Dying crafts of the villages: Diwali and Diyas
By: Farooq Bandey
On October 3, 2014, during the very first ‘Mann Ki Baat’ program, the Prime Minister of India appealed to people to include at least one piece of Khadi in their clothes to promote Khadi.
After the prime minister’s clarion call to encourage the purchase of Khadi, sales of Khadi increased significantly. After that, the Prime Minister continued to appeal to the people to use Khadi, especially during the “Khadi Utsav” on Gandhi Jayanti. He has repeatedly said, “When we buy Khadi, we are brightening the lives of millions of weavers who toil day and night. Buying Khadi products is like celebrating Diwali in weavers’ homes.” Modi has given the mantra of “Khadi for the nation, Khadi for fashion” – the idea that Khadi can become a symbol of national pride and a fashion statement, which will appeal to the youth and can be popular.
It is not only a matter of Khadi, but the main purpose of their slogan of ‘Atam Nirbhar’ (self-sufficiency) is also that the general skilled people living in the villages lead a purposeful and dignified life and add to their financial status, rather, it should play its role in promoting the productivity of the country. If we look at pre-independence India, on the one hand we see small and large factories established by the British and other capitalists in the cities, especially in the big cities, who used the local resources to export to other countries for huge profits.
On the other hand, Gandhiji showed a way to the people by urging the people to expand the small cottage industries of the villages to make things for local consumption. These industries did not require any help from outside the village and could be run with very little capital. Gandhiji believed that there was no need for revolutionary changes in agriculture in the village but there is a need to introduce Charkha among the farmers to solve the economic problems.
After independence, Gandhiji’s path for economic development of 80% of the population living in villages was neglected by neglecting their basic development. It has been Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s continuous efforts to popularize Khadi, create awareness about Khadi products and promote the use of Khadi among the youth for the upliftment of the rural population and increase in the GDP of the country.
As in other parts of the country, in Jammu and Kashmir too, the indigenous work has not been given attention. Planning is done well, but no major steps are being taken to implement this planning at the basic level and then to monitor it properly, due to which the very good programs of the government fail to achieve their objectives.
Ever since the government jobs have become scarce in Jammu and Kashmir, some young people have tried their luck in many of the traditional fields here. Recently, one such attempt came to light about a young man from Srinagar. This young man has started making bright clay pots. Diwali is to be celebrated on October 24 and he is going to make diyas (clay lamps). A huge order has been received for making the clay lamps.
As Diwali draws closer, Mohammad Umar Kumar, who is aiming to revive the ‘dying’ art of glazed pottery in Kashmir, is working passionately to deliver 15,000 earthen lamps. Kumar (27), a commerce graduate from the Ishber area of Nishat here, says it is a tough challenge to revive the age-old craft, but he is not giving up. A recent order for “diyas” (earthen lamps) for the festival of Diwali brought hope as well as money.
“I received an order for 15,000 lamps for Diwali from a dealer in Kulgam district. The lamps must be delivered before the festival,” Kumar said. He said while he has delivered a part of the order to the dealer, it is a race against time.“However, I cannot rush into it. This is an art. I have to make sure the product is absolutely fine,” he said. Glazed pottery, known as “Dal Gate pottery”, is unique to Kashmir.
Originally, glazed tiles in deep green, blue, brown, and ochre were made in the valley. This craft later got bifurcated to tableware and vases made in red, green, and blue glazes. Kumar’s latest order involves a process that includes giving a shape to the lamps on the potter’s wheel, then leaving those to dry and finally, clay-firing them. He would also sell some of the lamps at his shop in the Hazratbal area of the city.
Kumar has also engaged his father and brother in the trade. The 27-year-old said the order has been a shot in the arm for the family, which is intricately involved in the art of pottery. He said there were once over 500 families in the city engaged in the craft, which has now reduced to around 50.
“I am trying my best to involve more families and while I have succeeded to bring back six of them, it is a tough challenge,” Kumar said, adding there should be support at the government level. Kumar hit the headlines last year when he took it upon himself to revive the “dying” art of glazed pottery in Kashmir after learning it from an octogenarian. Not only has he involved his family in the craft, but he also teaches the skill to a few youths in a bid to keep it from sliding into obscurity.
Once famous and sought-after, glazed pottery, like many other art forms in Kashmir, is slowly dying as not many from the new generation in the valley are willing to ‘get their hands dirty’. Kumar’s family has been into pottery for several years now, but he took it upon himself to wade into a rather different territory last year to revive the glazed pottery, the art form lost to modernisation.
He manufactures various items, including decorative ones, and prepares the glazed colour himself. He uses waste glass, lead in used battery cells and powdered waste copper metal in his craft. Kumar said the demand for glazed pottery items was so huge that he was finding it difficult to keep up.
“The demand is there, the market is there, but I cannot alone meet it,” he said. Kumar said he wants to restore this art to how it was in the yesteryears. Kumar also wants the same from his people as Prime Minister Narendra Modi is appealing.“My goal is to have at least one pottery item in every house in the Kashmir valley”, he said.
