Trash Treasue

- The impact of massconsumption

on tradition in India

Ida Wanler, 14 01 2001

BA (Hons) Product & Furniture Design Kingston University, UK

Foreword – field study India

Introduction

Wasting the West

Chapter 1 Locating India on the map of creativity

Chapter 2 Waste reality in Indian crafts

‘Reviving the already dead’: the art of patching

Kagzi Industries: the Indian character’s survival of consumerism

Chapter 3 Humble everyday routines

Mohammed Umar: The craftsman of scrap metal

Mudhas: Sit down for a ‘Chai’

Chapter 4 Urban reuse in India

Ahmedabad market: find whatever you can imagine

Rockgarden: a recyclia themepark

Chapter 5 Western interpretation

A wasteproduct’s new life in the West

Contemporary scavenging trends

Conclusion

Bibliography & other sources

Footnotes

Foreword - Field study in India, August - September 2000

I spent August and September 2000 in India to research the arts and crafts culture of the country, with specification on its way of dealing with waste. In order to gain a true understanding of this fascinating but complex culture I needed firsthand information. I was based at the Indian Institute of Craft and Design in Jaipur, Rajasthan1. They provided me with information, contacts and facilities and I have the institute to thank for a lot of my research results. Jaipur is a large centre for crafts in Rajasthan and India. Its founder Maharaja Jai Singh 2nd brought craftsmen into the city in the 18th century and since then the traditions have been handed down from generation to generation and are still vivid on the pink streets of Jaipur.

My starting point was to gain an understanding of the craftsmen’s lives, traditions, culture and history. I wandered along white houses where marble dust was lying like clouds in the air. I stopped to marvel at the symphony of banging metal from the workshops on Thateron Ka Rasta. Meeting the craftsmen was a privilege I was rewarded with the help of students and staff of IICD. They knew craftsmen from several areas and took me along to their workshops, interpreting through the language barrier. This was an opportunity to make reality out of one point of my research that would have been very hard for me as a foreigner otherwise. As an outsider it is difficult to make the craftsmen understand you don’t just want to buy their products but you are actually interested in their art.

After initial contacts I started to search my field of interest – the way the craftsmen treat waste. I was showered with different aspects on the subject. There are so many details considered in their processes and techniques, which never would have crossed my mind. From actual field studies my eyes opened to many new possibilities. Some of those inspiring casestudies took place in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. I travelled down to a large industrial city 320 km south of Jaipur, to see the contrast of industrial/ traditional city life and how the industry has affected the crafts. Also one purpose was to visit the National Institute of Design, NID2. This is the main design education centre in India and some of the most successful designers in the industry are teaching here. From meeting NID staff and students I have gained understanding of the contemporary society in India and the problems facing both designers and craftsmen today. Many conversations have introduced me to important issues I had not considered in the waste culture context.

I was very fortunate to have the opportunity to go to India for my research. This thesis would not have been possible without my actual physical travel to the country and its culture. I would like to take the opportunity to thank all the people that has so generously given me their help. I would like to send my thanks to the IICD’s staff and all their students. At the NID I would like to especially thank professors M P Ranjan, Erroll Piers and S K Khanna, and student Arpita Banerjee. Also a warm thank you to Haku Shah, Art Historian and Fine Artist and Suman Banerjee, Communication Designer. I would also like to thank Shivantar, Kabbu and Rina for making my stay in India so memorable. Specials thanks to Sasi Gopal, IICD, for helping to make this field study in India come true.

Introduction

The West is proud. We return our bottles to the bottle bank and develop new recycling processes. We are concerned; we care for the environment. We straighten our backs and point fingers at the developing countries. We say ‘look what we are doing for the whole earth! Look how we are fighting for our threatened world. Everyone should be grateful for our efforts!’

And of course we are grateful actions are finally occurring. But should it not have happened a long time ago? Should it have had to happen at all? We are trying to erase damages humanity has done to earth in such an extent we will never be able to return to what it used to be. And time is running out. The natural resources are decreasing rapidly. Paul Hawken claimed we need to reduce our absolute consumption of energy by 80%, at the rate that we are wasting our environment it will not be there for our descendants to experience.3 The actions we are so proud of are really nothing more than correcting our own mistakes. So maybe we should not be so proud after all?

In our heroic achievements, we are forgetting that these processes we are working so hard to develop, are happening naturally already elsewhere. Not in our western society so much anymore, but looking across the Atlantic we can catch glimpses of treasures. Trash treasures.

In the third world there is no concern, or even awareness, of words like solid waste management, global greening and post consumer recycling processes. What is happening is another kind of recycling, pure and simple in its forms. It is local, hand done and small scale, far away from automated disposal machines. What we are trying so hard to achieve, the population of the developing world are doing without even reflecting over it.

Values, which have perished from the West, have stayed in their original forms in many third world areas. But is there really any part in this world that is absolutely non-affected by western society? By now consumer culture has penetrated into the most segregated areas across the continents, creating challenging meetings and conflicts. By now “the material signs of western affluence are by no means limited to the market of the ‘first world’ capitalist consumers”4 What we today can see across the third world is an extraordinary combination of modern consumerism influences and surviving local tradition and culture.

I have in my research used India as a case study. Having the great opportunity to visit this fascinating country gave me the chance to explore its strong arts, crafts and making traditions. India is a very large country with over a billion inhabitants to feed and accommodate. A natural consequence is to not allow anything to go to waste. The tradition in re-use here is one of the strongest in the world. “Recycling is certainly an activity woven through the pattern of much Indian life. Literally no stone is left unturned in the ceaseless ritual of scavenging and reuse. Mughal architecture is often interspersed with confusing designs craved in stone originally pluched from Hindu and Buddhist buildings. Locals, for reuse in house decoration removed the very core wooden supports of the Gilgit stupas, in which great manuscripts have been discovered. Such acts are endless in Indian culture.”5

What I am concerned with in this thesis is not trying to solve the world’s environment problems nor am I trying to claim that consumer culture is utterly destructive and wrong or that we should go back to a primitive and simple way of living. The issue I want to raise is that of an increased awareness of how we can learn from foreign cultures in order to develop in positive directions. All cultures have differences, good and bad. In today’s society I believe there’s a need to look at other ways of life and adapt valuable elements into our own lives.

