India’s traditional crafts revitalised in student’s hands

Auroville’s second Endangered Craft Mela took place in February, and it was a lively event. For one week, the Youth Centre was transformed into a hive of activity, with 50 craftspeople sharing their skills and 250 excited children being inducted into the pleasure of making objects with their hands. 

Observers, such as this roving reporter, were free to wander around the many covered spaces to watch students working with artisans who had come from far and wide for the mela (festival). From the girls learning to crochet bags from banana fibre, to the teens painting fabrics in Kalamkari designs, the sense of exploration and creativity was high. The metalwork forge and the leatherwork tables were crowded with students who appeared to thrive on the sound of constant banging, as they brought a new creation to life. Some children flocked around the large pottery wheel, while others wove baskets, learnt to spin rope, or watched a demonstration of clay flute making.

Fabric art

Sudarkar and Chandra, the Kalamkari fabric artists from Andhra Pradesh, explain that it was their first time in Auroville. “It feels good to see a lot of people taking interest, especially children,” said Sudarkar. Chandra recounts that the art form was previously done on walls for ceremonies or was conserved as museum pieces, but now the designs are painted onto everyday sarees and dupattas, which gives them significance. The two artists emphasise the everyday possibilities of their art form, and how they encourage their students to stitch their painted fabric into their bags, “so it has a functional meaning.” 

Puppet making

The puppet-making table was also a magnet for children, with its colourful leather marionettes that invited playful interaction. Vinod, a puppet maker based in Auroville’s Pitchandikulam forest, explains that while puppets were traditionally used in Tamil Nadu to tell mythical stories, such as the Ramayana, they were also used during the freedom fighting era in order to spread anti-British messages to the population. “Tamil people are so smart they would include the information in the middle of the play, in front of the English people sitting and watching. They’d say: “[Mahatma] Gandhi is coming for Satyagraha [non-violent resistance], on such-and-such day, so come and take part.” And then they’d continue the story!The English thought it was part of the play! So we used this artform for activism and a way of making news travel.” Vinod explains that his present-day puppeteering team uses the story telling aspect to educate local children about environmental issues. 

Weaving coconut leaves

As I pass another stall, a young guest from Latvia is weaving a hat from coconut leaves. “I’m really enjoying it,” he says of the mela, and swears he will wear the hat back in Latvia in summer time. Nearby, Moeni and Anya, two Auroville children, are chipping away at their wood carvings. “It wasn’t too hard, as the wood is really soft,” says Moeni. “I’ve learnt a lot. I didn’t know how stuff worked before, like how to cast metal or glass cutting, but after coming here, you see how to do it, and it’s more real.”

The Bhuj group

In an impressive effort, a group of students from Bhuj in Gujarat travelled 36 hours by train in order to participate in the mela. Hailing from Karigashala, a school that teaches carpentry and masonry work to school drop-outs, they were enthusiastic about the many new crafts they got to try out.  Their chaperone and teacher Rajguru explains that the learning has not only been professional, but also an eye-opening experience for the group. “I really love how the people live here, how they interact with others, how they are open-minded with new people,” he says, and recounts how the group played football for the first time with Auroville youths. Shayesh chimes in: “This place is different from Bhuj,” he says, pointing out it’s the furthest he’s gone from home to date. “It’s like another planet! Many different things are happening. The lifestyle is different here.”

Learning useful skills

“To see their enthusiasm, and how fanatical they are about all the things they want to try, it’s fantastic,” says Jessamijn, one of the organisers. “It’s empowering for children to see that they can make whatever they want. They’re really into it.” “It’s been incredible,” chimes in Johnny, another organiser, who is happy with the increase in both students and artisans this year. They both point to the way in which contemporary life is focussed so much on TV and computer screens that children forget that they can use their hands to make things, and don’t learn useful skills such as fixing cycles or knowing how to repair a chair. “If kids can get the confidence that there’s nothing they can’t do with their hands, it will really help them to survive in this world. If they get some practical skills, then life is so much fuller here, and it’s really the renaissance.”  So is he cultivating renaissance children? “That’s the headline!”laughs Johnny, “They’ll come pouring in!”  

