For Earth Consciousness and Sustainable Living BANGALORE VOLUME 4, ISSUE - 1 JANUARY - MARCH 2013 Rs. 80/- Crafting our Future The Joy of Making Craft and Sustainability The Kitchen is a Temple Where the Hand has Ears Satish Kumar Vandana Shiva AmadouJanuary - MarchHampate 2013 Eternal Ba Bhoomi 1 Today, an argument, an attitude, faces crafts and artisans in India. This is the argument of economics, of sustainability, of marketability, which is the argument of financial survival... (But) those who believe that crafts are only about beauty and aesthetics are in error, just as those who believe in the other argument, the economic argument, and think that paying for itself is the sole justification, are wrong... The hard argument, the real argument, which overrides all others, is not exclusively about sentiment or reason – but about common sense. And that common sense tells that whatever we do in terms of economic planning and development in India, there will always be several hundred million people in this country, the figure being unverified, who cannot but live with and through the work of their hands. Now it is a great compensation of nature that these hundreds and millions of people have talent in their hand, which the assembly-liners and the free-marketers do not quite concede. And that talent is the unexplored reservoir which needs to be used for their good which means the greater good of the great number of the people of India. - Gopalkrishna Gandhi Quoted in the Craft Economics and Impact Study Report published by the Crafts Council of India, Chennai, April 2011. 2 Eternal Bhoomi January - March 2013 Crafting our FUTURE Tree of Life by Ramesh Tepya, Gond Artist Gond of Life by Ramesh Tepya, Tree There is an old story about a girl and her red shoes which It’s not a pleasant story – and neither is the story of illustrates well our modern civilisation’s struggles with a our modern civilization which continues to celebrate the machine-dominated world. production of huge amounts of machine made things at every level and in every sphere. Over the last two centuries A poor, young orphaned girl who lived with her oft of industrialization especially, our addiction to stuff has disgruntled aunt, once made herself a pair of red shoes become siucidal. Produced alongside are huge amounts with pieces of cloth and thread and leather and her own of waste of every kind – plastics, paper, household food enthusiastic hands. It wasn’t the prettiest pair but the shoes waste and hazardous and poisonous waste which often had their charm - she loved them and she danced with them end up polluting our waters and degrading our lands. village in a dazzling chariot and asked her if she would come We need to go back to valuing our crafts if we wish to alongand they to liveserved in her her bigwell. house. One fine She day, went a ladywith arrived the lady at andher live sustainably on earth. As much as oil and capitalism soon she was scrubbed and cleaned and taken to a shop to with unending growth are part of the problem, craft and buy beautiful clothes and the most shiny, fancy pair of red organic agriculture can be part of the solution. The usual shoes in the world. It was a whole new life - oh, how she loved question now would be – are we to go back to the jungles? to wear those shoes and dance to her heart’s content! We cannot stop development, can we? The answer is not ‘no development’, but development that does not trash To get out of the watchful and restrictive eyes of her new the planet or exploit the 80% of “less developed” people foster mother she walked to the nearby woods, one day, and or 100% of future generations. ran and skipped and danced away. Late in the evening, she was tired and afraid in the dark forest; she tried to remove There are actually millions of people around the world her smart red shoes to rest – but could not. She just lay down who are showing the way by taking action at a personal, exhausted and slept. The next day, as soon as she woke up, community, activist and at Governmental levels. and the her red shoes seemed to make her dance by themselves… Bhoomi Magazine is committed to sharing their stories. and she danced on and on, but wanted to stop and eat and Going organic and engaging in a craft or buying rest. She came to a village and danced to a cobblers shop handloom, handicrafts and other local hand made and asked him to remove her shoes. The kind man gave her products, are a few of the many ways in which we can live some food but could not remove her shoes – they seemed to more responsibly on our planet – and at the same time have stuck to her feet. Afraid to go back home, she wandered live