On April 30, ajrakh , the widely known craft of resist-dyeing from Kutch, got a Geographical Indication (GI) tag, a mark of authenticity that provides legal protection to arts from specific geographical regions. While this is cause for celebration, another lesser-known craft — bela block printing — from the same region, continues to languish in obscurity. At one point in time, Bela, a village in the Rapar block of Kutch in Gujarat, was a flourishing hub for the block printing trade.
In an undivided India, Bela would be teeming with traders and camel carts ferrying people between Kutch and Sindh in present-day Pakistan. For craftsmen practising bela block printing on textile, business was good. Things changed dramatically over the years, and today, there is a risk of the craft being lost altogether, but for the efforts of its sole custodian, Mansukh Pitambar Khatri.
Gradual decline Mansukhbhai, now in his late 50s, was just eight when he first learnt how to make graphic prints on cloth with organic colours and carved wooden blocks. As children, his elder brother and he would sit and watch their father hard at work. “All the members of the family would be involved in the printing processes — the washing, printing, dyeing,” he recalls.
“I found it all very fascinating. How a plain piece of cloth would turn into something so beautiful. It was because of my interest that I learnt the craft.
” Unfortunately, their father died when Mansukhbhai was still very young and s.