An Article on Pottery Industry, focusing Assam and North East Region, India

A JOURNEY FROM MUD TO MONEY

Dr. Sukamal Deb, PhD (Rural Development) ?

Introduction:

????????Pottery is one of the heritage activities in India, iconic elements of Indian art. We have around 65 Lakh families or 25 million people belong to Potter Community. Life of a Potter remained unrecognized and under-remunerated. Those vivid eyes gazing and cautious hands moving relentlessly in synchronization on the wheel as a mass of clay gets transformed to a pot and one who sees it happen sings praise for the mesmerizing skills, these people, the potters, do possess. Roots of Pottery can be traced back to the earliest times of civilization. It has sustained for eons and is a massive employment creator in rural areas. The ancient pottery of a country speaks facts about its civilization. Pottery is one of those important mediums through which men have expressed their emotions. A piece of pottery has a visual message in its shape and color.?Pottery is the most sensual of all arts. Making Pottery is a journey from Mud to Money. It is said a field of clay touched by the genius of man becomes a castle.

??????????It holds significant value in understanding cultures where script was either absent or remains un-deciphered. Understanding of presence of fire, cooking, storage, sedentary or migratory populace, social stratification can all be developed via studying pottery.

??????????Pottery craft has not reduced its relevance in the present era of changes and it is not going to be so in future too. The artistic minds, the environment consciousness, affordable price, unique feature of employing women, use of local raw materials, promoting rural industrialization and utility of the products keep relevance of pottery industry unshaken.

???????????Pottery wares have played an important role in the lives of man from the remote past.?Archaeological sites all over the world have contributed to the knowledge of pottery through the material finds of the past. Pottery was made during all the three ages, the Stone, Bronze and Iron ages yet pottery sherds occur to be the commonest of all objects which often provide clues to the Neolithic communities and are practically indestructible because once fired, pottery retains its form and colour for hundreds of years. Pottery is tangible and is considered to be as old as civilization itself. It is a great source of information to anthropologists and archaeologists. Either in sherds or a complete whole, pottery reflects the way of life of a community.

?????????Pottery making was found to be in a hand designed crude form and in initial stage during the early Neolithic phase of evolution of mankind, which later was believed to be thrown on wheels. It is because of the trouble associated with the storage of the cultivated crops that food‐producing economy subsequently stimulated the invention of earthen pots as containers in contrast to food‐gathering phase. Apart from its primary utilitarian purpose, earthen ware has cultural connotations too. Pottery is regarded as a mirror of the cultural patterns of a society. The development of pottery facilitated cooking and storing of food.

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?????Present Status:

??????????????Gap between the rich and the poor in India seems to be never reducing. There are communities like Potters who left out as poor for generations. Pottery is an art of making different objects by carefully molding clay. The sheer hard work they put and the skills through which they design those very pots are magnificent. But their fate seems to be sailing in choppy waters, the number of potters is dwindling, who still cling to the ancestral art is paid too little. Their youths are dissociating them from the craft. Some potter families taken up other profession and succeeded to scale better socio-economic status.

?????????So it is important to assess the status of pottery industry, to investigate the socio-economic condition of these Potters families, to examine its relevance in the present era and to investigate into the steps taken to strengthen this craft.

?????????Pottery provided earthenware like Drinking Glass, Cooking pots, earthen plates, Diya Kalash etc. With replacement of earthen fragile utensils by steel, Brass, Plastic, china-clay, pottery products have lost its market. Yet, certain products still have substantial demand.

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??????????????Indian pots are exported to different parts of the world, playing a vital role in the total GDP India and in generating the foreign revenue. The exquisite beauty and chic features have made pottery, a modern form of Indian decor. Pottery is famous in most of the Asian countries and gradually spread all over the world. The important markets for pottery products are USA, China, UK, Mexico, Hong Kong, Japan, Germany, Italy and France. However, the share of global market of India in pottery products is believed to be less than 1%. Pottery is exported to over 140 countries from India. In the year 2019-20, India has exported pottery worth of 9.97 USD million.

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???????????Indian pottery industry, for decades, has bravely battled several challenges and still survived or in few cases flourished. Pottery, a profit making industry, without any application of modern technology, having drudgery as its constant accompany managed?with outmoded technologies travelled many chapters of civilization. Moreover, this important industry has failed to taste success in respond to meet the present market demands. It is estimated that over 40 Lakh rural potters still work with the help of conventional pottery wheels. Of the 15 Lakh traditionally skilled potters, about 95% are involved in the work of conventional red local pottery.

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Pottery in Assam:

????????From a statistic of 28 districts of Assam the total number of households connected to Pottery works 2, 47, 227. Total population of Potter Community 17, 94, 171 and total number of Potters practicing this craft are 98, 565. This data is not all inclusive, there are more, for example the three districts of Barak Valley (Cachar, Karimganj and Hailakandi) have the Potters Community. So, total population of Potter in entire Assam is around 2 Million.?

???Pottery has been attested from prehistoric sites in Northeast India. Pottery was practiced in North East India, even among the tribal. For example, pottery craft was an exclusive job of females in the Nyishi (an Arunachal Pradesh tribe) society. Mud Pressure cooker is an exclusive product of Tankhul Naga tribes of Ukhrul district, Manipur.

