a future vision for natural dyeing uzramma

8/10/2019 A Future Vision for Natural Dyeing Uzramma

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future vision for natural dyeing in

India

[summary]

The paper examines past and present practices of natural dyeing

in India, as reference points for future interventions by catalyst

agencies, State, international, and local.

With the invention of chemical colours in urope in the !"th

century, a sustained process that too# $% years and a substantial

investment, the practice of natural dyeing in India, and the

cultivation of dye&bearing plants, once significant parts of India's

economic activity, died out. The history of indigo, the most

important of Indian natural dyes, illustrates ho( a traditional

dyeing practice thriving over millennia, (as destroyed by

commercial interests through their use of science for profit.

)atural dyeing (as related not only to cultivated plants such as

indigo and aal[*orinda Tinctoria], but (as intricately lin#ed

(ith forest plants and the lives and occupations of forest&based

communities, such as the +hutias. The crucial point is that the

continued survival and (ell&being of the forest as a resource for

natural dyeing is dependent on the close integration of local user

communities (ith the forest.

Indigo dyeing (as practiced as part of the production process of

the Il#al saree in arnata#a, (orn by literally hundreds of

thousands of (omen in anata#a and *aharashtra. The dyeing,

(eaving and mar#eting of the Il#al saree, an activity practiced

on a huge scale, involving thousands of producers and crores of

rupees has never been given its due recognition. The only

economic occupation of a forest based community in -rissa is to

dye (ith one plant,aal[*orinda Tinctoria].


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The artisanal practices of printing using natural dyes in u/arat,

0a/asthan, and Andhra continue to produce a variety of beautiful

and highly desirable fabrics (ith no environmental pollution.

The paper examines the role of the State, past and present, andother governmental and non&governmental agencies, in their

relation to natural dyeing practices.Though )-s have played an

important role in the revival of natural dyeing practices, there

are limitations to (hat they can accomplish1 ultimately natural

dyeing practices must establish their o(n contemporary mar#et

lin#ages.

)atural dyeing is a double&edged s(ord. 2in#ed to its local users

it can be a po(erful tool to regenerate local flora. +ut if it is

separated from user communities through commercial

intermediaries it can be an e3ually po(erful force in the

depredation of the resource base.

The paper finally suggestspolicy and methodology for future

interventions.

A future vision for natural dyeing in India

How does nature produce colours? What is the chemistry of the plant, the soil, the water

and the air that brings forth the reds of leaves before they fall, of scarlet and purple

berries, the incandescent orange of persimmon, of the orange itself, and everywhere themyriad shades of green, no two alike? It's a mystery, but human beings' longing to

capture the colours of nature in spun, woven and knotted textiles is as old as textile

making itself. olours on wool, still fresh today, are found in a carpet of the !th century" from the fro#en tombs of $iberia, in the ancient silks of hina, the brocades of

%urkey and the famed cotton muslins and 'pintados' exported from centuries from India.

%he bounty of nature combined with the skill of the dyers produced from earliest times

upto the mid nineteenth century, vast &uantities of painted, printed and dyed textiles for

use and trade. In India, it was the brilliant and permanent dyeing of the most difficult ofall fibres to dye, cotton, which was the skill in which this country in ancient times was

unrivalled.

%hen came chemical colours, invented in urope by the pioneers of chemical science(

William )erkins in ngland and *dolph "aeyer in +ermany, and within a short timethese chemical colours, though they were visually harsher, displaced everywhere the

centuriesold traditions of natural dyeing. With the traditions went the treasury of


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knowledge and skill painstakingly accumulated through constant practice and

incremental addition over generations from master to apprentice, father to son.

-ow, after a break of over a century from the time when vegetable colours were the only

way of dyeing textiles, the conse&uences of that break are becoming evident( the

devastation of nature, and conse&uently the looming threat to life itself on the planet.ust as the preservation of dyeing skills over long centuries was a process, made up of the

lived experience of the practitioners, their relationship to nature, their way of gaining and

storing knowledge, their reverence for certain things and their abhorrence of others,similarly its destruction in a short period over one century was another process,

unleashed by a new science, chemistry, that analy#ed and atomi#ed the elements of

naturally occurring dyes, to replace them through engineered laboratory processes. %he

/uxtaposition of these two could serve as a metaphor for a choice between the processesof peace and nonviolence on the one hand, and on the other of violence and war. We,

who write and read such papers as this one, are the inheritors of both traditions( as

passive ob/ects of a coloni#ing culture and today in turn active collaborators in the

coloni#ation and destruction of our own rural areas, of our natural resources, and of ourtraditional occupations. ach process has different time scales( to establish a tradition of

peace may take several lifetimes( to destroy it, only a matter of months.