In using India as my case study country, I am not suggesting the Indian culture is the ultimate solution on ‘green’ issues. But I found a side, which is adoring and precious. An issue worth adapting into our culture in the West. What I am dedicated to explore is how we could adapt values and ideas of India’s efficient recycling culture into our western consumer society.

Wasting the West - Something to think about.

According to the World Wide Fund for Nature, for the average world citizen it takes an area of 2.3 hectares to provide what you need every year and then to have a place to dump what is left over. That is forty percent more than is sustainable – meaning that, every year you need one more hectare than the previous year. But there is no such thing as an average world citizen. If you are European, you need double this amount, if you are American, twenty-five times. And if you are Bangladeshi, one third of this.6

On average, every person in a developed country discards one kilogram of trash every day. Office workers in the USA throw away enough paper each year to build a three meter high wallstretching from New York to California. In the USA, 64 million tons of packaging is thrown away annually. Each year fifteen million computers are rendered obsolete worldwide. And every day, just in the USA, three to four million CDs are discarded. The diskettes take 450 years to decompose.7

In the USA, the world’s biggest car producer, where there is nearly one car per person, 300 million tyres are thrown away every year. They can not be burned (they release toxic fumes), and they do not decompose, so alternative uses have to be found.8

Locating India on the map of creativity

Let us set the scene.

India is a very large country on fully three million square meters. It has a population that just passed the one billion mark. With twentyfive different states, eighteen different languages and seven different official religions,9 this is a country full of elaborate contrasts and cultural mixes. As Mark Twain expressed his feelings for India already in the late 19th Century, “The land of dreams and romance, of fabulous wealth and fabulous poverty, of splendour and rags, of palaces and hovels, of famine and pestilence. The country of a hundred nations and a hundred tongues, of a thousand religions and two million gods.”10 Within the geographical boundaries of India, many different worlds are contained. The country has survived centuries of invasion, conquest and migrations and throughout has absorbed new influences and values. The long range of different rulers and their impact on the culture has in time made India develop its own personality and become essentially Indian in style and decoration. “Every village, town and city has superlative examples of artistry and craftsmanship and it isn’t just homes, clothes and public spaces which offers themselves up for decoration. There will always be a distinctive motif, a particular flourish or a telling use of colour that fixes the style firmly as Indian.”11

India is, related to world standards, a ‘poor’ country. This is in many aspects true with daily problems of lack of water and food, illiteracy and overcrowded cities. But also it is full of modest luxuries, separated from capitalistic views, which give liveliness and excitement, colour and spontaneity to the daily routine of existence for India’s people. A house is ornamented with different patterns, food is cooked in vivid colours and decorated clothing enhance the beauty of the humble people.

What keeps the Indian culture alive is its people. There is a genuine creativity in the hands of the Indian population. It is embedded into everyday life and in the heart of every Indian. “Every man is necessarily some kind of special artist, skilled and well contented in the making or arranging of some thing or another according to his constitution or training.” 12 When looking at crafts, this sector has a very special significance in India. Firstly it offers enormous employment potential, around 23 millions are employed in this unorganised sector, of obvious importance for a country with vast unemployment problems. But crafts also serve as a way to understand the essence of the different cultures in the country, to make connections to history and communicate between people.

Personally I do not consider the superior skills of the craftsperson or exclusiveness of the material as the main essence of craft culture. Just as significant are the social, religious and cultural aspects. Sometimes it is not the end product that is most important, but the processes along the journey. Many of the objects and their making processes that I will be discussing in this thesis would not be considered as crafts by the local people, sometimes not even by a foreign eye. Products made purely for utility, without any certain skill, tradition or background, are simply regarded as objects made by someone for a need. Not as crafts.

As explained by Art Historian Haku Shah the main reason for the making of objects is the need for activity in society. There is a basic human instinct to keep our hands busy, a human urge to make. Even the normal person without any special craft skills and material resources still has the urge to make with his or her hands. The need for utility objects is always present, so there will always be invention. Not with elaborate techniques, but with the most important human tools, our two hands and our creative mind. Not with any particular exquisite material, but with what surrounds him. A branch, a piece of fabric, a tin.

I have chosen to approach the craft traditions of India from the way they are treating waste, a study in the beauty of the re-use, elaborate or simple. No matter if it is high caste craft or a product from the local bazaar, they are still part of India’s creative culture.

Wastereality in Indian crafts

“It is remarkable that in India today, traditional crafts continue to be practised by estimated forty million people. In spite of the numerous changes, stresses and strains to which the Indian environment have been subjected to in the three centuries before Independence. These crafts have survived because they continue to fill a real need, as they have done over the past 3000 years.”13 The craft traditions of India have flourished and developed for thousands of years. They have always had, and still have, a vital impact on everyday life for India’s population. With such a high amount craftperformers and activities, one would assume the effect on the surrounding environment is inevitable, as we can see with industries in today’s western society.

But India follows its own patterns. Much of the beauty in India’s crafts is born within her humane spirits and respectful harmony. The crafts illustrate that the magnitude of its people and continuos poverty and uncertain future has not restrained the creation of the finest art. The creativity of its people will not die. Uncountable craft products are ceaselessly being produced in India, still the typical Indian recognition of the small details in daily life has survived. “For all the marvellous tissues and embroidery they have wrought, they have polluted no rivers, deformed no pleasing prospects, nor poisoned any air.”14 It is with patience and appreciation the craftpersons of India approach their environment. The traditional Indian value for nature’s resources is characterised by how they are praised as gifts from the gods. Being brought up in a Western society, with everything we need available, it is easy to forget to treasure the environment’s resources. It is not until we lose them that we realise they are absent or as this homily tells us “when the well is dry, we know the worth of water.”15

In India nothing is taken for granted, nothing is allowed to be wasted. A purpose is found for every little piece and part. ‘Make, do and mend’ is today an obsolete expression in the West, but is still fully relevant in India. An explanation could be found in various reasons from religious to economical and one could argue that this is the case in most cultures where wealth is lacking. Here available means affordable and “in all crafts - from pots to paper making - the initial stimulus to be creative is conditioned by the resources available”16 The creativity in everyday items is adapted perfectly in their designs to the local environment and what has to offer.

