Tag Archives: blogger

Tied and dyed in Kutch (Gujarat)

Posted on by
Reply

BANDHANI IS A METHOD of tie-dyeing that is frequently used by textile workers in the Kutch (Kachchh) district of the Indian state of Gujarat. Knots are tied in the piece of material that is to be dyed, and then the knotted fabric is dipped into a vat of dye. The dye colours all of the material except the parts tied within the knots.

 

To go into a bit more detail,  let me try to explain the procedure.  Starting with the ‘raw’ cloth that is usually whitish in colour,  craftworkers gather small amounts of the material using their fingertips,  and tie these small bundles with thread. The bundles are tied according to a predetermined pattern drawn on the cloth.  The tied cloth is then dipped into a dye. When the dyeing is completed and dried, a new set of knots is tied on the already knotted cloth. The cloth is then dipped into a different  coloured dye. A new set of knots is sometimes then tied according to the kind of design that has been planned, and the cloth is then dipped into yet another colour dye.

 

This process of tying and dyeing can be repeated several times. After the several cycles of tying and dying are completed, the cloth is stretched, the knots undo, and a textile with a fascinatingly complex and beautiful pattern is revealed.

 

The bandhani process is complicated and very demanding. Consequently, the bandhani fabrics are quite highly priced.

 

On several visits to Mandvi in Kutch, we have stopped at an old shop where bandhani fabrics are made and sold. Its current owner, Mr Ashraf Katri, always remembers us when we stop at his shop. He told us that the business has been in existence for at least 150 years. That means the present generation of the family working in the establishment is the fourth or fifth since it first opened.

 

On a couple of occasions, Mr Katri has shown us some bandhani cloth that was made over 100 years ago. The patterning on this old cloth is far more intricate and finely detailed than any bandhani produced today. Mr Katri explained that it must have been made by someone with very tiny fingers, possibly a young child, because only someone with such small fingers would have been able to tie the minute knots needed to create such an exquisitely detailed pattern.

 

Although there are many organised tours offered to show tourists craftspeople at work, they are unnecessary if you are prepared to wander around the bazaar areas and small lanes in places like Mandvi and Bhuj.  By doing so you will spot numerous people creating traditional items in their shops, and most of them are happy to let you watch them at work.

An unusual novel by an author from Hungary

Posted on by
Reply

“WAR AND WAR” is a novel by the Hungarian writer Laszlo Krasznahorkai (born 1954). It was first published in 1999. It is one of the most unusual books I  have read. Not only is the subject matter often almost incomprehensible but also the style is peculiar.

The novel consists of many sections that vary in length from a few lines to several pages. Each section, apart from at the very end of the book, is one long sentence divided up into sub-sentences usually by commas, but sometimes by semi-colons.  At first, I found it difficult to read, but after a few pages, the unusual punctuation and the immensely long sentences ceased to bother me. The text flows along in a very readable way.

Essentially, the novel concerns a provincial librarian who has discovered a mysterious manuscript in the archives of a small town in Hungary. The contents of this document are often esoteric and obscure. Yet, the librarian feels that it is of such great importance that it should be made available to the world  and preserved for prosperity. To do this, the librarian leaves Hungary, and travels to New York City, where he buys a computer and transcribed the words of the document onto a website he has paid for.

So far so good. Things are not so simple as I have described. The novel describes the weird and often apparently meaningless contents of the documents and the effect that they have on the librarian and people he encounters in New York.

At times, I  found it almost impossible to follow the story. However, it has been written in such a clever way that one needs to continue reading because of the desire to know how the story will end, even if on the way there is difficult literary terrain to traverse.

If you decide to read this novel, you will need to be both patient and persistent. It is worth the effort.

Building boats by hand at a port in Kutch, (Gujarat, India)

Posted on by
Reply

THE SEAPORT MANDVI in the Kutch district of the Indian state of Gujarat was founded by Maharao Khengarji I, the ruler of the kingdom of Kutch, in 1580. It became an important, thriving centre of trade for several centuries. And for over 400 years it has been a place where dhows have been built. Today, these huge wooden ships can be seen in various stages of construction along the banks if the Rukmavati River on whose shore lies the town of Mandvi.

 

The dhows are constructed largely by hand as they have been done for over 400 years. They are built with timber, sal wood, imported from Malaysia. Today, the timber is landed at the port of Kandla in Kutch  a d brought by road to Mandvi.

 

According to an article in the The Hindu  newspaper dated April 2017:

“As maritime trade grew, traders—belonging to the seafaring Kharva community of both Hindus and Muslims—developed a new expertise: boat-making and repairing to add to their traditional navigational skills.”