%he writing of this paper is an aid to a collective en&uiry into the mysteries and

processes of natural dyeing, particularly plantbased rather than mineral or animaldyestuffs, producing fast colours on textile fibres among artisanal communities on the

Indian subcontinent0. 1or the same reason we exclude dyeing traditions of other places

than the Indian subcontinent, and within that, we'll confine ourselves to dyes and

processes to be used by professional dyers dyeing for the market, rather than the e&uallyfascinating traditions of the fleeting colours used in ritual or festive dyeing which people

do for their own use. %here is enough to learn within these limits. %he basics( which

plant produces what colour? have been wellresearched and documented, both in localoral traditions and in systematic experimentation by the colonial powers in a series of

monographs produced around the end of the 23th century[see bibliography]. What

concerns us more is how to contempori#e processes, so that in today's circumstancesbrilliance, fastness and consistency can be achieved, with ade&uate returns to the dyers.

4any of the traditional processes for achieving the brilliance and variety of colours that

we see in museums have been lost through the disappearance of living traditions, others

are irrelevant or unviable due to changed conditions of water usage or the disappearanceof forests.

-atural dyeing using vegetable materials on textile fibres consists of first extracting thecolouring matter from the dye material, and then creating a bond between the colouring

matter and the fibre to be dyed. %extile fibres of animal origin, such as wool or silk take

the colouring matter &uite easily, cotton, on the other hand needs a complex series of pretreatments before it absorbs any dye except indigo, with which it bonds naturally. %he

Indian genius in natural dyeing lay in their mastery of the pretreatment of cotton,

enabling the production of bright, fast, and washable fabrics which were a byword in


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ancient times( $t erome, in the 5th century *6, is said to have remarked 7Wisdom is as

enduring as the dyes of India7

%he most commonly used material in Indian dyeing is harda, the fruit and leaf galls of

Terminalia chebula, known as 4yrobalan. While the dried seed pods, which have a high

tannin content, are used to pretreat the yarn for the absorption of red dye, the leafgallsproduce yellow colouring matter. Terminaliais a common forest tree found throughout

the forests of India. 8ike most other dyeproducing plants, it is an important ingredient in

indigenous medicine. 9ther forest plants commonly used for dyeing, either as colouringagents or auxilliaries, areMallotus Philippinensisand Caesalpinia sappan, both used in

silk : wool dyeing,Punica granatum,Acacia catechu,Rubia tinctoriaand cordifolia,

Woodfordia fruticosaand Onosma echioides. [see Table of ye!"earing Plants]%here

are a host of other local plants that are in use in local practices. 9thers are, or used to becultivated, such asMorinda tinctoriaand indigo ;indigofera tinctoria= minutes. %heyarn, fabric or fibre to be dyed is first well scoured to remove natural oils, pretreated in

various ways, then heated in the extract, at different temperatures depending on the dyematerial, usually for about =5! minutes, to create a lasting bond between the fibre and

the colouring matter.

9ur aim is to analyse past practice and existing knowledge as a base for the development

of a natural dyeing practice appropriate to contemporary circumstances, that can be part

of a larger national strategy for the reaffirmation of the primacy of -ature as our ultimate

resource. In this paper we will explore some living natural dyeing traditions fromdifferent parts of the country, to examine in actual practice local knowledge of the plants,

the water sources, the soil, climate, the specific techni&ues and relations of production

developed in each place, and how they all intermeshed. 6yeing practices varyimmeasurably from region to region. It is the art of combining local dyeyielding plants

with locally available ad/unctive materials, plants or minerals, for mordanting @a pre

dyeing process that makes the fibre receptive to dyeA, or colourfastness, or brightening,in which Indian dyeing excelled in the past, and it is this regional specificity, rather than

generali#ed principles, that should be reestablished. $uch regional specificity is,

incidentally, also a cornerstone of biological and cultural diversity in general.