This philosophy was also a part of most societies in the West before Industrialisation, but it is now placed in the bygone era, possibly with exception of isolated pockets. However in the case of India, these ethics are still imperative, still in the centre of people’s lives. As in most developing countries the main reason for making crafts from recycled materials is usually economic. But what makes India unique is the spiritualism. Religion still plays a major role on most Indian’s lives. As explained by Jacqueline Herald “sometimes this necessity of re-use is incorporated in the customs and belief systems of society. In many Hindu and Buddhist communities the act of patching is a sign of humility, the example being set by religious ascetics, rag gods, and the Buddha himself. The creation of something whole from separate, worn parts is also deeply significant.”17

Since India is such a religious country, the value of belief for right and wrong is strongly rooted in the religion. The idea of recycling naturally follows Hindu notions concerned with the continual nature of manifest reality. As Frank J. Korom writes “one could argue on a philosophical point that the whole Hindu cosmos was created and is maintained through patterns that might be defined as a “recycling” of energy”.18 This could be explained, for a Western mind, through Hinduism’s beliefs in reincarnation and karma. Your soul is constantly being reborn into different bodies and your karma (your good and bad deeds throughout your life) decides whom you will be reborn into in the next life. A parallell can be drawn where the soul is the material reused into different functions, i.e. bodies, and how well the oppurtunities are used is the karma. Subsequently, David Knipe discusses the Hindu tradition as a religious system with an understanding for the cyclical sense of time and space in its “recognition that cosmic energies and elements are renewable resources, that the universe is driven by perpetual regeneration, and that in the final analysis it is a process of necessary and repeated dying that mysteriously provides new being for the world, its element, and its habitants of every species”.19

Is it the religious system that gives India’s reuse tradition its spirit? Certainly it does magnify a sense of appreciation for the small things, where it is the least expected, for an uninitiated mind.

Reviving the already dead – the art of patching

This value for the small things is truly present in the Indian craft traditions. No matter which craft I have researched, upon questioning, the craftsperson would know exactly how every part of the material is used, which process is most adaptable and how all waste can be reused. One interesting example is the way Joti (leather sandals) makers collect all their leather off cuts and sell them to recyclers who make leather board from them, or how the dust from stonecutters can be made into slurri and used again as an innovative material.

The case study I have chosen to introduce here is the one of the patchwork and quilt making of Gujarat. As a state, Gujarat, is especially famous for its embroidery and patchwork, and holds many treasures within its craft sector. I visited the organisation SEWA - Self-Employed Women Association20 and one of its workshop centres right in the heart of Ahmedabad. A few hundred craftswomen are based here, mainly in the section of patchwork. The women work together in small rooms, gathering in groups on the wooden floor. For most of these craftswomen their craft skills are the main income for their family and what provide their children with food for the day. As one craftswoman expressed the situation ‘Today the lives of my family hang by the thread I use to embroider’.

A lot of the beauty of the patchwork lies in the way these women use old clothes, rags and other waste fabrics to give them new life. It has been the natural way of making ornamental and functional patchwork for hundreds of years and the tradition still remains and stretches from deep inside out to the fingertips. One way of re-using sarees is expressed in this NID student dissertation. “When traditional Indian Patola sarees became frayed, the women made quilts and bedspreads of them, when that further deteriorated it was used for wicks to light all lamps called ‘diyas’ and that soot was taken and further processed into kohl for their eyes.”21

There is a thorough process of making quilts, which takes into consideration every use of the material and every detail of the process. It is a creation after deconstruction, where old garments are torn apart and made into something new and useful. The quiltmaker has a high respect for the cloth she is using and every different part of the clothes being reused have their own names. For example the trousers ‘chorno’, with the upperpart ‘charan’, the thigh part ‘gudra’ and the leg portion ‘paicha’ were all located on a piece of quilt along with another five garments.22

A common feature amongst rural craftswomen is the singing of different verses whilst working. Amongst the quilt workers of Gujarat, these are some of the verses being sung: ‘Mari ne jivade’ (reviving after killing) and ‘marekane jivade’ (reviving the already dead).23 These songs encourage the craftswomen in continuing their creative work. “The indispensable link between recovery and creation is ingenuity”.24 The quiltmakers of Gujarat hold this ingenuity in their hands, or shall we say their needles?

Kagzi Industries

- Indian craft identity surviving consumer demands

Even so the consumer market sometimes challenges the ingenuity of the craftspeople. With commercial demands the restrictions often hold back traditional creativity. Nonetheless there are examples where a tradition has survived, while satisfying commercial need as well. One interesting example is the paper factory Kagzi Industries in the town of Sanganer. This is an industrial factory with 200 workers, where every part of the process is handmade. The industry exports paper products to all around the world, including London.

This factory, along with a few other craft producers, is an example of how modern crafts have developed intricate recycling processes, in many ways similar to Western ways, to produce a product still with a handcrafted touch. Kagzi Industry’s products are 100% recycled from cotton fabrics. The cotton is waste from the textile industries in Bombay. The textiles are sorted and mixed with water to make into pulp. To colour the paper, it is mixed with natural vegetable dye and often petals or leaves are added for extra decoration. The end products are beautiful books, cards and albums, appreciated around the world for their natural, simple and humane aesthetics.

Here the Indian values have survived mass production. Kagzi Industries produces 10,000 paper sheets per day, still it is a main concern for the factory to stay sustainable in their resources and processes and keep their Indian identity. The recycled paper is a 300 year old tradition in India, but the use of cotton only started 40 years ago. With the high production of clothes in the south of India, it became an available and affordable source. The result was also both stronger and more durable than waste paper and therefore very successful.

The international interest for Kagzi Industries and similar factories has quickly increased the last decade. Possibly one of the reasons might be the upcoming up eco-friendly styled designs. The trend for products to communicate it is green has spread to the public, people have become “enviro-conscious” and “exotic wannabes” as expressed by Suzanne Seriff in Recycled – Reseen.25 These developments can mean a great risk for the identity of the craft products of the third world. It is hard to keep your pride when the need for selling becomes too strong. Too many times craft products have adapted to the “exotic look” required from the west, and lost the real essence of their personality. These aspects are discussed further in the chapter on western adaptation.

