Books

Handicraft: the word is self-explanatory as meaning handmade craft. But, obviously it confuses policy-makers and economists as they find it difficult to recognize handicraft as an autonomous, economic sector in its own right. Funnily enough, this has resulted in it being labelled diversely as small scale industry or household industry and at times, even as women-focused programmes which offer incentives to rural women to become economically independent by capitalising on their craft skills. Evidently both the understanding and associated policy recommendations vary.

What we have here is a motley collection of books related to handicrafts. There are few books, apart from the glossy coffee-table productions, that deal with handicrafts. Most often, one finds an article or two scattered in anthologies on socio-economic issues. Artisans and the handicraft sector continue to be slotted as part of the informal sector, despite handicrafts being the second largest contributor to the Indian economy after agriculture and the only sector where there is a gender balance in the workforce. Artisans, men and women, can work within the agrarian calendar using locally available resources, thus minimising costs of production. Also, craft skills enable income generation in the fallow seasons. An added advantage is that women can supplement the family income by working from home, and are able to balance their domestic responsibilities and find time to work.

Handcrafted products are useful, aesthetically pleasing and ecologically sound as they depend upon locally available natural resources. Though most of these products have a market but, given their limited resources, producers are usually only able to sell their wares at a very low price in the local bazaar. Fortunately, in the case of some crafts in some regions that have experienced public and private development interventions, collectives of artisans are active and responsible for the entire chain from production to market and thus able to garner a larger part of the eventual revenue. Market here implies not only the closest biggest city, but other cities in the country, retail stores and export orders.

This is the main concern of all the books and articles reviewed. The authors are most concerned about how to access markets, ensure quality and quantity of production and incorporating design intervention to bring handcrafted products at par with other commercially viable goods in the market. This is reflected in offerings as diverse as Elaben’s personal journey about SEWA, the case studies in the recent special issue of EPW, ‘Marketing Handlooms’, guest edited by Seemanthini Niranjana, or Designs Meet Artisans, a beginner’s guide for design students to enable interaction with artisans to help improve the products for the market. Even the contributors to Textiles From India who map the trade routes of Ikat over the centuries, confirm that these were established in search of new markets.

Today, in India, we are ‘losing’ artisans and skills at an alarming rate of ten per cent per decade, in part because being an artisan involves a great deal of labour with very little remuneration. Recently, however, the entry of big retail stores specialising in handloom and handcrafted products has enabled the survival of certain skills in certain villages since this new private patronage has ensured a steady market. But this is not true for all crafts. The case studies of wood carvers in Thiruvananthapuram, bamboo/reed weaving in Adimaly panchayat, artisans in Mannar, thewa craftspersons, pashmina weavers, DAMA, Urmul, Anokhi, Fabindia, Rehwa or the handloom weavers in Andhra Pradesh all point to the economic viability of the craft sector if the right assistance is available. This could take the form of government policies, recognition, establishment of markets and creation of more platforms like Nature Bazaar where the producers and the consumers/exporters/traders can directly engage with the artisans.

At times artisans are offered incentives to value-add their skills, for instance by conducting workshops between design students and artisans at NID and NIFT in collaboration with civil society organizations like Dastkar; establishment of micro-credit facilities and self-help groups which despite their many frailties have helped women gain financial security and independence; and encouragement of direct marketing of wares in markets like at Dilli Haat, exhibitions and bazaars – nationally and internationally. The most recent international handicraft fair was the recreation of Dilli Haat at the Frankfurt Book Fair in October 2006 where India was the guest of honour. Previously, government institutions like CCIC, HHEC, KVIC, the coir and silk boards and many others were sourcing and exhibiting handicrafts, but now with these new initiatives, the network has increased and grown stronger.

