Crafts and Craftspeople of Thar - part I

Western Rajasthan comprises the major portion of the region called the Indian Thar. Life in the Thar is an endless struggle and persistent negotiation with the fragile and harsh ecology. Shifting sand dunes, high wind velocities and very deep, scarce and saline water sources have always posed a formidable challenge to sustained human settlement here. Yet it is one of the few arid regions in the world that has the oldest histories of human settlement and is the most thickly populated among all the deserts.

The long history of the Thar has been the story of migrations impelled by famines, feuds, political turmoil and an incessant search to set up new settlements and colonise new tracts. These patterns of mobility, over long time periods, have bequeathed to the region, among other things, highly resilient folk craft traditions and a diverse group of communities as active bearers of these.The Indian Thar is known for it’s rich and diverse heritage of craft and handicraft traditions. Whether it is weaving, carpentry, woodwork, pottery, terracotta, tie and dye, hand printing, carving, embroidery, basket making, braiding, leather work, stone work, lac work, metal work etc., to name a few of the salient craft traditions, all have one thing in common – an exuberance, vigor and a desire to celebrate life. It is as if the monotony of survival in this vastly stretched landscape has been rendered sublime with exquisitely crafted handmade objects. Robust, well marked compositions using bright colours and intricate patterns stand out is sharp contrast to the sandy backdrop. As if human creativity and imagination have prevailed over drudgery and suffering.

For many of these crafts, the growth of markets was associated with the tourism coming to in the late seventies. Different rural crafts made their entry into the tourist markets as well as into the tourist / export market that has piggy ridden on the circuit of desert festivals and fairs in the Thar.

Though the extent of benefits from the tourist trade to the craftspeople remains debatable it is clear that the handicraft trade has really benefited middlemen turned exporters having plush and swanky showrooms in the cities. Important for the expansion of the export trade have been factors like easy access to cheap labour in the villages as a result of a growing poverty, destitution, loss of traditional skills and crisis of livelihoods among the craftspeople.

It is in this context that some organisations are striving for the well being of the craftspeople and the continuing of the living traditions associated with crafts.

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(To be continued...)