Art and Culture : The Crafts Community Today

Despite all the Government schemes and policies, the condition of crafts is far from desirable in India as per Art and Culture Class 12: The Crafts Community Today. A craftsperson wants to compete with inexpensive factory-made fabric products available in the market with his limited capital investment. 

Perception of the Craftperson

The frame of mind towards the crafts and crafts community is the first obstacle and hindrance to the progress of crafts in India.

• The perception of a craftsperson as a mere labourer lies in the comprehension of the crafts and the role of crafts in our society
• Since antiquity, our Indian designers with extraordinary skills have been humiliated by the court and nobility
• According to Judy Frater, the artisan is reduced to labour. The professional designer and craftsperson are relegated by society

Craft and the Machine

Before the colonial period in India, the terms art and craft were considered synonyms.

• The introduction of machines in Europe led to the disappearance of the craft
• The role of the crafts community diminished after the introduction of machines. The Crafts community faced affordability issues in buying the machines
• In India, the crafts community was considered a crucial part of society
• Work done on the machine is more preferable to handwork
• William Morris and John Ruskin inspired and influenced many thinkers in India through their writings. They reiterated the tragic misconception and thus created a new interest and study of craft traditions in India

Timely Documentation

Many British officers published documentation based on Indian traditional skills, tools, workplaces, which later had important consequences.

• “The grammar of Ornament” – In 1856, Owen jones documented the principle of good design that includes the examples of Hindu Ornaments
• Owen arranged an exhibition in London to exhibit Indian crafts to help England improve the poor quality of British craftsmanship, which suffers from the damages of industrialisation
• The Birdwood Journal of Industrial Arts of India- published in 1880, believed that the eminence of the Indian crafts was an outcome of the “happy religious organisation of the Hindu village” where every house of potters and weavers produced essential items of matchless transcendence

The divide between art and craft

Reason for divide

• After 1857, the British established an art school in many places like Kolkata, Mumbai, and Chennai
• English syllabus like the principles of western art of perspective, landscape painting, and still-life drawing was followed in the school of art. It leads to the fall of the status of the Indian Crafts community
• Students who got trained in the western style of art entered the scene. Indian elite and royalty exposed to western art favoured this westernized Indian art
• These created the division between art and crafts in India among the Crafts Community today

It also led to a further downtrend in the status of the Indian crafts community who had so loyally served Indian society for centuries.

Impact

• Traditional Indian painting got replaced by oil paintings
• India’s first factories and the products of the textile mills, printing presses replaced Handicrafts objects at home

Later Developments For Development of Indian art craft

• During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, The importance of handicrafts industries was recognised by some political and social reforms
• The importance of Handicrafts industries is considered as it is the channel of economic regeneration and cultural confidence
• Crafts community’s vision encouraged poet Rabindranath Tagore’s craft-oriented experiments at his university at Santiniketan and the prominence of village enterprises with which Mahatma Gandhi provided as a base for India’s Struggle towards independence
• To restore the dignity of labour and human creativity, the Swadeshi movement(‘by Indians, For Indians’) took place. The spinning wheel became a symbol of national rebellion, and hand-spun cloth became the livery of liberty

Bounded by caste

• After attaining Independence, Gandhiji hoped that the caste nation would disappear, but the craftsmen were still considered manual labourers
• Though there is an increase in social mobility- heredity, caste, and community affiliations play an important role in the crafts sector

Economic Sustainability

Many craftspeople suffered from poor income and working conditions in the past. Artisans who lack land are extremely vulnerable to fluctuations in market situations. The landless crafts community wants to sell their products at the price of the situation of the market.

• Government support – Although plenty of schemes exist, only a few thousand craftspeople are comfortably placed socially and economically
• A drawback in the Census – A census record doesn’t cover the skilled artisans and seasonal artisans, who are forced to move to city slam from rural areas in search of an alternate job
• Bare Subsistance of Artisans – An survey says that the Crafts community hardly owns any assets. The major assets owned by them are mud houses or Kuccha

Major constraints for the Crafts Community

Aside from social stigma, caste bias, and poverty, the crafts community has four major constraints.

• Disappearing Raw material

Across the country, the crafts community is wavered by the disappearance of raw materials. They find it more difficult to find adequate raw material of the right quality.

• Loss of patronage

In the period of crisis, artisans used to get support from the Jajmani system. But modern machinery fails to do so.

• Limited Credit Facilities

Only a few credited or insurance policies help the craft community with the capital for the development of products, for buying raw materials, improving tools, and so on.

• Affordability issues

Due to the poverty of the consumers, the Crafts community lose their largest clients.

• Pricing

Crafts communities cannot produce their traditional goods at a price, as the poor rural consumers cannot purchase.

• Lack of literacy and education

Artisans lack both education and literacy to face future challenges.

The Bamboo Story

• Indians used bamboo in creative ways, such as making water pipes, fishing traps, baskets, etc. As it doesn’t figure in forest revenue, British foresters didn’t take bamboo into account
• But, in 1920, the British realised that paper could be produced from bamboo. So, making bamboo sheets would also bring development to the so-called backward region of India
• The British supported the paper industry by providing high subsidies for bamboo. But, they sold bamboo at a high cost to bamboo weavers

The Langas and Mangniyar of Thar deserts

• They are considered folk musicians of Rajasthan
• Dhani is a group of Mangniyar who sing for some particular family

In Conclusion:- 

Literacy is required for the artisan to make significant progress. This crucial aspect of his or her development should be incorporated into a larger skill training programme. If young people are not provided with adequate literacy facilities while receiving craft training in private or government centres, we will be failing in our duty to crafts and society. Literacy is required to increase production and marketing, obtain bank loans, understand individual rights, and avoid exploitation by other classes.