Abstract

Traditional craft base cultural industries are linked with specific local community where craft products create ‘economic identity’, ‘regional identity’ and ‘cultural identity’ of community. In family-based business identity is constructed through family histories, knowledge and skill of craft. Sholapith craft is a traditional ritualistic and festive craft which is associated with ethnic, cultural and occupational identity and status of Malakar community of West Bengal. It was an ethno-craft as generation wise Malakars practiced and transmit it through family enterprises. It is one of such several community-based craft productions of West Bengal undergoing globalisation and commercialization. Craft commoditization and expanding market networks lead to the shifting of family-based production units to wage labour-based modes of production units. This transformation forcing them to hire other people as labour beyond own community. As a result, changes occur in organization structure, quality of products and production for ‘local use’ is replaced by ‘production for sale’. Involvement of wage labours one hand helps them to expand their market whereas it also brings some challenges, competition and politics in family based cultural industry. With addressing issues of insecurity and identity attached with a transformative craft production, the present study attempts to answer larger question - still caste identity mater in community-linked cultural industry? Craftspeople from two craft production clusters (Surul and Bankapasi) have been purposively selected for present empirical study, who were directly involved with craft production. The techniques of primary data collection were observation method, semi structured interviews and case studies. The finding revealed that in the context of contemporary commercialized world, traditional craft identity of a specific community is in a transformation phase. The community-linked cultural industry is losing identity by involving more and more people from other communities with demand for production. Shola craft is no longer considered as an ethno-craft as it exceeds the habitual boundaries of an economically confined social group. The study also revealed various factors responsible for the success in the market and how they cope up with this situation by adopting various resilience strategies.

• 1.   Bell, S. E., & York, R. (2010). Community economic identity: The coal industry and ideology construction in West Virginia. Rural Sociology, 75(1), 111-143.
• 2.   Beerepoot, N. (2004) Learning in small enterprise clusters: the role of skilled workers in the diffusion of knowledge in the Philippines, International Journal of Technology and Globalisation, 1(1)
• 3.   Biswas, B. (2008). Shola shilpo, Lokosanskriti O Adivasi Sanskriti Kendra, W.B. Govt. Kolkata
• 4.   Chakraborty, S. (2009).Shola Shilpo. Durbar Bhabna, June issue, Kolkata, 23-25.
• 5.   Chakraborty, S and R. K. Bari (1991). Handicrafts of West Bengal, Institute of Art and Handicraft, Calcutta
• 6.   Chanda, S. (2016). The Art of Shola: A living traditional craft of West Bengal. Attributes of Culture- Reflection of Cultural intineraries from a Multi –cultural Nation. Amitava Sarkar (Ed.) New Delhi: Aayu Publications.
• 7.   Collier, P. (1998). Social Capital and Poverty? Social Capital Initiative Working Paper. No.4 Washington, D.C.: World Bank
• 8.   Cohen, E. (1988). Authenticity and commoditization in tourism. Annals of Tourism Research, 15(3), 371-386.
• 9.   Costin, C. L. (2008). Introduction: Craft and Social Identity, American Anthropological Association, p.3-16
• 10.   Costin, C. L. (2008). Introduction: Craft and Social Identity, American Anthropological Association, p.3-16
• 11.   Dasgupta, S. and S. Kheetrapal (2016). Sholapith Craft Documentation, National Institute of Design
• 12.   Dev, M. (2016). Shola Shilpo, Dashadishi, Vol.5, Issue2 and Vol.6, Issue1 (combined) ed. Atanusasan Mukhopadhyay, Kolkata.pp. 133-138
• 13.   Fukuyama, F. (2000). Social Capital and Civil Society. IMF Working Papers. 00. 10.5089/9781451849585.001.