Marudam school inspiration

The spark for the craft mela came from Marudam School in Tiruvannamalai (about a two-hour drive from Auroville), which has an informal ‘sister school’ relationship with The Learning Centre (TLC) in Auroville. Marudam school is “a total inspiration” according to Johnny, growing its own rice and involving children in the garden. “They believe in the spirit of adventure overruling the spirit of academics.” Marudam School has been holding its own craft mela for the last eight years, and after participating in it, some of the TLC adults thought it would be a good idea to do a similar event in Auroville. Auroville’s first mela was held last year, with funds from Auroville’s 50th birthday. 

Johnny recounts the speech he gave at Marudam’s first mela, in which he laid out an argument that became the rationale for Auroville’s own mela. “If you go back 50 years, the most highly paid and most knowledgeable people in the community were craftspeople, such as cabinet carpenters, stonemasons and toolmakers. Only in the most recent period has intelligence been considered to be located solely in the head.  So, part of what we’re trying to do here is getting kids capable and confident of using their hands. And the other half is to encourage endangered crafts.” 

Reviving dying crafts

Johnny and Jessamijn define endangered crafts as those that will probably die out in another 20 years time, unless a significant effort is made to preserve them. Jessamijn highlights that most of the artisans at Auroville’s mela are not teaching their own children, so the skill “will probably disappear with them”. She points to two groups of women artisans who travelled long distances to participate – one group doing embroidery, and another crocheting bags from banana fibre – saying that the women had stopped doing these traditional crafts until NGOs stepped in. 

Bio-regional participation

Despite much reduced funding this year, the mela has grown. Twelve schools from Auroville and the bioregion participated, plus another three schools from further afield. While the organisers hoped to gain the participation of 150 children, more than 230 registered. “And then more children came!,” laughs Jessamijn, referring to the controlled chaos. Johnny points out that some Auroville schools were slow to participate because they felt that children should prioritise book learning over learning with hands, “but the children, given a chance, would sneak out to come here!” 

Co-organiser Pragnya explains that, while children are given the first two days to explore the different crafts, they are then encouraged to focus on two crafts for the remaining days, so they can develop sufficient skills to make an object at home by themselves. Some crafts require an investment of time, such as Kalamkari fabric painting (because of the staged dying process), metal casting and bamboo baskets, all of which were popular with the participants. Johnny points out how much more concentrated children can be in a setting such as the mela, and how this is illustrated by the number of children “fighting for the right” to get into the foundry to work with metal. He asserts that while the more pervasive concept of learning is that of one-hour segments, Maria Montessori’s philosophy is borne out at the mela: “In situations where children are confident about what they’re doing, they have an incredible concentration span,” says Johnny. “That should be encouraged.”

Highlights

So what were the highlights this year? For Johnny, it was finding additional craftspeople, such as a hand wood carver and a village blacksmith, who were willing to work with children. For Jessamijn, this year’s highlight was the introduction of an evening programme of concerts. “It brought people here in the evenings, and created a bit more noise about this mela,” she says. 

Jessamijn and co-organiser Alex emphasise the big leap that many craftspeople have to take in order to participate in the mela, particularly the female artisans from regions further afield, who had little experience of travelling by bus or staying in new places. “For some women, it’s the first time they left the village, so it’s scary to sleep in the ‘jungle’,” says Alex. Alex points out that the crafts people are required to play a new role at the mela – an experience  they shared in the evening feedback sessions with the organisers. “Usually they’re just looked at as a tradesperson,” says Alex, “so asking them to teach is a different kind of recognition. It’s nice to see that the connections keep growing.” 

Expanding the craft learning experience

Johnny expresses his enthusiasm at being able to offer a large-scale craft experience to so many children this year – a significant expansion from the small group classes he’s offered for 40 years in Fertile that aimed at empowering children to work with their hands. He attributes the expanded vision to the “incredible machine” of 10-15 organisers behind the event.  “It’s wonderful how that works,” he says. “For years I felt like I was working alone, and suddenly we’re all working together, it’s wonderful.”

Johnny’s long-term aim is to create a permanent crafts centre in Auroville, where people of all ages can learn from a community of craftspeople. The centre would also aim to stimulate collaboration between traditional craftspeople and Auroville designers, and to create a support system to ensure that endangered crafts are sustained for future generations.