However this is not the case with the paper products from Sanganer. Their quality has been appreciated in their natural appearance, just slightly styled for the western eye, but without losing that fine Indian feel for sensitivity. The handmade paper from Sanganer serves as a precursor to the development of crafts in modern India and how they need to develop through inevitable change but still represent traditional values and qualities. This ideal is here described in a simple form “Good products of craftsmanship from the various areas could, within the scope of technological development, serve as patterns for forms, styles and motives, for creations, which despite all their modernness, preserve the Indian character. They do not just represent mostly dreary everyday forms as can be found everywhere according to the respective fashion.”26

Humble everyday routines

It is a human instinct to create with our hands. It is something we have always done in the past, but with follows an explanation of the beauty of human ingenuity by Haku Shah, a renowned fine artist and art historian in Ahmedabad. “Things which are made by hand by the people, men and women, from scrap material, or material we consider as waste, is part of a need and also part of an instinct. It is the human urge to do something by hand. To brake it and redo again. Already as children we were doing it, and nobody can stop this urge. It is the human instinct to do something out of, what we say, nothing, the things we consider as waste or garbage. Think of a dry leaf which has fallen on the ground, we say ‘oh, it is a leaf, it is of no use’, but for a child this can become a new exciting toy. And a newspaper, we say it is just a newspaper, it has been used, but for a village person, a woman or a man, they see something else, they can make a bowl out of the paper. They can tear and fold it in different ways and then it has a new purpose. This is the human urge to create by hand. Why would we have been given hands and feet if not to do something with them? That is the first reason for a natural re-use culture. After one use the next use is born. I think this is the best part of the human being, the urge to create again and again. If we say we have too much, if we say we throw this away, then I do not think we are human beings.”27

As explained in the previous chapter, there are many explanations for India’s reuse tradition, from spiritual beliefs to economic constraints. MP Ranjan, Furniture designer NID, added another view to the aspect; “In India necessity is the ground for possessions. People are not materialistically concerned, they do not need to show off with their possessions.”28 The people of India live their lives with a surprising gratification. There is no materialistic craving involved in their rural daily routines; simplicity and humility are everyday factors.

An object can be used over and over again. Since its major criterion is to fulfil a function, it can be used until it falls to pieces or until it stops serving its function. The consumers of those products are not concerned with if it represents the latest trend but how it can serve a functional need. The recycling creativity is born in the search for new uses. “What is important in a salvaged object - or a fragment of a salvaged object - is not its value, its beauty or its rarity but the flash of insight it produces as the observer realises the possibility of its transformation. The creator’s imagination gives birth to a new form, projected from the previous one, while at the same time working out the ways in which a spring, a jerrycan or an empty tin can be turned into a utensil, a toy or a work of art.”29

The craftsman of scrap-metal

Many are the people in India, who are brought up with this ingenuity. But not many have the ability so see such beauty in scrap-metal as the craftsman, Mohammed Umar Qureishi.

In a small alleyway, right in the heart of the brass engraver area around Thateron Ka Rasta in Jaipur, Mohammed Umar’s house and workshop lies. The ground floor of the tiny house serves as workshop and material storage, as well as ‘reception room’. Mohammed Umar is by definition, what one could call a scrap-metal craftsman. He works in any material he can find, but mainly uses iron. His work covers a range of objects from utility products and furniture to sculptural and ornamental objects.

Interestingly enough, the pieces he seems to take the most pride in and where he has gained most recognition,are not the same as the pieces I find the most fascinating. The latter were the objects in the back of the room; his shelves made from metal sheet off cuts and his armchair made from bike wheels and a broken chair seat. Very ‘modern’ in their aesthetic with clear and clean designs, they could just as well have been made in 21st century Britain, instead of this tiny, dusty workspace inside the old city’s walls of Jaipur. Mohammed explained how he enjoys making these objects, but there is no demand for these kinds of products as a craftsman. He receives much more interest and praise from his sculptural pieces. The people do not appreciate or understand those objects.

This is the case with most recycled objects in India. They exist, people make them everywhere, everyday. Not produced for praise, but for utility, by the people, for the people. They are there to fulfil their function as an obvious part of Indian life. Brought to a new life for a certain need; nothing more, nothing less.

Mudhas: sit down for a ‘Chai’

Most of India’s reuse objects have been created out of a certain need. One of them is the ‘mudhas’. They are low stools made especially for drinking ‘chai’– Indian tea. Drinking chai, is a very important daily act for every Indian. Often this takes place in small roadside ‘chaishops’. Passing down the streets of Jaipur, it is a common scene to see groups of men sitting together on mudhas, sipping their drinks. My attention was drawn to these stools immediately.

The first example of these stools, I passed by on my second morning in India. What first drew my eyes to them was the amazing structure made out of local grass ’sarkanda’, from the nearby desert. In the bright sunshine the elaborate line work made a mesmerising aesthetic. The second after, I saw the lining of the seat and the stand; old bike tyres stitched around the edges! After trying the stools, I was even more impressed, since it was, as well as charming, sturdy and comfortable.

The second examples I came across were very different in their appearance and construction, but just as clever. They were interesting little stools made from the metal of old ghee-oil–containers. Through a lot investigation and research I found the place where these stools were being made. I was given the directions ‘to the peetal (brass) factory’, which made me expect an industrial factory, maybe small, but a factory. After passing by the real producers several times on the street in my cycle rickshaw, in search for this factory, I was personally lead up to a small street camp on the dusty roadside.

Here a family was sitting making the stools with simple hand tools and no electrical facilities. There were a large group of kids running around trying to help the best they could, but the father and the two eldest sons, of around thirteen years, was doing most of the work. The process was to cut the old ghee-containers into strips and circles, which is then bent into shape and nailed together. The final product is a three-legged stool, simple and light but very strong, perfectly adapted for its purpose.

This family is an example of how citydwellers make a living from other people’s waste. The United Nations estimate that two percent of the city dwellers in non-industrialised countries make a living from the refuse discarded by the richest ten to twenty percent.30

Before leaving the street workshop I bought one of the stools, as a gesture of respect and because I really like the design. When walking down the streets in Jaipur with the stool under my arm, I got funny looks from the people I met. From the poorer people mildly amused looks, from the wealthier a slight disapproval in their eyes. I realised it was not a very common sight, a foreigner buying one of those stools. Apparently something they were not expected to do either.

