I am
Amitanshu Shrivastava, a student of Indian Institute of Crafts and Design, in
Jaipur, Rajasthan, India.
We see a lot
of things around us every day, we use some things for short time and some for
longer a duration. We just see and admire them some times and most of the times
criticize them. As we are in a free world where we are free to do what we like,
and so because of that there are no filtration done in the market nor in the
production line resulting in awful products like “Himatwala” (A movie), or
products like Amul butter (I don’t understand why do they give it in a
cardboard packing. I am sure that those
people would also have seen that butter paper does not prevent it from melting).
So, I am
here to express my views on something which is very elementary for my
institution and when I am bonded with it, it’s my responsibility to return it
and help everyone In the way I would.
Crafts
In recent years I have developed my own
definition of craft: - A set of skills (hands\ Mechanical) used to produce
articles (products) with the help of a community or an individual to satisfy
the needs of an immediate
environment.
As you can
see above, it a snap shot taken from my laptop screen telling the meaning of
craft. In India “the word” craft is more valuable than just its description. After
independence our constitution was formed and craft was given to the Ministry of
commerce, which then after became responsible for half a billion people of India
to produce goods that can be converted into money by foreign trades. It has
been given a millions of opportunities to be an entrepreneur and support the
economy of this country.
Years passed
by and this is year 2014. In last four years, I have been to many parts of Rajasthan,
Gujarat, some parts of Utter Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. I had an opportunity of
meeting many artisans from different parts of India broadly speaking it’s been
a great way till here.
Indian craft
is very rich in every sense that I can describe you.
As India is
always been described as a “golden bird”, which it is truly is. The thing which
makes this country what it is is the people and their thoughts which can be
seen by the kind of products they make.
Colours ,
flowers , stars , dance, joy, music, play, drama, poems, the swaying of the
wind romance, love and making love, These are the few words which comes to me
when I think about craft in India
I consider
India a country of stories, myths, superstitions, science, arts, god and
goddess. I know these words are a bit contradicting to each other in the same
sentences but apparently this is what I see when I look it from here, our believes
contradicts our actions and our actions contradicts the nature of Humanity.
This country holds within the great mystery, great secret about humanity and
value of life, everything is corded in form of literature, art and crafts.
There are
stories about every emotion and every sentiment. From the spectrum of time many
people came and told their understanding of the word craft in India, but I felt
talking of just the craft, how it’s made , by what is mad , how many they made and
what time they made. It is not enough; there is a lot to talk about the person,
who is making it. I was more interested in the Indian behind the products. I am
telling about that person how chooses tradition over his life and about
tradition flourishing there life. I am
telling abut a person who don’t know from where his next meal is going to come but have to be sure about the
next idea he going to make and about that idea changing life of many as he know
It. I am telling about a person who don’t think about himself but goes in the
fog to glass only one thing in this mind, the shine, the colour and the
fineness of the glass that he going
to give and enjoys the joy of creation.
In recent years many crafts are vanishing or
will not be practiced any more. There are many crafts family who have send their
children to bigger cities to become engineers and doctors, away from their
heritage and culture which will result in loss of knowledge which was given
them from the generations. Those secrets, those mysteries in the products which
tell you the stories of millions of year will be lost just like that.
Working of craft In India
Craft in India
is mostly practiced by the humans who have given knowledge of how to practice
their transcended knowledge from generations by using their set of skills. These
people are known to us as “Artisans”, who are finite in numbers but trying to
serve the greed of the infinity now.
Craft
products are very beautiful and the result of a very creative and fear less
thinking process. As most of the skills and the products are traditional or I
can say are transcended from generations in this country, from centuries there
are very less changes or innovations in them.
As after
Independence, craft has became an important source of income for the Government
of India they tried to up lift the sector by many different ways. They have announced
many schemes for craft artisans and the communities. There are many Non
government organisational set ups in different parts of country to regulate the
funds given by the governments. These NGO’s work for the socio-economic
development of the craft as it is practiced in community. It was important to understand
their belief, share it and improve it for their upliftment and then to give
them a market to as to improve their status in the society.
There are
many NGO’s and government organisations working hard for the Crafts and the
communities. There are many success stories and many failures too.
As a craft
designer many mentors tried to teach me the differences between crafts and
Industrial setups, but it’s always been a dichotomy for designer like us. I
feel it is the same thing the only difference is scale of requirement of the product,
the quantity in which we want the product decides the process that it going to
follow. So for me the craft is something which is done in a community to fulfil
the need of the community, village or the town. But as we go out in the bigger
platform and talk about their requirements like of a city or a state we need to
standardise the products.
The
reasons
I was
talking about traditions, emotions, the joy of creation for the artisans, about
creative thinking of craft artisans to make new products and how there is been
a stagnantly in the development of the craft products, there is a reason to
this. There is a reason to the way
crafts are fading off. Why even after so many efforts by NGO’s and GO’s people
are leaving their crafts and going towards the more mechanical side of the
world?
