The danger of relegating craft to second-grade activity

At a recent festival organised by Kathak danseuse Shovana Narayan, she attempted to approach the arts from multi dimensions that incorporated dance, dance-theatre, sahitya, and the visual arts. She asked me to speak on ‘Can the Twain Meet ’

In a matter of minutes I was clear as to what I wanted to highlight which was the schism between the contemporary arts and crafts. I am glad this festival saw the arts in a holistic fashion and not in isolated pockets. What is true of dance is terms of selection of the compositions and their relevance in today’s life, cuts across other forms as well.

The mindset that has created the schism between art and crafts, relegating craft to second grade activity and alienating it by pushing it in the category of mere skill as opposed to high art, is a very dangerous one. Just because the artisan has the skill to virtually create a clone of his or her own work, by sheer years of practice, does it mean there is no thought behind it Or is it not contemporary One has to just look at some of the forms and it hits you like a surprise that the average craftsperson is so aware of the change that is constant around them and how they are able to create ways to both acknowledge the change and incorporate it in their work.

In the realm of traditional and folk painting, the seamless way in which happenings, modern lifestyles, and issues of concern are depicted, speaks of minds that are evolved and sensitive. Just to share a few examples: A Madhubani painting on Lord Shiva, shows the Ganga emanating from his hair, polluted as it reaches the earth, another depicts a film strip with two women puffing at cigarettes, yet another shows handpumps and buckets as opposed to wells and pitchers. Molela terracotta sculptures with airplanes and electric trains cheek by jowl with traditional icons, and deities with mobile phones in one of the bhujas or hands!

On the same hand are designs perfected over centuries by weavers used in traditional sarees being used as motifs for non-natural fabrics. Kanchipuram sarees being a case in point: The same designs of the borders and korvais worn by our grandmothers being used for lightweight silks from Aarni or even synthetic fabrics. Or even the lowly earthen pitchers as they get phased out, are being recreated in the same design format in plastic that speaks of great perfection of design — not necessarily usage of the material.

The naturalness of this depiction is very far from the self-conscious approach of the urban elite of seeing the folk and traditional as “them” and the other as “us”. It is time to salvage whatever we can, from a civilization that considers every aspect of life and for that matter even life, as a matter of constant transition, like a flowing river. In such a scenario, it worked fine till the speed of change was not almost instantaneous, but now when traditional mores are headed for change at a dizzy speed, it is time to wake up and smell the coffee.

I don’t know how many of you have seen the Telugu movie Sankarabharanam. It had a telling scene where some young boys jeer at the old maestro for his traditional music. The maestro challenges them saying that while he can sing what they can, none of them can sing what he can. I feel the same is true of our crafts as well. While the craftsmen with minimal training will be able to recreate what the tallest artists can create, I wonder how many contemporary artists can replicate what the artisan can do.

There have been a few folk artists like the Madhubani painter Sita Devi or the Gond tribal artist Jangad Singh Shyam who were somewhat able to bridge the schism where their work was seen in international shows. For every Sita Devi and Jangad Singh there are millions who remain in the shadows. I think this exclusion is costing us dear both ways. We are neither allowing ourselves the wonder of learning from our rich heritage nor are we allowing the craftspeople entry into our so-called esoteric world.

Untold damage has been done in the one-education-fits-all model, especially at the grassroot levels. Innumerable homes in villages and small towns have been destroyed where children are sent to schools to acquire education in order to become ‘successful’ that has no bearing on their possible vocations and which has led to millions of shattered dreams.

Many crafts, like carpet weaving, have to be taught at an early stage when the fingers are nimble, which then helps them earn a living and they don’t join the masses of the unemployed and move to cities. Especially where families are involved in the crafts, the children learn the ropes early, which eventually leads them to employment and preserves the art and helps their overall empowerment. And when helping out at the filial level, the children are not exposed to dangerous situations.

We have created an entire generation of lumpens at the village level — trouser wearing boys who don’t want to do manual farming as it is impractical to wear tight trousers and sit down and stand up in quick moves during sowing, howing and harvesting. If they have been to high school, their level of knowledge might be abysmal, but they certainly don’t wish to take up craftsmanship or farming. The children could learn skills and education of relevance and these could work like centres of non-formal education, provided the seniors of the community are involved and made aware of their role as stakeholders in the situation.

These myopic steps will result in finishing an entire generation of craftspersons, who will per force take up alternative professions and be pushed several steps below in the economic ladder. And we will spill tears for yet another craft system that will forever be hurled into oblivion.

India’s nearly 49 million craftspersons and weavers live in easily identifiable pockets. It would be so easy to set up schools that could target the popular arts of the region and get the best-skilled craftspersons to participate in mentorship programmes to teach the intricacies to the next generation. The children could learn both skills and education of relevance and these steps would go a long way in ending exploitation.

And like the London tube announcement Mind the Gap, if we don’t mind the gap, millions of artisans will be poorer literally and we would be even poorer by the loss of our heritage forever. We must not forget that we are mere repositories of these skills and it is our bounden responsibility to take it forward and not push them into oblivion.

I feel like the proverbial Bhopa of the Pabuji ki Phad who is highlighting the story of the gap between the arts and the crafts but I hope these are like seeds which will be scattered by the winds of the mind to make small, but valuable differences in the lives of our artisans and us as global citizens.

Dr Alka Raghuvanshi is an art writer, curator and artist and can be contacted on alkaraghuvanshi@yahoo.com