Indian Handicrafts Epitome Of Design And Sustainability

it’s really a pleasure

to be here on this platform i’m here to

talk to you today about

indian handicrafts about how handicrafts

are relevant

even in today’s time and age i believe

and not only i believe

many people before me who’ve come who’ve

studied who’ve understood

indian handicrafts think of them as

epitome

of design and success i would like to

talk about first the evolution

indian handicrafts definitely started

many many many years ago we don’t even

know the exact dates of a whole lot of

things

but how do we study any culture how do

we study any material culture and how do

we know about the values of any culture

are by the kinds of books that are there

by the kinds of material

that we hold and every society as we see

has a tangible culture and an intangible

culture

and our knowledge about our

knowledge that is the kind of uh

knowledge that has been transferred

comes from a lot of

sacred texts and the religion was the

way of life

so it was not really a religion in that

sense so a whole lot of knowledge about

how

the philosophy is and about science

about

humans about the behavior about rituals

comes from the vedas and our knowledge

of design our knowledge of our

day-to-day material culture

comes either from the materials that we

see around us

materials that are excavated uh through

archaeological finds

but also through some texts they also

come

in the form of sculpture uh paintings

and of late photography but we also have

our written resources and our written

sources are the shastras like the vastu

shastra

the shilp that come from long ago after

that

we have um you know different rulers

write it in their own way

akbar has written a lot on indian

handicraft and then

we have a lot of information also

available to us from

the very recent time period which is the

british rule it is

very easy to say that yes they came here

and they captured us

but when we look at it some of them also

really valued indian handicraft and

because of that

it led to the whole you know british

rule etc because they wanted to take

the material that we have all of them

whether it is the british whether it’s

the indian or the

medieval time period whatever it is

everywhere

what we see is we do not separate art

design and craft in india

in india art craft and design are

together

and that is why one word shil defines it

and today we talk a lot about

sustainability

but when you try and look for a hindi

word for sustainability it’s very

difficult to find there’s only one word

which is called

which means there is something which is

meant to be which will stay

the whole reason is that our crafts

evolved in such a way that they were

sustainable

that they had a wonderful element of art

design and craftsmanship when i look at

any

indian craft and i’ll call it indian art

design or craft

what do i see so there are three most

important things one i see it is

functional it serves a purpose

we did not have a drawing room culture

we didn’t want things just to

you know clutter the drawing room

everything was functional

everything was sustainable

environmentally

economically sustainable it was long

lasting

why economically because it gave

livelihood to so many people there were

people associated with every craft

and it is those people they were not

daily wage workers they were craftsmen

they created on their own

they thought on their own and they made

a functional thing which was sustainable

which was also aesthetically pleasing

it’s not that i have a glass

to drink water and it doesn’t look good

it was also aesthetically pleasing

it was something which is hand done

which has an expression

it has an inspiration it fosters

creativity

and is designed to satisfy a particular

need

and it is very sustainable also like i

said because it’s long lasting

it’s environment friendly and it also

gives a lot of job opportunities

to a whole lot of people and i don’t

think if i think back about earlier

times you know when people were divided

into guilds

and different crafts and people worked

i don’t think there would have been

cases of joblessness

the the reason for this talk is how can

we bring it back how can we

make sure that this is you know how our

life is and this is how we would want it

to be

four years ago uh you know i went to a

place called rakhigarhi where there were

excavations happening

and uh they told me that the

civilization is probably eight thousand

years old

and uh when they were digging they found

amazing things they found pottery

uh and you know they found a variety of

pots

and every time when we uh

you know find material that is

archaeologically uh

there for us to see for us to understand

uh i’ve always admired the shape of a

matka

uh you know why is it that it is like

that uh

why this shape has continued for so long

and why is it

that it is uh you know a shape which

people

really make what is the use of this

shape and

incidentally i came across a long ago i

came across this report

written by charles and ray eames which

talks about

the design of a lota so charles and ray

eames

these were the people whom the

government of india had called to india

to set up the institute called nid today

so what they write in their report is of

all the objects we have seen and admired

during our visit to india

the lota that simple vessel of everyday

use

stands out as perhaps the greatest the

most beautiful

and what do they say and i quote that

the way it is to be transported it’s the

best

you know you can put it on your head you

can uh you know hold it

uh you can you know hold it at the side

so head hip

hand basket or cart very easy to tie

very easy to carry

so transport that’s important when

people traveled they needed something to

carry water in

so transport was easy two the balance

center of gravity so even when it’s

empty it stands

straight even when it’s full it has a

wonderful balance

it’s half full even then

it has a wonderful balance so at any

given point of time it has a wonderful

