Block printed textiles of India: imprints of culture
- Submitting institution
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Nottingham Trent University
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Output identifier
- 9 - 696642
- Type
- A - Authored book
- DOI
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- Publisher
- Niyogi Books
- ISBN
- 9789385285035
- Open access status
- Out of scope for open access requirements
- Month of publication
- December
- Year of publication
- 2016
- URL
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- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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0
- Research group(s)
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C - Fashion and Textiles Research Centre
- Proposed double-weighted
- Yes
- Double-weighted statement
- The production of a longer-form output presented as a book, demonstrating sustained research effort written over three years (2013-2016), including ethnographical field research in India focussing on block printing traditions and techniques. Investigative archive-based work revealed public/private collections and trade records (central museum of Jaipur sample books from the 1900s). The multi element source material including primary archival, interviews with intangible crafts through artisans, conferring with NGOs to gain access, is synthesised into a monograph to provide a comprehensive discourse of India’s cultural heritage.
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- One of India’s foremost crafts, block-printing has played a key role in the creation of visual identity, and has been a significant source of revenue through centuries of international trade. The book acknowledges entrepreneurship’s role in the survival of the craft, delineating networks of producers, merchants, designers and consumers integral to sustaining trade. It identifies threats to block-printing from industrial production in India and overseas, as well as from environmental degradation and water shortages. Craft is explored as an expression of India’s cultural heritage through consideration of legislation at national and international level as well its significance to its authors and consumers.
Drawing on extensive ethnographic research in South/Southeast Asia, the book allies primary data to literary searches, trade records, and study of museum/private collections; work in the Central Museum, Jaipur unearthed neglected sample books compiled in 1900. Its geographical and historical scale is supported by first-hand accounts from artisans and other actors, and analysis of interventions in the craft sector by state/other agencies reveals the formative role of craft in national identity in postcolonial India.
The book was peer-reviewed by specialists in South Asian/Design History, and by Niyogi’s editorial team; revisions were implemented in the light of their comments. Shortlisted for the Textile Society of America’s R.L. Shep Award 2016, it received a design award from the Indian Book Publishers Association in 2016, with favourable reviews in Marg (2016#67/4, 110-111) and Selvedge (2016#73).
The first book to offer a comprehensive overview of block-printing in India, the scale of the craft is revealed across time and place, locating it in culture and trade. The time-span of the research has given the author-photographer a nuanced understanding of block-printing, highlighting its significance for designers and retailers in India and overseas. Research was funded by BASAS, British Academy, Nehru Trust and Leverhulme Trust.
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -