The Culture of Difference: From Colonial Knowledge to the Problem with Crafts

Abstract

Survey compilers set out to study crafts for complex reasons. One of the most basic was perhaps curiosity; Indian-carved agates, woven shawls, dyed cottons, and inlaid sandalwood had long-standing markets in Europe, and yet comparatively little was known of how, where, and by whom they were made. Thus, museum displays and government monographs set out to fill gaps in existing knowledge and resolve minor mysteries of origin and technique. They also, however, did far more. For, alongside particular attention to the chisels or resins used in wood carving, or the methods of preparing wool for shawl weaving, documentation efforts also contributed to a much larger project of outlining the underlying structures of the Indian traditional economy. Indeed, it is hard to imagine why the colonial state would regularly invest public resources into systematically mapping—geographically, culturally, economically, socially, and technically—craft production if there was not that underlying goal. When surveys and exhibitions rendered artisanal knowledge public, they did so not just because they could—thanks to the newfound investigatory powers of the colonial state. They also did so because organizers thought they should—on the basis of the idea that crafts were a vital part of the larger economy, with consequences—good or bad—for the nation as a whole.