Bltimately our process must address the issues that 4ax Weber considers critical in the

relation between economic activity : society( the conflicts of interest in decision

making, the use of resources on the basis of community good versus individual good, therising need for income as part of the 4arket economy. How have these factors affected

natural dyeing in specific locations? We will draw some tentative conclusions in this

paper, leaving to the next stage the consideration of how attempts should be made to reestablish practices of natural dyeing on significant scales in the present and the future,

and to link these to the revival and maintenance of biodiversity.


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There #as once a garden, full of the most beautiful flo#ers, scents, sights and sounds,

running #ater, shady trees, and many natural and man!made contri$ances to delight the

heart% "irds, animals and humans en&oyed this garden and its delights% 'n this paradiseli$ed a colony of peacoc(s, and they too both en&oyed and added to the beauties and &oys

of the garden, eating, dancing, and calling to each other #ith happiness% One day, the

(ing #ho o#ned the garden, on a #him, ordered that one of the peacoc(s be entirely se#nup in a leather sac(, #ith only a small channel through #hich a fe# grains of coarse

meal should be fed, barely enough to (eep the bird ali$e% This #as done, and as time

passed the peacoc( forgot the beauties of the garden, the calls of its mates, the scent ofthe flo#ers, the &oy of dance and the taste of good and $ariedfood% The dirty and

constraining leather sac( became its #orld% 't forgot its o#n beauty and thought of itself

as a #orthless and ugly fello#, capable of nothing but of s#allo#ing the meagre grains

of meal #hich #ere its only diet% What)s more, it recreated in its constrained imaginationthe entire #orld in the image of the leather sac(, and of all other creatures as similarly

encumbered and constrained% 'n its dar( and blinded #orld terror and despair loomed

large%

4uch of our development planning starts from inside the leather sack, recasting a world

of peace, plenty and harmony in our blinkered imaginations into a world of terror anddespair, and planning for 'survival' strategies for that dark existence. %he more we do so,

the more despair and terror we generate, the greater the impetus towards selffulfilling

prophecies of doom. %hen destruction of nature, of human values evolved over millenia,of humanity itself, become conse&uences within the realm of possibility. "ut can we turn

away from this hopeless despair, and build for ourselves a bright future? Is it possible to

break out of the meshes of fear to visuali#e, delineate, articulate and share a different

vision, one based on axioms of harmony, peace and delight? Have we the confidence tocall the bluff of the doomsayers?

%he principles of natural dyeing as part of biodiversity and of cultural diversity, ofpeoples' lives and activities, are pathways to that harmonious future. Whatever may have

been its contexts in the past, today the most important ingredients for the reestablishment

of natural dyeing are the ingenuity and confidence of the various practitionercommunities, developed through linkages with sensitive and discerning markets, and the

revival and protection of the biological resource base itself. %he critical aspect in natural

dyeing practice and its market linkages, is diversity( diversity of dyeing materials based

on a diversity of plants in different ecosystems, locations, diversity of techni&ue, diversityof colour palette, and this diversity must be reflected all through the marketing chain, all

the way to the individual customer. *fter all, the present marketdominated mode of

economic activity which is so damaging to our natural resource base has been aroundonly for the last 2!= years, whereas our experience in stable and sustainable economic

activities meshed with nature dates back several millenia.

It is excellence that must be the aim of natural dyeing, excellence made up of

consistency, brightness and durability of shade. $tandards of consistencywhich should be

the goal, should not be confused withstandardi*ationwhich cannot be the basis of a

sustainable relation with locali#ed resource bases. $tandardi#ation in dyeing means


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producing the same colour in different and varying circumstances, which would be the

deathknell of excellence in natural dyeing. $tandardi#ation is the handmaiden of mass

production, which is the daughter of mercantilism, which signifies the sub/ugation ofimportant aspects of &uality, of speciali#ation, and of the interest of both consumer and

producer to suit the interest of 'business', of the merchanttrader. %he consumer yearns

for variety, the natural dyer thrives on speciali#ation, but speciali#ation which providesinfinite variety is extinguished by standardi#ation.

