Handloom Weaving and Design Education in India

Abstract

This paper will discuss the paradigms, aims and methodologies of my PhD research which I began in October 2014.

Handloom weaving, one of the oldest crafts on the subcontinent, is currently a source of employment for 4.3 million workers in India. From the 19th century onwards, it experienced a huge decline due to the development of mechanised imitations flooding local markets. Gandhi’s campaigns for swadeshi (self-sufficiency) between 1905 and 1911, symbolised by khadi (cloth hand-woven from hand-spun yarn) inspired a wave of initiatives to revive India’s traditional craft industries. At the same time there was a growing urban and global market for the hand-crafted, ‘authentic’ and traditional. Indian craftspeople have been adapting their craft for these markets, helped by government and non-government initiatives and commercial enterprises.

While some of these initiatives have been successful, many have been temporary and unsustainable. In many cases, the role of the craftsperson has been reduced to labourer – they are handed designs to produce, having little or no creative input of their own. While reciprocal collaboration between an artisan and professional designer can be effective in creating products that are relevant both to the market and the artisan; more recently, a new approach, to avoid the subjugation of the artisan to labourer, has been design education for artisans.

Prior to industrialisation, from the 13th to 19th centuries, crafts were patronised by the royal courts, and were taught either in the home or in an apprenticeship with a master craftsman. The British introduced the idea of ‘design’ to India, and the art schools of the Raj (1857 – 1947) were torn between industrialising crafts to build economy, and preserving indigenous designs.

In 1961, the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad was founded with an aim to create design professionals that would meet the diverse needs of the crafts industries. While more institutes have opened following the success of NID, design education, even for eligible students, is limited in India. It is mostly reserved for the upper classes and urban elites educated in English. Many Indians in rural areas receive only basic primary education, which does not qualify them for higher education at institutes like NID.

More recently, alternatives have emerged, including Kala Raksha Vidhyalaya (KRV), which ran from 2005 –2013, in which time approximately 120 artisans graduated. The founder, Judy Frater founded a new institute Somaiya Kala Vidya (SKV) in 2014 keeping design education as its focus. The methodology of the PhD will consist of a combined case study of KRV and SKV, along with Women Weave in the sari weaving town of Maheshwar which began a handloom school in 2014 teaching design, marketing, IT, business and English to local weavers. Comparative studies with other weaving communities in different situations, will be also be carried out.

The research aims to analyse the impact of design education and innovation on the sustainability of handloom weaving. It will address the tensions weavers face between the global market and their traditional community expectations, and how weavers navigate between the learning of traditional skills and contemporary design concepts. It also aims to identify how new models of education for weavers can address problems linked to previous idealised notions of tradition, authenticity and community, while teaching a suitable design and marketing strategy for the current handloom market.