Capital city: New Dehli
Nationality: Indian
Population: 1,065,070,607 (2004)

Handicrafts can be defined simply as objects made by the skill of the hand and which carry a part of the creator as well as centuries of evolutionary tradition. It can range from the simple clay- lamps to the diamond -studded jewellery items. Handicrafts consists of objects created by skilled people for religious rituals and for personal use as well as luxurious ones created by specialized craftsmen for specific requirements. Handicrafts bring a great sense of grace to every home be it the poor hut or the opulent star hotel. There is a timeless quality in these craft objects, for they have evolved over centuries and continue to be made even today with the same sentiment.

Folk crafts

Religious crafts

Commercial crafts.

People for their personal use, or for a limited client base create folk crafts . Folk embroideries done by the village women folk of India are a good example. There are craftsmen who are specialized in creating textiles or jewellery which meet the criteria set up by a particular group of people, usually a particular caste or community. They have their own distinctive designs and styles.

Religious crafts are developed around religious centers and themes. These craft items are connected with religious institutions and relevant ceremonies. Various religious places in India are specialized in particular craft items. For example, Varanasi and Kanchipuram in Tamilnadu specialize in weaving clothes for religious ceremonies, particularly silk materials. Similarly Puri in Orissa, which is a big pilgrim center, is connected with crafts like patacharita- a painting on cloth and wood and stone carvings .

Specialized craftsmen of a particular group who are specialized in a particular skill and who can completely master the craft do commercial crafts . They even have sub groups, which work for particular groups, and their tools and techniques may vary. The Weavers, the Dyers, the Printers, the Goldsmiths and the Carpenters are some of the commercial craftsmen.

Crafts were an important commodity for world trade and they were a part of the economy in India, since ancient times. Trade links between India and the rest of the world existed from ancient periods. India being the home of cotton had textile trade with the Far East and the Western world. Indian textiles and their permanent dyes were accepted throughout the world. Roman trade documents mention that silk was exported from India to Europe from the 6th century A.D. The Arab sailors brought silver and gold from their countries and took back shiploads of handicraft objects from India to the Far- East. In the North, caravans carried woven textiles along the Silk route and went right unto Moscow by the Fur- route.

Under the good patronage of the early Mughals, India's handicrafts reached its pinnacle of perfection. Crafts like carpets, textiles and jewellery were developed into fine arts. The famed Mughal Emperors namely Akbar, Shah Jahan and Jehangir invited skilled craftsmen from all over the world and blend their native ideas with our own techniques and skills. Brocading and velvet manufacturing developed rapidly in India than in their native countries. But with the break- up of the Mughal Empire and the growing enmity between the smaller Princely states, local crafts lost their centuries- old local patronage. With the East India Company coming to India, the volume of trade reduced though they managed to strive.

England flooded the Indian market with its cheap machine-made items, which ousted the homemade crafts. A number of craftsmen were turned destitutes overnight. Those who continued with their craft had to compete with the machine-made goods, that quality was made to suffer. Gandhiji's Swadeshi movement focused on the plight of the Indian craftsmen and on the need for maintaining the ancient craft traditions.

After Independence, The Handicrafts Board was set up to look into the plight of the dying crafts. Slowly demand grew for these items both at home and also abroad. Recent export figures show that India is lagging behind in many handicraft commodities except in the case of gems and jewelry items.

Despite the growth of handicrafts industry in India, the average earnings of the craftsmen when compared to other fields is very low. Hence the younger generation is moving onto other fields with only the elder craftsmen left over. The average age of many master craftsmen is around 50 years.

Improving educational system and lifestyles of the middle class people contribute a lot for the eroding of the native crafts in India. Cheap plastic items have now flooded the market and people have left out the age-old clay and metal containers. They do not understand the harmfulness of plastic items, which may react with their food . Also they have moved onto wearing synthetic clothes avoiding good, comfortable and cheap cotton woven items, just for their patterns and cost.

History of Painting in India

Islam condemned painting as sacrilege and the Quran forbids the representation of animal nature in art. So, the early Muslim rulers did not encourage any school of painting. But the enthusiasm of Akbar, the Great, really laid the foundation for the Mughal school of painting in India. There was an intermingling of Persian and Hindu strains of paintings. Mughal art in its beginning can be studied from the paintings of the Hamza- Namah.

The reign of Jehangir (1605-1627) is generally regarded as the Golden age of the Mughal paintings. Artists of both Persian and Indian origin combined to evolve a synthesis of Persian, Hindu and Western traditions, during his reign. But the King mainly encouraged Portraits of himself and his subjects. The artists of Jehangir's court developed the idea of mounting pictures with margin and extensive decorations. After Aurangazeb , the artists were totally neglected.

Meanwhile the Rajput artists based in Rajasthan had a preference for Mughal techniques and they slowly changed it into a truly Rajput one. The most popular subjects were the lovers of Krishna and Radha revealed amorously but yet tempered with refinement.

During the British period, many artists unable to find an employment worked in the Britishers houses and were told to develop paintings according to the Western taste. Art curriculums in Colleges were tuned to the western style and the Shantiniketan School founded by Rabindranath Tagore revolted against such imposed trainings.

After Independence there was another peak in the graph of Indian Art. The Progressive Artists' Club in Bombay was formed comprising M.F.Hussain F.N Souza, K.H Ara, S.K Bakre and H. A Hade. Baroda became a new center of art and the artists created pieces that would excite the visual, imaginative and intellectual powers of an individual.

In the last decade , geography and history have shed their boundaries and Indian artists have come in contact with styles and techniques form all the corners of the world. In a tangled scene of contemporary culture ,the Indian artists are struggling for self-expression. In recent years a new generation of young artists have sprouted up and they are making their presence felt nation-wide. They are mingling western ideas and Indian in their masterpieces. Altogether the Indian painting scene is very dynamic and eclectic.

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