 

Furthermore ,  the arti le related, the dhows:

“… built by hand by craftsmen who are barely literate and have no training in engineering, the ships come up expertly without so much as a sketch being referred to.”

I found this to be quite amazing.

 

The dhows take several year to be built. When they are completed,  they are usually  towed to the Persian Gulf where they are fitted with engines. Occasionally,  engines are fitted in Mandvi.

 

Having been fitted with engines in the Gulf, they return to Mandvi with a small crew. Back in Mandvi,  the dhows are loaded with cargo and a larger crew before sailing back to the Middle East.  About a year after they have been completed,  the dhows are sold in the Gulf or East Africa.

 

Whereas in the past, the dhows had a capacity of about 40 Tonnes, some of those being built today can carry up to 2000 Tonne.

 

Whenever we visit my wife’s cousins, who lives close to Mandvi, we take a walk along the road next to stretch of shore where the dhows are being made. The huge timber structures, upon which men are assembling the ship using hand held tools. The workmen appear to cling to the beams of timber as they worked on the ship. They do not wear safety harnesses.

 

The ‘embryonic’ dhows are surrounded by piles of uncut timber as well as the planks that have been cut prior to being attached to the ships being constructed.  Apart from the building  materials, the area contains numerous stray dogs and the occasional foraging cow.

 

Mandvi is about 250 miles northwest of Alang (in Saurashtra,  Gujarat),  which we have visited. It is in Alang that ships that have reached the end of their lives are broken up. I was interested to read in The Hindu article that in Mandvi:

“The boat-makers use old generators discarded from dismantled ships lying in Gujarat’s Alang ship-breaking yard. These are then modified by installing gear boxes in them and converted into boat engines.”

 

I have no idea for how much longer  the handmade dhows will continue to be built in Mandvi. So, if you are able, a visit to Mandvi to see this traditional boat building  is well worthwhile. It is handicraft on a huge scale.

The superfast express train from Ahmedabad to Bhuj

Posted on by
Reply

THE EXPRESS TRAIN, Indian Railways number 22903 (the Bhuj AC Superfast Express), runs between Bombay and Bhuj (in the Kutch district of Gujarat). On its way, it stops at Ahmedabad Junction Station at 630 am. To catch the train, we arrived at Ahmedabad Junction at about 530 am – I always prefer being early at the departure point of a train, aeroplane, bus,  etc.

 

It was dark as our autorickshaw drove speedily along the empty streets of central Ahmedabad. The sun only rises after 7 am in the west of India.

 

Ahmedabad Junction Station

The well-lit station platforms were covered with rows of people wrapped in blankets, sleeping on the floor. The sight of these sleepers reminded me of the images that Henry Moore made of people sleeping on the platforms in London’s deep Underground stations during WW2. Of course, the people sleeping in Ahmedabad’s Station were awaiting trains, not sheltering from bombs dropped by the German’s Luftwaffe.

 

These sleepers were not disturbed by the endless series of train announcements, each of them were made in three languages: Hindi, English,  and Gujarati. One of them that was repeated at regular intervals informed those who were listening that the Shalimar Superfast Express (it runs between Kolkata and Bombay) was running 12 hours and 50 minutes late. Fortunately, our train 22903, pulled into platform 3 almost exactly on time.

 

We had reserved places in the first class, air-conditioned carriage, and had a coupé (compartment) to ourselves. Although comfortable,  it was a rather spartan little cabin. I believe that first-class rail travel in India is aimed at those who wish to travel secluded from the ‘madding crowd’. Frankly, I prefer travelling in a carriage in which one can see and, sometimes,  interact with one’s fellow travellers and the endless stream of vendors, who move up and down the trains in India.

 

The six-hour journey from Ahmedabad to Bhuj is through terrain as flat as in the Netherlands,  but much dustier. All along the route we passed factories, both small and large, many with chimneys emitting smoke. For the first half of the journey,  we travelled past well-tended fields in which crops were growing. After crossing into Kutch, we passed numerous vast water features containg seawater that was being dried to produce salt. Every now and then, white, conical mounds of salt could be seen. The train runs for a long way parallel to a main highway in Kutch.  This connects Kutch and its important port Kandla with the rest of India. An endless stream of large trucks moves along this road.

 

At Gandidham in Kutch, the train’s engine was changed. We began moving in a different direction as we travelled along the stretch of rail track between Gandidham and Bhuj, where we disembarked.  Outside the station there was a sea of men offering to drive us in taxis, jeeps, and autorickshaws.