There are
many reasons to why is it happening and many steps are taken to improve it but
I would like to throw some light on the way we are going towards it.
Many of the
reformists in our country are aware of the Maslow’s theory of hierarchy of need
proposed by Abraham Maslow in his 1943
paper. "A Theory so that people from different background, different languages and
different geographical conduction can use it without any difficulty and this is
where the craft ends and Industrial thinking comes in. India is one of the
developing countries which is growing fast and the reason is its exports. In
the world map the India is considered as one of the manifesting and service
providing country of Human Motivation".
1-
Maslow's
hierarchy of needs
Maslow's Hierarchy of
Needs Pyramid
Physiological Needs
Physiological needs are the very
basic needs such as air, water, food, sleep, sex, etc. When these are not
satisfied we may feel sickness, irritation, pain, discomfort, etc. These
feelings motivate us to alleviate them as soon as possible to establish homeostasis.
Once they are alleviated, we may think about other things.
Safety Needs
Safety needs have to do with
establishing stability and consistency in a chaotic world. These needs are
mostly psychological in nature. We need the security of a home and family.
However, if a family is dysfunctional, family members cannot move to the next
level because they have safety concerns. Love and belongingness have to wait
until they are no longer in fear. Many in our society cry out for law and order
because they do not feel safe enough to go for a walk in their neighbourhood.
Unfortunately many people, particularly those in the inner cities, are stuck at
this level.
Need to Belong
Love and sense of belonging are
next on the ladder. Humans have a desire to belong to groups: clubs, work
groups, religious groups, family, gangs, etc. We need to feel loved
(non-sexual) by others, to be accepted by others. Performers appreciate
applause. We
Need to be
needed. We see numerous examples in advertising where our need for group
belonging is tied to consumption of a particular product.
Esteem Needs
There are two types of esteem
needs. First is self-esteem which results from competence or mastery of a task.
Second, there's the attention and recognition that comes from others. This is
similar to the sense of belonging level; however, wanting admiration has to do
with the need for power. People, who have all of their lower needs satisfied,
often drive very expensive cars because doing so raises their level of esteem.
Self-Actualization
The need for self-actualization is "the desire to become more and more what one is, to become everything
that one is capable of becoming." People who have everything can maximize
their potential. They can seek knowledge, peace, aesthetic experiences,
self-fulfillment, and oneness with God etc. It is usually middle-class to
upper-class students who take up environmental causes, go off to a monastery,
etc.
……………………………………
Butterfly effect is inevitable in a big country like ours.
When we are talking
about crafts community and society, we must not forget the other topics like, in
India rape, home violence, child labour, cast and racial discrimination is so
common.
Everything affects
the crafts, everything affects country
for Example:-
The 2012 Delhi gang rape case, which happened on 16 December 2012 , it affected a lot of foreign tourist in India in winter season and because of which there was a great difference in the income of craft artisan of Rajasthan, Gujarat and Uttar-Pradesh. In country like India we talk about many misleading topic given by our politicians to fill their vote banks like corruption, under development, by the way what I feel is India was ruled by so many rulers in the past, I take it as a positive point, because we have a rich heritage just because of them we have synthesized knowledge of many different religions, country and life style of people which we can see in the form of art and craft for e.g.:- Pietra dura , blue pottery, she-bori and so on.
The 2012 Delhi gang rape case, which happened on 16 December 2012 , it affected a lot of foreign tourist in India in winter season and because of which there was a great difference in the income of craft artisan of Rajasthan, Gujarat and Uttar-Pradesh. In country like India we talk about many misleading topic given by our politicians to fill their vote banks like corruption, under development, by the way what I feel is India was ruled by so many rulers in the past, I take it as a positive point, because we have a rich heritage just because of them we have synthesized knowledge of many different religions, country and life style of people which we can see in the form of art and craft for e.g.:- Pietra dura , blue pottery, she-bori and so on.
Even the way we imagine our god and
goddess is influenced by German realism so we are not in any ways under
developed it just we have forgotten who we are as we tumble done the hierarchy of needs because of
which we are not contained with what we have.
And for corruption “every living\moving organism is corrupt”
in some or the other way just think. We all think selfishly and if u don’t
then Darwin’s theory will crush u down (survival of the fittest).
The actual problem of a society and community in India and a
solution
The problem is we are still struggling
our way up in the Maslow's hierarchy of
needs and the most intrusting thing is its nothing to do with money,
because money can only partly satisfy you again it will be selfish in ones part
so the secret lies in our history and myths. People were more creative back
then, people were more morally responsible back then our crafts tell us how
good their problem were solving attitude. So, it is just not about money and
getting rich but achieving “self-actualization”.
And for development is concerned we are developing every day,
We can see our
reflection only in still water.
Maslow, A. (1970) Motivation
and Personality. New York: Harper and Row
Source:
(For the diagram)
