned printing presses at
Serampore and Calcutta, had adapted their old skills of
working in metal towards preparing type-faces and engraved
blocks. By the 1820s and 1830s, these print-makers became
a separate community, working primarily with the wood-
engraved block to suit the requirements of small-sized
pictures in the cheap illustrated Bengali books.
As a result some important changes occurred in the social
position and commercial prospects of the artisans who
produced them. The engravers at Bat-tala had emerged from
traditional artisan communities, with the skills of cutting,
carving, furrowing and chipping in various metals. Some of
them may even have been descendants of the artisan castes
Lead type in compositor trays; of the sutradhars or shankaris to which most of the Kalighat
(inset) type arranged and fixed in patuas belonged. But, unlike the Kalighat patuas, the
a temporary frame
engravers came to throw off many of their hereditary and
caste affiliation s to
become a new, flexible
community of printers.
The skills of engraving
an d prin tin g becam e
more and more open and
competitive, drawing in
persons from various
oth er com m unities
(occasion ally even
Brahmins) who wished
to find a new vocation
in this trade.
–T APATI G UHA -THAKURTA

The Making of New
Indian Art
EXERCISE
1. Imagine you are an adventurous English traveller to India in
the seventeenth century. Describe the crafts you see. What
would you buy to take home and why?
2. Colonialism transformed India from craft producer to a
supplier of raw materials—write a short description of this
change and how it affected the crafts industry in India.
3. Make a chart or an illustrated story of the history of textiles
in India.
4. Industrialisation transformed craft production in England in the
nineteenth century. How did it transform Indian craft production
in the twentieth century?
5. Compare and contrast trade in India and China over the last
500 years. Illustrate with graphs or tables.
3 MAHATMA GANDHI AND
SELF-SUFFICIENCY
A cause is often greater than the man. Certainly the spinning

wheel is greater than myself; with it, in my opinion, is mixed up
the well-being of the whole mass of Indian humanity.
– M. K. G ANDHI
T HE first article of Gandhiji’s faith, as he himself has

said, was non-violence. Therefore he could not accept a
society that produced violence. True civilisation, he said,
was to be found where industries had not entered and
cast their influence. India, before it felt the impact of
industries through the British rule, represented this
true civilisation.
Mahatma Gandhi’s ideas about self-sufficiency and
h a n d ic ra fts w ere dire ctly re la te d to h is view s on
industries and industrial society. Gandhiji believed that
industrial societies were based on an endless production
of commodities. This produced greed and resulted in
competition. The end result of this
was violence and war.
What I object to is the craze for machinery

as such. The craze is for what they call
labour-saving machinery. Men go on
‘saving labour’, till thousands are without
work and thrown on the streets to die of
starvation. I want to save time and labour,
not for a fraction of mankind, but for all; I
want the concentration of wealth, not in
the hands of a few, but in the hands of all.
– M. K. G ANDHI
Young India, 13 November 1924
Even in the twentieth century, Gandhiji argued, it

was possible to find large areas in India that were
untouched by industries. The future of India and of its
civilisation lay in these villages which were governed
by simple norms of reciprocity and self-sufficiency.
Gandhiji wanted to revive these villages, their craft
economy and their practices and make them represent
a system that was completely different from Western
societies based on industry. His ideas about handicrafts
were part of this vision.
T HE M EANING OF S WARAJ
Gandhiji described this vision in many of his writings,
most notably in Hind Swaraj, a treatise written in 1909
while he was aboard a ship, coming back from Britain.
He wrote about the idea of a self-contained village
republic inhabited by individuals whose lives were self-
regulated. In Gandhiji’s philosophy, swaraj for the nation
did not mean merely political independence from British
rule. Swaraj, for him, was something more substantive,
involving the freedom of individuals to regulate their
o w n l iv e s w it h o u t h a rm in g o n e
another. His swaraj was one where
every individual was his or her own
ruler, with the capacity to control
and regulate his or her own life. This
would remove inequalities of power
and status in society and enable
proper reciprocity.
Gandhiji certainly did not want
British rule to be replaced by another
fo r m o f r u l e w h e r e W e s t e r n
institutions of governance and civil
society would be ru n by In dian s
instead of white men. That would
b e “E n g li s h r u l e w i th o u t th e
Englishman’’. He wrote that such a
process “would make India English.
And when it becomes English, it
will be called not Hindustan, but
M AHATMA GANDHI AND S ELF -SUFFICIENCY 33
Englistan. This is not the swaraj I want”. Swaraj, from

Gandhiji’s perspective, would have to be located not
only outside the domain of British political control, but
also beyond the influence of Western civilisation.
S PINNING THE IDEA OF S ELF -SUFFICIENCY

However, for all this to happen, Indians would have to
take care to revive and preserve all the village arts and
crafts. Among the crafts, the one on which Gandhiji
put the greatest emphasis was spinning and weaving.
He wrote, “What is the kind of service that the teeming
millions of India most need at the present time, that
can be easily understood and appreciated by all, that is
easy to perform and will, at the same time enable the
crores of our semi-starved countrymen to live? And the
reply came—that it is the universalisation of khadi or
the spinning-wheel that can fulfil these conditions.’’
Spinning, an integral aspect of Indian handicrafts, had
to be made an essential part of the lives of the common
people. This would make the common people self-
sufficient and thus enable them to survive. The poor of
India, if they were to prosper, needed a subsidiary source
of occupation and livelihood. They could not remain
solely dependent on agriculture. Gandhiji suggested that
hand-spinning and, to a lesser extent, hand-weaving
could become the subsidiary source. He commented,
“This industry flourished in India a hundred and fifty
years ago and at that time we were not as miserably
poor as we are today.’’
In this way, the villages in which they lived would be
less dependent on mills and machinery. For Gandhiji
th is w as ve ry im po rta n t s in c e m a ch in e s w ere an
instrument of industrial societies. They produced in
massive quantities. Thus the spread of khadi would
challenge the influence of mills and machines and the
import of cotton to India from England, and would enable
the people of India to free themselves non-violently from
the negative influences of industries and the violence
they inevitably produced.
In 1921, during a tour of South India, Gandhiji shaved his head and began wearing
a khadi dhoti, rather than mill-made cloth imported from abroad, in order to identify
with the poor. His new appearance also came to symbolise asceticism and
abstinence—qualities he celebrated in opposition to the consumerist culture of
the modern world. Gandhiji encouraged other nationalist leaders who dressed in
western clothes to adopt Indian attire. He requested them all also to spend some
time each day working on the charkha. He told them that the act of spinning would
help them to break the boundaries that prevailed within the traditional caste
system, between mental labour and manual labour.
– Young India, 13 November 1924
Gandhiji was doing a number of things at the same

time. He was reviving a handicraft which had been a
vital component of village life. Through the revival of
spinning and weaving, people would be able to live better
since they would have another source of livelihood.
Individu als an d villages wou ld become more self-
sufficient. At the same time, the even bigger purpose of
fighting the bad effects of industrialism would also
be met.
A Vicious Circle
Through taxes, tariffs and other restrictions the British
Government discouraged the production of cotton cloth in
India; instead the raw fibre was sent to England for processing.
Gandhiji described the process thus:
1. English people buy Indian cotton in the field, picked by
Indian labour at seven cents a day, through an optional
monopoly.
2. This cotton is shipped on British ships, a three-week journey
across the Indian Ocean, down the Red Sea, across the
Mediterranean, through Gibraltar, across the Bay of Biscay
and the Atlantic Ocean to London. One hundred per cent
profit on this freight is regarded as small.
3. The cotton is turned into cloth in Lancashire. You pay
shilling wages instead of Indian pennies to your workers.
The English worker not only has the advantage of better
wages, but the steel companies of England get the profit of
building the factories and machines. Wages, profits—all
these are spent in England.
4. The finished product is sent back to India at European
shipping rates, once again on British ships. The captains,
officers, sailors of these ships, whose wages must be paid,
are English. The only Indians who profit are a few Lascars
who do the dirty work on the boats for a few cents a day.
5. The cloth is finally sold back to the kings and landlords of
India who got the money to buy this expensive cloth out of
the poor peasants of India who worked at seven cents
a day.
– LOUIS F ISHER
The Life of Mahatma Gandhi
A few months before India became independent,

Gandhiji wrote:
The charkha is the centre of our flag. It is the symbol of unity
and the non-violent strength of the millions. The yarn spun by
the charkha I consider to be the cementing force which can bind
those whom the three colours of the flag represent. That is why
I have said that the whole fabric of swaraj hangs on a thread of
the handspun yarn and have called the charkha our mightiest
weapon.
T HE S ELF -SUFFICIENT V ILLAGE
The idea of self-sufficiency was of crucial importance to
Gandhiji. An individual, a village, a country could
become independent if only it became self-sufficient.
Gandhiji described his ideal Indian village in these terms:
Each village’s first concern will be to grow its own food crops
and cotton for its own cloth. It should have a reserve for its cattle,
recreation and playground for adults and children. Then if there
is more land available, it could grow useful money crops, thus
excluding ganja, tobacco, opium and the like. The village will
maintain a village theatre, school and public hall. It will have
its own waterworks, ensuring clean water supply. This can be
done through controlled wells or tanks. Education will be
compulsory up to the final basic course. As far as possible every
activity will be conducted on the cooperative basis.
Gandhiji emphasised the importance of handicrafts,

especially spinning and weaving. But he also spoke of
other handicrafts which were part of the hereditary
o cc u p a tio n of ev ery v illag e r. Th e d ev elo pm e n t o f
handicrafts would add to the total resources of the
individual and the village and thus enable both to be
self-sufficient and self-regulating. For him a world based
on non-violence could only be found in places that were
untouched by industries. He found Indian villages to be
such places since, in his time, he believed, they were
s till re la tiv ely u n to u c h e d b y in d u strie s. F o r h im
handicrafts were an integral an d vital part of h is
programme to revive villages, to make them self-sufficient

and to give back to individuals the dignity to regulate
their lives. This is the challenge of Gandhiji’s vision that
India is yet to meet.
Mahatma Gandhi, in the twentieth century, was the
single individual who successfully prevented the total
eclipse of Indian crafts by relating them to the village
economy and the concept of political freedom. He turned
the humble spinning wheel into a symbol of defiance by
asking people to spin their own cotton at home to weave
cloth that was not of British manufacture. It thus
became a non-violent and creative weapon of self-
reliance and independence.
EXERCISE
1. “The whole fabric of swaraj hangs on a thread of the handspun
yarn and (that is why) I have called the charkha our mightiest
weapon.” Explain Gandhiji’s concept of swaraj.
2. Explain the idea of Gandhiji’s self-sufficient village. Do you
think it is possible to realise this idea in India today? Support
your arguments with examples.
3. Describe the meaning of khadi as an essential part of
Gandhiji’s philosophy, and its symbolism and meaning today.
4. Write an essay on ‘The Indian Village of my Dreams’.
5. Develop your own strategy for the survival of a craft of your
locality in an age of globalisation.
UNIT II
C RAFTS REVIVAL
4 HANDLOOM AND HANDICRAFTS
REVIVAL
A FTER Independence the newly elected government chose

the road to industrialisation. This emphasis on industry
and development further aggravated the damage to the
crafts community caused by 200 years of colonial rule.
However, after Gandhiji’s death, several of his followers
in itiate d a n d n u rtu re d g o v e rn m e n t s c h e m e s a n d
p r o g ra m m e s to p ro t e c t th e w e l fa re o f th e c ra fts
community in India.
The Central and State Governments recognised that
handicrafts, with its labour-intensive character and
wide dispersal through the length and breadth of the
country, constitutes a crucial economic activity. It
would, if supported, bring wealth to the country through
trade and exports. The objective of government schemes
was to provide economic and
s o c ia l b e n e fi ts to th e
craftsmen of the country and
t o p r o m o t e th e i r w o rk i n
domestic and foreign markets.
The four major goals of the
h a n d i c r a fts d e v e lo p m e n t
p ro g r a m m e s r u n b y th e
government were
1. promotion of handicrafts;
2. research and design
development;
3. technical development;
4. marketing.
1. P ROMOTION OF H ANDICRAFTS
In the 1950s and 60s, the Khadi and Village Industries
C o m m is s io n (K V I C ), C e n t ra l C o tt a g e In d u s tri e s
E m p o riu m , H a n d l o o m s a n d H a n d ic r a fts E x p o rt
Corporation, Regional State Handicraft and Handloom
Development Corporations, All India Handicrafts Board,
the Weavers’ Service Centres and Design Centres, and
the Weavers’ Cooperative Apex Societies, were set up in
every state to protect and promote Indian craft producers.
H ANDLOOM AND HANDICRAFTS REVIVAL 45
Today, there are 1,5431 sales outlets, out of which 7,050 are
owned by the KVIC. These are spread all over India. The
products are also sold internationally through exhibitions
arranged by the Commission.
All India Handicrafts Board