Natural dyes and the forest

+ there is scarcely a forest in the #hole of the Presidency of Madras #hich is not #ithin

the limits of some $illage, and there is not one in #hich, so far as the "oard can

ascertain, the tate asserted any rights of property %%%%until $ery recently% All of them#ithout e-ception, are sub&ect to tribal or communal rights #hich ha$e e-isted from time

immemorial and #hich are as difficult to define and $alue as they are necessary to the

rural population %%% .ere the forests are, and al#ays ha$e been, a common property+

;"oard of Cevenue, 2DE2, &uoted in /uha,ocial 0cology different stages, everyalternate one of which involves washing in the running water of the $warnamukhi, the

local river. %he water of the $warnamukhi with its minerals washed down from the

astern +hats is particularly suited to the dyeing process. 1urther north along the *ndhracoast, several thousand people are employed in the block printing industry of

4achilipatnam. "oth the block printing of 4achilipatnam and the handpainting of

Falahasti begin with the treatment of the cloth with myrobalan. In the block printingprocess, the design is at this stage printed on with wooden blocks using for the black

outline a fermented solution of /aggery and iron, which in the hand painting is applied

with a bamboo pen. %he tannin in the myrobalan with which the cloth is treated develops

the solution to produce an intense black. It's like magic, watching the grey lines turning


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black on the treated cloth. When washed in flowing water these lines set into

permanence. "ut it must be flowing water. $till water will cause the lines to smudge. "ut

now there are two dams on the $warnamukhi, and the artisans must travel >= miles toreach the outflow from a lake. ven then the &uality of the water is not as good as their

river's.

-atural dyeing could be a ma/or industry here. %he eastern coast of *ndhra is particularly

well endowed for natural dyeing. %he shellrich sandy soil of the coastal plain and the

forests of the nearby astern ghats are suited to the growing of hayaveru, the legendaryplant producing the famous pinkish red of 4achilipatnam, which grew here in profusion.

1or this to happen here, as for the indigo dyeing industry to thrive in Ilkal, the rights of

local dyers and Falamkari communities to water resources has to be established.

With the exception of 4achilipatnam and Falahasti, the dyeing traditions of $outh India

are centred on the colouring of cotton yarn. )aradoxically while the arts of fabric painting

and printing have survived due to the patronage and export trade, the skills of yarn

dyeing, connected to a subsistence economy and local demand, have declined. "ut it wasthe subsistence economy that provided the stable base on which the export trade was

grafted. -ow the reestablishment process must begin with export and patronage, butalways with the longterm aim to root the processes back in the subsistence economy.

%he $rikalahasti Falakarula Falamkari $angam in Falahasti, hittoor disrict, *ndhra)radesh, is an attempt by a handful of Falamkari artists to make a living from the craft.

%he sangam is known for the good &uality of its work, and its insistence on pure vegetal

dyes, avoiding the synthetic blue that most of the other artists use.

The N&' revival

In the last thirty years, -+9s have played a ma/or part in the revival of natural dyeing

practices in India. %he key figure in this process has been that of the late F. .

handramouli, acknowledged as the "hismapitamah of modern natural dyeing, fromwhom most of the practicing -+9s have learnt their techni&ues, both of natural dyeing

and of training. handramouli was a trained chemist recruited by Famala 6evi

hattopadhyay and converted by her to furthering the artisan cause. handramouli in his

long career, first as a +overnment employee and later after he retired, learnt the arts ofnatural dyeing from local practitioners all over the country. He came from a family of

scholars, and was able to back up his practical experience with extensive archival

research. He was sent by the +overnment of India to teach natural dyeing in "angla6esh, and was a consultant to several state governments in India. handramouli's main

contribution was to set up a teaching methodology by which knowledge could be

successfully transmitted to artisans in a way in which they could build on and innovate ontheir own. %hanks to him, *ranya of "angla 6desh, *diti of "ihar, *ndretta in Fulu,

6astkar *ndhra and other agencies have been able to root natural dyeing back in local

artisan communities, through a process which continues today after his death.


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-+9s generally support the practitioner communities through several years of market

development and market support, usually through regular exhibitions in urban centres.

What comes next? We have yet to see what happens after the -+9s withdraw. Willnatural dyeing activity be able to sustain itself without them? If natural dyeing processes

are to be strongly rooted in community life, the -+9 must be able to write itself out of

the script.

