As Anil Vishwakarma, a blacksmith, hammers the hot piece of iron straight out of the burning furnace, there’s a palpable sense of dedication mingled with a hint of dissatisfaction in his demeanour. With each precise knock, he meticulously shapes the metal to craft a sarauta – a betel nut cracker that once held a revered place in village kitchens. It’s early in the morning and he is sitting near the furnace designed by him in the front area of his two-room house at Kala Dumar village in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh.
Vishwakarma, 46, possesses a skill honed not by measuring tapes or scales, but by years of observation and practice passed down through generations.
“I have watched my father and uncle master this craft since my childhood,” he reflected, his hands expertly manipulating the molten iron. “I ventured into ironwork full-time three years ago, after my father’s passing.”
Prior to embracing his family’s trade, Vishwakarma harboured doubts about its financial viability. With the decline in demand for traditional tools like the sarauta, his concerns are not unfounded. In an era where pre-cut betel nuts or alternative offerings have supplanted the need for such implements, the once-thriving market has dwindled.
“In the past, we could sell 30 to 40 sarautas in a single day,” Vishwakarma reminisced wistfully. “Now, if even one or two sell in four days, it feels like a triumph.”
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He, like many other blacksmiths, finds himself confronting a stark reality — the erosion of their livelihood. As demand dwindles, a significant number of traditional ironworkers are reluctantly abandoning their craft, seeking employment in other sectors. Sometimes, even as daily wage labourers.
“If four sarautas are being sold in four days, it doesn’t result in any saving for me. I’m able to make multiple tools in one day but unable to sell them, so there’s no use of my skills of making it quickly and my productivity,” Vishwakarma said.
Things may now change for the better for the blacksmiths, thanks to a collaborative effort being made to revive and reinvent traditional craftsmanship. Architect and designer Akshay Chandekar, a graduate of the National Institute of Design, has joined forces with the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH). Their vision took shape within the nurturing confines of a 10-day workshop in February, facilitated in partnership with the Jeevika Ashram in Indrana village of Jabalpur.
Traditional skills, modern products
The team worked through during the duration of the workshop to modernise the design of these products, ensuring they align with contemporary aesthetics and functionality. The aim was to provide training and guidance to the designated craftsmen, enhancing their blacksmithing skills, with a focus on the specific techniques required for these products.
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Chandekar designed modern tools boasting contemporary designs, encompassing an array of household essentials such as bottle openers, groundnut crackers, distinctive door handles, iron hooks, candle holders and various other innovative items. These designs serve as a bridge between tradition and modernity, fusing functionality with aesthetic appeal to meet the ever-evolving demands of the market.
The participants of the workshop look at this with a sense of hope. They believe, although with a hint of scepticism, that the products they are learning to design could get them good prices and can also help them engage their future generation more deeply in the skill-based work they have been practising for generations.
A senior blacksmith participating in the workshop, 65-year-old Ram Kishan Vishwakarma, asserted, “If we make things with perfection and learn new tools, people will pay good value to buy these.”
He is a generational blacksmith, with his son now also engaged in the profession, but acknowledges that modern tools have taken precedence, even in farming and house making.
“We used to make farming tools using iron and wood. Now that work has reduced. New tools and automatic machines are being used more,” he explained.
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The workshop mainly saw participation of people from the nearby Kala Dumar village’s blacksmith cluster and also of skilled workers from the Agaria tribe, which is known for its wrought iron making skills.
Anil Vishwakarma expresses his hope to make and learn new designs, saying, “It’s so much better to do your own work rather than being employed for someone else. Which is why I have stuck to ironwork even after the challenges.”
Chandekar, on the other hand, says he always knew that as a designer he has a bigger cause to contribute to and feels that this is his responsibility to conserve, promote and present our culture through craft to the world.
“I also find it very sad that in the next few years we might not be left with any traditional knowledge. I completely understand that such a workshop may not make a big change but it can be the beginning of something worth trying for. To promote handicraft and the artisans’ livelihood this was a small step”, the blacksmith told Village Square.
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In the lead image, Kishori Lal Vishwakarma, a 70-year-old blacksmith, engrossed in making a product. (Photo by Unnati Sharma)
Unnati Sharma is a journalist, writer, and translator.