This story illustrates an example of the problem on the reuse-conversation in India. As I wrote earlier, products with the aesthetic of recycled, are not praised as precious objects. Since they are born out of pure need and not leisure functions, beauty can be hard to see. What makes recycling even less praised amongst the population is the fact it is normally performed by low caste people. This has its explanation far back in history, as pointed out by Frank J. Korom. “Under the traditional caste system the practise of reusing things was framed in terms of strict social hierarchy mandates by Hindu law books and orthodox cultural practices. These laws stipulated the rules of interaction, codes of conduct, and services that could be performed by each group within the culture.”31 The caste based community embodied skills to fit every need into a specific hierarchy of tasks. The ‘head’ was the Brahman, who nurtured the ritualistic aspirations, while the Shudra was at the feet, performing services for the higher castes. Those services involved the collection, destruction and reconstruction of waste.

Today, the poor people of India are still left to do ‘the dirty job’ no one else wants to touch. If produced for the upper classes their recycled aesthetic is often concealed “owing to an indigenous philosophy of purity and pollution, the dividing up of the world into clean and unclean realms.”32 This attitude affects both the recycling workers, who collect and sort the trash, the functional workers, like the roadside stool family, and waste material artisan, like Mohammed Omar. No one involved in the trade of recyclia33 is left unaffected.

Urban reuse in India

Urbanisation has not left India aside. Even though about 74% of the population still lives in the countryside, India has seen the growth of densely populated cities with Mumbai topping the population chart with fifteen millions, closely followed by Calcutta at twelve and Delhi at almost ten millions.34 Industrialisation is quickly spreading in the India’s cities and it is walking hand in hand with consumerism. The society is changing towards modern values, but the population’s cultural heritage does not vanish with a fullmoon.

What is created is an interesting contrast between consumerism and tradition in a culture so full of character. Industry has taken foothold in India’s cities, but the habits of the majority of the people are still typically Indian. The cows are still roaming the streets and people are still sitting by the roadside drinking chai and eating samosas. But instead of the traditional clay chaicups, designed to hold liquid for ten minutes before dissolving, plastic cups are used and the samosas, instead of the sustainable bambooleaf containers are served in paper boxes. Those consumer products are becoming a natural input in the society and urban people accept them as naturally as the traditional products. Fact is they are usually more adapted and appropriate for the urban person. “The average Indian today often relates more with urban craft factors than traditional crafts. This could be seen as a natural consequence of the changes his own lifestyle has undergone. For instance, the use of a clay pot for storing and cooling water may not fit into his lifestyle of a small living area and mechanical habituation. For such an individual, a Milton water bottle is more relevant and practical.”35

Certain consumer products have become so widespread, that action is now taken to stop further development. The government of Uttar Pradesh, India’s largest state, has banned plastic bags altogether. “Tons of bags litter the state’s roads, and thousands of cows die every year after eating the bags. Despite business leader’s protests (they say the closing of the 90 factories that make the plastic bags means a loss of 15,000 jobs), the state government refuses to go back on its decision.”36

Change is inevitable. We have to accept development in our culture, but how far can we turn from our traditions without loosing our identity?

Errol Piers, a textile designer from NID, was explaining that one of the main problems for innovative waste treatment in India is amongst the higher and middle castes. They have throughout history had servants taking care of their possessions. Therefore there is no awareness of what one leaves behind. Someone has always been there to pick up after them. A wastedealer ‘raddiwalla’ in Mumbai, comments on his view on the issue: “I have heard that in the West no one litters, but here we don’t have that kind of good civic sense. On the other hand, there is almost no waste here”.37

Errol Piers also explains his view on the problem with India accepting consumer ideals into its society. “Economic constrains have always been considered in the value systems of India’s people. They have been brought up to appreciate what surrounds them. Every possession used to be a luxury. With the impact of consumer culture in India, those values are changing. The younger generation takes a lot for granted and the media influence has created a craving to possess. There is more arrogance, often subconsciously, towards the environment, and consumerism is a larger part of their lives.”38 The children being born in the large cities of India today take for granted they have water running from the taps and electricity to light their rooms. They have never had to walk for a mile to fetch water from a dry well or tried to light a kerosene lamp fuelled by dried cow dung. This brings arrogance towards the resources available.

One has to remember those aspects are only relevant for the young generation of the higher castes though. In India has a very high amount of homeless people. Mumbai inhabits India’s largest slumareas with more than six million people living there39. For them the question is not whether the food is tasty enough but to actually get something to eat at all. It is often the Harijan castes that hold the fascinating skills to reuse every little object they find. “When material are scarce, re-use has always taken place.”40 Those skills flourish, as I discussed earlier, in the craftsworld of India, but is also very strong in many industrial cities, where there is an obvious increase of waste to be re-used. One of those cities is Ahmedabad, which I visited during my field study.

The Sunday market - the ultimate treasure hunt

One place which has been born out of necessity for reuse is Ahmedabad’s Sunday market, situated on the flood bank of the Sabarmati River. To visit this market is to accept elbows punching your chest, wheels over your toes and loud voices in your ears. It is confusing, tiring and messy, but still so fascinating. But also whatever you are looking for, you will find here, as long as it is not brand-new and shining. At first sight, it seems to be a big junkyard, but when you take a closer look, you find interesting and precious curiosities. The majority of the things found in this market would have been thrown straight into the bin in the West. Here they still serve a purpose. They are reborn into a new life or into serving a new function.

There are old horseshoes, cotton strips, nuts and bolts, parts of telephones and wires, all in their own corner in this big organised chaos. This market reflects the modern Indian industrial city rather clearly. It is chaotic and dirty, but vivid. Most of all, it is a loud crash in the crossroad of modern consumer society and traditional rural life.

In this environment one finds very interesting examples of reuse and waste treatment. With the growth of the city, the waste of consumer products has increased rapidly. But since the mind of the people does not change at the same pace, the old attitudes still see the opportunities waste provide for re-use. Something the Western mind has forgotten. Ahmedabad’s Sunday market is a fine example of how preciously the Indian culture treats surrounding objects. Walking around this market, is a clear statement of how the recycling processes does not exists in Indian daily habits, but natural reuse is as obvious as getting up in the morning.

Rockgarden - a recyclia themepark

One person, who has exploited those re-use traditions of India fully, is Nek Chand. In the ‘country of contrast’ he has created a recyclia haven right in the middle of Chandigarh – the city of modernity.