The All India Handicrafts Board was set up in 1952 to
advise the Government on problems of handicrafts and
to suggest measures for improvement and development.
According to the Indian Constitution the development
of handicrafts is a State subject. Therefore, the primary
initiative in the handicrafts sector was to emanate from
the states and the Union Territories.
The Board took up a number of new schemes for
im p a rti n g t ra in in g i n s e le c t e d c r a fts a n d d e s ig n
development, dovetailing training and design efforts, for
improvem ent of tools and tech niques used by the
craftsmen, expansion of facilities, and for extending the
marketin g n etwork in both in ternal and extern al
markets.
Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay
Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay (1903–1988) devoted her life to
the preservation and development of handicrafts and the
dignity and uplift of India’s craftspeople. She was also a
freedom fighter, theatre personality and human rights activist
who worked closely with Jawaharlal Nehru and Mahatma
Gandhi. In the freedom movement she was one of the
prominent personalities in the Congress Party and later in
the Socialist Party.
She was Chairperson of the All India Handicrafts Board
and President of the Indian Cooperative Union. She was the Vice-President of the World
Crafts Council. She championed the cause of India’s great crafts traditions from every
platform and initiated the national awards for excellence in handicrafts. Travelling to every
corner and village of India, she discovered crafts severely damaged by neglect and lack of
patronage, and crafts that needed protection from extinction. She received the Magasaysay
Award and the Watamull Award and was conferred the Deshikottama degree by
Vishwabharati University, Shantiniketan. She wrote many books and articles and her
book titled The Handicrafts of India was the first detailed documentation of the major and
minor crafts of India.
But for her, many crafts threatened under British rule would have disappeared forever
and India’s craft heritage would have been lost. She is truly the mother of Independent
India’s craftspeople.
Central Corporations
The Handicrafts and Handlooms Export Corporation of
India (HHEC) is a subsidiary of the State Trading
Corporation of India, and came into existence in 1962.
The Corporation’s policy in the field of direct exports
was designed to develop new markets and expand
traditional ones and to introduce new products suitable
to the consumers’ demands abroad.
The Central Cottage Industries Corporation Private
Limited, a registered society, runs the Central Cottage
Industries Emporium (CCIE), New Delhi, the premier retail
sales organisation in Indian handicrafts. The CCIE has
branches in Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Jaipur.
Voluntary Social Organisations
T h e g o v e rn m e n t s u p p o rts a n u m b e r o f s o c ia l
organisations including non-profit-making registered
societies and cooperatives operating in the field of
handicrafts. Their principal object is to provide work to
poor artisans. Many of them run training-cum-production
centres, while a few concern themselves principally

with marketing. In addition, India has a large voluntary
organisation called the Crafts Council with branches
in many states and is affiliated to the World Crafts
Council.
Pupul Jayakar
Pupul Jayakar (1916–97) began her life studying to become a
journalist, but later turned to development work in handicrafts
and handloom textiles. She served as Chairperson of the All
India Handicrafts and Handloom Board and the Indian National
Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage. She travelled extensively
and supported craftspersons and their traditions across the
country through festivals, emporia and her erudite writings.
2. R ESEARCH AND D ESIGN D EVELOPMENT

For any scheme of design development, it is necessary
to identify authentic resources and materials. In India
there are a number of museums that have beautiful
specimens of craft objects.
These museums provide a sound base for research
and study of the history of crafts that have developed in
differen t region s. Th e stu dy of crafts provides an
invaluable record of the innovative spirit of the crafts
tradition in India, and how it changed and evolved and
responded to new challenges placed by environmental
conditions and historic constraints.
Promotion of Design
Soon after its establishment in 1952, the All India
H a n d ic r a fts B o a rd r e c o g n is e d th a t a m o n g o th e r
developmental measures that needed to be adopted, the
p ro b le m o f d e s i g n d e v e l o p m e n t w o u ld b e o f k e y
importance in rehabilitating the handicrafts industry.
Craftsmen required assistance with new design ideas
to suit the taste of consumers both in India and abroad.
The All India Handicrafts Board established Regional
Design Development Centres at Bangalore, Mumbai,
Kolkata and Delhi. A technical wing for research in tools,
techniques, and materials was also added to each of
these centres. The Weavers’ Service Centres set up by

the All India Handloom Board provided design and
technical guidance to the handloom industry throughout
the country.
3. T ECHNICAL D EVELOPMENT
The development of tools and processes in handicrafts
is a very sensitive area since a great deal of wisdom
and subtlety need to be invested in most traditional
methods and equipment. Generally speaking, any new
equipment for handicrafts should
 have a low capital outlay;
 be affordable and useful to small individual and
cooperative units;
 improve overall efficiency;
 reduce costs;
 not cause labour displacement;
 not be hazardous to humans or the environment.
State governments have set up Design and Technical
centres where craftsmen, artists and designers jointly
work out new designs and items in selected crafts. It is
important to appoint designers who combine taste with
technical mastery, a reverence for tradition with a

sensitive awareness of the spirit of the times—qualities
essential for the development of good designs.
Design Studies
The National Institute of Design (NID) at Ahmedabad was established as a result of
the visionary advice of Charles Eames, who saw crafts as India’s matchless resource
of problem-solving experience. Eames recommended that the Indian designers draw
on the attitude, skills and knowledge available in the Indian craft traditions, and
give it new relevance in the industrial age that was emerging in post-Independence
India. It was critical that hand production be helped to find its place beside mass
manufacture. The documentation of craft traditions begun by British scholars more
than a century ago was now needed on a national scale and the NID students were
trained to record and interpret India’s craft inheritance.
Research became the base for sensitive design, production and marketing,
along with an understanding of the craft community, its traditional practices,
markets and materials, its price and cost considerations, tools and workplaces.
Development and diversification efforts bring the craftsmen and the trained
designer together in an intelligent search for new opportunities. NID’s curriculum
reflected this approach. Students and teachers study craft problems in order to
understand traditional skills as well as the econom ic concerns of large
communities whose age-old markets are undergoing enormous and permanent
change. Thus problem-solving activities and design for new clients were linked to
marketing.
– NID website: www.nid.edu
Packaging
Packaging, in the case of Indian
handicrafts, is an important area
that has not developed much. A
package design is very important
s in c e i t w i ll o ft e n p e r s u a d e a
c o n s u m e r to m a k e th e in it ia l
purchase.
The Indian Institute of Packaging
in Mumbai with branches in Delhi,
C hen n ai, H yderbad and Kolkata
offers a certificate programme in
packaging and a package
development service for a fee. There
a re P o s tg ra d u a te D ip lom a C ou rs e s a n d D is tan c e
Learning Programmes that are accredited by the Asian
Packaging Foundation (APF).
S o m e c o m p a n ie s th a t m a n u fa c t u r e p a c k a g in g
material and readymade packages also provide help in
solving packaging problems. Today, environment-friendly
packaging alternatives are being explored and this offers
new avenues for business ventures.
Today almost everything we use needs packaging. In 2010 the GDP for India was
8.5 per cent; the packaging industry alone grew at 15 per cent. India has a
`65,000 crore packaging industry that is expected to grow 18–20 per cent by
2015. Paper packaging alone constitutes 7.6 million tonne. In fact, 40 per cent of
the total paper production goes for packaging. A packaging technologist chooses
the right packaging material and the right shape from the preservation and
production point of view based on knowledge of chemicals and mechanical
engineering. Designers and artists innovate and design attractive eye-catching
packaging that stands out on the shelf adding to its sale value.
– The Times of India, 26 July 2010
4. M ARKETING
In India, handicrafts derived their richness and strength
from socio-economic and cultural situations. These
traditions and social networks are fast disappearing.
Crafts are particularly vulnerable to the present tempo
of economic change, the changing pattern of society,
marketing, and therefore, require specialised attitudes

and measures. It calls not only for an adequate financial
outlay, but for a good measure of imaginative skill as
well. Handicraft marketing is a serious matter, for such
skilled handmade products have to compete with mass-
made products made by machine and sold by high
pressure salesmanship. Again, handicraft units are often
small and produce a very wide and diverse range of
products. The problems of marketing handicrafts have
to be considered separately for the domestic market and
the export trade.
The All India Cottage Industries Board, established in
1948, recommended the setting up of Emporia at the
Centre and in the States for the marketing of cottage
indu stries products. In 1949, the Central Cottage
Industries Emporium was established in Delhi and a large
number of states have established emporia. Today, there
are about 250 emporia in the country. Besides, there are
a number of Khadi Bhandar outlets, and other showrooms
for th e sale of h and-spu n, han d-w oven cloth an d
handmade products.
The series of International Festivals of India in the U.S.A., U.K., Europe and
Japan were conceptualised by Pupul Jayakar in the 1980’s. These festivals
highlighted India’s historic heritage and its continuing spiritual and cultural
strength. Several exhibitions like Vishvakarma, Aditi, Golden Eye, Pudu Pavu
and Costumes of India introduced a host of new, young designers and they, in
turn, became catalysts for the change and the revival of Indian handicrafts and
handloom products.
These emporia purchase directly from artisans or

their cooperatives. The emporia have tried to establish
fair wages and prices to artisans and keep them abreast
of modern techniques of marketing including publicity
and promotion. Some important public emporia have
set up their own production units to meet growing
demands. It is noteworthy that most government-run
emporia in state headquarters play an important role
in inter-state trade in handicrafts.
P RIZES , A WARDS AND SCHEMES FOR C RAFTS

In the past, craftsmen would receive recognition from
royal patrons and patronage would often be inherited
by their fam ilies. S ince 1965, in order to hon ou r
craftsmen, the All India Handicrafts Board presents an
a n n u a l N a ti o n a l A w a rd s to M a s te r C r a fts m e n o f
Exceptional Skill. Under this scheme, each recipient of
the National Award is presented with a plaque, an
angavastram (ceremonial shawl) and a cash award by
the President of India. This is a rare and much awaited
moment in the life of a craftsman and it is a moving
experience indeed, to watch their response to this
distinction.*
O n th e tw e n ty -fifth a n n iv e r s a ry o f In d i a ’s
In d e p e n de n c e (1 9 7 2 ) th e H a n d ic ra fts B oa rd a ls o
presented Special Awards to selected craftspersons
th ro u g h o u t th e c o u n try fo r th e ir o u ts t a n d i n g
craftsmanship and imagination. A scheme to provide
pensions to craftspersons in indigent circumstances was
also initiated. This is the first step towards providing
some form of social security to the crafts community.
* The list and contact addresses of National Awardees are available at

the All India Handicrafts Board website.
EXCERCISE
1. In your opinion what should be the priority areas for the
development of crafts in Central and State government
schemes?
2. Put the following in order of priority and explain what each
area should do and why it is important for the development
of crafts:
 Publicity – including organisation of and participation in
exhibitions
 Welfare activities – providing old-age pension and other
services to craftspeople
 Common facility centres for production – supply of tools
and equipment, raw material depots and procurement
centres
 Marketing – financial assistance to state handicraft
development and for the marketing corporations, and
setting up of emporia and sales depots
 Setting up research centres – for strengthening design
and for the preservation of traditional skills
 Training schemes – covering training in crafts, design
and marketing, both within the state or Union Territory
and outside
 Awards and incentives for craftspeople
 Cooperatives – financial and technical assistance to
cooperative societies
 Surveys of export-oriented and rural or tribal crafts
 Setting up of artisan villages – craft complexes
 Setting up institutions for the promotion of Indian
handicrafts.
3. Research and investigate the story of a local individual who
has contributed to the promotion of crafts and other art forms.
4. Investigate a local government outlet for khadi/crafts and
discuss its problems and success.
5 THE CRAFTS COMMUNITY TODAY
D ESPITE all the government schemes and policies,

a n d t h e e ffo r ts o f n o n -g o v e r n m e n t a n d
government agencies, the condition of crafts in
In d ia is fa r fro m d e sira b le . F ro m th e s w ift
diminish in g of raw materials or the n atural
resources that the craftsperson is dependent on
to practise his/her craft to the limited capital
available to him/her to invest in the expansion
or even just the maintenance of his business; to
the shrinking marketplace—increasingly flooded
with inexpensive factory-made fabric, Chinese
toys, plastic mats or stainless steel ghadas, the
craftsm an ’s econ om ic situ ation h as becom e
increasingly precarious over the past 100 years.
This chapter analyses the reasons why the
condition and the status of the crafts community
today is so poor.
A TTITUDES T HAT C OLOUR OUR PERCEPTION
OF THE C RAFTSPERSON
The first reason for the poor status of the crafts

community lies in our understanding of crafts
and the role of crafts in our society. How do people
view the craftsperson: Is he an artist or merely a
labourer? Was the Taj Mahal built by an artist
or by the crafts community? Is craft mainly
manual work or is it a skill-based activity that
brings together the hand, the head and the heart?
The attitude today towards crafts and the crafts
community is the first stumbling block hindering
the progress of crafts in India.
Where women have chosen to embroider for a living, they make

a clear bifurcation between commercial and traditional
handwork. The two are different entities, and do not directly
overlap. Rules and standards for each are distinct. Yet, working
with the market does affect how a woman feels about herself
as an artisan and as a member of her society.
The first and perhaps the biggest impact of commercial work
is the separation of design, or art, and craft, or labour. Artisans
are asked to make what someone else tells them to make,
rather than work from their own sense of aesthetics. When
presented with a set of four alien coloured threads, Rabari
women baulked. If we use these, it won’t be Rabari, they said.
In traditional work, there is no distinct separation of colour,
stitch, pattern and motif; these work together in units. Design
intervention separates these elements and juxtaposes them in
new ways.
When design is reserved for a professional designer and
craft is relegated to the artisan, the artisan is reduced to a
labourer.
– J UDY F RATER
Threads and Voices
F o r c e n tu ri e s I n d ia n h a n d ic ra ft s h a v e b e e n
distinguished for their great aesthetic and functional
qualities. In ancient times designers in India were
generally the shilpis. Groups of artisans or craftsmen
worked under the guidance of such shilpis, and belonged
to various guilds and regional schools throughout the
country. It was their fine sensibility and extraordinary
skill that invested our handicrafts with remarkable
power, design and beauty.
Those categories of crafts that have their origins in
the Mughal durbar or court also reveal a remarkable
refinement of design. The work of these craftspeople
was patronised by the court and the nobility. In these
crafts the designs were very often influenced by the
court paintings and miniature art derived from Persian
or indigenous sources. Such motifs can be seen in Indian
carpets, brocades, papier-mâché, stone-inlay and so on.
It is a unique quality of Indian handicrafts that, very
ofte n , th e s ep ara te ab ilities an d skills o f sev eral
craftsmen of varying degrees of specialisation and skill
T HE C RAFTS COMMUNITY TODAY 57
are involved in the designing and making of an

object. Thus the designer or master craftsman
visualised the complete design—solving problems
by developing innovative new ideas of form,
proportion and colour.
There are, however, many crafts where the
craftsman both designs and executes the product
himself, particularly in the area of pottery, wall
decoration, embroidery of certain types, toys, and
basketry. There are many other crafts where the
entire family or karkhana or artisans’ workshop
are involved. In each case the central idea is that
the master craftsperson is designer, creator and
producer in India.
The Indian words for handicrafts are hastakala, hastashilpa, dastkari or

karigari, all of which mean handiwork, but they refer to objects made with
craftsmanship, ie., specialised skills of the hands which are also artistic.
The aesthetic content is an intrinsic part of such objects and means the
object of utility has a value that goes beyond mere usage and is also pleasing
to the eye. A handcrafted object is seldom merely decorative, and whether
it has no embellishment or is highly decorative, its true purpose is served
only when it is both useful and has a fine form.
– from Living Craft Traditions of India,
Textbook in Heritage Crafts for Class XI, NCERT
C RAFT AND THE M ACHINE

