The Story of the Karuna Textile Doll

Abstract

India has a large diversity of cultures and traditions that express themselves in the intangible as well as material culture of the different regions in the country. The current situation of pandemic has, in its process of disruption of the norms, created a physical distance between the crafts of India and the market. In this regard, “Creative Dignity” is a voluntary initiative that has brought together professionals, educators, and the artisans of the country with the aim to provide an ecosystem for the artisans to survive in the COVID-19 and post-COVID-19 perspective. One such attempt under the umbrella is the Karuna Doll, made by women using local textiles as a medium of expression of regional craft identities, focusing on creating individual Karuna Dolls as representatives of the craft language of every state. The Karuna Doll is an embodiment of the cultural identity, and an expression of the idea of “going places.” This article focuses on creating a dialogue with the help of interviews and follows a descriptive method to assess the kind of cultural expression this doll is aimed to become, and its impact on the artisan community as a means of storytelling of a cultural identity.

Keywords:

• Karuna
• representative
• textile-doll
• cultural identity
• craft

Acknowledgments

This paper is a result of conversations and insights into the minds of the creative women who have helped directly or indirectly towards the understanding of the idea of the project. The researcher would like to acknowledge Uma Haimavati Prajapati, K. P. Lakshmi Ahuja, Swati, Lakshmi Menon, Mehr Seth, Sunaina Suneja, Aradhana Nagpal, and Sravani Katy who have shared their individual and collective visions on the project. The researcher would like to acknowledge the inputs given by Malvika Vaswani and Gauri Sanghi who connected the dots first. The researcher would also like to acknowledge his family who has supported him in every stage of the process. The researcher would finally acknowledge the order and rhythm that binds people and connects individuals and processes.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Shovit Dasgupta

Shovit Dasgupta is a Fashion Designer and Educator based in India. He is an alumnus of National Institute of Fashion Technology, India. Shovit has been a designer working with textile crafts in India for the past ten years. He has worked with a number of crafts as a designer and a co-owner of a handcrafted handwoven apparel brand; before entering into design education. Shovit’s key interests lie in learning about textiles as objects with lives of their own; observing people making memories and speaking through the non-verbal language of textiles and clothing. [email protected]