Chandigarh, Punjab, was designed in the 70’s by the French architect Le Corbusier and is regarded the model city for modernism in India. The whole city holds a distinctive functionalist feeling and divides itself from other Indian cities. Right next to the parliament buildings Nek Chand’s creation the Rock Garden is located. Engineer-turned-artist Nek Chand began the project in 1958 but it is still not completely finished. To enter the garden one has to walk through gates about one meter high and inside reveals a huge (ten hectare) maze-like stone garden. It contains over 5000 sculptures and everything is made from discarded material the artist has found from scouring the streets of Chandigarh. Its inhabitants, small stone persons, are made from everything from broken porcelain, discarded electrical sockets and bangles.

The work demonstrates the potential of transforming urban landscapes and has been called “a living testimony to the recycling message.”41 The park has gained international popularity and critical acclaim, which has lead to a more widespread acceptance of recycled goods on the utilitarian level around India.

A wasteproduct’s new life in the West

As mentioned earlier, also in the West, “until the advent of the ‘throwaway society ’the philosophy of thrift was an intrinsic part of life, in which necessity forced people to extract the maximum use from available materials. ”42 These traditions are now obsolete in most parts of the West, but find their contemporary echo in the trends of the so-called ‘green consumerism’. Throughout the 1980’s an awareness for the environment increased and values of a more sustainable society was indicated. At the end of the decade ‘green design’ was a fashionable part of modern British life. ‘Green’ products, organic food and local recycling schemes all became actively sought.

However as the Friends of the Earth stated in 1990: “Although green consumerism is a step forward it must not be allowed to reinforce complacency by suggesting that all we need to do is to make a comparatively small number of changes and then all will be well. For the truth of the matter is that humanity as a whole is going to have to consume not just better but less.”43 This is a matter-of-fact indeed. It is not enough to choose better products to consume; we radically have to decrease the amount we are consuming. On the other hand, can any consumerism be truly green? Can we maintain materialistic consuming and still live up to eco-friendly values? A lot of contradictions surround the words ‘green consumerism’.

As a subsequent response to the green consumerism, the value for thrift increased. Not out of necessity, but for ethical correctness. The thrift style became regarded as responsible. Jaqueline Herard wrote “The transformation of waste into new products has taken on a moral aesthetic to be admired.”44 The group of ‘enviro-conscious’ and ‘exotic wannabes’, as mentioned earlier, have directed the taste towards re-used and recycled products. A situation has developed amongst this group, where recycled materials might have a higher value than virgin. But are those values true in their origin or are they built upon trends?

Many products have been developed in the East for this consumer group, made to serve their function as ‘exotic green products’. However a problem is created since “they have been divorced from their original points of referentiality – as ingenious solutions to real problems of economic and aesthetic impact – and reascribed new meanings in a system of pure consumption.”45 This praise for the recycled aesthetic is something difficult for many of the craftspeople involved to understand. For them a product made from a discarded matchbox would look much more valuable painted white than displaying the old material. As J. Herald writes “it is difficult (for the craftsperson) to comprehend why a discarded object should become fashionable and highly desirable.”46 While what has often been created are trendy recyclables out of context in the Western contemporary culture.

Contemporary scavenging trends

However, a serious interest amongst Western designers for using discarded materials and objects has been spreading conspicuously during the last two decades. One of the first design groups in Britain which based their material approach around the recycling of found objects was Creative Salvage. The group was created in 1985, including Nick Jones, Mark Brazier Jones and Tom Dixon (now head-designer of Habitat) They stated that “We want to glamorise the ideas of recycling, which has always sounds so sordid, by turning scrap into beautiful objects. Beautiful in our eyes anyway.”47 Today the focal point for many individual designers, craftsmen and design groups is environmental aspects, and inspiration has often been taken from the way developing countries approach waste. Contemporary works reflect ideas from the third world, both in material and techniques approaches.

As furniture designer Michael Marriott, renowned for his way of reusing found objects, explained why he has chosen this direction in his work. “One of the reasons I do this is because, as well as providing this beautifully expedient solution, they can introduce familiarity, warmth, colour, and heartiness.”48

Michael Marriott is not alone in holding those attitudes amongst Western designers. Why have they arisen? We may hope one reason to be an increased awareness for the environment amongst the public. As Victor Papanek point out to us “New directions in design and architecture do not occur accidentally, but always arise out of real changes in society, cultures and concepts.”49 A trend for the recycled most has started from a consideration for our nature, but has lead into a consumer style. The balance has often tipped over on the commercial objectives and the spirit of reuse has gone astray. Many products have been produced riding on the trend of recycling but without really considering the real essence of using waste. What are often created are gimmicky objects and iconic recyclables. Their original purpose of efficiency and function is lost on their journey across the sea. Adapted straight into a new Western context it is difficult for their social history to not be misread. What is needed is an understanding of the two cultures in order to merge one of them into the other.

Conclusion:

“It is clear that one man’s rubbish can be another man’s desirable object; that rubbish, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.”50 And surely we can agree with Robert Thompson in his statement. It is all about perceptions. When seeing tincans in a rubbishbin, they are nothing else than trash to anyone. But transform them in new contexts and shapes and they will be read in a completely new light. When extracted from the trash context they can be seen as treasures.

This is an ability we have seen in the hands of India’s population. The way they see waste is not as obvious rubbish but as potential tools to produce functional products. In the West we are usually lacking in this capacity. The ability to turn trash into treasure, for the sake of utility. Not to appeal to certain trends and styles, but for the possibilities the materials give us.

Why we appreciate the reuse products of India is not because they are trendy or wacky, but because they create beauty from efficiency. The craftsmen of India have a very simple but respectful approach to their work, which gives an ingenuous beauty to the objects. It is the contradictory meeting between consumerism and tradition that creates fascinating results. The problem usually lies in the way the two are combined. Our challenge is how to direct a successful meeting. Or as Mariko Mori expressed her goal to achieve in her work “to create a world where the spirituality of the East and the consumerism of the West are not juxtaposed but synthesised.”51

What we need to learn today, in the 21st Century’s globalisation of communication, is how to emerge the different opportunities offered to us into a modern cross-cultural society.