center of gravity

and its balance is excellent even when

you rotate it

when you pour it there’s excellent

balance

the third thing they say is that the

fluid dynamics of the problem not only

when pouring but when filling and

cleaning

so you can put your hand inside and you

can clean the entire

uh you know utensil and under

complicated motions of head carrying

slow and fast whatever you need it’s a

very very

interesting design thought out so well

its sculpture as it fits the palm of the

hand or the curve of the hip

its sculpture as complement to the

rhythmic motion of walking

or a static post at the well the

relation of

opening to volume in terms of storage

you know so the opening is small but the

storage is large

and the objects other than liquid so it

can store any kind of object

but the interesting thing what i find is

it can store a lot but because the

opening is small

when it spills a lot does not come out

immediately

the size of opening and the inner

contours in terms of cleaning

then heat transfer can you not hold it

even when it’s hot

you’ve used the small coolers so you

don’t need an extra handle

nothing extra is needed you don’t have

to really add on things to it

it is a complete shape in itself so

beautiful easy to carry

easy to hold it can hold a whole lot of

material its center of gravity is

amazing

and what they say is such a design can

only come about with

years of evolution this shape is the

best shape

whether you need to transport whether

you need to store whether you need to

clean

whatever you need to do so i think

indian design is what we now really need

to focus on

we need to go back to things that why

are they the way they are

what is it that has preserved this shape

for thousands of years

you know and that merits discussion

debate

intelligence thinking about things

design thinking as we call it

we see that not only in terms of

products in terms of clothes they were

very functional

they were sustainable and they were

aesthetically pleasing so let us say you

have a puggery and you are traveling

somewhere

but you want to lie down or you want to

dust something you open it and you use

it

you carry something in a bag which is

not a stitched bag but a portly

and then you open it and you can use the

fabric for something else

let us say you have a sari which you are

wrapping around your body

whether you gain a few inches or lose a

few inches it doesn’t really matter

you know so it’s very very sustainable

you can use that fabric for a longer

time

now this i’m talking about fabrics which

were you know off the loom which were

made into garments by drapery

when we talk about stitched fabric the

stitched fabrics

like the lehenga choli jama kurta

they’re all indian zero waste patterns

you know because the rectangular piece

of fabric has been cut

so beautifully and stitched so

beautifully that there is

almost zero fabric wastage it is not

contoured to your body in the way the

modern clothing is but

it is stitched with colors and stitched

in a manner where it utilizes the entire

fabric

so a lot of times people would cut up

the shawl and stitch

a kind of uh you know a jama or a kind

of kurta

kali and they would use every piece of

fabric today what we do

we wear very tight clothing which fits

our body and the moment we increase

in size one or two inches that garment

is

a waste completely wasted um look at

trousers and look at silver

so salvar has a tie here so if a lady

becomes pregnant she can you know

sort of tie it that way and if she’s not

she can just pull it so that is how

it is a zero waste pattern but today we

don’t do

that but we really need to go back to

zero waste pattern because the amount of

fabric wastage that is happening uh even

the

paper industry is not able to convert

everything to pulp but earlier

when we look at our earlier designs and

why am i pointing out back to the

earlier because we have to learn from

that

we’ve lost certain things we have to go

back and learn from there

this is how our patterns used to be this

is how our clothing used to be

it was good for our climate it was good

for sustainability it was good for the

earth

and it served all our purposes

we do not live in an environment where

we need stitched clothing

which is so tight all the time and when

we do that then we need air conditioners

rather we wear dhotis which are so cool

so comfortable

you won’t have all kinds of skin

allergies too but we’ve left all of that

behind

so i think we really need to revisit

that and that is why it’s important for

us to understand that

indian handicrafts evolved into

something which

we’ve lost which we now need to uh you

know continue

uh it was lost it’s not really lost i

must say it’s still living

but it’s gone down to a greater degree

because of the reason of

industrial revolution that came in

instead of industrial evolution

i also want to draw your attention to

the fact that indian crafts were of two

types

one for commerce and trade and one for

personal use

so for commerce and trade they were

commercial they were material based and

we had our people who were designers and

craftsmen

so the craftsman was a designer in

himself his family was a part of it it

was a larger unit

they worked in various departments

together their wives were assistants or

they handled parts of production

children were apprentices in villages or

in cities the head of the family was

also an entrepreneur

he could employ labor to produce more

he was also a scientist since he knew

the material well and the technology

he was a designer because he knew the

requirements of his clients

he was an artist because his work was

aesthetically pleasing

he was a craftsman and artisan he had

the skill to make it himself

he had he could make it more beautiful

if more time and energy went into it

and thus it could cost more so based on

who is going to buy uh the product you

could work on it

and based on that people were called as

potters weavers metallurgists leather

dwellers sculptor leather workers