The term for art and craft were synonymous in India
before the colonial period. In India the crafts community
was recognised as a crucial and important part of society
on whom the development and enhancement of life
depended. In Europe, with the introduction of machines,
the role of the crafts community dwindled and crafts
completely disappeared. Household utility items that had
once been made by the crafts community are now mass
produced by machines. Work done by the hand was
con sidered inferior to intellectual work. M achines
replaced handiwork that was seen to be both demeaning
and backward.
Two individuals who alerted the world to this tragic

misconception were William Morris and John Ruskin.
Their denunciation of the machine as “destroyer of the
joy of hand-work” in the 1850s led to the commencement
of the Arts and Crafts Movement in England. They wrote
extensively to remind people that human begins are
fundamentally creative and that machines were taking
away the joy of life. Their writing greatly influenced
many thinkers in India thus causing a new interest
and study of craft traditions in India.
T IMELY D OCUMENTATION
Owen Jones’s book, The Grammar of Ornament, 1856,
documented the principles of good design in which there
were examples of Persian, Indian, ‘Hindoo’ ornaments.
Jones was also involved in arranging the great exhibitions
i n L o n d o n i n 1 8 5 1 in w h i c h t h e b e s t a n d m o s t
extravagant of Indian crafts were displayed to “help
E n g la n d t o im p r o v e th e p o o r q u a li ty o f B r it is h
craftsm a n sh ip th at w as s u fferin g th e da m ages of
industrialisation.”
The notion that India was an uncivilised country with
a stagnant economy, with a traditional way of life that
had not changed for centuries was sought to be dispelled
by such exhibitions and exposure of the British public
to great Indian crafts. In turn the exhibitions held in
England led to greater interest in high quality Indian
crafts.
Fortunately, during this period some British officers
undertook the documentation of traditional skills, tools,
workplaces, objects; encyclopaedias were assembled;
census, mapping and surveys were conducted. These
records proved priceless resources for contemporary
Indian designers and for craft revival programmes in
post-industrial India. Despite the detrimental effect of
the colonial economy on Indian crafts, the documentation
of c rafts by B ritish o fficers du rin g th is tim e h ad
important consequences.
In a book published in 1880, Industrial Arts of India,
George C.M. Birdwood documented the state of the textile
crafts of his time in Bengal. He mentions that cotton
and silk cloth were manufactured in Bihar, Bengal,

Orissa and Assam. Dacca (now in Bangladesh) was then
a major textile centre.
A rare muslin was formerly produced in Dacca, which when laid

wet on the grass became invisible; and because it thus became
indistinguishable from the evening dew it was named shabnam,
i.e., ‘the dew of evening’. Another kind was called ab-rawan, or
‘running water’, because it became invisible in water.
The Birdwood Journal of Industrial Arts of

In d ia , w h i c h w a s p u b li s h e d fo ll o w in g a
decision in 1880 by the British Government
to document Indian handicrafts, is also a
valuable source of design and craft material
even today.
Birdwood’s opposition to industrialisation
in India led him to believe that the greatness
of Indian crafts was a result of the “happy
religious organisation of the Hindu village”
w h e re e v e ry h o u s e o f p o tt e r s , w e a v e rs ,
coppersmiths and jewellers produced essential
items of “unrivalled excellence”.
Ananda Coomaraswamy
“The craftsman is not an individual expressing individual
whims, but a part of the universe, giving expression to
ideals of central beauty and unchanging laws, even as
do the trees and flowers whose natural and less ordered
beauty is no less God-given.” Thus wrote Ananda
Coomaraswamy of India’s craftsmen, whose excellence
has never been in dispute.
Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy (1877–1974), a
Sri Lankan, is considered among the greatest historians of Indian arts and
crafts. After graduating in Geology and becoming the Director of the
Mineralogical Survey he formed the Ceylon Social Reformation Society and
led a movement to highlight national education, teaching the vernacular
language in all schools and reviving Indian culture of which he had deep
knowledge and had a high regard for. In1938 he became the Chairman of the
National Committee for India’s Freedom. He contributed greatly towards
people’s understanding of Indian philosophy, religion, art and iconography,
painting and literature, music, science and Islamic art. In his book, The Indian
Craftsman, Coomaraswamy speaks about the corrupting influences of
modernisation on the craftsman and the influences of European rule, and
urges a return to the idealised pre-industrialised life in India.
In August 1947 he made a memorable statement: “India’s culture is of value.
Not so much because it is Indian but because it is culture”.
It is interesting to note that Kamaladevi met Coomaraswamy at the Boston
Museum in the U.S.A. where he headed the Oriental Section. She wrote of
him: “Ananda Coomaraswamy had meant to us something special as a unique
interpreter of our cultural tradition because of the totality of his vision that
never blurred. So much like Gandhiji he treated culture as a significant index
to the social organism”.
T HE D IVIDE BETWEEN A RT AND C RAFT

The initial impact of the Industrial Revolution and the
aftermath of the revolt of 1857 and British political
control of India resulted in the setting up of a number
of institutions. The Archaeological Survey of India and
the Asiatic Society, Kolkata were established as interest
in Indian art and culture grew. The first important
museum to be established was the Indian Museum in
Calcutta, in 1857. The earliest Indian museums had
separate sections for art and archaeology, as well as
galleries for geology, zoology and anthropology where
craft item s of antiquity w ere displayed. M useu ms
provided safe storage and preservation of antiquities
and their collection offer a unique opportunity to study
and research craft traditions.
After 1857 the British established schools of art in

Kolkata, Mumbai and Chennai. The art schools followed
the English syllabus that taught students the principles
of western art of perspective, still-life drawing and
la n d s c a p e p a in ti n g . O i l p a i n t in g s s o o n re p l a c e d
traditional forms of Indian painting. Students trained
in the Western style of art entered the scene; Indian
elite and royalty exposed to Western art patronised this
westernised Indian art. Thus was born the division
between art and craft in India. This led to a further fall
in status of the Indian crafts community who had so
loyally served Indian society for centuries.
The products of the textile mills, printing presses
and India’s first factories replaced handcrafted objects
at home. Imported concepts taught in westernised art
s c h o o ls w e r e t o t a l ly d iv o rc e d fro m t h e u n i fy in g
philosophy of the Indian tradition which brought art,
craft, architecture, design and manufacture together.
A few brave efforts to turn learning towards indigenous
inspiration were attacked as stratagems to deny Indians
the rewards of western progress.
During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, some
political and social reformers recognised the importance
of handicraft industries as a channel of economic
regeneration and cultural confidence in the face of the
c o l o n ia l o n s l a u g h t. T h e ir v is io n in s p ir e d p o e t
R a b in d r a n a t h T a g o re ’s c ra ft e x p e r im e n ts a t h i s
university in Santiniketan, and the emphasis on village
indu stry w ith w hich M ah atma Gan dhi provided a
foundation for India’s struggle towards independence.
As described in detail in Chapter 3, in the early years
of the twentieth century, crafts became a catalyst for
political thought and action. The swadeshi movement
(‘by Indians, for Indians’) attempted to restore the dignity
of labour and human creativity. A simple craft tool—
the spinning wheel—became the symbol of national
revolt, and hand-spun cloth, the livery of freedom.
T h e h a n d l o o m re v o lu ti o n w h i c h fo l lo w e d w a s
accompanied by the promotion of village industries and
by a national awareness of the need to protect and
e n h a n c e t ra d it io n a l s k il l s , p ro d u c t s
a n d m a rke ts w ith in a n e w in d u stria l
environment.
B OUND BY C ASTE
G a n d h ij i h a d h o p e d t h a t w it h th e
attainment of Independence the notion of
caste would gradually disappear, but this
failed to happen and the status of the
c ra fts p e r s o n a s m a n u a l la b o u re r fe ll
further.
Today, even though social mobility is
o n th e in c r e a s e , h e r e d it y , c a s t e a n d
community affiliations continue to play an
important role in the crafts sector. The
association between particular castes/
communities and artisanal activities still
seems to be strongest in the case of pottery, metal work,
leather work, cane and bamboo work. Where the number
o f fi rs t- g e n e r a t io n w o rk e rs i s s m a l l , c a s t e a n d
comm un ity barriers are breakin g down gradually,
s p e c i fic a ll y i n r e la tiv e l y d y n a m ic m a n u fa c t u ri n g
activities, such as tailoring and woodwork, which are
attracting a large number of first-generation workers.
While many of the oppressive features of the colonial
and pre-colonial periods are missing today, a large
segment of the artisanal population lives in abject
poverty. Not surprisingly, many artisans are giving up
their traditional occupations, and taking up other forms
of work, mostly unskilled, daily-wage labour, which
assures them higher returns. The trend was confirmed
by the survey conducted by the NGO, SRUTI, in 1987–88,
which revealed that in more than half the traditional
leather artisan households, several family members had
given up leather-work, and were working as casual
labourers.
Today weavers form the largest section of the rural poor. Ironically, our
history books tell us that they were once among India’s wealthiest
professionals. Weaving guilds were once wealthy enough to sponsor the
building of major temples in South India, and even maintained their own
armies.
E CONOMIC SUSTAINABILITY
The most neglected aspects in the past have been the
poor income and working conditions of craftspeople. How
m a n y p e o p l e in th is c o u n t ry a re a w a r e th a t t h e
craftsperson earns less than the average Indian factory
worker? Indeed, in some cases, he/she cannot even find
sustained work or employment through the year. Most
handicraft artisans work in their own homes and many
are dependent on a consistent supply of raw material.
This may depend on the season or on their outlay. A
bad agricultural season will n atu rally deplete the
resource and production of crafts. Added to this a
landless crafts community is market-dependent and
hence extremely vulnerable to fluctuations in the market
situation.
Torch-bearers of India’s crafts traditions, inheritors of ancient
technologies and cultural systems, artists and creators living
within a binding community ethos, producers in an agro-based
economy, and philosophers who accept the link between the
spiritual and the material—these are the many roles which
craftspeople play. Yet, despite their long history and the
plethora of plans and schemes evolved for them by various
governments since India’s Independence, there may be no more
than a few thousand craftspeople who are comfortably placed
both socially and econom ically. The rest eke out their
livelihoods at bare subsistence level.
A census does not reliably ensure coverage of seasonal
artisans or those skilled artisans who have been marginalised
in rural areas and forced to shift to city slums in search of
alternative employment. Handloom weavers in Delhi share
space with rag-pickers, some produce rag durries or embroider
q u ilts w it h s c ra p s o f c lo t h o b t a in e d f r o m ta ilo r in g
establishments. Itinerant grass-mat weavers and basket-
makers work in empty fields or on crowded city pavements
and are seldom enumerated. As part-time or leisure-time
craftspeople, they still form a part of a productive economy
even if their status remains low and their incomes merely
assure one full meal a day for each member of the family.
The average income derived from handwork, as found in
our profiles, is ` 2,000 per month for an average family of five
members. This amounts to ` 13.50 per day per head. It may
be pertinent to note here that in a reply to a question in
Parliament in 1997, the Ministry of Home Affairs stated that it

cost the exchequer ` 48.60 per day to provide the basic
requirements, including food, for a prisoner lodged in Delhi’s
Tihar jail. When posed with this fact many a craftsman and
woman fell into rueful thought and commented, not without a
sense of humour, whether a spell in jail were not better than a
life of craftwork.
– J AYA J AITLY
T h e a rt is a n s ’ in c o m e s a r e e x c e e d in g l y lo w . In
1987–8 8, th e avera ge an n u al in com e of artisan s,
interviewed by SRUTI, from their artisanal activities
was ` 4,899. The group-wise average varied from a
low of ` 2,219, in the case of cane and bamboo workers,
to a h igh of ` 7,018 in that of w ood-workers. Th e
surveys also suggest that artisans own hardly any
assets. The major asset owned is a house, more often
th a n n o t , k u cch a , o r m a d e o f m u d . T h e
incidence of landlessness is high: 61 per cent
of the artisans in the SRUTI survey did not
possess any land whatsoever. In no case did
th e h oldin g exceed th ree acres. For m ost
artisans, their inability to invest any surplus
income in the purchase of agricultural inputs,
makes for poor yields. The other assets most
commonly owned by artisans are the tools and
tackles of their respective trades. Some of them
also own livestock or cattle. Forty-six per cent
of the artisanal households surveyed did not
have electricity connection.
M AJOR C ONSTRAINTS FOR THE

