As Dastkari Haat Samiti enters its 36th year of dedicated work towards the preservation of India’s crafts heritage and sustaining the livelihoods of craftspeople it offers a new theme to the public at its annual crafts bazaar at Dilli Haat from 1-15January.
“Krishi aur Kala”The Farmer and the ArtisanAn Integral Relationship
It has conducted over 150 bazaars over the years, created major interventions like conceptualising Dilli Haat and working for its continued service as a market for craftspeople. It has reintroduced calligraphy into crafts and created major online documentation of 52 crafts all over India for the Google Arts & Culture platform. Its artistic crafts maps of all the states of India are iconic as are its many publications on crafts practices and projects. It’s a special feature at its Dilli Haat annual bazaar has been craft exchange workshops with Craftspeople from abroad. This has not been possible due to Covid uncertainties and travel restrictions. In 2022 it highlights a theme central to the importance of sustaining craft and farmer livelihoods as major partners in the fight for preserving the planet from the ravages of climate change.
Partners collaborating in this important theme are Dastkari Haat Samiti at Navdanya, known universally for its promotion and protection of biodiversity, led by Jaya Jaitly and Vandana Shiva, both recognised experts in their field.
Navdanya brings you a rich diversity of India’s indigenous rice varieties. We have conserved drought-tolerant, flood-tolerant and salt-tolerant varieties. Navdanya’s organic communities from Himalaya to the coastal regions of Odisha and the hill tracts of the northeast have grown aromatic rice, red rice, brown rice. Celebrate this gift of diverse nutritions, health, organic food while contributing to the livelihood and ecological practices of the small marginal farmers.
Kisan and Craftspeople
Agriculture means the culture of care for the Land. Crafts transform what farmers produce into beauty and utility with their hands. The unity of Kisan and Craftspeople is based on the integration of Head, Heart and Hand among both farmers and craftspeople. Farmers and craftspeople are co-creators of the Earth. Local Circular Living economies which connect farmers to craftspeople and both to consumers directly are central to creating a fossil-fuel-free world and stopping greenhouse emissions and Climate Change.
When the farmer produces a good harvest, all of society celebrates. Since the farmer and the artisan were inextricably linked, celebrating harvests and festivals together is an invariable outcome in which not only did each depend on the other but communities came together for cultural and social activities. In Odisha, when a particular type of grass grows along the roads in October, silversmiths start preparing thrones for the image of the deity to celebrate the puja festival. After the rains, wild grass grows around water bodies in northern India. Women gather this grass to weave baskets for their own needs.
Village markets developed and even today, in most parts of the world, where agrarian economies dominate over industrial ones, the rural market is the hub of trading activity. It has a vast variety of both food-stuffs, fresh and dried, as well as rope, containers, baskets, floor mats, tools and earthen vessels which are made by rural artisans. Many of these objects are made from the residues of agricultural crops. Mutually sustaining and interdependent, crafts and agriculture
have a natural link.
Navdanya will bring an exhibition of the vast varieties of organic cultivation of grain, cereals and health-giving food produce. These will be available for order online and not at Dilli Haat. Dastkari Haat Samiti will highlight the vast range of craftspeople who make items involved in the process of cultivation, preparation and serving of food through utility objects for the kitchen and dining table that involve food. These craftspeople will sell their items at the stalls at Dilli Haat.
A Multicultural Event With Varied Range of Crafts
Visitors will see a ring of tableware, cooking vessels, table linen, baskets and trays. You would never imagine so many crafts are dedicated to the preparation and serving of food.
Talks, demonstrations and workshops in the non-commercial tented section at Dilli Haat will be held periodically.
Some of the craftspeople involved in the theme are:
Brass from Orissa, West Bengal, Terracotta from Rajasthan, Ceramic from UP, Maharashtra and Delhi, Wood from West Bangal, Baskets from West Bengal, UP, Jharkhand, Table Mats from West Bengal, Rajasthan and Gujarat.
Block Prints from AP and Rajasthan, Ikkat from AP, Ajrak Printing from Gujarat, Weaving from UP and Gujarat, Folk performances from Rajasthan, West Bengal and Gujarat.
Special appeal from Dastkari Haat Samiti
While the arts and crafts connoisseurs of Delhi can access Dilli Haat to appreciate the craft of the regular traders at the permanent stalls all year round, Dastkari Haat Samiti appeals to them to wholly support this event by buying local hand-made crafts, textiles, and arts from the new exhibiting stalls. Dastkari Haat Samiti brings forth craftsmen with lesser means but no lesser skills. These craftsmen have entirely self-funded the bazaar. The décor, cultural performances, and publicity are paid for, by sharing equally among them. Let them make profits by buying generously from them.
