Category Archives: Crafts and visual arts

“The adventure-filled origin myth about Bhil art revolves around the thirst for rain and water conservation – important for the people living in the dry western and central parts of India. Their close interaction with the natural world finds an abiding expression in their art, called pithora. Painting is like prayer for the Bhils, and each dot in the vibrant and colourful patterns represents an ancestor whom they invoke for the well-being of all forms of life.” – Background information on an illustrated storybook (A Bhil Story)
https://www.tulikabooks.com
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=19254

“[I]n a newly independent India […] handicrafts were a source of income and pride. Not only did such skills provide a livelihood locally, but they could become a unique global export.” – Feminist writer Gloria Steinem reviewing “A Passionate Life: Writings by and on Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay” by Ellen Carol Dubois and Vinay Lal Openmagazine (7 April 2017)
https://www.openthemagazine.com/article/books/kamaladevi-chattopadhyay-the-last-teacher
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=20948

“Today, the dual onslaught of commercialization and urbanization, means that weavers are being forced to churn out designs which cater to the demands of the market, rather than those which focus on their folk traditions. However, there is now a growing movement to preserve indigenous identity, and some serious attempts are being made to revive age-old customs, rites and stories by a conscious few within society.” – Ramona Sangma quoted by Avantika Bhuyan in Livemint (1 December 2017)
https://www.livemint.com/Leisure/FR23TDZqwz1hDYOlB5mRSN/Folklore-myths-and-handloom.html
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=23691

“During our biggest festival ‘Sorhai’ there were decoration on the walls with flower designs, bird and animal figures. I saw my mother and sister drawing red and blue lines on the walls by climbing on the bamboo ladder. [C]enturies-old traditional knowledge and art of building low-cost-no-cost mud-houses and the related skills and crafts, like wall paintings die out.” – Boro Baski in “Is ‘brick house’ the only sign of development?” (translated from an article in Bengali Anandabazar Patrika, 21 July 2019)
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=29829

“Tagore wanted his students to feel free despite being in the formal learning environment of a school, because he himself had dropped out of school when he found himself unable to think and felt claustrophobic within the four walls of a classroom. […] Thanks to Tagore’s legacy, Santiniketan has managed to preserve Bengal’s fast-disappearing rural crafts culture through folk markets, like the weekly Bondangaar Haat, and rural co-operatives, like Amar Kutir.” – Sanchari Pal, The Better India (31 August 2016)
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=21449

“In post-independence India, two factors had an enduring influence on tribal art, bringing it out of its purely ritualistic and iconographic confines and allowing it to conquer its own contemporary artistic space — the government’s decision to promote an active “handicrafts” policy and to give paper to tribal communities, and the creation of museums where this art could be showcased. Artists were no longer circumscribed to painting the walls of their homes.” – “Magical idiom” by Vaiju Naravane (The Hindu Magazine, 10 April 2010)
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=4731

“[I]n the strict sense it is a misnomer to use the expression ‘tribal art’ for such objects since tribals themselves view them as utilitarian items rather than works of art. Objects are divided into four primary classes: totems, deities, toys and ornaments and utensils. Toys are used as offerings for the deities and utensils too are used for rituals.” – Niranjan Mahawar (collector of tribal art) quoted by Sreekant Khandekar in
“Tribal art was dying out, commerce reduced good artists to artisans” (India Today, 22 August 2014)
https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/society-the-arts/story/19820731-tribal-art-was-dying-out-commerce-reduced-good-artists-to-artisans-772004-2013-10-15
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=7922