To give a fillip to people-to-people contact between India and Egypt, the Dastkari Haat Samiti is hosting a fortnight-long crafts bazaar at Dilli Haat opposite the INA Market here beginning January 1.
Apart from a wide array of crafts epitomising Egyptian civilisation, the event will see wonderful crafts prepared by indigenous craftsmen. National and State awardees from Bihar, Gujarat, Jammu & Kashmir, Jharkhand, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh will demonstrate their skills. Egyptian products like marble inlay, bead work, telli work, leather work and papier mache will be on display. Wire toys, Madhubani and Gond paintings, paper mache, thread jewellery making items, puppet making stuff, pottery and bamboo items will be showcased by Indian craftsmen.
According to Samiti president Jaya Jaitly, the event is a significant chapter in the relationship between India and Egypt. “Relationship between the two countries goes a long way. In fact, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser were the architects of the Non-Aligned Movement. Even during the earlier centuries the two countries had close ties and share the same cultural civilisation. So much so that some of our crafts look similar. We will, therefore, examine these similarities and accordingly train Egyptian craftsperson to upgrade their skills. All this exercise is not aimed at marketing and exporting products,” said Ms. Jaitly, while speaking to The Hindu .
Pointing out that Indian craftsmen will also train their Egyptian counterparts in softening leather, Ms. Jaitly, architect of Afrokhadi – a joint collaboration between Indian and African craftspersons, said the Egyptian leather is rough and hence the craftsmen would be taught ways to soften leather. “We will also teach them the art of preparing fine quality glasses and how we do our intricate embroidery work.”
Ten Egyptian craftspersons will be out on a rigorous training schedule. “We are fortunate that the Egypt Network for Integrated Development founder, Heba Handoussa, has agreed to participate. She is creating a viable process for identification of problem areas and dissemination of solutions to select national problems through her organisation.”
The event is a follow up to the Akshara Crafting Indian Scripts Exhibition which was held at Cairo this April. The previous event was a collaboration between the Indian and the Egyptian craftspersons towards capacity building in rural areas. The skills have been selected by the Egyptian counterparts for training.
The annual crafts bazaar will see the participation of over 160 craftspersons from villages and towns of various parts of India. Visitors will be able to interact, learn, appreciate and explore both the Indian and the Egyptian handicrafts and textiles.
