Action Research in the Artisan Sector

Collaboration: UWCN (Wales); NISTADS (Delhi, India)

The Dhokra Artisans of Bankura, West Bengal: A Case Study and Knowledge Archive of Technological Change in Progress

This collaborative study between UWCN and NISTADS is concerned with a process of technological change in the traditional cire perdue (dhokra) brass-making craft as it is practised by one group of families in Bikna Village, near Bankura in West Bengal, India. This change was initiated and coordinated by the Indian CSIR (Council for Scientific and Industrial Research) agency NISTADS (National Institute for Science, Technology and Development Studies). It involved replacing an ancient traditional but inefficient metal-foundry technique with another which is almost as ancient but more efficient. The impact of this apparently simple change on the Dhokra practice has been both profound and rapid.

The case study work carried out by the EU-India Network project suggests that that multimedia technologies make it possible to develop adequate representations of skilled performance mediated by the craftsman him- or herself. Particularly valuable in this respect is the capacity of multimedia systems to use a full range of modalities of description, including video, sound, still image, conventional text and technical diagrams. This technology makes it possible to present very complex information in a variety of formats and contexts. The study is therefore part of a wider exploration of the potential capability of multimedia as a tool for ethnographic research.

In the long term, however, the artisans face serious decisions about the craft. On one hand, they may choose to follow the route to industrialisation, illustrated here by the case of Netai Karmakar. On the other hand, and this is what they appear to prefer, they can develop towards a consumer market based on high quality high aesthetic value artefacts. This could possibly be found supplying high craft content artefacts to a growing tourist and indigenous middle class market.

The continuation and development of the Dhokra industry depends on the artisans finding a stable market niche for themselves and their products. Whatever it proves to be, this market needs to be developed and supply chains established. It is easy to demonise the middle-men, but if the economic conditions of the Karmakars become less marginal and their terms of trade can be improved, then there is no reason at all why existing middle-men may not have a major role to play in this market development.

In the end, this is not simply a matter of marginal economics. The Dhokra artisans of Bikna represent an ancient craft which has been in continuous production for thousands of years. The Bikna artisans are not ‘primitive’: they are twenty first century people who happen to be trapped in a cycle of poverty. Neither are they exhibit in a cultural theme park. They must be free to determine their own future. At the same time, they embody countless generations of knowledge, and this knowledge is part of the cultural heritage not only of India but also of mankind. Whatever direction the craft takes in the future, it would be tragic if all this knowledge and the accumulated wisdom of millennia were to be lost.