%here are great advantages and also severe limitations to -+9 work in natural dyeing.

%hough today small -+9s in the subcontinent are filling a need as catalysts in theprocess of revival and revitali#ation, a role that +overnment, international agencies or

commercial organi#ations are unsuited to fill, they cannot take the revival process beyond

the preservation of techni&ue. -+9 initiatives tend to link the natural dyed products

directly to urban and export markets, which tend to be capricious and demanding,beyond the capabilities of rural producers to handle without organic trading connections.

"y 'organic' trading connections, I mean links that enable the producers to negotiate

without loss of identity and selfrespect. %ekeram of Faladera, speaking of visits to Fabul

with his father to sell printed textiles and buy dye materials, could retain and reinforcehis own village identity while dealing with a foreign market environment.In contrast, the

dominance today of 'the market' overwhelms villagebased producers with feelings ofinade&uacy and ignorance. Bltimately, producer links to larger commercial processes

must grow out of their own secure base as part of larger communities with strong

connections to their own local environment, and to trading to provide linkages for villageproduction processes, including those of natural dyeing.

%here is no doubt that there are important and intermeshing roles to be played by the

$tate, international agencies, and by -+9s. $ystematic research needs to be carried out,such as that being undertaken by *nn $hankar of )un/ab 6urrie Weavers in a B-

supported pro/ect. 7We have so far found references to around 5!= Indian dyeyielding

plants7, she writes. 7$o far we have collected !5 specimens from >2= different plants.%esting is currently in progress and we have full results for over 2== of the plant

powders7. *nn $hankar is making the information available through a web page. %his is

an example of how international agencies can play an important role for the support andnurture of emerging community initiatives, making sure that information eventually ends

up in the hands of the producers. *t the same time, it is important that the laboratory

research is linked with field practice at an early stage, to avoid appropriation of what

should be community knowledge by commercial interests. It is also critical to sort outissues of intellectual property rights, in particular to ensure that the traditional and

indigenous knowledge that dyersLweavers have, is respected and protected, and its

commercialisation by others is done only with the consent of these people and withappropriate sharing of benefits.

Conclusion: (uture %ros%ects of natural dyeing in India

-atural circumstances have made this country particularly suited to the practice of natural

dyeing. Human agency in the recent past has not been so beneficial, with the stoppage of

flowing waters, the destruction of plant life and worst of all, the poisoning of soil and


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water by chemical poisons. Whole populations of artisanal practitioners in interlinked

occupations related to dyeing have been uprooted and their carefully nurtured knowledge

lost. %o us this destructive process looms large, as destruction stands out in stark andviolent contrast to peaceful constructive processes that continue unnoticed. * study over a

long period, as advocated by the 1rench social historian 1ernand "raudel will give a

more hopeful picture. 7"ut the $un has continued to give forth to India its vast vivifiyingrays, the Heavens to pour down upon the vast surface its tropical rains ...7 as 1 "rown,

a cotton planter of the nineteenth century says. *s long as we can depend on these cosmic

forces, all is not lost. It remains for us to understand our own roles in both constructiveand destructive trends.

-atural dyeing is a doubleedged sword. 8inked to its local users it can be a powerful

tool to regenerate local flora. "ut if it is separated from user communities throughcommercial intermediaries it can be an e&ually powerful force in the depredation of the

resource base. $ociety's management of the natural forest deals with competing claims by

the different occupations that use and protect the local soil, water, and plant growth. %his

relation between nature and society must be mediated not by a powerful state claiming toact in the name of an abstract entity called 'the people' but by the selfregulatory

mechanisms of local selfgovernance.

8ooking into dyeing traditions from this viewpoint, a vital feature that was unnoticed or

ignored by the colonial researchers dominates the landscape( What were themechanisms by which the knowledge and skill of the dyer was ac&uired, accumulated,

stored and transmitted? %his leads us to the &uestion( what is to be the context of the

skills today? In earlier times, ritual and custom played a large part, dictating which

communities should wear which colours, on which occasions. )articular /atis wereassociated with particular plants and processes, such as indigo and indigo dyeing, or aal .

