Perspectives on Work, Home, and Identity From Artisans in Telangana (eBook)

Chandan Bose is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the Department of Liberal Arts, Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad, India. He researches and publishes on material practices and knowledge systems amongst artisanal communities in India.

Acknowledgements 6
Contents 9
List of Figures 12
Chapter 1 Introduction 16
The Seed 18
The Subject 22
Moving Through Ifs and Buts 32
The Danalakota Studio(s) 35
Cheriyal 35
Boduppal 42
‘What Is It Exactly That You Have Come to Do Here?’ 43
What Was I Supposed to Do? 50
Guruji and the Ashram 55
Craft Through Conversations 61
References 69
Chapter 2 Craft: Doing, Telling, Writing—Part 1 73
Materials and Technologies 75
Cloth and Preparation of the Canvas 75
Treating the Cloth 77
Colour 82
Preparing the Colour 84
Mixing Colours 91
Colours Within the Narrative 94
Brushes 96
References 100
Chapter 3 Craft: Doing, Telling, Writing—Part 2 103
Training the Body: How to Hold the Brush? How to Sit? 103
Painting, Writing, Story-Telling 109
The Outlines: Story-Tellers and Artists 109
Naqqal or the Under-Drawing 113
Making the Image: The Skin, the Garment, the Crown 127
The Red Background 127
Characters in Profile 129
Adornments 131
The Image Is Alive: Sairatta and Odupu 133
Finishing 138
Borders 138
Signing Off 138
Only a Version of It…. 142
References 146
Chapter 4 ‘Goddess’ and ‘King’, ‘Migration’ and ‘Boon’: Artists and Their Histories 149
Origin(s) 150
Outlining a History from Above 153
Artists as/and Historians 159
There Is a Funny Story Behind It… 176
References 179
Chapter 5 Craft-Through-Relatedness Relatedness-Through-Craft
The Danalakota Household 184
Continuity with Kin 188
Practice Within the Danalakota Household: Making and Relating 192
Studio-Within-Home-Within-Studio 192
Women’s Participation 195
Vanaja and Padma 197
Vanaja 198
Padma 202
Pauti Tatvam 209
Pauti Tatvam as Intellectual Transformation 210
Pauti Tatvam as Political Transformation 212
Conclusion 217
References 219
Chapter 6 Showing, Making and Selling for the Market 222
‘Discovery’ of the Craft 223
‘Traditional’ and ‘Professional’ 230
… I Am Helpless 241
…. The Time When I Experiment 245
Finding the ‘Right Customer’ 255
Ethnographer as ‘Right Customer’ 262
Conclusion 265
References 267
Chapter 7 Desire for the Nation State 270
Discrete Crafts: Cheriyal Paintings and Nirmal Paintings 272
Discrete Craftspersons: Master Craftsman Award 279
Discrete Places: Geographical Indication of Goods Act 285
Geographical Indication: A Context 286
Benefits of Legal Protection 289
This Is Our Right 290
Geographical Determination 292
It Doesn’t Matter Where We Live 292
We Are Afterall Artists from Telanganawe Are Afterall Artists from Telangana 294
Identifying Producers 296
Mostly Women 297
You Become a Naqqash 301
Conclusion 306
References 309
Chapter 8 Conclusion 313
References 318
Index 319