C RAFTS C OMMUNITY
Apart from social stigma and caste bias, poverty
a n d li m ite d a s s e ts th e re a re fo u r m a j o r
constraints afflicting the crafts community
which have been briefly highlighted below.
Disappearing Raw Material
Crafts communities across the country are
finding it more and more difficult to find adequate raw
material of the right quality. With the depletion of
natural resources, they now have to buy scrap and old
articles. They are unable to buy sufficient quantities
as they lack the requisite capital.
On the next page a story on the shrinking bamboo
cultivation and its decimation in the North-east during
colonial times, is only symptomatic of the huge crisis of
raw materials that the craft industry faces in India
today.
But beyond the non-availability of raw material or
restriction on its use, the craftsman is completely aware
of h is sym biotic relationship with natu re and h is
dependency on it for his very survival. For instance, to
make colour, women in Bihar never pluck flowers but
only use those that have already fallen on the ground,
while in Kalamkari painting old, rusty horseshoes are
even used to produce certain colours!
The Bamboo Story

Fishing traps, baskets, cradles, biers, bridges, rainproof
hats and umbrellas, mats, musical instruments, water
p ip e s — In d ia n s h a v e a lw a y s u s e d t h e b a m b o o in
numerous ways. It is used for house construction,
fencing and in the making of bullock carts. Low-cost
domestic furniture and a vast range of domestic utility
items made of bamboo can be easily seen in any of our
bazaars. But we do not easily notice the countless little
ways this modest material comes to be used by rural
people. One can see it being used in the blacksmith’s
bellows, or as bamboo pins in carpentry joints or in the
fabrication of toys in village markets.
But to the British foresters the multidimensional role
that “the forest weed bamboo” played in the local Indian
environment was of no account, as it did not figure in
forest revenues. Bamboo also interfered with the growing
of teak, an essential part of their colonial forest policy.
It was only in the 1920s that the British realised that
by mincing bamboo into millimetre shreds, cooking it
in chemicals, pulping and flattening it, they could
produce sheets of paper. This would bring the British
increased forest revenue and ‘development’ (as defined
by them) to the so-called backward regions of India.
However, they chose to ignore the consequences this
activity would have on the health of the forest. So while
bamboo was sold at high prices to basket weavers, it
was heavily subsidised for the paper industry.
Even after In depen den ce, su pplyin g bam boo at
extremely low prices to Indian paper mills became a
‘patriotic’ duty of the government, and bamboo supplies
were assured for decades at unchanged prices. The
For the Apatani of Arunachal Pradesh, and their tribal

counterparts across the world, bamboo is everything—tools,
weapon, shelter, food, vessel, pipe, music and idol.
– M AX M ARTIN
Down to Earth
disaster that this would cause to the forests, and to the

craftsperson, still remained unforeseen.
You may recall that in your Class IX history textbook,
India and the Contemporary World–I, a lot of emphasis
was laid on how colonialism affected forests all across
In dia an d margin alised th eir in h abitan ts an d th e
traditional occupations they practised. As late as the
1970s, the World Bank proposed that 4,600 hectares of
natural sal forest should be replaced by tropical pine to
provide pulp for the paper industry. It was only after
protests by local environmentalists that the project was
stopped. Colonialism was therefore not only about
r e p re s s io n , i t w a s a ls o a s t o r y o f d i s p la c e m e n t ,
impoverishment and ecological crisis.
The Indian craftsman is therefore conscious of the
need to reduce, reuse and recycle, and stay in tune
with the local environment that provides him with all
the raw materials he needs.
How different this is from the contemporary textile
mill or the stainless steel industry that pollutes the
soil and local rivers!
A wood-carver from Kerala has this to say: “We go to the forests, and choose
an appropriate tree that is not deformed in any way. Then, on the auspicious
day and hour, we take offerings of sweets and rice and place them at the foot
of the tree. In a prayer, we asks forgiveness from all the creatures, birds,
and insects who live in the tree. We assure them that though we are depriving
them of their house and food, we will use the wood for a good purpose, not
wasting even a scrap of shaving.”
– S HOBITA P UNJA
Museums of India
Loss of Patronage
Where traditionally the jajmani system of patronage or
the local temple, affluent individual, zamindar or petty
raja usually supported the craftsman through the year
or in periods of crisis—the modern state machinery fails
to do so. Dependent on a face-to-face relationship,
de ve lop ed ov er th e gen era tion s , th e ru ra l potte r,
blacksmith or even musician knew that he played a key
role in the social fabric. The story narrated below
explains the relationship of traditional musicians of
Rajasthan and their hereditary patrons.
Among the best known of all the clans of professional folk

musicians in our country are those from Rajasthan—the Langas
and Mangniyars of the Thar desert.
The most fascinating aspect of both these communities is the
patronage they receive generation after generation from the same
families. A Mangniyar who sings for a particular family is called
a dhani. He must be paid a certain sum whenever a major event
like a birth, a marriage or a death occurs in his patron’s family,
and he will have to perform. This dhani right is hereditary—so
if he is attached to fifty families and has two sons, each one of
his sons will become the dhani to twenty-five of these families
and so on! Even family members who do not perform are entitled
to a certain fixed payment.
But there are also some absolutely unique aspects to this
relationship. Can you believe that if a performer is unhappy
with his patron, he can ‘divorce’ him? In fact, in such a situation,
the word ‘talaq’, (‘divorce’ in Urdu) is used!. As a first step of
registering his protest, the performer stops singing the verses
that are in honour of the patron’s family. If this has no impact,
the performers bury their turbans in the sand outside the patron’s
house. If even this has no impact, they proceed to bury the strings
of their instruments outside the patron’s house!
This is seen as being the last straw—an indication that the

Langa or Mangniyar will never again contribute musically to
any of the ceremonies in the patron’s household. Often this results
in serious consequences for the patron—who would now find it
difficult to get his sons and daughters married, or would even
find himself the laughing stock of the local society as he is
parodied through abusive songs by the angry musicians!
Credit Facilities
By contrast, today’s craftsman may find support in a
small cooperative he belongs to, or from a distant buyer
in some other part of the world who may buy his product
over the Internet, but, by and large, he now has to fend
for himself, attempting to find support occasionally in
terms of bank loans, especially after a disaster (like an
earthquake or tsunami) or the occasional craft bazaar
in another part of the country—all supported by the
State.
Crafts communities need working capital to develop
their product, buy raw material, improve their tools and
supply new markets. There are few credit facilities or
insurance policies for the unorganised sector. Craftsmen
need easy credit to free themselves from moneylenders.
More liberalised credit schemes need to be offered by
banks to get them out of debt and help them to invest
in crafts revival.
Traditional and Local Markets
C ra fts co m m u n itie s c a n n o lo n g e r p ro d u c e th e ir
traditional goods at prices that the poor rural consumer
can afford. The poverty of the consumer and rural poor
is such that traditional craftspersons are losing their
largest clients and are thus divorced from the creative
process of innovating for known clients and their needs.
Literacy and Education
The craftsperson in India clearly defines the difference
between education and literacy. The craftsperson is
skilled and is the repository of an unbroken but evolving
tradition. Such a definition is used for one who is
educated and talented. However the same person skilled
in his craft is not able to read or write, rendering him
illiterate. Our craftspersons need both continuous

education and literacy to face the challenges of the
future.
For real progress it is imperative that the artisan
becomes literate. This important aspect of his/her
development should be part of a larger skill training
scheme. We shall be failing in our duty to crafts and
society if young people, while receiving training in crafts,
in private or government centres, are not simultaneously
provided facilities for adequate literacy. Literacy is
critical in the process of increasing production and
marketing, availing bank loans and understanding
individual rights and preventing exploitation by other
classes.
For the next generation of craftspeople, programmes
and projects need to be developed to enhance leadership
q u a li ti e s w it h i n th e c r a fts c o m m u n i ty , p r o v id e
a s s is ta n c e in i m p ro v i n g t e c h n o l o g y , i n c re a s in g
production, creating better working conditions and
r a i s i n g t h e e c o n o m ic s t a n d a rd o f c ra ft s m e n .
Craftspeople need to learn how to understand new
clients and their requirements, how to maintain quality
in their products. They need to learn what new raw
material they could experiment with. Health, schooling,
adequate shelter and work space is the right of every
citizen in this country. For it is indisputable that craft
activity cannot progress without our craftsmen receiving
attention, care and recognition. It is only then that we
may expect crafts to transmit their vitality and grace
on to the future.
In ancient India, crafts and art were one—both synonymous,
both an integral part of home, worship and everyday life, not
segregated into gallery displays or marketplace commerce.
– L AILA T YABJI
Bringing back crafts into the daily life of the majority

o f In d i a n s w o u ld b e th e fir s t s te p t o re in s t a t e
craftspersons in their rightful position in society.
Nurturing skilled educated young craftspeople is the
next step to ensuring a respectable position for crafts
tradition in India in the future.
EXERCISE
1. H ow can craftspeople recover th eir statu s an d
esteemed place in the present economic situation?
2. Write a short article about harmful child labour
keeping in mind the following:
 economic exploitation
 long working hours
 loss of educational and recreational opportunities
 h ealth h azards— accidents, illn ess, violen ce,
harmful effects of chemicals
 abuse and exploitation—emotional and mental.
3. Write a speech on ‘Disappearing Raw Material’ for
the local communiy. Describe the contributions of
crafts to your state in the context of Indian culture.
Describe the reasons for the loss of raw material
and the consequences of the loss.
4. Ivory, shahtoosh and sandalwood are all banned
items. Design a strategy for a ‘sting operation’ to
expose this illegal trade.
5. Develop a lesson plan for the primary school for
children of craftspersons that would help them to
learn a literacy skill like writing or arithmetic. Link
family craft in an interesting way.
6. The close connection between the craftspeople and
the raw material they use is reflected in several local
traditions. Research and describe one such tradition/
ritual/ceremony/festival in detail.
6 PRODUCTION AND MARKETING
C RAFTSPEOPLE ’S most important prerogative is to create

objects that clients need which can be sold so that they
can earn a living and support their families. While
aspects of design and development of the product are
dealt with in another chapter, here we will look at the
variou s tradition a l produ ction , distribu tion an d
m arketin g strategies th at are available to craft
communities in India.
A craftsperson is a skilled producer working primarily
with his/her hands and traditional, often simple, tools
to make articles of daily use. There is great
variety an d diversity w ith in th e crafts
com m u n ity in every part of In dia. A
craftsperson cou ld be village or urban
based, who procures his/her own material,
uses manual skills learnt recently or from
family traditions. H e/she may produ ce
utility items or specialised objects. The
crafts community may supply local markets,
sell through village haats, or transport goods
to urban markets or for export. They may
be self-employed or work as wage-earners
or as members of a cooperative.
It is important to understand this diversity
to appreciate the number of problems that
may arise for the craftsperson at every step
of the process of production and sale. It is
important to remember how complex the
system is and how many such systems of
crafts production and marketing we have in
our country.
The structure for production and marketing of crafts

have the following framework:
PRODUCTION
Craft: This could be in metal, wood, clay, textile, gem-
cutting, jewellery, leather, cane and bamboo, tailoring,
etc. Each of these groups approaches its production work
in a different way.
Location: Ru ral, u rban , sem i-u rban . The location
determines access to raw material, to different clients,
and transport costs. Each of these will affect production,
distribution and sale of crafts.
Raw Material: Does the craftsperson procure the raw
material independently or is it supplied by a trader or
the customer, as in the case of a tailor who is given the
material by the client to make a garment? The raw
m a t e ria l m a y b e s u p p lie d b y th e g o v e rn m e n t a t
subsidised rates or by a cooperative.
Skill and Technology: Is the craft produced manually
or with semi-automated tools?
PRODUCTION AND M ARKETING 75
M ARKETING
End Product: Is it a utility item that lasts a long time
like a belan or urli or is it a daily consumable item like a
flower garland? Does the craftsperson also provide
services like repair and maintenance, as in the case of
a blacksmith?
Markets: Can be termed village/urban, domestic, export.
The craftsperson has to adapt to the needs of different
types of markets and market demands. The client in
each of these different markets has a varied set of
demands.
Sales Channel: Does the craftsperson create objects
fo r th e v il la g e h a a t, ja jm a n , tra d e rs o r fo r t h e
cooperative? Are the craftspersons attached to one client
or many and how familiar are they with the client’s
needs, changing fashions and trends?
Employment Status: Is the craftsperson self-employed,
a wage earner for a large or small organisation, a factory,
an export enterprise or a member of a cooperative?
The combination and computation of these different

scenarios is complicated and every situation requires a
suitable response in terms of production, marketing and
sales.
Raw Competition
The crisis faced by cane, bamboo and fibre artisans is due to the declining
availability of raw material, Apart from the fact that the raw material they depend
on is often diverted to other uses, especially to the paper industry, there has been
little planning or investment in regenerating the country’s bamboo, cane, grass
and other such natural resources. As a result, raw-material prices have spiralled
and the price of the artisan’s products have remained inelastic. There has been a
partial erosion of the traditional markets as cane, bamboo, and fibre products are
being replaced by synthetic fibres and plastics.
R URAL E CONOMY
In the rural economy the sale of crafts products
plays an important role. The crafts community is
commissioned to prepare goods by a client e.g. diyas for
Diwali. The weaver may be asked to weave a set of saris
for a marriage and may be paid in kind (with foodgrain)
or given a monetary advance. In these cases the crafts
community knows the clients and is aware of their
community, status and the kind of objects they
might need. Often the client is an old customer
and the craftsperson’s family may have served the
family for many generations.
Shawls are needed in every Kashmiri home for
weddings and births. These occasions ensure the
shawlwala’s regular visits to every family. He visits
the homes, interacts within a strict protocol and
yet is an intimate member of the client family as
he deals with the women of the house in the
kitchens and chambers and listens to their ‘talk’.
He knows the taste of all his clients and takes
personalised orders for new products. Centuries-
old rate samples of embroidery designs are shared
with the lady of the house and the shawlwala
suggests the colour for each flower, leaf and
creeper. He then instructs the artisans who
execute the orders and returns to deliver them.
M ARKET OR H AAT
In the rural area many villages, even today, organise a
weekly market or haat. This market is organised by
villag e a rtis an s an d ea ch craftsp erso n is g iven a
designated place in the market to sell his/her wares.
The local potter produces pots for regular use and for
festivals. Craftspersons from nearby villages are also
invited to the weekly haat to sell their wares. The crafts
family brings its wares, spreads them out on a durrie,
or puts up a tent and displays its products for sale. The
haat starts in the late morning and carries on till dusk
when the unsold items are taken back home.
Wandering for Markets