with beauty and support the craftspeople. It is one around – or rather kept dancing around trying every now and way in which we can celebrate the hand made shoes that then to remove her shoes. make us dance happily and stop the frenzied ‘dance’ of a Absolutely tired and helpless, she went back to the machine dominated life. It can make life more beautiful cobbler - he tried hard with all his tools, but could not wrest and deeply satisfying. getting her feet cut off. Seetha Ananthasivan them off her feet; she finally managed to stop dancing – by [email protected] January - March 2013 Eternal Bhoomi 3 Issue No. 13 January - March 2013 EternalBhoomi Eternal Bhoomi is committed to bringing you holistic perspectives from renowned writers and thinkers as well as practical ideas and examples of earth conscious living from people around the world Crafting our future: Urban culture generally views handicrafts and organic food with lenses of sentimentality and aesthetics. We need to understand handloom and other hand made products for their potential in being part of the solution for sustainable living Vantage Point and for being the sector that provides the second largest employment today, next only to agriculture. Vantage Point Positive Steps Multi-view 6 The Joy of Making 8 By Hand: The Looms that 18 A Hundred Hands Anna Konig can Lead India Mala and Sonia Dhawan Hands can be used product- Uzzaramma ively to shape our material Low energy, ecological way of 20 Kathputlis world effectively. making a vast array of textiles Priyanka Varma 10 Where the Hand has Ears 34 The Craft Economics and Craft - A powerful embodi- Impact Study ment of the mystical life force. Extracts from Report by Crafts Expressions Amadou Hampate Ba Council of India 48 Recycled Enchantment Anton (Tony) Rager 13 Musings on Craft On the emphasis on non- permanence reflected in tribal culture. Ramya Ranganathan 16 Kamaladevi: Tireless Promoter of the Crafts About Kamaladevi Chatopad- hyay who pioneered the revival of Indian handicrafts. Jasleen Dhamija 22 Craft and Sustainability On why we need to look at crafts with new eyes - as im- portant for ecological wisdom Seetha Ananthasivan 4 Eternal Bhoomi January - March 2013 Young Pioneers 23 to 33 New Year Special: 36 Indeed, Small is Beautiful Lavanya Keshavamurthy In celebration of India's Craft Culture 38 Thaalavattam Natasha Rego Science 40 In the Cosmic Swimme Eric Maddern Perspectives , 42 India s Incredible Bazaars Dr. Vandana Shiva 46 The Kitchen is a Temple Satish Kumar The Bhoomi Team wishes you Books Wonderful New Year 14 The Craftsman to celebrate and care Fiona Maccarthy for our Home - Planet Earth 44 Churning the Earth Ashish Kothari and Aseem Srivastava We look forward to your... feedback, suggestions, articles, poems or pictures. Food Email : [email protected] or send by post to: The Editors, Bhoomi Network, 47 Millet Recipes No 70, Chikkanayakanahalli Road, From Nutritious Little Millet by the ICAR, N. Delhi Off Doddakannahalli, Carmelaram Post Sarjapura Road, Bangalore - 560 035 50 Climate Change Corrigendum: In our October - December Issue, 2012, we had printed Membership Page the name of one of the co-authors as Shivakumar instead of 51 Srinivas Krishnaswamy which is the correct name. We sincerely regret our error. 53 Announcements Eternal Bhoomi is a magazine published by Bhoomi Network, a unit of K.N.A.Foundation for Education, a Public Charitable Trust registered in 1995. 54 Bhoomi College Masks on cover photograph by the students of Prakriya Green Wisdom School This Magazine is printed using soy based inks on wood-free paper except for the cover and special pages. January - March 2013 Eternal Bhoomi 5 Vantage Point Re-engaging with the raw materials from which The Joy of our lives are shaped is a potent reminder of the difference between what is real and what is only MAKING illusory, says Anna Konig Quilts have had a good year. The popularity of the recent effectively downgraded as mere devices for holding pens or V&A Museum exhibition showed that there is enormous tapping keyboards. By implication, therefore, craft becomes a appetite for the product and process of craft, and deservedly kind of indicator of a lack of literacy: at worst, it is seen as being so. Visitors could not have failed to be moved by the beauty for those who never really got to grips with the written word. of the artefacts and the skill of the makers, many of whom But it is this popular misrepresentation of making by hand that remain poignantly anonymous, their names lost in time. To I wish to challenge. appreciate the work of a craftsperson, one needs to step back Craft is inevitably a sensory experience.