How GI tag has brought fresh focus to ‘Kutch Ajrakh’, helped find new platforms for promotion

Months later, however, in April the same year, the traditional Ajrakh artisans of Kutch found their own share of the news space, as the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trademarks, awarded a Geographical Identification (GI) tag for ‘Kutch Akrakh’, recognising the handblock printing technique as indigenous to the region, protecting the authenticity of the craft and safeguarding it against copy, misuse or misrepresentation. And now, a little over a year later, has come further validation, with Ajrakh craftsmen of Ajrakhpur and Dhamadka — two Gujarat villages home to most of the traditional ‘Kutch Ajrakh’ artisans — participating in the ongoing Rann Utsav, an annual 100-day cultural celebration of the Rann of Kutch desert, organised by Gujarat Tourism.

“This is not the first time we will have a stall at the Rann Utsav, but this would be the first time that all the stalls will be exclusively held by traditional artists of these two Kutch villages. In the past, artists of Dhamadka have participated in the Rann Utsav, but in collaboration with commercial manufacturers of Ajrakh. This time we will be exclusively showcasing Ajrakh products made the traditional way,” Suraiyaben Khatri, an Ajrakh artist and resident of Ajrakhpur, told The Federal.

While some practitioners of Ajrakh are also settled in the Khavda village of Kutch, Ajrakhpur and Dhamadka are where they are mostly concentrated. The Rann Utsav participation has given a new high to the 100-odd families of these two villages, set 45 kilometres apart.

“The making of Ajrakh is a long and slow process, with each piece of fabric taking almost three weeks to complete,” explained Suraiyaben, whose family has been practising the craft for generations. “We start with a white fabric and create motifs using natural dyes in various shades. Hand-carved wooden blocks are used for printing. The dye is created from various natural sources; indigos or blues are derived from the indigo plant, red colour is made from madder roots and black colour is created by mixing rusty iron with tamarind seed. Fabrics are repeatedly washed, about eight or nine times and re-dyed until the desired colour is achieved,” she added.

According to available accounts, mostly oral, the Ajrakh art form is more than 3,000 years old (some sources claim it dates back 5,000 years or more), with its origin traced back to the Indus Valley Civilization. Practicing artists of the craft, however, trace their ancestry to a community of Muslims from Sindh (in present day Pakistan), who are said to have settled in the Rann area about 400 years back. The Khatris of Dhamadka claim to be descendants of this community.

While some sources claim the term Ajrakj to have been derived from the Arabic word ‘azrakh’, meaning indigo, a plant once purportedly growing in abundance in the Kutch region, many artists The Federal spoke to, ascribed a much homelier meaning to the name, claiming it to be a derivative of the phrase ‘aaj rakh Hindi for let it be for today]”, a reference to the art’s time-consuming process.

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For people of Ajrakhpur and Dhamdka, Ajrakh is more than just block printing on fabric, it is a cultural symbol that intricately depicts the story of their lives. Traditionally, the motifs used on a woman’s dress acted as a code of identity. For instance, Khatri women wore versions of haidharo blockprint, comprising floral motifs in red and white, on a yellow background.

“The older women of the Khatri community usually wear darker colour combinations that signify wisdom. Unmarried and younger women wear lighter shades. When a married woman becomes a mother, it is considered that she has gained another step in life; moving to jimardi motifs that are also floral designs but on dark blue and red fabric, signifying that the woman is now a community elder. Widowed women wear motifs in dark reds and blues that usually depict the story of their lives,” explained Suraiyaben.

She added: “Other pastoral communities in the region, too, wear Ajrakh in their duppattas or lehengas. Rabari women wear it in black colour, with just the borders in intricate animal motifs, while their men use it as a piece of shoulder-cloth. The Muslim pastoral communities of Banni wear bright colours like green, yellow, or orange and also use old Ajrakh garments to make multi-coloured quilts. The Pardhi women use Ajrakh dupattas in blue or indigo.”

There are as many stories about the craft as there are artists.

“I remember my grandfather telling us that in 1634, the then king of Kutch had invited my forefathers from Sindh. They came to Kutch and chose Dhamadka to be their home, as a river used to flow through the village back then. But the river has since dried up and water crisis has been a challenge for Ajrakh artists,” said Rehanbhai, a tenth-generation Ajrakh artist. The craft is extremely water-intensive because of the multiple times the fabric is washed during the dyeing process.

The first major economic blow to the Ajrakh artists, however, came with the partition of India in 1947, impacting the craft’s traditional markets and supply chain spread across present-day Pakistan, claim experts.

“This forced the artists to look for markets within the redrawn Indian borders. However, as the handblock print form spread to other parts of the country, textile traders began to produce machine-made Ajrakh prints [which were cheaper and quicker to make],” Sameer Sood, director of the National Institute of Fashion Technology, Gandhinagar, and a board member of the Gujarat State Handloom and Handicrafts Development Corporation (GSHHDC), told The Federal. The rise of synthetic fabric also dealt a blow to traditional artisans.

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The rise of synthetic fabric also dealt a blow to traditional artisans.

It was then that the Gujarat government, at the behest of social reformer and freedom fighter Kamaldevi Chattopadhay, formed the GSHHDC in 1973, and subsequently its retail arm, Garvi Gurjari, said Sood. The two organisations played a crucial role in the revival of traditional Ajrakh block printing. The Federal has reached S Joshi, executive director, GSHHDC, for more details. The article will be updated if a response is received.