 

Eventually, our driver met us, and drove us through the hilly, almost arid hills between Bhuj and Kutch Mandvi, where we were going to stay with my wife’s cousins.

 

Even though train 22903 traverses terrain that few would regard as picturesque, I always enjoy long land (rather than air trips) journeys through  the countryside of India.

Woven by nature long before humans discovered weaving

Posted on by
Reply

HUMANS HAVE BEEN weaving textiles for many centuries, for at least 12000 years, if not longer.

Today, while walking in the extensive grounds of a country house in Kachchh (Kutch) in Gujarat, we noticed something interesting about the decaying fronds that had fallen from palm trees. The fronds have long tapering stems that support the photosynthesising leaves of the tree. The stems are widest where they attach to the tree and taper as the distance from the trunk increases. The tree discards mature fronds to make way for new ones.

Woven by nature: detail of a drying, fallen palm frond

What interested us was that the drying fronds that have fallen from the trees shed or lose part of their external cuticle to reveal lattices of fibres that resemble woven textile. These lattices of drying palm fibres look just like sheets of sacking cloth. Nature achieves this natural weaving without requiring looms.

Palm trees have been around since long before Homo sapiens. Therefore, this natural form of weaving antedates human weaving activities. I wonder whether when our ancestors saw what we noticed today that they conceived the idea of weaving.

A statue iņ Ahmedabad and a friend in Bangalore

Posted on by
Reply

I FIRST CAME ACROSS the name Indulal Yagnik when I was researching my book (“Indian Freedom Fighters in London:1905-1910”) about the less well-known Indian Freedom Fighter, Shyamji Krishnavarma (1857-1930). Indulal Yagnik (1892-1972), who was a writer and political activist, published a biography of Krishnavarma in 1950. Yagnik wrote many other things, amongst which were the first 30 chapters of Gandhi’s autobiography that were dictated to him by the Mahatma whilst they were both imprisoned in Yeravada jail.

 

Between 1915 and 1947,  Yagnik was active in the Indian struggle for freedom. Amongst his many activities,  he carried the first tricolour Indian flag from Germany to India. This flag had been designed by Madam Cama, a leading proponent of Indian independence, and had been displayed to the world (for the first time) at a meeting of socialists in Stuttgart (Germany). Yagnik was imprisoned by the British at least twice on account of his anti-British activities and publications.

 

After Independence, in 1956, Yagnik led the Mahagujarat Movement for a separate Gujarat state, which led to the separation of Gujarat from Maharahtra that occurred in 1960.

 

Close to the east end of the Nehru Bridge in Ahmedabad, the city in which Yagnik died, there is a small, well-maintained  park in  which there is a fine statue of Indulal Yagnik. It was created by the late Kantibai B Patel, who also made many other statues of well-known Gujarati people, including many of Mahatma Gandhi.  The statue of Yagnik depicts the man striding forward, his shirt pocket filled with a spectacles case and a pen.

 

I was keen to view the statue not only because I had read Yagnik’s biography of Krishnavarma  but also for another reason. His nephew,  who lives in Bangalore,  is a good friend, whom we got to know because his wife is related to members of my wife’s wider family.

 

Even if you do not have the sort of ‘connection’ we have with Indulal Yagnik’s nephew, the statue is worth seeing because it is a good piece of sculpture.

Shifting Identities: movement of crafts across national boundaries in the Indian subcontinent

Posted on by
Reply

THERE HAVE BEEN events that have caused people to flee from one part of the Indian subcontinent to another, traversing national boundaries.  The best known of these events was the Partition of India in 1947. Another event was the Bangladesh War of 1971, which resulted in Bangladesh (formerly East Pakistan) becoming independent, no longer united with West Pakistan.

 

Until I visited an exhibition,  “Shifting Identities”, at Arthshila, an art institution in Ahmedabad, I was unaware of India’s temporary occupation of a part of West Pakistan in 1971. In order to deflect some of West Pakistan’s army from their activities in East Pakistan, India staged an attack on Sindh, a province in West Pakistan.  As a result of this, India temporarily annexed a part of Sindh close to Kacchch (Kutch). This annexation was reversed by treaty in 1972. However, this resulted in a flow of refugees from Pakistan  into border areas of Gujarat and Rajasthan.  Likewise, during the liberation struggle in what was East Pakistan, refugees flowed from what was to become Bangladesh into Indian West Bengal.