and in hindi the local names were kumhar

bhunkar luhar jamar sunar

shilpkar all these people each artisan

each craftsperson i don’t even know

whether i should call them autism

they are all in one they are scientists

a potter knows about

the material he understands that this

is the earth with which i can create

this kind of material but not this kind

of an object so he knew the science

behind it he knew the design he had the

skill to create it

why can’t we go back there that is the

focus of today’s talk

we need to go back we need to understand

we are producing a culture of designers

who want to sit on the table and create

something but they do not have complete

understanding

and that is why we really need to focus

on it holistically

the person has to know science the

person has to know the arts he has to be

a designer

he has to understand the client he has

to understand the requirement and create

a product accordingly

and the more we get into mass production

we lose this and mass production i feel

should be

by the masses not for the masses so

that’s also important

so indian crafts were largely for

commerce and trade but then there were

many crafts that were personal crafts

and it was for personal use and gifts

for birth or marriage

so many crafts were not commercial they

were done by people to add value to

their homes or to their clothes they

were done with immense love

they included depiction of stories of

hope of wishes

and had a more personal touch these were

usually done by women in their free time

embroideries like kanta fulkari kasuti

so on and so forth were all done by

women either for themselves or for their

daughters or for gifts

they did golem on the floor every

morning you know in south india if you

see

they decorate their floor with beautiful

golems in rajasthan women made mandana

on the walls and on the floor

madhubani gondwali these were all

paintings which were done for personal

use they were not commercial crafts

they were done by tribals to tell their

stories to depict their lives

and wishes they used natural colors so

a beautiful thing they told me when i

asked them they said uh

you know that it is rice flour and it is

uh spread on the floor in a beautiful

manner so that it looks good your house

looks decorated

and it’s a feed for the ants so the ants

can come

we river every person we river every

animal we river every human being that’s

what our culture teaches us

so when we have those ants there they

can come and eat that rice flour so

it is for them so we make it fresh every

morning

don’t you see that this is so beautiful

and it is all being now replaced by

commercial

culture i hardly find a mother who

embroiders something for her daughter

today they can only buy

they will buy and gift because this love

is only depicted by how expensive you

can buy today

but that was not the case earlier and i

think it will be wonderful if we can go

back to it if we can personalize our

gifts

ourselves rather than having agencies to

personalize gifts for us

and here i would also like to add that

there’s a wonderful book called

evolution of indian

crafts and indian industry and where we

see how

in the early 19th century uh you know

because of the coming in of

the industrial revolution from the west

to india

where they would uh manufacture clothes

and sell it send it back to us

we lost a lot of our handicrafts and we

began losing them almost 200 years ago

and uh there were there were crafts that

were done in

cities and there were crafts that were

done in villages we’ve lost that

distinction now

it’s only a a kind of a a place where we

try and help and we buy out of pity for

craftsmen

and i think we should change that we

don’t need to pity anybody

they have to produce good good goods

and we need to buy them today we look at

these designs and we

only price them for their motives okay

it looks good so let’s copy it

let’s do a graphic design with this

let’s do something like that

but then all of this had a a beginning a

reason

and that is how uh you know they evolved

so not only uh you know static art

or craft or things of use indian crafts

were also a mode of communication

today we talk of circular economy and i

think i can’t give a better example than

this

here i have a picture of pabuji kaffar

which is painted in rajasthan

it’s a visual story it’s like a story

book you know how we had amer chitrakata

but there

there were these blobs for people to

tell st to speak to each other and we

could understand what they’re talking

about but here these are painted scrolls

like you know they’re all painted it’s a

visual story

and then there’s a bhopa abode who sings

the songs in the praise of the hero of

the story

and his wife usually has a diy in her

hand and she points out to characters

as in when he talks about those

characters when he recites poetry so

it’s an audio visual medium

it’s a great form of communication so

and if we look at the kind of

livelihoods somebody will commission it

somebody will paint it so you have a

whole culture of painting this in

vegetable dies telling the story

and then uh there is a whole uh

you know craft of narrating it how do

you talk about it how do you narrate how

do you

engage people in this and then the best

part is they were never stored in

museums you know they were used for a

long time and then they just

were uh you know put into the river or

when they had finished their life and

new ones were painted each date like

this has its own style of cloth painted

narratives there’s patachitra there are

cherry

you have lots of them and the crafts

were alive because they were kept alive

by the community

and i think their skills that have been

acquired over centuries

if we just lose them to the industrial

revolution we might just

end up having a whole lot of people who

are just running around for jobs and

can’t create anything themselves

can’t think of anything and just want to

run in a fast-paced life

not take life the way it is meant to be

in a country like india

thank you so much