IN THE SHADOWS: UNKNOWN CRAFTSMEN OF BENGAL
By Payal Mohanka,
Niyogi Books, Rs 495

Payal Mohanka’s narrative moves effortlessly through rural Bengal and re-creates the unseen, and largely unheard, lives and passions of her subjects. She takes up six unusual crafts, unusual because they are so completely alien to the lives of the craftsmen. Although most of these crafts are more than five decades old very little is known of them. Each chapter of the book is devoted to a single craft, in one village. Mohanka makes people come alive with her descriptions and eye for detail while the accompanying pictures never fail to impress.

It is widely known that the light-makers for the Durga puja are from Chandernagore. What is less known is the manner in which this craft has grown into an industry. Sridhar Das set up shop 50 years ago when he was only 17. Today, his SD Electrical Company employs 200 workers who create magic on bamboo strips. His success has prompted 200 other companies to engage in similar crafts, employing around 12,000 artisans.

The manufacture of polo balls, by contrast, has seen better days in Howrah’s Deulpur. Blessed with bamboo roots of the perfect sort, this insignificant village featured on the world map as the only place producing hand-crafted polo balls. But despite a high demand, the craft never graduated to a large manufacturing venture. Thus, when decline set in with the waning of the sport and the introduction of plastic, the craftsmen, never affluent in the first place, suffered badly. This one is the story of how a few families are struggling to keep alive a singular craft in the most challenging of circumstances.

Boat manufacturing in Balagarh, 90 kilometres from Calcutta along the Hugli, is over 400 years old. 300 boat-makers, who can trace their lineage from the Mughal era, continue in their trade. The craft does not offer big money but Mohanka’s evocative account explains why the lure of the river, its sounds and moods, is hard to resist. Sheltered by bamboo groves, the villagers of Balagarh stand by their industry that is in desperate need of financial support and publicity.

The last group of artisans makes blue jeans in Chatta Kalikapur in South 24 Parganas. The pictures of the many shades of blue used for jeans are a feast for the eyes. A growing demand keeps 5000 families engaged, and both men and women pitch in. Unlike other trades, this one involves the younger generation with hopes of export and wealth. For the moment, it is a modest enterprise trapped in the rural world. With the exception of light-making for festivals, the others remain small-scale, domestic and rural crafts.

By keeping her account short, Mohanka succeeds in holding the reader’s attention. However, her selection of the six crafts is a little random for they cohere neither in terms of location nor in kind. That makes the entire account somewhat stac- cato. Yet, this is a seminal study of prevailing crafts and their interface with the modern market. Further study is required on the older crafts that these replaced, the reasons why such crafts are location-specific and why, despite the urban market and proximity to Calcutta, they never became large-scale industries. The social organization of these industries may well be worth exploring. On the threshold of exciting and unpredictable changes, Bengal could do well to acknowledge its ignored craftsmen.