Papier-mâché, Jammu and Kashmir
Aijaz Shah, a papier-mâché craftsman who has loved the art since his childhood, says that not long ago around 80% of the people living in his neighbourhood were involved in the business. These days, it’s more like 10%. Hardly surprising, when he can earn only $3 a day, despite years of practice and considerable artistic skill. “This craft can only survive as long as these craftsmen are alive,” he says.
He has won a national award as well as two state awards for his work. Yet his main income comes from driving a tuk-tuk.
After the last couple of years in the region, battered by the storms of military insurgency and the pandemic, it has become harder than ever to remain dedicated to this tradition of beauty, introduced to the area in the fourteenth century.
Still, it is in such circumstances that art takes on an even deeper value, both for those who appreciate it and its makers. Practising a craft gives artisans a sense of dignity and meaning, as well as self-reliance. Reyaz Ahmad Khan, an artisan from Srinagar, says: “Papier-mâché gives us a sense of peace. The way prayers purify a person, this art purifies us.” Another artist, Masrat Jan, adds: “Depicting spring gives me a sense of elation.”
They earn even less than the bare minimum of a factory worker, yet their working lives are so much richer. Reyaz Ahmad Khan says that he’s happy to work for more than twelve hours a day; the craft is a pleasure in itself. Today, however, without any tourism in the region, the market for it has been decimated.
Without support, the skills that have been passed down for generations are at risk of dying out. Yet if that happens, our world will become greyer, more homogenous – less civilized, in the true sense of the word.