“Only rain can stop my potter’s wheel from turning,” says Bhura Ram. He cannot
afford to miss a day’s work or to have blemishes on his pots. “My wares must sound
as good as they look. You see customers tap them with a coin to test their quality.”
Besides making pots for his jajmans—numbering ten in all—Bhura takes his
wares to the weekly market in Pather and Chilkana. The leftover articles he loads
on his mule and then roams from village to village, within a radius of 15 kms, in an
effort to hawk them. Years of experience have taught Bhura to maintain the crucial
balance between production and sales.
FESTIVALS AND M ELAS

Whenever there is a festival in the village the duration
of the haat is extended by several days. The Shivratri
mela in the village of Khajuraho, Madhya Pradesh, lasts
several days so that the visitors and pilgrims to the
festival could also spend the evening after the pujas
and ceremonies in the mela. The mela sometimes has a
merry-go-round, a giant wheel, magic shows and other
amusements for children and families to enjoy together
while they buy things for their daily use from the crafts
shops.
In Gujarat at the procession of the goddess Vardayani, or
Vaduchima, the palanquin which enthrones the mother, is without
wheels. Woodcutters bring wood for the chariot, carpenters
prepare the frame, barbers the canopy, gardeners bring the
flowers, the potters mould the clay lamps that light the
procession. Muslims provide the cotton, and the tailors the wicks
for the oil lamps. The Brahmins cook khichri which is distributed
as prasad, and the Rajputs stand guard while the Patidars
provide the garments for the goddess.
– P UPUL J AYAKAR
The Earthen Drum
P ILGRIMAGE C ENTRES
Important temples, mosques, gurudwaras and even
churches in India attract devotees from near and far.
Throughout the country these pilgrimage centres draw
large crowds to the market. These annual pilgrimages
draw so many people that craft communities have settled
near them and whole townships have developed that
h ave become fam ous for th e crafts th ey produ ce.
Kanchipuram in Tamil Nadu has many famous temples,
attracting a large number of pilgrims so that, over the
centuries, it has become a thriving cotton and silk
weaving centre. Today the fame of the town and the
craft is so closely linked that the saris produced here
are called Kanchi cottons or Kanchipuram silks. The
products here achieved a certain style and quality for
which they are famous and large workshops and shops
have mushroomed throughout the town.
The traditional marketplaces for

c ra ft s , d e s c r ib e d a b o v e , h a v e
advantages and disadvantages for
the crafts community. Consider
the following:
Advantages
 Production units were close to
the source of raw materials.
 Transport of goods were limited
so prices could be contained.
 Producer and client were often
known to each other and hence
th e a rtisa n u n de rs too d t h e
client’s needs and requirements.
 Middle men had little or no role
to play in the sale transactions.
Disadvantages
 Stagnation of skills and tools
 Stagnation of designs
 Limitation on prices
 Limited needs of clients
R URAL TO U RBAN
To supply the needs of the urban market the crafts
community would either settle near urban markets or
sell its wares at the local haat or bazaar, during festivals
or at a pilgrimage centre. This meant transporting wares
often over long distances. Whenever possible or necessary
the crafts community would leave part of the family to
contin u e produ ction in th e village wh ere th e raw
materials were available. The other part of the family
would reside in the urban city and set up shop for sale
of goods to the urban community. The other option was
for the crafts community to use the services of a middle
man such as a trader. The trader would come to the
village, buy goods from the crafts community and take
the wares to the city for sale, keeping the profit for
himself.
Advantages
 Opportunity to develop new sets of skills and tools
 Opportunity to develop new designs for new clients
Disadvantages
 Pricing needed to be restructured.
 Transport of goods to greater distances caused prices
to be raised.
 Producer often did not know the client.
 Producer did not understand the client’s needs.
 M id d l e m e n p l a y e d a m a j o r r o l e in t h e s a l e
transactions, often taking most of the profit from the
crafts producer.
P RIVATE M ARKETING
The general pattern of marketing of handicrafts is that
in de pe n d en t artisa n s w ork in th eir h o m e s or for
workshop owners (karkhanadars, master craftsmen, sub-
contractors) and sell goods manufactured by them to
big stockists both domestic and international, or to small
shopkeepers directly or through brokers. The stockists
and small dealers in turn sell them either to local
consumers or outstation merchants or foreign importers,
again either directly or through specific intermediate
agencies. Large dealers have relatively high financial
resources and some of them have goods made to order
directly from artisans, advancing money to them for
the purchase of materials. Artisans working on this

basis are often in debt to dealers on account of these
advances. With a more liberalised credit policy being
followed by banks in India and the current emphasis
on easier credit facilities being extended to the weaker
section s of society, th e situation of in debtedn ess
amongst handicraft artisans is improving slowly.
The role of private enterprise in the field of handicrafts
marketing has been, and is today, overwhelmingly
important. About 90 per cent of handicraft production
is handled by private agencies and the rest by public
marketing and cooperative agencies.
Home to Factory
The gem and jewellery sector is the largest foreign exchange
earner for India. In 1992–93 exports soared to ` 9,404 crore.
In the international market, Indian jewellery is competitively
priced, and is cheaper than products from other countries,
possibly because labour is cheaper in India.
Jew ellery-m aking w as un til recen tly a dispersed,
household industry. However, as a result of various
government interventions and the opening of the export
m arket, this industry is gradually moving out of the
household sector. Rural jewellers are largely self-employed,
whereas most of the urban artisans tend to work as wage
labourers or on contract basis. Urban production units are
mainly owned by traders and retailers. Most of the non-
traditional artisans are located in urban areas and are
engaged in processing rough diamonds and gem stones.
There are now a large number of workers in the non-
household sector. As a result, today the non-traditional
artisan outnumbers the traditional artisan.
E XPORT PROMOTION
Planned development initiated in the country after
Independence has resulted in the present growth of the
Indian economy. Building infrastructure for economic
development has been the major challenge of Indian
planners. Over the years the country’s economic base
has been strengthened and diversified. Export of Indian
handicrafts has gained importance, both in quantitative
and qualitative terms. Export items include clothing,

gems and jewellery, handlooms, handicrafts and leather
goods, among others. There are established markets for
Indian handicrafts in U.S.A., U.K., West Europe, Russia
and other East European countries, while new markets,
n a m e ly , J a p a n , S o u th A s ia a n d th e M id d le E a s t
continue to expand. Today, Indian handicrafts are
supplied to over 100 countries.
Questions for Craftspeople

Why have potters not become full-fledged ceramicists producing
modern glazed tableware? Why did the weaver not find place in
a textile mill? What happens to the chappal-makers when plastic
footwear floods the market? Can a shoemaker produce as fast
as a machine? Where should the craftsperson go with his
problems in order to improve his skill or widen his market?
The most crucial part of a craft producer’s life is the
marketplace. It could be either at his doorstep or in far-off
countries. Are these markets accessible without intermediaries
who exploit them? Can they sell their goods or are they prisoners
of greater market forces?
– J AYA J AITLY
The Government of India has several schemes for the

marketing and promotion of export trade in handicrafts.
Various forms of assistance are made available to export
organisations, such as Export Promotion Councils and
other organisations of industry and trade, as well as to
individual exporters. The scheme also provides support
for export publicity, participation in trade exhibitions,
setting up of warehouses and in undertaking research
and product development.
Craft Diplomacy
Yet another role has now emerged: crafts as a vehicle for
diplomacy, demonstrated through the Festivals of India in
foreign countries such as Britain, France, the United States,
China and others. These great expositions of craft and design
activity have highlighted the strength and potential of
surviving traditions as well as the complexity of merchandising
craft overseas.
The Trade Development Authority (TDA), and Trade

Fair Authority of India (TFAI) were established by the
Government of India. These organisations have given a
new orientation to the country’s trade promotion through
fairs, exhibitions and other promotional activities.
N EW C OMMERCE
In developed countries where crafts have died out and
skilled crafts communities no longer exist, there is a
sharp increase in demand for Indian crafts.
The Internet and e-commerce are new forums for
promotion and sales, along with the development of the
retail sector, thus creating new distribution channels
for the craft industry.
The biggest challenge is to understand the customers’
preference and to spot the next big trend in design or
a c c e s s o ri e s . F r o m w o r k i n g o n p ro d u c t d is p l a y ,
merchandise selection to pricing or just the logistics of
running a retail outlet— all are huge challenges to
independent sustenance and growth of a business.
The Indian crafts industry is growing rapidly as it is an important

supplier of craft products in the world. The industry provides
employment to over six million artisans. The export earnings
alone from Indian handicrafts for 1998–99 amounted to ` 1,200
crore. According to data the export of handicrafts had increased
to ` 10,746 crore in 2007–2008 with India’s contribution in the
world market being 1.2 per cent.
– The Times of India, July 2010
With the crafts industry growing at such a fast pace

to meet the demands for export there is need for efficient,
q u a li fi e d p ro fe s s io n a ls to r u n b u s in e s s e s a n d
understand the demand and supply of the sector.
Handicrafts entrepreneurs can only succeed if they
take the crafts community into their confidence, make
them shareholders and continue to motivate, innovate
and explore possibilities along with them.
T ra in in g in th e u s e o f te c h n o lo g ie s , th e la tes t
equipment and nature-friendly techniques will also help
artisans to keep abreast of global trends.
EXERCISE
1. Research is essential for the production and marketing of
any product. Problems would arise if a proper pre-production
research market survey in not done in the following areas:
 Availability of raw material
Example: Setting up a carpet centre in a non-wool producing
area thereby increasing the cost of transportation and
production.
 Identification of buyers and review of customer needs and
demands
 Untapped skills
 Training and skill improvement facilities
 Financial forecasting.
2. Amul is a rural development success story. It gives employment
to 16 lakh people. But it would not be able to do so without an
appropriate distribution system. What would be the appropriate
distribution system for craft products in rural and urban
areas?
3. Describe a local haat in your area. Focus on one craft and
outline the main advantages and disadvantages for the local
crafts community of sale in the local haat.
4. How could the pilgrimage centre in your area improve the
marketing prospects for the crafts communities? Mention new
products, pricing structure, packaging and display that could
be improved.
5. The plight of the poor in the hands of a moneylender or a middle
man, is a popular theme in Indian literary tradition be it prose,
poetry or theatre. Find an example in the literature of your
local language or mother tongue and explain.
6. Develop a format for a website to sell crafts on the Internet.
8 CRAFT IN THE AGE OF TOURISM
T OURISM , if it is managed sensitively, can be a miraculous

catalyst for economic and cultural revitalisation; it not
only enhances income but also establishes an identity
of the country. Two Asian countries—Thailand and
India—are among the top ten destinations in the world,
and tourists to India increase by almost 15 per cent
each year.
Th e nature of tourism itself has changed— with
tourists travelling for leisure and pleasure, rather than
culture and architecture. This new type of traveller is
often looking to buy ethnic crafts or souvenirs as a
memento of their travel experience. Which crafts do
visitors to India buy? Where do they buy them from?
These are some of the questions to explore.
India has over twenty million craftspeople, who create
a very wide range of varied crafts. Is it possible to
productively use the ever-growing tourism industry to
explore approaches to craft merchandising that will
benefit and sustain the crafts community throughout
the country? Let us analyse present trends in crafts
production and sale in the tourism sector.
Popular Souvenirs from India

 Carpets and durries
 Kundan, silver and semi-precious jewellery
 Block-printed fabric
 Embroideries
 Folk art—Madhubani paintings, Bastar metal work
 Silk—material, garments, scarves and stoles
 Embossed and embroidered leather
 Pashmina shawls from Kashmir which continue to be the
most popular
The market for crafts in the tourism sector is based

on certain factors which it is important to understand
and analyse in order to develop the market potential for
crafts. A similar approach can be used to analyse other
marketing options for crafts.
T OURISTS ’ PREFERENCES
 Air travel implies limited bulk and weight of luggage
for travellers. So they prefer to carry small, light
objects. Since weight is a major problem, the things
that tourists buy have to be either unusual, or
something that they don’t get in their own country
or so com petitiv e in price th a t th ey fin d th em
irresistible.
 Today popular destinations in India are Goa and
Kerala where visitors flock for the beaches and
ayurvedic spas. Tourists also come to see monuments
searching for a unique cu ltu ral experience like
v is it in g th e m a g n ific e n t fo r ts a n d p a l a c e s o f
Rajasthan. It is important to realise that trends,
fashions, tastes and lifestyles change. This, in turn,
affects the tourism and crafts industry.
C RAFT IN THE A GE OF T OURISM 105
 With cameras being so sophisticated, easy-to-use and

inexpensive, tourists no longer need souvenirs just
to put into showcases at home as reminders of their
travels.
 International travel today is quite commonplace
rather than a once-in-a-lifetime adventure. Tourists
today are exposed to the best the world can offer,
a n d a re t h e re fo r e m o re s e l e c t iv e . T h e I n d ia n
experience shows that the traveller today—even back-
packers—do have money to spend, but since they
travel the globe, they are quite selective about what
they spend their money on.
 Tourists these days are younger; they are usually
professionals on holiday, rather than just the retired
and the elderly. Their homes are smaller; usually
colour-coordinated and designed to a theme. Just
because something is ethnic it is not always desired
by them. However, sometimes, simply changing a
colour or size can make a traditional item into a
best-seller.
Some years ago, weavers from Varanasi converted the traditional dupatta into a stole, a
length of cloth worn like a small shawl by women in Western countries. This new product
became very popular and sold well at tourist centres as it was light, the right size and
comfortable to wear with western clothes.
 Today’s travellers do not want things that are difficult

to maintain, which require frequent washing and
polishing. Hence, there was a sharp decline in recent
years in the demand for Indian metal crafts like bidri,
silver and brassware.
An English lady wanted to buy a white chikan tablecloth—but the thought of hand
laundering, starching and ironing its fragile, heavily embroidered muslin folds worried
her. Finally, she had a brainwave. “I’ll buy it for my mother-in-law,” she said. “She will like
the tablecloth and my good taste, but she will have the headache of looking after it for the
rest of her life!”
 On the other hand tourists and travellers do buy

clothes and accessories for holidays—casuals, sandals,
cloth bags, jewellery. These items are usually cheaper
in India than in Europe and America. Tourists today
are much less conservative and enjoy experimenting
with local styles. Holiday clothes and accessories are,

therefore, areas that could be developed.
 Visitors would prefer to invest in and to take home
truly beautiful artistic objects. This area of artistic,
high-quality products needs to be developed rather
than trying to sell poorly designed, cheap, outdated
souvenirs of the past.
P OPULAR S ALES O UTLETS FOR C RAFTS