?????????Asharikandi village in?Dhubri has a population of 1,872 in 305 households. The village is famous for its traditional crafts,?Terracotta?and?Pottery. It is one of the largest clusters of Terracotta and Pottery in India. It is said that the name Asharikandi was derived from the combination of two words?ASHAR?and?KANDI.?ASHAR?is the third month in?Assamese Calendar?and?KANDI?means 'shedding tears. During ASHAR, heavy?sub-tropical?rainfall creates flood in this low-lying area, which causes the dwellers of this place to shed tears out of misery. Especially the potters suffer a lot. Because they cannot make, dry up, burn their products and even cannot store safely their earlier produced items during the rainy season. But they selected the place due to some economically viable factors like the availability of raw materials, cheaper transportation facility, important strategic location, etc. The potters use boat, the cheapest means of transport. ?

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??????There are number of Potter communities in Assam. ?Pottery here is an art of two distinct caste groups, the Hira and the Kumar. The Hira produces handmade earthen wares whereas the Kumar manufactures potteries on wheel. Both the communities have their own belief system. The Kumar Community is distributed in Kamrup, Goalpara, Nalbari and Tinsukia district. The ethnographic data collected shows some Kumar families are originally from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh settled in Assam for six to seven generations now. They have adopted the Assamese culture.

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?????Pottery Crafts and Women:

??????????????Pottery is practiced traditionally by women. They actively participate in the family income by working from home and doing their bit. They can balance their home responsibilities and use them efficiently. As per social hierarchy their status is treated as lower caste. They live in guild in a contiguous area. The community is also the architect of Hindu Gods and Goddess. During certain months of a year they remain busy in making Gods and Goddess.

??????????????The story of people of Salmara village, Majuli (world’s biggest river island) is fascinating. This village has 541 families of which for 486, Pottery is the prime livelihood. This village has been engaged in pottery from the time of incarnation Sankerdeva, around 570 years back. In this isolated, recurrently flood affected village pottery is all the women’s business.?They belong to OBC community and their girls at the tender age of 12 become proficient potters. 75 years old Bhavani Bora is the eldest lady contributes her family earning from pottery making. This village does not have any cultivable land; males are mostly carpenters’ make country boats, during rainy season the villagers’ shifts to higher land as the Brahmaputra remains flooded. This season, the time of difficulty and hardship, the women folk do weaving of traditional Assamese textiles, the male gathers wood logs from the devastating Brahmaputra. Under the grip of extreme communication bottleneck, the level of poverty, helplessness is hard to narrate yet they cling to their village although

gradual soil erosions shrinking her landmass. Salmara is the single village in Asia where pottery is practiced in such a large scale. There is no dearth of market, once the products cross the Brahmaputra via Kamalabari Ghat to Nimati Ghat, it reaches Jorhat market (a Study by Dr. Sukamal Deb, 2018). KVIC supported this village in year 2018, provided training, distributed power operated machineries bringing from Nagpur and Mehsana, Gujarat.?

Traditional Pottery culture of Majuli, Assam, India

??????????In village Simen Sapori, Dhemaji more than 100 families, a resettled village, belonging to OBC community, pottery is their livelihood of the women. While the womenfolk make pottery items the menfolk makes the ideal of god and goddess. During the Durga puja season the whole village wear a busy look when men make image of god and womenfolk make Diya and other items for worship.

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KVIC Promotes Pottery Industry:

????????KVIC initiated a Programme to revive Pottery in 2018. KVIC has distributed electric potter wheels, among the villagers belonging to traditional potter community. So far, KVIC has distributed 3,000 Blungers and pug mills along with 32,000 electrically operated Potter’s Wheels in India, benefiting 1.25 Lakh persons.?This has benefitted Assam (810 beneficiaries) including the Barak Valley (240 beneficiaries), mostly women, BPL category, enhancing per day income from Rs 100 to at least Rs 400.

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Road ahead:

?????????Steps needed to be taken to revive the Pottery craft are (i) Electric Potter Wheels, Clay Blunger machines for preparation of clay body, improved community kiln, smoke free, fuel efficient may be provided to the Potters, (ii) need support in terms of training, design interventions, efficient transportation of finished goods and policy interventions, (iii) difficulties to get clay at reasonable price to be addressed, (iv) providing transport vehicle as community assets, (v) to improve the overall condition of pottery industry, it is important to identify the various requirements of the manufacturing centers, technological gap and (vi) a holistic plan may be put in place.?

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Conclusion:

????????It seems the lives of potters at least in this country are just as fragile as the pots they carve. Their creations are fascinating. Very less has so far been done to appreciate their creativities and make this profession adequately rewarding. Pottery based entrepreneurs are yet to be created. Still with their ancestral connections this languishing village crafts are practiced, sometimes with broken hearts in many invisible locations of this country, potters of Assam are not a different story. We need to promote Pottery; it will be a step towards achieving the SDGs as use of pottery items will reduce use of non-bio-degradable plastic and other items. It promotes reverse migration, as the village people will get work at native place, will prefer moving back to their villages.

??????Pottery is a shining example of human skill, creativity and wisdom, it should be preserved. Pottery may be an effective way of creation of rural entrepreneurs, employments and enterprises.

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A traditional women potter of Simen Sapori, Dhemaji?Assam 4-10-2018

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Potters, Salmara, Majuli (world’s biggest river island), Assam with Electric Potter’s Wheel?5-10-18

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Indian Traditional Potters, Nadannagar, Agartala ?

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Indian Traditional Potter family, Tripura

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Sun drying & colouring of Pottery items by woman

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She does not use potter wheel to make pottery item

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A traditional Indian ?kiln in Rural India

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Woman readying the Traditional ?kiln to fire

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The author may be reached at [email protected]