“The Ajrakh artists moved beyond traditional dupatta and bedsheets to use Ajrakh on saris. From being used by pastoral communities of Kutch, it became a fashion attire,” said Rana Vankar, a coordinator at Khamir, a Kutch-based not-for-profit organisation, formed in 2005 to promote local crafts.

Vankar added: “Designers from NID came to Kutch to study the art of Ajrakh block print. Ismail Khatri, considered the reviver of Ajrakh amongst traditional artists, collaborated with NID designers and textile experts, giving the craft visibility to the outside world,” added Vankar.

By the 1990s, traditional Ajrakh artists had made a mark for themselves and found a market for their products in India and abroad.

“From cotton, we began to include silk to make garments like sari, bedsheets, blouses and even shirts for men. We were getting a good price for original Ajrakh, while the cheaper machine-made version had its own market,” recalled Sufiyanbhai Khatri, a 42-year-old Ajrakh artisan

But then the 2001 Bhuj earthquake brought the Kutch Ajrakh artists to their knees.

“Homes were lost, huge losses incurred not just from fabrics, dye and printing blocks being buried in the rubble, but because of the high quantity of iron in the water after the quake, which would ruin colours and fabrics when we washed the textiles during the dyeing process. The iron in the water left black spots on the fabric, rendering it useless,” explained 57-year-old Jabbar Khatri.

Explaining the science behind the change in the iron content in the water, as experienced by the artists, Gujarat-based environmentalist Rohit Prajapati said, “The iron content in water can be affected by seismic activities. Studies across the world have shown that the content of iron ore in water bodies or groundwater increased before and after any seismic activity. This is caused by tectonic shifts during seismic activities and earthquakes.”

However, instead of giving in, the 2001 earthquake became a turning point for the artists of Ajrakh.

“Around 100 families of Khatri Muslims bought a patch of land 45 kilometers from Dhamadka [in search of purer water] and settled here. The new settlement was named after our craft – Ajrakhpur. Later, when Ajrakhpur began to face a water crisis, some of the families returned to Dhamadka. Scarcity of water remains one of our major challenges,” said Sufianbhai.

Many artisans had quit the craft at the time to look for alternate sources of income. “ A traditional Ajrakh dupatta measuring 2.5 meters can sell from Rs 3,000 to Rs 6,000-7,000, depending on the fabric. It costs around Rs 2,000 to Rs 2,500 to make it. But the process is labour-intensive and time-consuming, which is why profits are calculated on time invested and not in terms of materials use,” explained Sufiyan.

Jabbar recalls being so debt-ridden following the 2001 earthquake that he gave up the craft for a time, choosing to open a grocery store in Ajrakhpur.

“But one cannot stay away from something his family has done for generations for long. I returned to Dhamadka in 2008 with my family and resumed Ajrakh work. Most of us now keep an iron filtering device to get clean water for dyeing. It takes around 13 litres of water to produce a single metre of Ajrakh printed cloth. It has increased the cost of manufacturing,” Jabbar told the Federal.

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In the meantime, the artists have also adapted to changing times, looking for alternate means of selling their product.

“The most important contribution to Ajrakh art post 2001 was made by Abdul Khatri and his family, who carved a place for Ajrakh on various e-commerce platforms,” said Sood.

Abdul, son of Ismail Khatri, had shifted to Mumbai following the Bhuj earthquake. “I came back to Ajrakhpur in 2008 with owners of two e-commerce platforms, but neither of them wanted to take the risk of collaborating with local artisans of a remote village of Kutch. Then in 2008, Himanshu Khatri, an NID designer, came to Ajrakhpur and wanted to write about the craft on his new blog, Gatha. By the end of 2010, there were a few inquiries on the website about where one can get the Ajrakh fabric. That’s how it all began. Gatha showcased some saris on their website in 2012. By 2014, we had multiple e-commerce sites reaching to us and other artisans,” Abdul told The Federal.

The GI tag received last year has brought them further attention.

Abdul added: “Before the GI tag, anyone could have sold Ajrakh as ‘Kutch Ajrakh’. Now the GI tag of ‘Kutch Ajrakh’ has been given to artists of Ajrakhpur and Dhamadka only. Others can still sell and manufacture Ajrakh, as long as they are not calling it ‘Kutch Ajrakh’. We have received orders from Uzbekistan, USA, France and many other countries since we received the GI tag. We have been able to be a part of fashion shows of prominent designers like Anita Dongre.”

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From national and international fashion ramps to local celebrations of Kutch culture, Ajrakh artisans have been in focus since the receipt of the GI tag.

“Ajrakh garments and products have been sold at Rann Utsav since the event’s inception, as a part of promoting handicrafts from Kutch. However, unlike other years, we have included Ajrakh products from artists of Ajrakhpur and Dahadka only this time, as ‘Kutch Ajrakh’ now belongs to them,” said Rajender Kumar, secretary Gujarat tourism department, which organises the Rann Utsav.

Meanwhile, a generation of new artisans is writing a fresh page in the ever-evolving narrative of ‘Kutch Ajrakh’.

Wall tapestries made by 25-year-old Mubassirah Khatri of Dhamadka were featured in Contemporary Artisan Collections by Somaiya Kala Vidya at Lakme Fashion Week in March this year. “Ajrakh is an exquisite art form with a lot of possibilities, I want to explore it all, go beyond bed sheets, dupattas, skirts and saris. We are making bags, tapestries, jackets to appeal more to the younger generation,” she said.

Thousands of years since it was first crafted, Ajrakh continues to be rediscovered and redefined by each age and generation.