October 1, 2015
would be an important day for India’s karigars.
A unique art gallery of craft maps that provides locations of craft production
and marketing areas all over India, has been inaugurated by Shri Santosh Kumar Gangwar, Hon’ble Minister of State for Textiles (Independent Charge), at the
Race Course Road Metro station in New Delhi.
The forty-eight large-sized artistic
crafts maps of India together cover every state; there is one map
for India and another for NCR, Delhi. They were conceptualized and
created by Dastkari Haat Samiti, a national
association of Indian crafts people, during the period 1994 - 2010.
The maps highlight crafts and
textiles of respective states, depicting crafts persons and presenting relevant
information against the backdrop of respective art forms. The traditional art
forms have been cast in a new light, drawing attention to the dynamic nature of
traditional art. It is the first time that these art forms have been applied to
maps; for instance, terracotta artist Kaushalya Verma, Manju Jhangra
and Geeta Jhangra from Haryana have used their traditional skill to create a
map made of terracotta stars. Kashmiri papier mache artist Hakim Ghulam
Mohammad, who always used to paint on papier mache or wooden items, has painted
a shawl map of Srinagar on paper for the first time.
Exporters and NGOs have been using the
craft maps to locate crafts for sourcing, marketing and design development. The
maps have helped in promoting many an unknown area and craft. The craft maps
have reached many parts of the world and are a unique cartographic documentation
of crafts, textiles and traditional arts.
They were displayed by the Government
of India at the Frankfurt Book Fair when India was the guest country, and by Government
of Delhi at London as part of a major exhibition at Trafalgar Square. The first
exhibition was inaugurated by late President Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam in 2005 at
Dilli Haat.
Dastkari Haat Samiti gifted the
entire set of exhibits to the Crafts Museum in 2009. The collection has been put
together for display at Race Course Metro Station, due to the joint endeavours
of Office of Development Commissioner (Handicrafts), Crafts Museum, Ministry of
Textiles, Government of India and Delhi Metro Rail Corporation.
Dr. Sanjay
Kumar Panda, Secretary, Textiles; Shri Alok Kumar, Development Commissioner (Handicrafts),
Ms. Jaya Jaitley, founder of Dastkari Haat Samiti, and officials of Delhi Metro
Rail Corporation were among others present on the occasion.
DJM