|
By Enakshi Ganguly-Thukral A review of two books that examine the lives, craft and challenges of India's craftspeople today
Vishvakarma's Children: Stories of India's Craftspeople By Jaya Jaitly
Published by Institute of Social Sciences and Concept Publishing Company, New Delhi, 2001. Pages 166
Global Issues, Local Contexts: The Rabi Das of West Bengal
By Ruchira Ganguly-Scrase
Published by Orient Longman, New Delhi, 2001. Pages 250  Jaya Jaitly has written an extremely poignant book about the craftspeople of India whose crafts we see, buy and use, but whose faces and lives are lost in the market that sells their products. Through a series of case studies, wherein she locates the individual craftsperson, Jaitly explores the lives of India's 20 million artisans. She places their work in the context of the changing economy with its rapidly-dwindling market, the lack of infrastructural support, and competition from industrially-manufactured goods.
While there are several studies on craftspeople and artisans, what differentiates Jaitly's is her success in giving a human face to the situation and problem. "I wished to focus on the human being behind each craft activity so that the flesh and blood and essence of their lives could be recognised," (p 16). The book is based on surveys and case studies conducted between 1995 and 1998 using a questionnaire format. While that formed the basis of the data collection, the information was supplemented by a range of informal discussions with respondents, and supplementary information collected from other parts of the country. This is what adds to the book's richness and value. The choice of the area and craft was based on the importance of the craft in that state, and the concentration of artisans there. An effort has been made to cover the four geographical regions of the country. The choice of craft was based on the proportion of population engaged in it, the number of problems faced by the artisans and increased competition from industrial substitutes. The criteria adopted for the selection of craftspersons were the traditional style of the practitioner, a reflection of the condition of the community in the lifestyle of the practitioner, and the willingness of the respondent. Chapter one offers a broad historical context to the artisans. While chapters two to eight explore in detail a particular craft and the lives of the craftspeople, chapter nine attempts to validate the findings of the case studies with findings from other parts of the country. This ensures that the methodology used and the findings of the case studies are not peculiarities, but part of the whole. The book is beautifully illustrated by Sitt Nyien Aye, a Burmese artist currently living in exile in India. What emerges clearly through the book is the dismal situation in which the thousands of craftspeople who produce goods for the fashionable 'ethnic' market live. Thirty-year-old Venkataramanamma from Mangalagiri, Andhra Paradesh, 42-year-old Yashwant Rangrao Pawar of Kolhapur, Maharashtra, Pashupati Kumbhakar and his family from Bankura, West Bengal, and all the others whose lives are knitted into this book come alive as real people and, more importantly, represent a group or a community. In spite of a boom in the ethnic market, particularly in the '80s and '90s -- with an abundance of central and state emporia, private showrooms, boutiques and NGO and government activity -- the lives of most of the artisans and craftspeople have remained largely untouched. The average income for an average family of five continues to be Rs 2,000 per month. Their inability to deal with the changing market combined with red-tape in the bureaucracy makes it difficult for most craftspeople to break out of their condition. Most of them continue to be concerned with production instead of sales promotion, which means a total dependence on external agencies or a committed clientele. Exploring the possibilities for change, Jaitly concludes: "While crafts best reflect a nation's cultural heritage, the condition of the craftspeople reflects the concern of the people for that heritage," and pleads the case for exploring avenues that would make it possible for Indian craftspersons to live in greater dignity, with their contributions recognised and supported. As always, when Jaitly speaks, writes or advocates for the craftspersons of India, there is poignancy and an empathy that is not as visible in her current avatar. There are flashes of the Jaitly of the '80s and early '90s -- refreshing, engaging and almost inspiring. **** 'Rabi Das' reads like the name of an individual, and to the unfamiliar reader this may seem like a strange title. But Rabi Das is a community of leather-workers who migrated from Bihar about 150 years ago and now live in the small un-industrialised town of Krishnagar. While Jaitly weaves a tapestry of the lives of the country's artisans, Ganguly-Scrase's book singles out a motif or element from the tapestry and examines it in minute detail. She attempts to "...provide an ethnographic account of the social and economic changes that have taken place within a small ethnically identifiable artisan (leather-worker) community…" The methodologies of the two books are completely different. While Jaitly's information was collected through visits to different parts of the country, Ganguly-Scrase aims to "ground anthropology in the practice of ethnography". Entering the community as a schoolteacher, the author undertook her fieldwork between December 1988 and April 1994. The study is concerned with the period of change from the mid-1940s to the present day. Although Ganguly-Scrase began her research as an inquiry into child labour, she recognised the inappropriateness of limiting herself and decided to look at child labour as one of the issues within the larger framework of transformation of the Rabi Das as a whole, in the context of capitalist expansion. In the first section, the author details the framework of her research and locates herself in the 'field', delving into the challenges this presents for her, her own dilemmas as a member of a certain social class, as an 'indigenous anthropologist' and sometimes even as a woman. This section is insightful and honest. Ganguly-Scrase also describes in detail the social and economic organisation of the area. The next section deals with the changing perceptions of the community, based largely on accounts of members of the community themselves. The tensions that exist based on gender and between the youth and elders, as is evident in almost all societies, are explored. As also assertions of identity and differences, especially in relation to the Bengalis and, even more specifically, the Bengali bhadralok. Ganguly-Scrase examines the effect of the Bengali bhadralok on the position of the Rabi Das. She discusses the dynamics of social interaction and the relevance of such social categories for the analysis of work carried out by social reformers. In the last section the author attempts to critically evaluate the changes that were wrought in the lives of the community, the way they earned and the values they held. The continuation of the craft in the face of the changing economy, the challenges and frustrations in the face of their inability to break into this new market economy, which we find faced by artisans all across the country, haunts the Rabi Das too. Circumstances arising out of the demise of the subsistence economy have forced the women to work outside the home. In the absence of skills, they are forced into the low-skilled, low-compensatory, domestic work sector. In the last chapter, Ganguly-Scrase describes childhood as experienced and recounted by older men and women, the children she met during her work and the child's view of gender. She also sets these experiences against those experienced by the Bengalis in the same area. The study makes interesting and insightful connections between the micro and the macro, locating the artisan community of the Rabi Das in the changing global context. But what also does not go un-noticed is the defensive aggression with which the author sets the tone for her study -- and one cannot help but wonder why. In fact she begins with: "Recent postmodern criticism has all but pronounced the death of the anthropological project. In contrast this book attempts to ground anthropology in the practice of ethnography," (pg 1). Again, "My study explodes the notion of a homogeneous community by reworking the notion of culture…" (pg 16). One can only assume that she has a good reason. This book, read along with Jaitly's Vishvakarma's Children, enables the reader to gain an in-depth understanding of the situation of the artisans of India. |