%oday, can economic returns be enough of an incentive for revival? 9r must dyeing

processes be part of a new set of relations that evolve in contemporary circumstances,where some aspects such as the climate remain relatively unchanged, while other natural

resources such as rivers and forests become extinct or inaccessible? In our opinion,

economic activities should be embedded in society and in their local natural resourcebase, and even the process of rerooting natural dyeing should itself be based on these

fundamental principles. In this way the contempori#ation of a traditional practice will

help to reverse the current trend towards destructive exploitation of human and natural

resources

-atural dyeing is a practice of society in tune with nature. ust as the intensively

cultivated traditional gardens of the native $outh *mericans so closely approximatednature that they were thought by uropeans to be part of the forest, so the traditional

production systems of natural dyeing are so deeply embedded in their social structure as

to have escaped modern scientific examination, so much so that today natural dyeing, likeother artisan practices in this country, does not even have the status of an industry. *nd

/ust as a seed loses its viability if it is not continuously renewed, so information, the

knowledge of techni&ue and familiarity with material is lost if it is not used in practice.

-atural dyeing has to be part of a gamut of environmentally sensible economic activities,


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that would integrate the lives and activities of agricultural producers, pastoralists, and

others dependent on natural resources, in a web of mutually supportive rather than

competitive professions. $ustainable linkages must evolve between the dyematerials,their cultivation or collection, and their use. %rade linkages must evolve that promote

transparency and bypass the local marketdistant markets dichotomy. Cesearch

institutions must evolve that include the field in the research process.

-ew relations must be developed between the regeneration and use of natural resources.

It is of no use to pine for a golden and romantic past, the commercial age is here and mustbe dealt with in a way that can benefit and not destroy livelihoods, people, and nature.

%here are clear directions to be followed for the $tate, agencies of the state, academics,

-+9s, )eoples' movements, and practitioner communities, in a future course for natural

dyeing. %here are also areas in which the direction is not so clear, where the interests ofdifferent local occupations are in conflict. *pparent conflicts in rights between forest or

field, pastoral or agrarian, and between both and artisanal or tribal, must be resolved on

the basis of the good of society rather than of individual benefit. %he answers must be

local and varied, and evolved in consultation with all the people involved. %he -ational"iodiversity *ction )lan could be the starting point for a series of such collective

reflections.

%he diversity inherent in nature, which allows for a vast number of combinations and

permutations of the mineral content of local soils and local water with dyebearing andad/unctive plants, is the critical factor in the establishment and sustainability of natural

dyeing practices with strong local and regional identities. 9ne plant may be useful in one

region, and not in another. 1or example, the dye obtained from"i-a orellanawhen used

in $outh India, produces only a fleeting colour, but in Ca/asthan the colour is fast to lightand washing. %here are examples of plants producing different colours in different places.

THE EN)

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B#ramma, 7Ce&uiem for a master7, 6eccan Herald, 4ay !, 233D


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isvanathan, $hiv,A Carni$al for cience, 9xford Bniversity )ress, 233E

Weber, 4ax,0conomy = ociety,;ed +uenther Coth : laus Wittich< Bniv. of alifornia

)ress, 23ED

Tips for NBSAP partners on integrating natural dye & dyeing issues into local/stateplans:

)olicy regarding natural dyeing should be formulated in collaboration with naturaldyeing practitioners, dye material collectors, and cultivators, if any exist.

)olicy should recogni#e the inalienable right of local producer communities to local dye

bearing plant resources, in preference over commercial trade interests.

-atural dyeing by producer communities should be recogni#ed as an industrial practice,with concomitant rights to raw material and water resources.

Methodology for encouragement of natural dyeing practices:

2. ontact dyer communities who used to use natural dyes, may have given it up now,

other communities who were minor forest produce collectors, and who used to supplydyers, either directly or through intermediaries, document their experience.

>. 6ocument traditional practices, technologies : linkages between users, suppliers,

markets, etc., for the record and as a basis for revival. It is best to begin with learningabout earlier local practices, before planning interventions of technology upgradation,

etc. 9ften energy extensive technologies are more sustainable than intensive ones.

. ncourage cultivation of dyebearing plants on local wastelands.

5. "efore attempting revival of traditional practices or setting up new practices, ensureboth market for finished product, as well as access to dyeproducing plants.

