Live Demonstration of Craftsmanship at Amber Fort Jaipur during the visit of Hon’ble President of French Republic H.E. Mr. Emmanuel Macron
The Indian constitution holds its head high as the constitution of the greatest democracy! It came into action on the 26th of January 1950. Every year 26th January is celebrated as the Republic Day of India, in the Indian capital of Delhi and across the country. Each year, the head of a country, or an eminent personality is invited as the chief guest to grace the occasion. This year, the chief guest was H.E. The president of the French Republic, Mr. Emmanuel Macron. As luck would have it, Mr. Macron’s visit was planned to Jaipur on the 25th of January 2024, a day before the grand Republic Day celebrations in Delhi. This was planned by the Prime Minister’s office, The French Embassy and the Government of the State of Rajasthan.
The plan was that he would land at the Jaipur airport, be received by the heads of the state, and then come to Amber Fort. At Amer, he was to receive a Red-Carpet welcome by the deputy Chief minister and the Tourism department. Along with folk customs, dance, and music, he would be waved at and welcomed by the school and college students, who learn French, waving Indian and French Flags. This activity was to be supervised by the Alliance Française of Jaipur, the only official French body in the state of Rajasthan.
After having met the students, he would come up to the ‘diwan-e-aam’ complex of the fort, where there would be displays of crafts and textiles by the Indian Institute of Crafts and Design (IICD), NILA House (Lady Bamford Foundation), Princess Diya Kumari Foundation (PDKF), and Rajeevika (a women-based group, for crafts). Having looked at the crafts, he would go to the next floor, where there would be dance and music, a visit to the sheesh mahal and to the ‘diwan-e-khas’.He would then come to the first floor again, meet a group of select students going to France from India and those who had already studied in France and had come back, represented by the French Embassy.
After which he would join our Prime Minister, Mr Narendra Modi, for the rest of his visit, and leave for Delhi by night to be at the Republic Day function, the next morning.
Thus, at Amer, the most important aspect was to show him the brilliance of our country, along with the Indo-French relationship! Each display, by NILA, PKDF, Rajeevika and IICD has to be perfect, and each one did a fabulous job! As the Director of the Indian Institute of Crafts and Design, as well as the President of the Alliance Française of Jaipur, I had to be on my toes to see that our work was smooth and well planned.
As IICD, we had planned to showcase the living crafts of Rajasthan. Miniature painting of Rajasthan, which was done on the ‘Ganesh Pol’, or the doorway, with Ganesh ji’s image adorning the doorway, is still alive. The fresco work on the walls, the polish (araish), which makes the walls smooth as marble and keeps the buildings cool, is such an important craft form. The use of sustainable materials, the slow process, a very ethical, environment friendly and a long lasting finish is achieved, and looks beautiful.
We had invited a ‘Damascus and koftgiri’ artisan from Udaipur. These metallurgy techniques were used for creating swords, shields and chainmail armour to be used by the rulers for warfare. The Amer fort may have had a huge demand for these products in its hey day. But now that these are redundant products, how the artform is kept alive by product diversification, by using the skill to create cutlery, clocks, and other objects.
| S.N. | Name of The Craft | Name of The Artisan | IICD Personnel | Region | Images of Material & products | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Miniature Art | Shr. Virendra Bannu | Mr. Shuvankar Biswas | Jaipur |  |
Brushes, Handmade paper eraser, pencil and ink |
| 2 | Fresco Painting &Araish Work | Shr. Mahendra Prasad Kumawat | Mr. BasuVansit | Jaipur |  |
Handmade panels, natural colors and brushes (Like Ganesh pole art work) |
| 3 | Damascus and Koftgiri | Shr. Anil Siklikar | Mr. Dharmendra Singh Rajawat | Udaipur |  |
Small elements, broaches armours, pipe & tools (Armours of India) |
| 4 | Thikri Work | Shr. Mahesh Chandra Kumawat | Mr. Rahul Choudhary | Udaipur |  |
Panels, mirror frames, birds, cutting mirrors& Adhesive (Like Sheesh, Mahal Live demo) |
| 5 | Stone Carving Jali work | Shr. Suraj naryan Sharma | Mr. Rajesh Kumar | Jaipur |  |
Jali work, artefacts of marble jails. Chisel and hammer (Like Amber Jalis, Live demo) |
| 6 | Blue Pottery | Shr. Mukesh Kumar | Ms. Garima Choudhary | Kotjewar,Jaipur |  |
Plates, Bowls, Vases, containers. |
| 7 | Lac Bangles | Shr. Avaz Mohammad | Mr. Abhishek Choudhary | Jaipur |  |
Bangles, Broaches, Pen, natural Lac, & tools |
| 8 | Fashion Garments Showing Traditional cuts and dress (RajputiPoshaks) | IICD, Fashion Department | Ms. Swati Jain | Jaipur | Garments, Pedestals, dress forms, some modern Furniture using traditional crafts. | |
The art of ‘thikri’, is the art of breaking / cutting beautiful concave pieces of glass mirrors and then attaching them with the plaster of Paris or a similar background to the wall. This technique can be seen in the ‘sheesh mahal’ (literally translated to the glass palace or mirror palace) at Amer. When there was no electricity, a few small lamps could illuminate the entire sheesh mahal due to multiple reflections of the oil lamp. This made the place look ethereal! Today, the craft form continues to create artistic walls / art forms, as the need for the glass palaces is no more. These artisans were also invited from Udaipur.
To show that the fret work (jaaliwork) that was done on the windows in yester years, is still alive, we had invited a stone artisan. The idea was to showcase how effective the jaalitechnique was, to let in sunlight, cool breeze and the view of the streets or of anything happening outside. Today, we do not use jaalifor this purpose, but the technique of carving is still used to create heritage hotel facades, many temples, doorways, lamp shades and other products, keeping the art alive.
Similarly the blue pottery of Jaipur, the lac work and block printed textiles and garments were displayed to show the continuity and pride of the living heritage of our country.
A list of products, crafts and the artisans is here below:
Our planning and execution were as usual timely and simple looking. Once the President came up to the display, I was supposed to brief him about each craft. He got a bit late and we were told he may not have the time to go through all the seven eight crafts. They asked me to hurry up. But to my surprise the President of France was so keen to know about all the crafts, he met each artisan, looked at all the craft forms, touched the products, was happy to have selfies and pictures taken. He was most appreciative of the craftsmen.
He came a huge entourage, and all of them were so keen to meet and understand the culture, arts and crafts of India. The Deputy CM of Rajasthan and the Foreign Minister of India were present and were happy to see the interactions. The interaction of the ministers, and other dignitaries, with IICD, Nila, PKDF and Rajeevika, was out of genuine interest and love for the arts and crafts. He spent enough time and wanted to know how the craft was executed, what were the natural products (we had displayed tools and raw materials). He inquired from the craftsmen, about their learning and that which school did they go to. He was surprised to learn that they got their knowledge from their fathers and forefathers and that this was not a formal training.
To my surprise, he spoke to them in English, and they replied in Hindi, and I translated it in English for him, he patiently waited to listen to the answers. The faculty, staff, artisans and all students were thrilled at the patience and hearing that he gave them all.
When he met the students, the president talked about international classes programme, a special mobility programme of the French Institute and Embassy of France in India to send students into French public universities for their bachelora with a component of intensive French language training.
Read more here : classesinternationales
I salute the President for his humane touch! The entire event was showcased live by the media at home and in France. This brought a good deal of coverage for India’s handicrafts and the Indo-French collaboration in culture and languages.
My heartiest congratulations to all those who made this possible!
Toolika Gupta
Director – IICD
President – AFJ