Bibliography:

Arts and crafts of India, Ilay Cooper and John Gillow, Thames & Hudson, London, 1996

The Arts of India, George C.M. Birdwood, Rupa & Co., New Delhi, 4th Impression 1994

Crafts, Today as Yesterday, David Gibbon, Colour Library Int. Ltd., London, 1976

The craft traditions of India, Jaya Jaitly, Lustre Press Pvt Ltd., New Delhi, 1990

The Green imperative, Ecology and ethics in design and Architecture, Victor Papanek, Thames & Hudson, Singapore, 1995

India in Britain - The Indian contribution to the British way of life, Kusoom Vadgama, Robert Royce Ltd, London, 1984

India, Lonely Planet, Lonely Planet Publications Pty Ltd., Hawthorn Australia, 8th edition, 1999

India Modern – Traditional forms and Contemporary design, Herbert J.M. Ypma, Phaidon Press Ltd., London, 1994

Indian Design: Yesterday and Today, R K Banerjee, Designfolio, NID, Ahmedabad, 1991

Indien i stort och smått 1947 – 1997, Samuel Strandberg, AB Samuel Travel, Stockholm, 1997

Indien väntar, Jan Myrdahl, Norstedts bokförlag, Stockholm, 1987

Inside India – Quintessential Indian Style, Monisha Bharadwaj, Kyle Cathie Ltd., London, 1998

The living arts of India- Craftsmen at work, Arts council of Great Britain, London, 1982

Made in India, Tony Hayward, Crafts council, London, 1997

Majestic India, Tarun Chopra, Local colour Ltd., Hong Kong, 1998

Mud, mirror and thread – Folk traditions of Rural India, Mapin Publishing Pvt. Ltd., Ahmedabad, 1994

The nature and art of workmanship, David Pye, Cambridge University Press, 1968

Rajasthan - India’s enchanted land, Raghubir Singh, Thames & Hudson, Singapore, 1989

Reclaimed: recycling in contemporary British Craft & Design, British Council, London, 1999

Recycled paper – an Indian Tradition, Gift of Conquerors, Hand papermaking in India, A. Soteriou, India, 1995

Recycled, Re-Seen: Folk Art from the Global Scrap Heap, Charlene Cerny and Suzanne Seriff, Harry N.Abrams, 1996

Recycling - Forms for the next century - Austerity for posterity, Craftspace Touring, Birmingham, 1996

Recycling - Forms for the next century - Austerity for posterity, Teresa Rinaldi, MAAD/Dissertation, Kingston University, 1998

Recycling of textile waste in Ahmedabad, Student dissertation, Purnima Das & Seema Bhargava, NID, Ahmedabad, 1987

Rethink, Tom Dixon, Conran Octopus Ltd., London, 2000

Reuse, repair, recycle – a mine of creative ideas for thrifty living, Jan McHarry, Gaia Ltd., London, 1993

Rural craftsmen and their work – Equipment and techniques in the Mer village of Ratadi in Saurashtra, India, E. Fisher, H. Shah, NID, Ahmedabad, 1970

The story of Craft - The craftsman’s role in society, Edward Lucie - Smith, Phaidon Press, Oxford, 1981

Values in a changing society, Reflections on Design, Shyam Benegal, NID, Ahmedabad, India, 1992,

World crafts - a celebration of designs and skills, Jaqueline Herald, Charles Letts & Co, 1992

Yesterdaze – Craft research and documentation project, G. Khanna, S. Mishra, P. Bhattacharya, R. Revbens,

Accessory Design Department, National Institute of Fashion Technology, New Delhi, 1996

Young Designers 95 – 97, NID, Ahmedabad, India, 1996

Publications:

Colors, No. 40, October – November 2000

Domus, No. 789, January 1997

Ottagono, No. 126, March – May 1998

Ottagono, No. 137,

Recycling Waste – Ingenuity & Creativity, Jocelyne Etienne-Nugue, UNESCO Exhibition publication, 1993

Interviews:

Haku Shah, Art Historian & Fine Artist, Ahmedabad

MP Ranjan, Furniture Designer & Professor NID

SK Khanna, Product & Furniture Designer & Professor NID

Sasi Gopal, Product Designer & Assistant Professor IICD

CV Singh, Furniture Designer & Senior Professor IICD

Web pages:

www.craftscouncil.org.uk

www.oxfam.co.uk

www.peacecraft.com

www.recycledartworks.com

www.unesco.org/culture/crafts/html

Illustrations:

All photos have been taken by Ida Wanler, which holds the copyright to those images, except the images in chapter 5, which is taken from Recycling - Forms for the next century - Austerity for posterity, and the frontpage image which is from High Life, December 2000.

FOOTNOTES:

1 The Indian Institute of Craft and Design,IICD, is a small institute in Jaipur, Rajasthan. They where initially set up in 1995 with help from government and NID – National Institute of Design. The activities started in 1997 and the first batch of students started their education in September 1999. Their aim is to educate designers with a close relationship to local craftsmen, but with anticipation to the entire country. Their designers will be sensitised to the need of the craftspersons and could be called ‘Design Technomanagers’.

2 The National Institute of Design, NID, was established in 1961 in co-operation with Charles Eames. It was the first experiment of its kind in the non-industrialised world. The main regard was to, using Eames’ own words: ‘create an alert and impatient national conscience that is concerned for its surroundings qualities and primary values’. It is now India’s largest design education centre, with around 300 students graduating every year.

3 From lecture by Jakki Dehn, senior professor, Kingston University

4 Recycled, Re-Seen: Folk Art from the Global Scrap Heap, Museum of International Folk Art, Harry N. Abrams, 1996, p. 13

5 Recycled paper – an Indian Tradition, Gift of Conquerors, Hand papermaking in India, A. Soteriou, India, 1995, p. 96

6 Colors, No. 40, October – November 2000, p.19

7 Colors, No. 40, October – November 2000, p. 16, 27, 28, 30

8 Colors, No. 40, October – November 2000, p.31

9 India, Lonely Planet, Lonely Planet Publications Pty Ltd., Hawthorn Australia, 8th edition, 1999, p.55

10 India Modern – Traditional forms and Contemporary design, Herbert J.M. Ypma, Phaidon Press Ltd., London, 1994, p. 1

11 Inside India – Quintessential Indian Style, Monisha Bharadwaj, Kyle Cathie Ltd., London, 1998, p. 105

12 Mud, mirror and thread – Folk traditions of Rural India, Amanda Coomaraswany, Art History & Philosopher, Mapin Publishing Pvt. Ltd., Ahmedabad, 1994, p. 19