Most tourists visit the Taj M ahal, one of the most
beautiful monuments in the world. However, this world
famous heritage site is surrounded by hundreds of little
shops and stalls full of cheap alabaster and ugly plastic
replicas of the Taj, rows and rows of small soap-stone
pill boxes with poor quality marble inlay and lids that
don’t fit. The shops are run by aggressive and persistent
shopkeepers and there is not a craftsperson or genuine
craft object in sight. The same is true of all our great
tourist sites, museums and pilgrimage centres—the Red
Fort, Khajuraho, Ajanta, Varanasi, Hampi, Mathura,
Mahabalipuram and the beaches of Goa and Orissa.
There are government-run Cottage Industries and

State Handicraft Emporia in all the cities. Baba Kharak
Singh Marg in Delhi has a row of crafts emporia run by
th e State H an dicrafts C orporations’ sh ops. Th ese
emporia were an innovation as India was probably the
first country with a policy and a Ministry for Handlooms
and Handicrafts.
A comparatively new trend is privately run shops in
cities, hotels and airports. Commercial tourist complexes
market a mix of ethnic food, rural lifestyle, craft, music
and dance such as Vishaala in Gujarat, Swabhumi in
Kolkata, Chowki Dhani in Jaipur. The craftsperson is
featured as both exhibit and entertainer.
In order to enter the field of handicraft marketing one
has to know where and how the products are made,
appreciate the craftsmen’s lifestyle and method of working.
Thereafter, reliable supply contacts or procurement
arrangements should be established, as well as efficient
distribution outlets, and the whole enterprise managed
in a business-like way. In the selection process, good

taste and visual discrimination are valuable assets,
besides a general understanding of crafts. Working out
realistic cost prices with a reasonable mark-up for retail
and wholesale prices are among the basic steps for proper
marketing.
N EW A VENUES FOR C RAFTS D EVELOPMENT

Crafts, in tourism, does not just mean selling things to
tourists. It could also mean crafting the spaces that
t o u ri s t s u s e s u c h a s th e h o te ls , g u e s t h o u s e s ,
restaurants and scenic spots. Crafts of all kinds—
architectural, functional, decorative, can be used to
enhance and accent these places. This way local craft
skills can be promoted and sustained in the long term.
D e v ig a rh , N e e m ra n a , S a m o d e a n d o th e r l is te d
Heritage Hotels in Rajasthan and elsewhere have no
hotel arcades, no stereotyped craft souvenirs but every
ro o m , s u rfa c e , a n d o b je c t in th e h o te l h a s b e e n
handcrafted in the best traditional techniques and with
the best contemporary designs.
Museums are a wonderful venue for selling

quality crafts to a discerning audience. The
few museums that have shops only have a
small set of badly produced postcards and
some dusty plaster casts.
Airport shops are another significant venue
to capture customers for local handicrafts.
As this is the last impression visitors have of
India before they return home it is important
that airport shops help them to forge a lasting
and endearing image of our country.
Dilli Haat, the government crafts bazaar in
the centre of Delhi, is now being replicated all
over India. It is a wonderful opportunity for
craftspeople to become aware of consumer
tastes and trends, and for urban middle-class
consumers to learn about the huge range of
regional craft skills, materials and techniques.
This type of crafts bazaar brings craftspeople
from all over India, allows them to sell their
o w n p rod u c ts; th e p ro gra m m e o f c ra fts
changes every fortnight so as to be interesting
all the year round, bringing fresh products to
new audiences in the city.
Natural and cultural heritage sites can
become a catalyst and an inspiration for
change. It is possible that such places can
b e c o m e c r a ft p r o d u c t io n c e n t re s w h e r e
wonderful new crafts by craftspeople and
designers are developed, inspired by the historical site.
There has been some work done in this direction in
Mahabalipuram in Tamil Nadu and Konark in Orissa
where skilled young craftspeople train, and produce
wonderful new pieces inspired by the monuments.
Organised craft fairs, and craft demonstrations in local
hotels also link tourism to local traditions without
e x p lo it a t io n . T o u ri s t s c a n c o n t ri b u te t o c r a ft
development and social development initiatives at such
tourist centres. Eco-tourism must be an enhancing
experience for the community, not only for the tourist.
In Ranthambhore, Rajasthan, hundreds of villagers were displaced by the creation of the

Tiger Reserve. Tourists, frustrated by the lack of entertainment in between visits to the
Wild Life Park, used to go off in their jeeps to the villages with their cameras, disrupting
the villagers’ daily routines and often offending them with their holiday clothes. Traditional
rural hospitality rapidly turned into reverse exploitation: children began begging for
presents, villagers started asking tourists for money when they were photographed. A
Craft Centre outside the Tiger Reserve was set up employing hundreds of local rural women.
The Centre developed crafts for the tourist market around locally available traditional
materials. The Centre attracted tourists who could come there, interact with craftspeople,
see, understand and buy crafts in a natural yet regulated environment.
H OW CRAFTS DECLINED WITH T OURISM

Kashmir is a State whose entire economy was based on
tourism and craft. For well over a century it was the
most important tourist destination—for Indian as well
as foreign tourists. Almost every family in the Kashmir
Valley was in the handicrafts business in some way,
either making or selling crafts—carpets, shawls, crewel
and kani embroidery, jewellery, papier-mâché, and
carved walnut wood, silver and beaten copper items.
The tourist market was so large and constant that
no attempt was made to sustain the local market or
adapt the crafts to local consumer needs and budgets.
Over the past two centuries, crafts originally designed
for local consumption, like the ornamentally carved
Ka sh m iri c eilin g s m a de o f w a lu n t w oo d, a n d th e
traditional pherans and shawls worn by Kashmiris with
heavy embroidery were gradually reduced to souvenirs
and gift items aimed at the tourist trade.
A classic example is papier mâché originally developed to make light, decorative furniture
and home accessories for ordinary homes in Kashmir. The papier mâché art was used to
make simple products for the tourist market such as pill and powder boxes, coasters and
napkin rings, and Christmas tree decorations, embellished with western motifs of cats,
bells and snowflakes.
T w o d e c a d e s o f c o n flic t h a v e m a d e K a s h m ir a
dangerous area for tourists. Foreign tourists no longer
travel in large numbers to Kashmir, and its craftspeople
have been deeply affected and the whole economy,
dependent on tourism, has suffered enormously.
So linked were these crafts with tourism and the

beauty of the Valley that the same products marketed
outside this troubled state, by displaced Kashmiri
craftspeople in hotel arcades, footpaths and markets in
other states, just did not sell as well.
A strategy to revitalise and find new consumers and
usages for Kashmiri crafts is urgently required. It is a
warning that no craft should become too dependent on
any one market—particularly international tourism.
C RAFTS AND SURVIVAL

In contrast, Kutch in Gujarat is an example of
how crafts have repeatedly been an instrument
of dynamic economic survival and revival.
In Kutch as in Kashmir, almost everyone is a
craftsperson. Products made here range from
everyday terracotta objects to fabulous jewellery
and embroideries. Formerly this craft was a way
of life, made for household embellishment in poor
rural communities. It was the terrible six-year
drought in the 1980s that made people realise
the potential of the skills they possessed. In an
otherwise drought-prone desert environment with
little to attract visitors, Kutch used its rich craft
h e rit a g e t o g e n e ra te to u ri s m . T o d a y , e v e ry
household is dependent in some way on the
production and sale of craft. Apart from sale of
products, specialised craft tours are organised to cater
to visitors’ interests in vegetable dye, block-printing or
embroidery techniques.
When, in 2001, Kutch was struck by a devastating
earthquake an estimated 80,000 people lost their lives,
and over 2,28,000 artisans were severely affected by
the quake, losing their families, their homes, and their
livelihoods.
Once again crafts came to the rescue. Craftspeople,
without insurance, pensions, provident funds, were,
ironically, the first to recover from the trauma of the
earth qu ake, thanks to th eir inheren t skills. Their
buyers, international tour operators and even students
and back-packers, came loyally to their rescue, sending
in not just orders, but funds for earthquake relief,
reconstruction, craft development projects, and help in
many ways. Today the crafts communities of Kutch have
re-established their crafts and their markets.
One tourist, hearing of the earthquake and remembering the crafts and creativity of the
community and the colours of her visits to Kutch, sent a crate full of scissors and needles
for distribution!
N EW T RENDS IN C RAFT D EVELOPMENT

India is a fast-growing economy and needs to find a
prominent place for its crafts in the global market. In
th is p ro c e s s of e c o n o m ic d e v e lo p m e n t th e cra fts
communities need to be involved in finding new and
innovative ways to help their craft to survive, as they
are creative people with many ideas and have adapted
to many changes over the years.
Catering for a Variety of Tastes: Tourism does not
imply just European and American tourists. More and
more Asians of all levels of society are travelling both
within their own country and to neighbouring nations—
generating new markets and new consumers.
Promoting Cultural Values: Craft development should
be a means to promote cultural wisdom and family
values. Showing respect to crafts communities should
also be a part of our concerns. It is important to bring
them and their needs into the consultative process when
planning craft promotion.
Organic and Sustainable: Today the world is threatened
by global warming, pollution, unhealthy living conditions
and destruction of the environment. Conscientious
tourists have now begun to ask if products have been
grown organically, and whether the crafts process and
pro du ctio n are su sta in able in
terms of the environment.
T h e re a re m a n y c ra fts th a t
a re n o t b a s e d o n s o u n d
environmental principles. Crafts
production is in itself not always
eco-friendly. Dyes and mordants
pollute rivers; wood-based skills
d e n u d e o u r fo r e s ts . L e a t h e r
tanning is accompanied by
noxious smells and chemicals.
Metal crafts and glass smelting
a re p ra c t is e d i n a p p a ll in g l y
hazardous and life-threatening
surroundings.
There are items like ivory and sandalwood whose sale

is restricted, protected animal skins and parts the sale
of which is completely banned. Tourists, both foreign
and domestic, must be informed why these products
are not for sale and of the national effort to save India’s
wildlife and forests.
When encouraging and promoting crafts, attempt
should be made to improve the working environment of
craftspeople and to find new, innovative ways to protect
natural resources, farm renewable resources like trees
and bamboo, reduce pollution, and the exploitation of
nature. Crafts that follow sustainable practice, that are
organic and that do not exploit human beings should
be clearly marked and labelled so that the growing
conscientious market is well served by the Indian crafts
industry.
Natural and Handmade: Today, ‘handloom’, ‘handmade’,
‘natural dyed’, ‘natural fibres’ are the Asian equivalents
of designer labels. This is what India is especially famous
for and for this we need to protect our reputation and
never sell something as natural dyed or 100 per cent
pure cotton if it is not.
Brand India: We Can Learn from Swiss Watches

