CASE STUDY :
PETHAPUR WOODEN BLOCK MAKING
Intent of study:
The intent of this field visit was to understand the reasons behind why crafts are dying and conditions of the surviving craftspeople who live in the Pethapur. From the secondary research we identified the craftspeople of Pethapur who are still carrying the legacy of craftsmanship for past 300 years. To understand different aspects of languishing crafts and perspectives of craftsman about their crafts, we talked to last surviving craft families. This case study helped us to intervene for preservation of these languishing crafts.
Wooden Block Making Craft of Pethapur
Wooden craving using a manual drill tool.
Pethapur is a village, mainly known as a hub of woodblock makers, which is situated 7km away from Gandhinagar, Gujarat. With a Geographical Indication tag, Wooden block making of Pethapur has a long history of 300 years. Wooden block making is an intrinsic work where the designs on the Teak wood were carved by using mathematical calculations to attain perfection. These expert craftsmen can carve blocks with lines as thin as a millimeter and in such close proximity that even one wrong chisel stroke could leave the design spoiled and useless Although their business seems to have gotten better over the period and has a certain flow of income, still this craft is witnessing its decline. .
Mukesh Prajapati in his workshop.
Mahesh Bhai has two sons and a nephew who works under him.
Mukesh Prajapati is the wood block maker from the last of the wood block making families in Pethapur.
Out of many crafts families that used to live in Pethapur, only 3 families are remaining doing this specific type of woodblocks. The younger generation is not keen on following this tradition with the work being too laborious. So the artisans encourage their children to take education and are not adamant about their children working in the same field. With widespread education, the younger generation prefers new career options and end up breaking away from their traditional craft works. In some scenarios, there are individuals who are keen to learn this craft but between the artisans and the new learners, the bridge seems to be blurred.
Being last surviving craft families, these craftsmen believe that crafts can only survive by passing the knowledge and skills to younger generations or to whoever is interested to learn and take it forward. If there is hope, the artisans show enthusiasm and willingness to do what they can.
"अगर कोई सीखने को तैयार है, तो मैं सिखाने को तैयार हूं" - Mukesh Prajapati
Satish Prajapati is the sole worker in his family working on the craft. He learned the wood block making craft from his father. He mostly works on blocks for Ajrak prints and batik prints as well.
He started working on blocks and its design since he was 16 yrs of age. He works with brands and occasionally with institutes and their students as well where he gives training on wooden block making.
His children who are studying IT plan to work in the same field and seem to lack interest in this laborious time consuming craft.
The Geographical Indication tag that they recently received has increased the flow of customers for their business.
But still, there is lack of respect for the work they do. They see themselves as labor workers and not as craftsmen or artisans skilled with their crafts.
"यह मजदूरी का काम है"
"मेरे पास सरकारी कार्यालयों में जाने के लिए समय नहीं है, कागज के काम में समय लगता है।"
(Translation)
The artisans, the community, markets, and the government all play an important role in the upliftment of the craft. Although our secondary research suggested that the government funding was not reaching the artisans but from our primary research it became clear that many outside forces do exist and are prevalent. A lot of these tangible and intangible aspects are causing the craft to languish. Lack of knowledge about different government policies and schemes, the dependency of artisans on others for help, unhealthy competition and imbalanced distribution of the resources are a few issues to look at.
Although the government has taken steps towards the betterment of the craftsmen through different schemes but due to complications in paperwork and the hassle one has to go through to attain it, most of them are not well utilized and remain neglected by the artisans.
As we analyzed further, we found many hurdles in reviving a craft. In already existing internal conflicts in which the artisans might find it difficult to get over, a middleman gets involved and takes advantage of the artisan’s low self-esteem, lack of confidence, and struggle.
In conversation with Mukesh Prajapati
In conversation with Satish Prajapati
After interviewing the artisans, the insights we received clarified and verified our secondary research. The material sourcing, getting recognition for their efforts, urbanization that compels artisans to shift to different places and overpowering mass-produced cheaper products, craftsmen are forced to leave their profession as they are not getting enough value for their craft products. This is a common problem leading the craft to languish.
Vandita Hardik Bhatt, Phd student
Department of Clothing and Textiles, The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, Vadodara
Vandita is a phd student working on her final project where she is working with the artisans in Pethapur. She is initiating a craft project where the artisans will be teaching their craft to the prisoners in jail. So that when these individuals get out of jail they are able to learn a skill and work on something for themselves after they get released.
Stakeholder Mapping
A stakeholder mapping approach, defines a stakeholder as any group or individual who can affect or is affected by the particular system's established arrangement. To understand how Pethapur artisans are linked with different stakeholders in their ecosystem we took this approach.
Cognitive Mapping
To understand crucial interlinking when researching complex systems of Pethapur , we used tool of Cognitive mapping. Cognitive mapping is usually carried out through individual interviews in which we built a visual representation of the research topic.The resulting cognitive map represents a tangible representation of the participant’s thoughts and can serve as a conversation prompt for the facilitator.
Behavioral Mapping
Behavioral mapping is a direct-observation method that tracks people's behaviour in specific space and time. It shows the flow of thoughts and attitudes towards situations of different stakeholders. We have represented the attitude and thought process of stakeholders through visual representation.
Observations from Pethapur visit
In Pethapur, only three families are working on the craft of wood block making.
Craftsman from Pethapur have got this knowledge of block making from their ancestors.
In the interview, craftsmen said that their kids are not willing to pursue same craft as a profession.
Craftsmen spoke about other two crafts of Pethapur, which are totally languished as all the practitioners of the craft migrated from Pethapur.
Craftsmen are provided with different job opportunities by the government for urbanisation is the main reason for migration of people from Pethapur .
Though they are happy with their work, but somewhere they feel it's too laborious.
The craftsmen of Pethapur are ready to share their knowledge to others but nobody is willing to do such laborious work.
They do conduct workshops in collaboration with design institutes for knowledge sharing.
Even they conduct workshops for tourists.
They take orders from Ajarak craft clusters as they have old relations with theses craft cluster.
The craftsmen have all their designs and patterns documented in notebooks. They have created catalogue of their works to show their customers
Due to digital printing and screen printing, demand for wooden blocks are deceasing.
Even some people are duplicating such blocks and mass producing it, because of this the demand for wooden blocks is decreasing.
These craftsman are aware of current technologies but they prefer to make blocks with their traditional techniques.
Some of the craftsman are unaware of the government policies.
They generally stated that they are reluctant to do official formalities as they do not have enough time to spend on it.
Craftsmen are dependent on other people, hoping that they will give opportunities instead of creating opportunities for themselves.
They have many complaint about not having good infrastructure and workspace for them.
Also they have their interpersonal disputes within the craft community, because of which they are not growing.