Navigating ‘modernization’ in craft: Artisan-designers in Gujarat, India

Abstract

Discourses on traditional textile and craft practices, focusing on participatory and emancipatory approaches, disregard epistemologies and ontologies other than that of the researcher and invest in reformation, through new technology and modernization, of traditional practices. While these mainstream narratives have ignored the presence of non-western realities, this article takes the example of Somaiya Kala Vidya, a design institute based in Kutch, India, that provides traditional textile artisans with design education for capability-building, enabling sustenance in the current fashion paradigm: a product of systematic erasure of local systems by the West. Artisans exposed to design education display unique creative identities alongside their collective cultural identities. They challenge fashion hegemonies by navigating the tensions between ‘perceived’ local and global, modernity and tradition. The study brings forth the complexity of modernization processes; a by-product of design education, resulting in the deconstruction and reconstruction of traditional knowledge in the community. This examination of creative identities, aspirations and traditional knowledge of artisans demonstrates the need of decolonizing the fashion industry’s approach to the craft ecosystem, contributing to an essential discussion of pluralistic realities.