Each nation has a unique brand identity, with its core values and essence diffusing through
the population, who in turn reinforces and spreads these values and cultural nuances in
a gigantic circle of brand building. No two nations are exactly the same, for a nation’s
identity comes from its languages, music, art, style, customs and religions.
Most successful watch brands derive their brand equity from being Swiss-made.
Japanese products are associated with quality and innovation. Negative associations also
transfer. Chinese branded products, top quality or not, are generally not perceived as
such.
At present India’s image is somewhat fragmented, ranging from cultural associations
built by the ‘Incredible India’ tourism campaign, to a global fascination with the vibrancy
of ‘Bollywood’, from the widespread poverty highlighted in the film Slumdog Millionaire, to
the business perception of India as the world’s back office. India needs to define its core
values and national identities clearly, and purposefully build greater natural brand equity
and value.
– Extracted from an article in The Times of India, 21 June 2009,
by P AUL T EMPORAL , Visiting Fellow at Said Business
School, University of Oxford
 Transport and Monetary Transactions: Traditional

s an da lw o od c a rv in gs , m in iatu re p ain tin g s an d
m etalw are are n o lon ger as popu lar as befo re.
Handcrafted furniture and furnishings, however,
because they are so much cheaper than in the West,
are a new growth area. When tourists see a long-
term in v e stm en t, th e y a re rea d y to h a v e th eir
purchases shipped. It is important to be aware of the
transport facilities available, licenses, duties, and
import and export restrictions. The use of the credit
card also means that tourists are no longer restricted
by foreign exchange regulations or traveller’s cheques
or bank balance.
 Design is an aspect of craft that is often ignored and
not invested in. Craft has always been changing and
re-inventing itself, and it must respond to the shifts
in society and lifestyles. If it remains static, it
gradually withers away and dies. Sadly, however,
th o u gh craftsp e op le in In d ia still do th e m os t
incredible carving, embroidery, metal work, and inlay
work in a host of different regional traditions and
materials, product design has not kept pace with
contemporary trends and styling.
Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines have been

much more innovative and clever in adapting their
traditional skills to crafts products that are both
picturesquely Asian yet contemporary.
 Presentation and Packaging is one of the weakest
areas in the Indian crafts chain. Even products aimed
specifically at tourists do not have travel-proof carrier
bags or packing material. This is particularly sad
when there are so many natural materials which
lend themselves so appropriately for packaging.
Similarly, despite our Asian aesthetic sense and
warmth, shop display and customer service in tourist
centres are generally unattractive.
Well-designed information posters and labelling
also help to sell products. The buyer must know and
be informed which products are hand-woven, made
of natural fibres, part of a historic cultural tradition,
or made by tribal women. This information is as
valuable as the produ ct for today’s eco-min ded
traveller.
EXCERCISE
1. Choose a craft for which your state is famous and describe
how you could develop this craft for the tourism sector. Why
do you think it would be popular amongst tourists? Where
would you market it? How would you package it?
2. Prepare the text and illustrations for a brochure on a craft—
explaining its unique qualities, its sustainable properties and
the community that made it, keeping in mind its value as a
part of new trends and concerns of contemporary life.
3. Draw from the story of Kashmir that was over-dependent on
foreign tourists and did not develop a domestic market, and
relate it to how any craft in your area has been seriously
affected and the reasons for this.
4. Find three new venues for the sale of crafts in your area.
Identify places that you think would attract both domestic
and foreign visitors and explain why.
5. “Tourists today do not travel to see ancient monuments. They
travel seeking leisure and fun. Taking home mementos or
curios is no longer high on their agenda.” Do you agree?
Elaborate.
9 DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT
T HE twenty-first century has brought with it accelerated

change in every sphere of life, dependency on machines
and excessive consumption of natural resources in a
manner that is no longer sustainable. In the past the
crafts sector had been rejected by many as an unviable
economic activity for the twenty-first century.
Artisans still make up twenty million of India’s
working population. Therefore this sector has to be
developed in such a way so as to offer sustainable
em ploymen t to millions of skilled artisan s. Crafts
producers cannot be economically viable unless their
p ro d u c t is m a rk e ta b le . T h e p ro d u c t c a n o n ly b e
marketable if it is attractive to the consumer, i.e., if
the traditional skill is adapted and designed to suit
contemporary consumer tastes and needs. Design does
not mean making pretty patterns—it lies in matching a
technique with a function.
In the field of traditional craft these two aspects of
design and development are not always synonymous;
design can lead to development, and development should
b e de s ig n e d . H ow ev e r in th e fie ld of de sig n an d
development a conflict may arise between function and
responsibility. Whose creativity will be expressed—the
developer’s, the designer’s or the craftsperson’s? Who is
the client—the consumer, who wants an unusual and
exciting product at the most competitive price; or the
crafts community who needs a market for its products
as similar to the traditional one as possible, so that it
does not need constant alien design interventions, or is
at conflict with the social, aesthetic and cultural roots
from which it has grown?
The crafts community has several priorities such as

food, clothing, shelter, education, health and economic
stability. The craft development sector needs to be
sensitive to these very real con cerns of the crafts
community.
Therefore, craftspeople must be involved in every
aspect of design and production and understand the
u sage of th e produ ct they are m akin g. Volun tary
agencies or designers must also understand and study
the craft, the product and the market they are trying to
enter.
C HANGING P ROFILE OF THE C RAFTSPERSON

In Ancient India, every individual had an implicitly
defined role in society, ordained by birth. Craftsmanship
was a heritage that evolved over centuries of arduous
apprenticeship in chhandomaya (the rules of rhythm,
balance, proportion, harmony and skill), controlled and
protected by the structure and laws of the guild. In the
guild the master craftsman, the raw apprentice and
the skilled but uninspired jobsman all had a place and
purpose. Today’s craftsperson has to be all things in
one, including his/her own entrepreneur.
The craftsperson had the status of an artist. As a
member of a society with strict rules and hierarchies,
both w ith in th e gu ild an d th e ou tsid e w orld, th e
community and its products were protected, and the
quality was controlled. Patrons were well known to the
artists, customers were close at hand, their lifestyles
not too markedly different from the artists’. Whether
the craftsperson’s skills provided simple village wares
or jewelled artefacts for the temple or sultan, it was a
supportive inter-dependency based on a mutual need,
understanding and appreciation.
The craftsperson was his/her own designer and
the embellishments came only after the shape was
p e rfe c te d to th e fu n c tio n . Th e a e s th e tic a n d th e
practical blended in a natural rather than artificially
imposed harmony.
D ESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT 121
W HY DESIGN INPUTS A RE NEEDED

Today most craftspeople practising traditional skills are
vyin g with mach ines, com petitive m arkets, m ass-
pro du ce d ob jects or con s u m ers’ craze for fore ign
fashions, and are no longer protected by guilds or the
enlightened, hands-on patronage of courts or religious
institutions. Crafts communities are increasingly faced
w ith th e pro blem s of dim in ish in g orders an d th e
debasement of their craft.
Crafts communities are making products for lifestyles
remote from their own, and selling them in alien and
highly competitive markets. Their own lives and tastes
have suffered major transformations alienating them
further from their skills and products. A traditional jooti-
maker may still embroider golden peacocks on a pair of
shoes, but he himself will probably be wearing pink
plastic sandals! Consequently, craft has degenerated
today. For instance, the metal diya, a traditional ritual
object of worship has been turned into an ash tray that
sells on the pavement for just ten rupees.
D ESIGN INPUTS : FROM INSIDE OR O UTSIDE ?

Do craftspeople with centuries of a skilled tradition need
outside interventions? In the past no deterioration of
crafts has been caused by interventions, however well
intentioned, from the outside, from agencies outside the
crafts community.
However, tradition must be a springboard not a cage.
Craft, if it is to be utility-based and economically viable,
cannot be static. Crafts have always responded to
market changes, consumer needs, fashion and usage.
Today with the distance growing between the producer
and the consumer, craft cannot respond to change with
the same vitality that existed in the past. It then
becomes the role of the designer and product developer
to sensitively interpret these changes to craftspeople
who are physically removed from their new marketplaces
and new clients.
T h e re a re p ro fe s s io n a ls w it h
formal art, design and marketing
education who have the technical
expertise and tools to assist crafts
c o m m u n i ti e s i n t h e p ro c e s s o f
design, innovation, understanding
fo r e i g n o r u r b a n m a rk e t s a n d
contemporary marketing practices
that can protect the interest
o f th e a r ti s a n s . W o r k i n g w it h
craftspeople, the design consultant
has to dampen his/her own creative
fla m e i n o r d e r t o li g h t th e
c ra ft s p e r s o n ’s fir e . H e / s h e c a n
provide a sample design range to
inspire craftspeople to do their own
further innovation, not just force the
artisan into passive replication. The
crafts community must be at the
centre of the crafts development
p ro c e s s a n d a t e v e ry s te p
craftspersons must be taught to use
their minds and imagination as well
as their hands.
A Fridge That Uses No Electricity

Mansukbhai Prajapati, a potter living in Wankaner, Gujarat,
has invented a refrigerator called ‘Mitticool’. Here is how he
made it: Mansukhbhai mixed several kinds of mud in a churner.
Once the mud was mixed, the slush was filtered and then made
to dry. Then the raw material i.e. chunks of dried clay were
simply modelled in a vertical shape and baked in the furnace.
The upper part of the ‘Mitticool’ can store about 20 litres of
water, while the bottom cabinet has a separate space for storing
fruits, vegetables and milk. This brown fridge has an inlet for
water, which is circulated through internal piping that keeps
the temperature cool. This keeps vegetable and fruit fresh for
around five days, while milk can be preserved for three days. His invention is unique,
inexpensive and emits no Cholro Fluro Carbon (CFC)!
– Young INTACH, Vol. 6., No. 3,

July–September 2009
There is a need to see product design and marketing

a s th e c a ta ly s t a n d e n t ry p o i n t fo r i n t e g ra te d
development in the crafts sector. There is a growing
demand for these services from craftspeople all over
the country, who wish to learn more about their new
clients and customers, of new trends so that they can
play a significant role in contemporary life.
Many well-meaning, income-generating projects by
by the government and NGOs suffer because they have
n o t ta k e n in to a c c o u n t th e n e e d fo r d e s ig n a n d
development of crafts products and the well being of
the community in a holistic and integrated manner.
C RAFTS AND INCOME G ENERATION S CHEMES

M any government and n on-governmental agencies
have discovered that traditional crafts can be a vehicle
for income generation. Such schemes have not always
been accompanied by sensitivity to the needs of the
craftsman, consumer, or an analysis of the market.
As the tourist and export demand for Indian crafts
have grown, middlemen and traders, many of them
exploitative, have begun craft production and sale.
This has resulted in the loss and disappearance of
many of the more intricate and unusual art forms and
skills. Traders and middlemen demand quick production
A Tussar Story
Good ideas and good intentions alone are not enough to ensure the desired results. Some
years ago a funding agency commissioned a talented young designer to do a design project
for an NGO working with tussar weavers. She developed a stunning range of high-fashion
Western garments which were showcased at a high-profile exhibition in Delhi.
But the producer group—tribal women who were part of a Gandhian Ashram in rural
Bihar—were unable to fulfil the orders as they didn’t have the requisite tailoring skills
and the whole investment of over four lakh rupees turned into a disaster.
The Ashram women continued to participate in melas and bazaars trying to discount-
sale the stock piles of unsold samples, all now out-of-date, crumpled and shop-soiled, and
finally the programme folded up altogether.
of cheap objects so that their margins of profit are large

without regard for how this may affect the craft tradition
and the community.
Techniques, skills, motifs and usages distinctive to
particular communities or areas have been merged in
the production of new items today. Each region of India
once had its unique and authentic design whether in
the textiles or the pottery it produced. In order to create
products for an international market, traders often force
crafts communities to amalgamate designs that are
known to be popular in another state and region.
Patchwork and Ikat have been introduced into places
where the skill never existed.
India produced a wide range of utilitarian crafts for
everyday use in the home. This sector has also suffered
as artisans are forced to produce more eye-catching,

ornamental products for customers outside their own
community.
The opposite is also true. Inexpensive skirts and
dresses sold on the streets and at melas under the
generic brand name of ‘mirror-work’ and ‘Kutchi bharat’
bear little relation to the extraordinary embroideries
various Kutchi communities make for themselves, or
their potential customers. This is not just aesthetic
disaster, but bad economics as well. Thousands of
women with high-level skills and earning power are
reduced to breaking stones for a living, while the antique
pieces their grandmothers made sell in city boutiques
for a fortune.
At a Crafts Council of India seminar on crafts in 1991, Reema Nanavaty recalled the
inception of SEWA’s project in drought-ridden Banaskantha: “But even before water, the
major problem of the women was work. Whenever you talk to the women, the first thing
they ask about is work. Everything else is secondary.” Today the old embroideries they
were selling off their backs are the design inspiration for contemporary garments that
earn the craftswomen incomes of `1000 to `1200 a month.
People often ask why Indian craftspeople don’t make

the same beautiful things they used to? The reason for
this is craftspeople cannot afford to keep and preserve
samples and so have never seen what their forefathers
used to make. Study, documentation and research of
t h e c ra ft s , th e c r e a ti o n o f D e s ig n C e n tr e s , th e
development of a craft data bank are what are needed
fo r c ra fts p e o p le to d e lv e in t o th e ir p a s t to d ra w
inspiration for the future. The motifs and usage of a craft
tradition cannot and should not remain static. But
changing them requires knowledge, sensitivity and care.
The NID students’ documentation of crafts programmes

and the documentation exercises of this course can be
a n in v a lu a b le r e fe re n c e s o u r c e . A n e s s e n t ia l
requ irem en t for craft developm en t is th at m otifs,
d e s ig n s a n d t e c h n iq u e s b e d o c u m e n te d a n d a r e
accessible.
What the artisans have is only in their minds and
fingertips. If an artisan gets a large order to paint Mickey
Mouse on hundreds of papier-mâché boxes instead of a
Mughal rose, eventually the memory of the rose will
fade away. A craftsperson does not have the confidence
to say ‘no’ to a trader or middleman. He desperately
needs the order because the livelihood of his family
depends on it.
Therefore, the role and responsibility of the NGO or
craft developer should be to enable crafts communities
t o s t u d y th e i r o w n h e r it a g e — t o a c c e s s m u s e u m
collections and reference books and sensitively interpret
to the craftsperson his own tradition. This is our
responsibility.
Project in Madhubani
Mithila in North Bihar—one of the poorest, most backward parts of India—is an example
of changing the function, changing the design, and finding an appropriate though radically
different usage for a traditional craft through the process of documenting its motif tradition
of Madhubani painting.
Discovered in the 1960s, the votive paintings of Mithila were transferred from village
walls to handmade paper, and became an instant success. The paintings rapidly became
popular in contemporary urban Indian homes. Village women of all levels of skill and
artistry were persuaded by eager traders and exporters to abandon farming and to take
up the painting brush and mass-produce Madhubani paintings on paper.
Inevitably there was a surfeit, and the market was flooded with Madhubani paintings
of every size and colour. By the 1980s, twenty years later, Madhubani painting as a
marketable commodity was dead. Women painters who had tasted economic independence
through the sale of their paper paintings, did not know what to do. New ways of tapping
this creative source needed to be found. The decorative motifs, the floral borders, the
peacocks and parrots, the interlocking stars and circles that embellished their artwork
provided a rich directory of design motifs and decorative elements that could be used on
products of daily usage and wear. They painted on sarees, dupattas, soft furnishings, and
tried to support their craft in imaginative ways.
– P UPUL J AYAKAR
The Earthen Drum
P URPOSE OF C RAFTS D EVELOPMENT