All this depends upon knowledge – from improving access and strengthening existing systems to creating new linkages. For instance, Tilonia and Dastkar pioneered craft exhibitions, after which one saw the establishment of permanent market spaces for artisans like Dilli Haat in Delhi. This generated a greater public sensitivity about handicrafts. In the eighties, the Festivals of India also helped create renewed international interest. A few years ago, when working on the Dastkar Craft Study to map the interventions in the handicraft and handloom sector since 1947, we came across many independent studies, documentation, interventions – private and public – like the 1960s Census of India monographs on crafts, work by SRUTI in the 1980s, 1995-96 NCAER census documenting 250 crafts and other independent researches like those conducted by the UNDP, World Bank, NIFT and NID students etc. But, what is missing and urgently required is the creation of a knowledge system that can encompass all these different independent studies and link the knowledge base with the artisans. There is need to consolidate, collect and document crafts, especially when we are facing severe competition from China which today is able to undercut our artisans by flooding our markets with mass-produced, cheaper and at times a more durable quality of goods like Benaras and Kanjeevaram saris, Kohlapuri chappals, bandhini material and so on.

If we are to protect local skills and preserve our markets, we need to expand opportunities and begin an IPR exercise on a war footing. According to one prevailing definition of design, it is claimed that the moment there are fifty copies of a design available, it enters the public domain. This is a tricky definition to apply to crafts, especially where an artisan like a potter may produce up to fifty copies of a pot in a day. Such a legal definition leaves the potter’s design vulnerable to poaching and being copied en masse by competitors. Most artisans rely on mass production of their designs for a livelihood and they can ill-afford to create exclusive designs in limited numbers like contemporary fashion designers.

We need to develop an IPR system that will document crafts indigenous to the region as well as map the socio-economic and gender structures of artisanal communities, and hence establish a secure and definite market. Ideally speaking, this should be done by forging close links between the government and other institutions, CSOs and small and big businesses dependent upon this sector. Given that ‘creative industries’ and ‘cultural economy’ are today’s buzz words, and even the private sector under ‘social responsibility’ is willing to assist, it should be possible to preserve the handicraft and handloom sectors.

Coffee-table books on handicrafts do have their use in documenting and recognising crafts as exquisite and aesthetically pleasing and thus, help to create and sustain a taste for such products. But, they need to be a little more attentive to detail. For instance, neither Pashmina nor Silk Brocades provide the provenance of the items photographed, a major shortcoming. Locating academic oriented books focusing on this sector is a difficult proposition. As mentioned earlier, more often than not, one discovers an article or two tucked away in anthologies or as seminar proceedings and more recently, on issues relating to IPR.

Fortunately, the Internet is a valuable resource for interesting articles, reports and active discussion forums but this is a restricted databank of knowledge since accessing it depends upon a proficiency of English and computers. It has to be made more accessible to the artisans. This can happen only by encouraging links and cross-pollination of ideas, knowledge systems and documenting the exercise. Hopefully, the recent introduction of crafts in the NCERT school syllabus will help in preservation of skills and creation of markets with the future generations. Finally, this is a sector that must be recognised as being able to help women become economically independent while being able to work from home.

Jaya Bhattacharji

 

* Silk Brocades by Yashodhara Agrawal, Roli Books, New Delhi, 2003; Gender, Development and Globalization: Economics as if All People Mattered by Lourdes Beneria, Routledge, New York & London, 2003; We Are Poor But So Many: The Story of Self-Employed Women in India by Ela R. Bhatt, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2006; Designers Meet Artisans: A Practical Guide, Craft Revival Trust, Grassroots Publications, New Delhi, 2006; Directory Listing of All Indian Crafts and Artisans, Unesco and Craft Revival Trust, CD; Textiles From India: The Global Trade edited by Rosemary Crill, Seagull Books, Calcutta, 2006; Economic and Political Weekly, 5 August 2006, Special issue on ‘Marketing Handlooms’, Guest editor, Seemanthini Niranjana, Dastkar Andhra; Traditional Industry in the New Market Economy: The Cotton Handlooms of Andhra Pradesh by Kanakalatha Mukund and B. Syama Sundari, Sage Publications, New Delhi, 2001; Pashmina by Anamika Pathak, Roli Books, New Delhi, 2003; Handcrafted Indian Enamel Jewellery by Rita Devi Sharma and M. Vardarajan, Roli Books, New Delhi, 2004; The Handicrafts Industry in Kerala: Blending Heritage with Economics by K.K.Subrahmanian, Daanish Books, New Delhi, 2006.