!. Ceestablish links between growersLcollectors, users and customers

1iability of contemporary practice depends on se$eral factors(

training new practitioners to a level of skill where fastness and brightness is

routinely achieved( this takes time and continuous practiceregular contacts with resource people either traditional local natural dyers, or

resource agencies, until practitioners are able to work independently

backward forward linkages, to resource base;dye materials, water, fuel< and

markets. -ew sources of dye materials, water : fuel may have to be found, suited tocontemporary circumstances.

- linkages between cluster of local practices, e.g., dye material collection,

dyeing, weaving, other craft production.

Paper prepared for 5"AP by>D=2D

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e!mail dastkar2Psatyam.net.in

future vision for natural dyeing in India

[exec s mmary]

The paper examines past and present practices of natural dyeing

in India, as reference points for future interventions by catalyst

agencies, State, international, and local.

India (as #no(n for its s#ill in producing fast and brilliant

colours on cotton, from anti3uity until the invention of chemical

dyes. 4nli#e fibres of animal origin li#e (ool and sil#, cotton

needs elaborate pre&processing (ith vegetable or mineral

mordants before it ta#es most dyes [except indigo, (ith (hich it

has a natural bond], and it (as the s#ill of mordanting in (hich

ancient Indian dyers (ere masters.

no(ledge and s#ills (ere embedded in artisan communities

lin#ed in time&honoured (ays to the natural resource base and to

mar#ets. Such lin#ages (ere either direct, using local materials

and supplying local mar#ets, or through (ell&established trading

chains that functioned as channels for dye materials obtained

from and dyed fabrics supplied to distant places.

The scale of the economic activity of dye&production, dyeing, and

trading (as vast, as sho(n in uropean records of the

seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Speciali5ations such as bloc# printing in u/arat, fabric painting

on the South ast coast, indigo dyeing in arnata#a (ere the

basis of India's large foreign trade in cotton textiles. Aal[*orinda

Tinctoria] (as gro(n for local use (hile indigo (as gro(n and

exported from the South until introduced by +ritish planters into

+ihar in the nineteenth century.

With the advent of chemical dyes from urope around !67%, and

the conse3uent fall in demand for natural dyes, the #no(ledge

and s#ills of natural dyeing fell out of practice and gradually

disappeared. The history of indigo, the most important of Indian
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]


30/31

natural dyes, illustrates ho( a traditional dyeing practice, once

it enters the commercial domain, can be appropriated and

eventually destroyed by po(erful commercial interests (ho can

command the monetary resources to develop and deploy science

and technology for narro( private profit. Today, the damage tothe environment as a result of (idespread chemical usage in

dyeing is ac#no(ledged, as a result of (hich there is a rene(ed

interest in natural dyes.

2iving traditions of natural dyeing include dyeing (ith aal in

otpad, -rissa, indigo dyeing in Il#al, arnata#a, bloc# printing

in aladera, 0a/asthan, and alam#ari painting in alahasti,

Andhra 8radesh, (hile indigo is cultivated in Andhra and Tamil

)adu. A study of these traditions and archival research into pastpractices (ill guide the effort to revive natural dyeing. It is

important as part of the revival to recogni5e the rights of artisan

communities to the #no(ledge of natural dyeing and to protect

their access to dye material resources. The continued survival

and (ell&being of the forest as a resource for natural dyeing is

dependent on the close integration of local user communities

(ith the forest.

8ast relations of the State and of commercial interests to naturaldyeing practices, and the present and future roles of

government, )-s, academic institutions and international

agencies in the promotion of contemporary practices of natural

dyeing need to be examined in detail. Though )-s have played

an important role in revival of natural dyeing among artisan

communities, ultimately producer lin#s to larger commercial

processes must gro( out of the producers' o(n secure base

(ith strong connections to their o(n local resources. )atural

dyeing has to be part of a gamut of environmentally sensibleeconomic activities, that (ould integrate the lives and activities

of agricultural producers, pastoralists, and others dependent on

natural resources, in a (eb of mutually supportive rather than

competitive professions. Sustainable lin#ages must evolve

bet(een the dye&materials, their cultivation or collection, and

their use.


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)atural dyeing is a double&edged s(ord. 2in#ed to its local users

it can be a po(erful tool to regenerate local flora. +ut if it is

separated from user communities through commercial

intermediaries it can be an e3ually po(erful force in thedepredation of the resource base.

a future vision for natural dyeing uzramma

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