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Traditional crafts have been an essential part of Indian history, culture and life. This handbook looks at craft as both a cultural artefact that reflects people's worldviews, indigenous practices and traditions, as well as a source of income generation and development that is inclusive.
List of contents
List of Figures ix List of Tables xi Notes on Contributors xii Acknowledgements xxi 1 Introduction 1
Rebecca Reubens and Tanishka Kachru PART I Policy Discourses 11 2 Crafting a future: India's Artisanal Heritage and the Quest for Sustainable Development 13
Ashoke Chatterjee 3 A Brief History of Craft Policy (1947-2020) with a Prescription for the Future 36
Ritu Sethi 4 A Crafts Market as the Essence of a Socio-economic and Cultural Universe 50
Jaya Jaitly PART II Craft Histories 63 5 Rewriting the History of Indian Crafts and Why That Matters 65
Tirthankar Roy 6 Craft and Its Representation: Thinking Through the Pre-Colonial Histories of Craft Practices in India 75
Sudeshna Guha 7 Chronicling Craftspeople in India: The Journals, Archives, Records and Documents that Construct a History 89
Sarita Sundar PART III Craft and Education 103 8 Toward a Sustainable Future for Craft Traditions: Education for Artisans of Kutch 105
Judy Frater 9 Lessons of Design Empowerment 121
Lokesh Ghai 10 14 Years of Design and Business Education: Artisan Graduate Reflections 136
Judy Frater PART IV Craft and Technology 153 11 Super-Sustainability: An Ecology of Cotton Cloth for a Future World 155
Uzramma and Annapurna Mamidipudi 12 Encounters of Craft and Digital: Recent Directions in India 167
Aanchal Sodhani 13 Reviving Vernacular Crafts in India Through Additive Manufacturing 181
K.V.S. Likhinya PART V Craft and Marketing 193 14 Do You Have It in Other Colours?: Insights Into Handloom Saree Sales 195
Suresh Bhagavatula and Zuber Ahmed 15 Craft Retail: Omnichannel 213
Shilpa Sharma and Rebecca Reubens 16 The Landscape of Indian Craft Marketing 228
Bhavna Yadav and Anita Raghav PART VI Craft and Certification 241 17 Legal Protection of Handicrafts under Geographical Indications (GI) Act to Prevent Imitation and Misuse: Case Study of Kashmir Pashmina 243
Yaseer Ahmad Mir 18 Holistic Sustainability Certification for India's Craft Sector 263
Rebecca Reubens 19 Complexities of Applying Certifications in the Indian Handicraft Industry 281
Madhura Dutta PART VII Craft and the Development Sector 301 20 A New Paradigm for Creative Manufacturing in the Next Regenerative Economy: Business Not As Usual 303
Jacob Mathew, Claire Simpson, and Neelam Chibber 21 A Successful Sustainable Craft Business Practice (in Medium-Skilled Clusters) 317
Payal Nath 22 The Trajectory of Kala Cotton 330
Ghatit Laheru, Durgalakshmi Venkataswamy, and Meera Goradia PART VIII Craft Documentation and Representation 343 23 Documentation of Craft in India: A Historical Overview from Early 20th Century to Present Day 345
Tanishka Kachru and Deepika Srivastava 24 Crafts in India: Representations and Reflections through the Lens of Applied Research 360
Jay Thakkar and Mansi Sathyanarayan Rao 25 Crafts: Evolution of Narratives and Perceptions in India 377
Falguni Patel PART IX Craft Futures 391 26 Fibres in Peril: Revival of the Indigenous Cotton and Wool Traditions in Kutch 393
Sushma Iyengar 27 Toolkits As An Emerging Framework for Engaging with Craft 404
Rishav Jain 28 Design by Proxy 421
Anaka Narayanan Index 435
About the author
Rebecca Reubens is a sustainability designer, educator and independent academic who spent the first decade of her career working with international development-sector institutions centred on sustainable livelihoods for bamboo-working communities in Asia and Africa. Following this, she completed her PhD at Delft University of Technology on the links between craft, sustainability, and design. She currently practices in the same space, through her sustainability design studio Rhizome in Ahmedabad. She remains connected to academics through her teaching and writing. She is the author of a number of publications including,
Bamboo: From Green Design to Sustainable Design and
Holistic Sustainability through Craft-Design Collaboration. She is an ambassador for the World Bamboo Organization.
Tanishka Kachru is a design historian and educator at the National Institute of Design (NID) in Ahmedabad, India. Her research interests focus on the intersections of design histories from postcolonial perspectives, national identity, exhibition histories, and design for development. She was co-convenern of the Design History Society 2013 Annual Conference, the first to take place in a non-Western geography. Her practice includes curation and cultural communicationn produced from collections, archives and living heritage. She has contributed to several publications including, Nakashima at NID, The Routledge Companion to Design Studies, and the forthcoming Women Graphic Designers: Rebalancing the Canon.
Summary
Traditional crafts have been an essential part of Indian history, culture and life. This handbook looks at craft as both a cultural artefact that reflects people’s worldviews, indigenous practices and traditions, as well as a source of income generation and development that is inclusive.
