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The Craft Resource Centre in Bhuj, Gujarat, helps skilled metal-workers and weavers compete in a globalised market without compromising on their traditional craft and quality
Iqbal Rehematullah Loher is busy putting the finishing touches onto a copper bell. He beats at the base at great speed to make an indentation. After every few knocks he sounds the bell, his ear attuned to just the right timbre. A little more tuning and finally he is satisfied - the rankaar, or lingering cadences, are just right. In this short session of bell-making at the Khamir Craft Resource Centre (CRC) in Bhuj, Kutch, I have heard not just the bell but the voice of the skilled artisan behind it and his life story. It was Laila Tyabji of Dastkar who, at an award ceremony in New Delhi, had voiced concerns about ignoring the needs of craftspersons, whilst putting handicrafts centrestage. Pankaj Shah of the CRC echoes this concern. In the midst of the cacophony of the market, how does one highlight the human effort, the meaning and significance of traditions behind the making of each craft piece so that the craftsperson is elevated to the level of an artisan-entrepreneur and is not just a piece/wage rate worker for middlemen to exploit? At the next level, the challenge is to find appropriate markets for the craft items -- opening up new avenues in a globalised economy rather than competing within the narrow existing ones. The copper bells that Loher fashions were originally meant to be hung around the necks of cattle. The craft flourished because animal husbandry is the major source of livelihood in Kutch. It is believed that each bell must have its own individual sound so that a cattle herder can identify where his cattle are grazing simply by the bell's tinkle. Local demand for this traditional craft item, that centred around the villages of Kharki, Zura and Nirona, fell after Partition, as cattle populations declined with borders springing up between Sindh and Kutch. Limitations in the local market meant looking outside, and soon the bells began finding a place as ornamental pieces in urban homes. The bell is essentially fashioned out of scrap metal, dipped into water and copper and brass shavings and encased in dough made from cotton and wood paste. It is then put into a kiln and baked. The brass and copper shavings melt during the firing process, so that when the dough is peeled away the burnished coating is revealed. While the process has remained the same, ingenuous exercises in improvisation and design are being carried out for new markets. Through the CRC, a group of Dutch student artisans began work with Loher and other bell makers. They came up with the idea of creating a row of bells, and replacing the inner stick in each with two small gong-like sticks that can be used to play the musical scale do re mi. In another improvisation, a memory game was fashioned for children using different colours for the bells. Enlarged versions of bells have also been adapted for use as play aids in gardens. The CRC hopes these improvisations will help the artisans compete in a competitive world without compromising on quality. At nearby Bhujodi village I hear how Vankar Vishram Valji made the leap from traditional weaver to National Award-winner, and how he has helped put the business on a professional footing. There are some 2,000 weavers in Kutch today; Bhujodi town itself has around 150 looms. It also has the proud distinction of having eight National Award-winners. The Vankars are a harijan sub-community that traditionally wove shawls for the Rabaris -- a community of sheep-rearers. The Rabaris would give the desi handspun wool to the Vankars as barter for foodgrain, etc. Gradually, the Vankars began using other wool in the market and acrylic yarn to weave blankets, shawls and stoles. Valji credits two women textile designers from Mumbai -- Jyotsnaben Shah and Prabhaben Shah -- with encouraging him to experiment with new designs and convincing him that the Rabari-style odhnis would find a ready market in Mumbai. In the '70s, the government launched the National Awards scheme for craftspersons, and it was a sympathetic DIG of Bhuj who encouraged Valji to take part. Valji's blanket won the award in 1974 and he was invited to participate in exhibitions all over the country. The exposure and networking put him and other Kutch weavers in the national spotlight, leading to collaborations with the National Institute of Design (NID) and the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT). The CRC and Dastkar collaborated in a programme in which a Dutch woman, Arlem Birt, worked with around 16 youths on a Western collection, bringing in professional expertise. Since this is a profession handed down over generations, the sons of weavers are being encouraged to undergo training at Kala Vidya Mandir and to handle different aspects of the profession like account-keeping, marketing and new technologies. Still, the community retains its traditional links with the Rabaris, weaving shawls for them at the usual rate. Similarly, Ismail Mohammed Khatri's traditional expertise in block-printing and natural dyes was given due recognition when De Montfort University of Leicester presented this unlettered but skilled craftsman with an honorary doctorate in textiles. The Khatris are a community of block-printers adept in the 3,000-year-old art of Ajrakh or resist-dye cloth, coloured predominantly red and blue with madder and indigo printed on both sides of the cloth. Often, the blocks are made by hand to retain design secrecy. The process is complex and involves 16 different processes. Ismail Mohammed Khatri has gained critical acclaim for his innovative use of natural dyes that include a mixture of camel dung, soda ash and castor oil, waste iron, myrobalan, madder, indigo, pomegranate peel boiled in water, sprays of turmeric water and the root of rhubarb! Today most of the orders he gets are for high-end designer stores -- an acknowledgement of his professional and entrepreneurial expertise. --By Freny Manecksha (Freny Manecksha is a Mumbai-based journalist) InfoChange News & Features, June 2006
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