 

Amongst the migrants who sought refuge in India, there were many who were skilled in traditional crafts,  notably textile manufacturing. 

 

The splendid exhibition at Arthshila contains beautiful examples of textiles made by refugees both from Sindh and the former East Pakistan.  The exhibition also includes documents and photograph albums that belonged to these people who felt it necessary to flee their former homes. The photographs in the albums were those sent to the migrants by family and friends they had left behind.

 

The show at Arthshila is both attractive and very moving. The exhibits are well labelled with much information. It showcases the skills that were the only riches that the refugees were able to carry with them when forces beyond their control made them feel it was necessary to leave the land that had been their home for innumerable generations.

A fort and a temple in the heart of Ahmedabad

Posted on by
Reply

THE TEEN DARWAZA (a magnificent three arched gateway built in 1415) was an entrance to the Bhadra Fort in Ahmedabad.  The Gateway faces the main part of the fort, but is separated from it by a large rectangular piazza lined with shops, eateries, an auditorium designed by BV Doshi, and market stalls.

 

The Bhadra Fort itself was constructed by the founder of Ahmedabad,  Ahmed Shah, in 1411. Thus, it is one of the oldest surviving edifices in the city. Only a few parts of this imposing structure are accessible to members of the public.

One substantial part  of the fort is occupied by a busy Hindu Temple,   Nagardevi Shri Bhadrakali Temple. This has been in existence for many years. However, since our last visit to Ahmedabad two years ago, the temple has spread into the piazza, occupying an area that used to be filled with traders’ stalls. The expansion consists of an area covered by a colourfully decorated canopy.

 

In addition, many of the street vendors who used crowded and enliven the piazza between the fort and the Teen Darwaza have been cleared out. According to one shopkeeper, with whom we spoke, it was the Temple authorities who ordered their removal.

 

The Bhadra Fort was built by followers of Islam. It has now been used to accommodate a Hindu temple.  Seeing this reminded me of the Charminar in Hyderabad.  This place, which is of great significance in the Islamic world, like the Bhadra Fort,  has been encroached by a Hindu temple. Although less solid in appearances than that in the Bhadra Fort, that attached to the Charminar is here to stay.

Where royalty was cremated in Kutch (Gujarat)

Posted on by
Reply

WHEN RAJPUT ROYALTY were cremated, their ashes were taken to be immersed in a holy river, usually the Ganges. However, at the spot where they were cremated, a memorial was erected, often in the form of a chhatri: a stone canopy supported by pillars. Often, the chhatris were quite elaborate and highly ornamented.

Next to one of the lakes in Bhuj, lies the city’s Chhatedi, a large area containing the chhatris (cenotaphs) of the Jadeja rulers of Kutch. Sadly, these cenotaphs suffered much damage during the earthquake of 2001. Thus, today the Chhatedi of Bhuj has become a picturesque set of ruins.

Although this is our fifth visit to Bhuj, it was only this time (December 2025) that we took a close look at the Chhatedi, now a site maintained by the Archaeological Survey of India. Apart from the remains of the grander chhatri, there are many smaller memorials. Often these bear a pair of carved footprints. I imagine that these smaller cenotaphs commemorate the cremation sites of lesser members of the Jadeja families: wives and children. One chhatri is particularly interesting because its roof is decorated with coloured tiling.

Surprisingly, the Chhatedi of Bhuj is one of the sights in the city that is less visited by tourists. It seems to be popular with young couples, who sit in shady spots passing the time of day. When we visited it one morning, there were few other tourists, but a party of local school children were being taken to see the place. They were in their pre-teens. What struck us was that many of these little girls were wearing lipstick, presumably to appear smart on their outing.

The Chhatedi provides great opportunities for photographers. While we were at the site, we saw a family of Indian tourists arrive at one of the larger cenotaphs. Their small daughter was dressed in her finest clothes. Her father got her to pose in front of a statue of a musician on the largest and most elaborate chhatri, and then clicked a photograph. Immediately after that, he told his family:
“Chalo” [‘let’s go’], and they exited the site. In my opinion, that was too rapid a visit. To enjoy exploring the Chhatedi, you should set aside about 30 to 45 minutes.

Although no longer recognised by the Government of India, the Jadeja royalty are held in high regard by many people in Kutch. During a conversation with a member of the family, he told us that the cremation of his grandfather, the last Maharao of Kutch, could not be carried out at the Chhatedi because the authorities would not allow it. In future, cremations of members of the former Royal family will probably no longer be performed in the traditional place: the Chhatedi of Bhuj.