Dastkari Haat crafts bazaar returns to Chennai after a decade

Politician and activist Jaya Jaitly is not one to mince words. The founder of Dastkari Haat Samiti says that too much unaccounted work goes into handcrafting sarees, jewellery, toys and the likes. “ So it is a shame that people haggle over a pot made by an Indian artisan; while paintings are sold for millions. People say pots are just mud. Paintings are just canvas cloth and colour then,” she says.

“Chennai, however, has the perfect customers. They never bargain. They are discerning and they are respectful to the craftspersons. It is why we are delighted to be back in Chennai after 10 years,” she adds.

Between January 30 and February 5, the campus at National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) Chennai will soon transform into a marketplace of mirage and miracles. After a decade, the famed Dastkari Haat Crafts Bazaar replete with rows of handwoven khadi, meticulously designed rugs, and several ikat, Chanderi and maheshwari sarees, will now be available to people in the city for perusal and purchase.

Dastkari Haat Samiti began outside a Hanuman temple in Delhi. Usually, streets adjoining the temple tend to have stalls that sell wares, particularly bangles, flowers and sweets. “Vendors would only come for a day from their villages to the temple. On the rest of the days, the stalls would be empty. I finally managed to get the municipal committee to allot the stalls to us for two days and realised that it would not be viable for potters, for instance, to lug their wares. After checking out village markets in North and East India, we came back and set up Dilli Haat in 1986. It has been 40 years of running the organisation,” she says.

At this edition in Chennai, one can anticipate ajrakh block prints, ikat weaving, Chanderi, maheshwari, jamdani, Benarasi weaves, bandhani, Patola and Gamchha weaving. There will also be ornate carpets from Uttar Pradesh and Kashmir. Besides this, there would also be chikankari, kantha, soof embroidery, crewel embroidery from Kashmir and mud-mirror work from Gujarat.

For those interested in stunning framed Indian paintings, Dastkari will have handpainted pattachitra, pichhwai (including gold-leaf embossed pichhwais from Rajasthan), gond, kalighat, godna, madhubani, phad paintings, and shajhi art.

At the bazaar, one can also be entertained as Chhau dance performers from West Bengal will take the stage. They also plan to serve traditional Rajasthani cuisine at the event.

Jaya says that in a world that is filled with such interesting artistry, the use, rather the misuse of Artificial Intelligence (AI) feels like a point of concern for her. “We are at a point where craft in India is still getting GI-tagged. Sophisticated technology like AI not just promotes de-skilling but also proves that meticulously made art can be changed, replicated (although incorrectly) and sold too. India must take a very advanced and strict step about regulating AI coming into the creative industries, into the creative arts, into the creative crafts. We must not allow other peoples’ entire livelihoods to be wiped out in the click of a button,” she says.

She looks forward to seeing NIFT’s students engage with the artisans during the event, she says.

Dastkari Haat Crafts Bazaar is between January 30 and February 5 between 11.30am and 7.30pm at NIFT, Tharamani campus. For details: @dastkarihaatsamiti on Instagram.