The ultimate objective is the all-round development and
self-sufficiency of the craftsperson.
 The development process must be matched with the
existing skill levels of the target crafts group.
 The designer must work with one or more master
craftspersons to ensure quality of production.
 Successive sampling workshops over the years must
be organised to gradually upgrade skills and design
sensibilities in the community.
In the Craft Centre project in Ranthambhore, Rajasthan (see

page 112), the women who started working were almost
unskilled—their hands more used to wielding the scythe than
the needle. The first patchwork products were made up of
vivid and unusual combinations of colours and prints that
disguised the crudity of stitchery and simplicity of design.
These simple products sold well and gradually the women
have been trained to improve their skills, create finer work
and develop new products.
NID Problem-solving Method

A community of weavers in South India experienced great suffering when their
traditional skills had to compete with mill-made mass-produced textiles. Additional
problems arose because their equipment and technology was dependent on
outdoor spaces. This meant that the weavers were idle during the long season of
monsoon rain.
The design solutions identified for this community was one of product
diversification to reach new markets, the revival of traditional design in new
applications. Secondly, they had to redesign tools, implements, workplaces and
production techniques so as to move the looms for weaving indoors and thus
facilitate year-round activity.
E FFECTIVE D ESIGN AND D EVELOPMENT INPUTS

Creating a simple but effective design, using a small
budget and limited resources, is an exciting test of a
designer’s skill. Seeing the growth and confidence of a
newly emerging crafts community successfully selling
products they have made themselves for the first time,
using skills they never knew they had, is even more
excitin g. Th ese are th e m ain prin ciples for crafts
development:
1. To make the product competitive in price, aesthetics,
and function
2. To so empower and train the craftsperson that he/
she becomes independent
3. To provide ideas and stimu li for creativity and
innovative product design by the crafts community
4. To explain the rationale behind items developed and
guidelines laid down by market forces
5. To develop a product range that incorporates the
different skill levels of all members of the group
6. To keep the product usage and price applicable to
the widest possible market and consumer
7. To harmoniously incorporate traditional motifs,
techn iqu es an d sh apes in to th e design of n ew
products
8. To ensure the development of aesthetic sensibilities
so that craft designs no longer mimic or remain
static, but constantly evolve by mingling tradition
with innovation.
SEWA, Lucknow
The design intervention from outside the community was by trained designers working
with the community. Their inputs were as follows:
 Documentation and revival of traditional stitches, embroidery motifs and tailoring
techniques, developing a contemporary cut of a kurta, and introduction of sizing and
application of a new embroidery buta.
 Skill upgradation of craftpersons of this community.
 Introduction of new kinds of raw material (ranging from kota to tussar)
 Addressing aspects of marketing like costing, quality control and production
planning—and an alternative marketing and promotional strategy that would enable
a small NGO to gain complete self-sufficiency.
Q UALITY C ONTROL AND M ARKET FORCES

Craftspeople are increasingly the marginalised and
forgotten people—trapped between their past and their
future. Investment in research and development, raw
material, credit and infrastructural development that
is automatically given to any other sector of the economy
and industry, is not always available to them.
Crafts-making, especially by rural or tribal people,
are often dismissed as outdated, with only ornamental
and, hence, short-term use. Often, it is not really the
look of the product that causes the customer to reject it
in favour of the assembly-line, industrial alternative,
but the quality of the materials used—a factor beyond
the craftsperson’s control. Colourfast threads, rust-proof
hinges and buckles, seasoned leather, fabric that does
not shrink, are not available in rural markets for the
crafts community to use in production. There is an
urgent need to address this problem and provide
infrastructural facilities, basic raw materials and
quality goods. Otherwise, one day, India may have no
crafts left at all.
It is equally important for designers to keep in mind
some salient features of change in the tastes and
requirements of consumers, especially in the export
market.
1. The generally high price of handcrafted goods is
sometimes an obstacle to their sale. Items in
various price-brackets should be designed to secure
maximum sales. The effort should be to get the best
unit prices for handmade products.
2. Excessively ornamented surface decoration without
structural strength is unsatisfactory. Though there
is always a small demand for fine decorative pieces,
especially antique reproductions, a contemporary
consumer would prefer less elaborate patterns and
simpler forms.
3. The contemporary consumer is not often either
sensitive or responsive to religious themes and
symbols that usually dominate traditional craft
design. The consumer wants beauty as a

supplement to utility; hence the increasing demand
for good-looking, well-designed functional items.
4. There is today much less insistence on the use of
expensive materials. Thus, well-styled imitation
jewellery often replaces pure gold and silver ones.
At the same time there is a growing interest in
natural materials such as clay, grass, stone, wood,
and leather, and handicrafts made from these
should be in great demand.
5. Modern designs, in some cases, are preferred by
discerning consumers; this would also provide
encouragement to designers and crafts communities.
A N INTEGRATED A PPROACH TO
C RAFT D EVELOPMENT
Design and product development are an essential input
fo r t h e s u r v i v a l a n d e c o n o m i c e m p o w e r m e n t o f
craftspeople. Craftsmanship is a form of communication—
one person’s way of interpreting the needs of another
and transmuting creative impulse and skill into fulfilling
that need. This communication cannot succeed if rural
Indian craftspeople are not taught the language of today’s
contemporary urban consumer. Once learnt, however,
the language of good design can help them to re-design
the development, not just of their craft, but of their
lives as well.
As Rabindranath Tagore has reminded us, “The mind
is no less valuable than cotton thread”.
EXERCISE
1. Develop an integrated plan to raise the standard of living of a
particular crafts community in your area.
2. Why are design and development so important for the survival
of the crafts sector?
3. Develop a strategy to promote craft products for the growing
‘Bollywood’ industry.
4. Enterprising entrepreneurs are reaching out to global markets
through innovations. For example, three shops in Chennai
supply Bharatanatyam dance accessories to the growing
number of dancers around the world. As an entrepreneur of
a craft production and marketing unit, outline your dream
project.
5. Research ‘Needs and Requirements of Contemporary Life’.
How can crafts products be designed and marketed to meet
those requirements?
134 Annexure
CRAFT TRADITIONS OF INDIA: P AST, P RESENT AND F UTURE
TREASURE TROVES OF INDIAN CRAFTS

National Handicrafts and Handloom Museum
Established in 1972 in New Delhi’s main exhibition ground,
Pragati Maidan, the village compex in popularly known as
Crafts Museum. The
Museum is a homage
to th e a rtis ts a n d
craftspersons who have
kept alive the artistic
tra d itio n s o f I n d ia
through the centuries.
The small-scale replicas
of village houses from
different parts of the
country, the display
galleries of textiles, masks, etc. and the crafts demonstration
area are some of the salient features of this muesum.
http://www.nationalcraftsmuseum.nic.in
Ashutosh Museum of Indian Art

This museum, named after a great educationist, Sir Ashutosh
Mukherjee, was set up in 1937 within the university complex
in Kolkata and its focus is on the crafts of the State of West
Bengal through the ages. Apart from art objects from the past,
the museum also holds an exemplary collection of craft items,
some of which are still produced and used in Bengal. The
collection of craft products displayed consists of toys and dolls
made in West Bengal. Along the walls are painted scrolls,
Patachitra, once used by story-tellers. There are some samples
of textiles for which West Bengal and Bangladesh are famous.
http://www.asiarooms.com
Calico Museum of Textiles

This is one of India’s finest specialised museums. It was
founded in Ahmedabad in 1949 by Gira Sarabhai who initiated
the collection of rare, historical and exquisite fabrics from
different parts of India. The State of Gujarat, with Ahmedabad
as the capital, has been a major area for textile production.
http://www.calicomuseum.com
D
ANNEXURE
ESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT 135
Salar Jung Museum

In the mid-nineteenth century the Nizam of Hyderabad
appointed a prime minister to whom was given the title of Salar
Jung. Salar Jung’s son, Salar Jung II, and grandson Salar
Jung III, were also selected as prime ministers by later rulers.
It was these three men who contributed to what is now called
the Salar Jung Collection in this museum in Hyderabad. In
1958 the collection was donated to the Government of India
and in 1968 the museum was transferred to its present
building. The museum is famous for its European art collection
and Indian art selection of great variety and quality. There are
excellent collections of jade, weapons, textiles and metalware,
which are significant as they provide a glimpse of post-Mughal
court life and are suggestive of the grandeur and wealth of the
rulers.
http://www.salarjungmuseum.in/home.asp
Raja Dinkar Kelkar Museum

The museum in Pune contains the collection of a dedicated
lover of Indian art, the late Dinkar Kelkar. He spent 60 untiring
years travelling and purchasing objects from the remotest
villages and towns of India. Kelkar’s passion and sense of
humour are reflected in every item of the collection, and his
contribution to the study and preservation of art has already
become a legend.
The Kelkar museum and its collection of about 21,000
objects focus on the art of everyday life in India—pots, lamps,
containers, nutcrackers, pen-stands, and such objects that were
found in the homes of the village landlord, farmer, merchant
and shopkeeper.
There are a variety of things made out of wood, from carved
doors to toys. There is a range of metalware—from locks, to
ink pots, ritual bowls, hookah stands, nutcrackers and lamps.
There is an assortment of oil lamps in a variety of materials
from clay to brass, each with its own form and shape. Lamps
in India can be broadly divided into two categories—those used
for ritual purposes–arati for ‘worship with light’ and those used
purely functionally, to provide illumination in the home. The
lamps are usually small open containers, to hold oil or ghee
and the wick made from rolled cotton. Sacred emblems like
the peacock, the goddess Lakshmi, elephants and birds are
most commonly used for decoration. There are hanging lamps

suspended on heavy, ornate brass chains, and standing lamps
used in the temple and the home on view at this museum.
http://www.rajakelkarmuseum.com
Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangrahalaya

Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangrahalaya, Madhya
Pradesh, one of India’s largest states, has many regions still
inhabited by tribes and it is only recently that due honour and
importance have been given to folk and tribal art forms with
the establishment of this museum of anthropology in Bhopal.
Here in a complex of many acres are tribal houses from every
part of the country representing the different tribes which their
members themselves have built. There is a covered museum
with samples of tribal homes with everyday household objects.
The hand-crafted objects range from bronzes, terracottas, toys
to ritual objects. The art of everyday life in India, as it is even
today, is especially interesting, for there is a freshness and
spontaneity about it that anyone can enjoy.
http://www.igrms.com

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Craft Traditions

Textbook in Heritage Crafts

Unit I: O VERVIEW OF THE P AST 1–39

1. Crafts in the Past 3

3. Mahatma Gandhi and Self-sufficiency 31

Unit II: C RAFTS R EVIVAL 40–85

4. Handloom and Handicrafts Revival 43

Unit III: S TRATEGIES FOR THE F UTURE 86–133

Annexure: Treasure Troves of Indian Craft 134

L E T us begin by understanding the myriad roles a

R ELATIONSHIP BETWEEN C LIENT AND

Similarly, today we appreciate the talent of a person

C RAFTS FOR PROBLEM -SOLVING

When we say that India has a long and ancient

actually carrying out the various activities related to

S HRENIS OR T RADE G UILDS

another, over a period of time. Occasionally, shrenis (of

T HE S OCIAL D IMENSIONS OF C RAFT P RODUCTION

workshops. Artisans were remunerated either in kind

this system still holds sway over several parts of the

The Mughals found on arrival in India that indigenous Indian

T REASURE T ROVES OF INDIAN C RAFTS

5. Describe how you would set up a museum corner for your

W H E N you see the wonderful displays in the crafts

Tavernier, a French traveller in Mughal India, states that the

traders speaking different languages, meeting at trading

materials and bed-hangings. All these fabrics were

Marco Polo’s (1254–1324) account of his travels to the East makes a

INDIA AS A T EXTILE P RODUCTION H UB

The adoption and rate of increase in the consumption of Indian textiles

With the founding of the British East India Company

re-export to the eastern Mediterranean. Very quickly,

FACTORIES AND T RADE

Adjusting to Change: the Traditional Patua

The Kashmiri Shawl

FROM C RAFT PRODUCER TO SUPPLIER

Between 1800 and 1860, the Industrial Revolution

T HE IMPACT OF C OLONIALISM ON THE

demand. So advances were given to urban sahukars,

A spininng factory in 1830

RISE, FALL, RISE…

Sixteenth Century As Arab traders ship Indian goods to Europe through

Direct maritime trade between Europe and China

Seventeenth Century At the turn of the century, Mughal India’s annual

China continues to control a quarter of world trade.

New Professions, Old Skills: from Silversmiths

–T APATI G UHA -THAKURTA

A cause is often greater than the man. Certainly the spinning

T HE first article of Gandhiji’s faith, as he himself has

What I object to is the craze for machinery

Even in the twentieth century, Gandhiji argued, it

Englistan. This is not the swaraj I want”. Swaraj, from

S PINNING THE IDEA OF S ELF -SUFFICIENCY

– Young India, 13 November 1924

Gandhiji was doing a number of things at the same

A few months before India became independent,

Gandhiji emphasised the importance of handicrafts,

programme to revive villages, to make them self-sufficient

A FTER Independence the newly elected government chose

All India Handicrafts Board