13 Indian Design: Yesterday and Today, R K Banerjee, Designfolio, NID, Ahmedabad, 1991, p. 40

14 The Arts of India, George C.M. Birdwood, Rupa & Co., New Delhi, 4th Impression 1994, p.136

15 Recycled, Re-Seen: Folk Art from the Global Scrap Heap, C. Cerny and S. Seriff (ed.), Museum of International Folk Art, Harry N. Abrams Inc., 1996, American Adhocism: wasting, saving, and the aesthetics of conspicuous recycling, Charlene Cerny, p. 31

16 World crafts - a celebration of designs and skills, Jaqueline Herald, Charles Letts & Co, 1992, p. 183

17 World crafts - a celebration of designs and skills, Jaqueline Herald, Charles Letts & Co, 1992, p.183

18 Recycled, Re-Seen: Folk Art from the Global Scrap Heap, Museum of International Folk Art, Harry N. Abrams Inc., 1996, Recycling in India: status and economic realities, Frank J. Korom, p. 121

19 Recycled, Re-Seen: Folk Art from the Global Scrap Heap, Museum of International Folk Art, Harry N. Abrams Inc., 1996, Recycling in India: status and economic realities, Frank J. Korom, Knipe 1993, 798 - 9, p.121

20 The organisation SEWA is based in Ahmedabad. It was founded in 1972 as a unique trade union, now Gujarat’s single largest, comprising 211,000 members in India. The aim of the organisation is to enable women to actively participate in the mainstream economy and to attain empowerment through financial autonomy. Self-employment is the keystone, since 94% of India’s women fall into this category. SEWA assist organisation of unions and co-operatives and policies and programs are implemented in an endeavour to reflect the experience, needs and realities of the self-employed.

21 Recycling of textile waste in Ahmedabad, Purnima Das, Seema Bhargava, NID, 1987

22 Rural craftsmen and their work – Equipment and techniques in the Mer village of Ratadi in Saurashtra, India,

E. Fisher, H. Shah, NID, Ahmedabad, 1970, p. 70

23 Rural craftsmen and their work – Equipment and techniques in the Mer village of Ratadi in Saurashtra, India, E. Fisher, H. Shah, NID, Ahmedabad, 1970, p. 71

24 Recycling Waste - Ingenuity and Creativity, Jocelyne Etienne-Nugue, UNESCO, 1993, p.4

25 Recycled, Re-Seen: Folk Art from the Global Scrap Heap, Museum of International Folk Art, Harry N. Abrams Inc., 1996, p. 29

26 Mud, mirror and thread – Folk traditions of Rural India, Mapin Publishing Pvt. Ltd., Ahmedabad, 1994, p.38

27 Quote from interview with Haku Shah, Art Historian and Fine Artist, Ahmedabad

28 Quote from interview with MP Ranjan, Furniture Designer, Ahmedabad

29 Recycling Waste – Ingenuity & Creativity, Jocelyne Etienne-Nugue, UNESCO Exhibition publication, 1993, p.4

30 Recycled, Re-Seen: Folk Art from the Global Scrap Heap, C. Cerny and S. Seriff (ed.), Museum of International Folk Art, Harry N. Abrams Inc., 1996, p.17

31 Recycled, Re-Seen: Folk Art from the Global Scrap Heap, Museum of International Folk Art, Harry N. Abrams Inc., 1996, p. 121 – 122

32 Recycled, Re-Seen: Folk Art from the Global Scrap Heap, Museum of International Folk Art, Harry N. Abrams Inc., 1996, p.123

33 This word was coined by Frank J. Korom in his essay Recycling in India, Status and Economic Realities, Recycled, Re-Seen: Folk Art from the Global Scrap Heap, Museum of International Folk Art, Harry N. Abrams Inc., 1996

34 India, Lonely Planet, Lonely Planet Publications Pty Ltd., Hawthorn Australia, 8th edition, 1999, p. 55

35 Yesterdaze – Craft research and documentation project, G. Khanna, S. Mishra, P. Bhattacharya, R. Revbens, Accessory Design Department, National Institute of Fashion Technology, New Delhi, 1996, p.12

36 Colors, No. 40, October – November 2000, p.29

37 Colors, No. 40, October – November 2000, p. 32

38 Quote from interview with Erroll Piers, Textile Designer, NID

39 Indien i stort och smått 1947 – 1997, Samuel Strandberg, AB Samuel Travel, Stockholm, 1997

40 Recycled paper – an Indian Tradition, Gift of Conquerors, Hand papermaking in India, A. Soteriou, India, 1995, p. 113

41 Recycled, Re-Seen: Folk Art from the Global Scrap Heap, Museum of International Folk Art, Harry N. Abrams Inc., 1996, p.127

42 Recycling - Forms for the next century - Austerity for posterity, Teresa Rinaldi, MAAD/Dissertation, Kingston University, 1998, p. 14

43 Recycling - Forms for the next century - Austerity for posterity, Teresa Rinaldi, MAAD/Dissertation, Kingston University, 1998, footnote 85 [ Friends of the Earth, J. Porritt, Optima, 1990, p.23

44 World crafts - a celebration of designs and skills, Jaqueline Herald, Charles Letts & Co, 1992, p.187

45 Recycled, Re-Seen: Folk Art from the Global Scrap Heap, Museum of International Folk Art, Harry N. Abrams Inc., 1996, p.28

46 World crafts - a celebration of designs and skills, Jaqueline Herald, Charles Letts & Co, 1992, p.187

47 Recycling - Forms for the next century - Austerity for posterity, Teresa Rinaldi, MAAD/Dissertation, Kingston University, 1998, footnote 64

48 Recycling - Forms for the next century - Austerity for posterity, Craftspace Touring, Birmingham, 1996, p. 68

49 The Green imperative, Ecology and ethics in design and Architecture, Victor Papanek, Thames & Hudson, Singapore, 1995, p. 236

50 Rubbish Theory, Robert Thompson, 1979, p. 97

51 Mariko Mori, Visual Artist, Apocalypse, Royal Academy of Arts, Sept. – Dec. 2000