Ilkal
In Karnataka’s Ilkal town people have been weaving the exotic red and blue-hued Ilkal sarees for many generations. Earlier, the fab-ric was dipped 14 times in the indi-go vat to get that particular shade of blue. Now the artisans here use German Indigo. Why? Because it makes business sense. While the price of indigo plant is Rs 850 per kg, with an additional processing cost of Rs 600, the synthetic colour costs Rs 650 per kg. Also, German Indigo matures in two days while natural indigo takes 10.

Kalamkari: thirsting for attention

So market pressures have forced the weavers to make a choice. And they have voted for the synthetics.

Aal-dyeing
The Panikka community lives in the border of Madhya Pradesh and Orissa. For over hundred years, the Panikka people have produced aal-dyed sarees, gamchas and shawls for the tribals in Bastar and Jagdalpur. It’s an intricate process, using the bark and secondary roots of the aal tree, and takes over 25 days to complete. It also pro-vides employment for the local forest dwellers, who collect the raw material and sell it to the dalit traders—who supply to the arti-sans.

Now this entire home-spun production network is on the verge of a collapse. Because barely any forest cover remains in this region, and whatever little is left has been made out of bounds for the locals by authorities.

Kalamkari
Kalamkari–an exclusive technique of dyeing that is practised in the temple town of Kalahasti in Andhra Pradesh — is hounded by yet another menace. Lack of water. Making of Kalamkari is an elaborate process that has 23 dif-ferent steps! And at every alter-nate stage the fabric has to be washed in running water. Still water would cause the lines to smudge. Earlier the artisans used to work in the banks of the local river – Swarnamukhi. Then the flow stopped — after two dams were built upstream.

Now they have to travel 20 miles to reach the outflow from a lake! And the quality of water here is very poor.

Sanganeri
The Chippa community of Sanganer and Kaladera villages in Rajasthan are experts in block printing. 75-year-old Tekeram remembers his visit to Kabul with his father to sell textiles. Their wares were in great demand. They still are. But the dyers here face a unique problem.

Traditionally, the Chippas used indigo and manjistha (a local herb) for the blue and red hues — trademark of sanganeri prints. They also used turmeric roots and pomegranate peels to make green and yellow. Then, about 20 years ago German indigo and alizarin were introduced to them.

And they switched to synthet-ics. But the chemicals took their toll. The local river showed high levels of pollution — cattle died in hordes. So the government ordered the artisans to switch again — this time back to natural dyes!

But the new generation of Chippas have not learnt the art of making natural dyes. Also, they find the process too expensive and time consuming.

Bandhini
Bandhani is perhaps the oldest technique of creating patterns. Its origin can be traced back to Mohenjo-Daro. It has been prac-ticed in India for almost 5000 years. Today, in Gujarat’s Kutch and Saurashtra it provides employment to more than 10,000 people. It is also in great demand in the West, and sustains a brisk export market. But now the

Bandhni craftsmen, too, are facing a major identity crisis.

Like the others, they had moved away from madder and other plants to synthetic dyes because it was a cheaper option.

But now they are being forced by consumers abroad to switch back to natural dyes. The markets in these countries are far more sensi-tive to the harmful effects of com-mercial dyes. Many have already banned import of bandhani print-ed fabrics. So to keep the trade relations alive, artisans have to hark back to the traditional method of making colour. But, ironically, they don’t know how! Like in the case of the Chippas, the art was not taught to the present generation because it did not make business sense. And now there is no one left to teach them!