• 14.   Ganai, B. (2018). Sholapith Craft of Murshidabad- Problems and Prospects of the art and the livelihood of the Artisans, International Journal of Research and Analytical Reviews, Vol. 5 Issue 3 pp. 1888-1892
• 15.   Ghosh, S. K. (2012). Biodiversity and the economy of Nature – a case study from West Bengal, India. Economology Journal, 3(2), 3-23.
• 16.   Ghosh, B. and Das, K. (2016). Banglar Shilpogram: Bankapasi, Lokoshruti, Lokosanskriti O Adivasi Sanskriti Kendra W.B. Govt, 14(2), 43-59
• 17.   Jadhav, S. (2011). Indian Handicrafts: Growing or Depleting? IOSR Journal of Business and Management, 2(15), 7-13.
• 18.   Jain, R. & Sharma, Dr. S. (2015). Perception of Artisans on Existing Marketing Strategy for Promotion of Indian Handicrafts. Zenith International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research, 5(10), 166-176.
• 19.   Kottak, C.P. (1997). Anthropology- the exploration of human diversity, The McGraw Hill Companies, New Delhi.
• 20.   Liebil, M. and Roy, T. (2003). Handmade in India. Economics and Political Weekly, December 27, p. 68, 69.
• 21.   Littrell, M. A., & Dickson, M. A. (1999). Social responsibility in the global market: Fair trade of cultural products. Sage.
• 22.   Leriche, F. & Daviet, S. (2010) Cultural Economy: An Opportunity to Boost Employment and Regional Development? Regional Studies, 44:7, 807-811, DOI:10.1080/00343401003732639
• 23.   Le Breton–Miller, I., & Miller, D. (2015). The Arts and Family Business: Linking Family Business Resources and Performance to Industry Characteristics. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 39(6), 1349–1370. https://doi. org/10.1111/etap.12177
• 24.   Lowenthal, D. (2005). Natural and Cultural Heritage. International Journal of Heritage, International Journal of Heritage Studies, 11(1), 81-92
• 25.   Mohi-ud-din, T., Mir, L. A. & Bhushan, Dr S. (2014). An Analysis of Current Scenario and Contribution of Handicrafts in Indian Economy. Journal of Economics and Sustainable Development, 5(9), 75-78.
• 26.   Nason, J. D. (1984). Tourism, handicrafts, and ethnic identity in Micronesia, Annals of Tourism Research, Volume 11, Issue 3, pp 421-449, https:// doi.org/10.1016/0160-7383(84)90030-6.
• 27.   Nonaka, I. & Takeuchi, H. (1995). The knowledge creating company: how japanese companies create the dynamics of innovation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• 28.   O’Connor, J. (2000). The Defination of Cultural Industries. Eru J Arts Educ 2(3), 15-27.
• 29.   Pal, F. (2016). Sola-Pith Art of Bengal and its Artisans, Heritage: Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies in Archaeology, Vol.4 pp.531-541
• 30.   Power, D. and Scott A. J. (Eds) (2004). Cultural Industries and the Production of Culture. Routledge, London.
• 31.   Risley, H.H. (1891). The Tribes and Castes of Bengal, Vol.II, Calcutta: Bengal Secretariat Press.
• 32.   Sarkar, M. (1976) Anabodhyo Shola-shilpo, Samakalin, 14th year, Issue-3, Anandogopal Sengupta (ed.), Kolkata, pp.114-118
• 33.   Sarma, M.K. (2008). Traditional craft of Assam: Development dynamics through touristic marketing. Delhi: Anshah Publishing House.
• 34.   Scupin, R. (2000). Cultural Anthropology, Prentice Hall, New Jersey.
• 35.   Sen, P. (1994). Crafts of West Bengal. Ahmedabad: Mapin Publishing Pvt, Ltd.
• 36.   Seth, A. (2010). Dakhin Damodar Anchaler Malakar O SholarShilpo. In A. Biswas, (Ed.), Avijatri Feri (pp.93-111). Kolkata.
• 37.   Swanson, K.K. & Timothy, D.J. (2012). Souvenirs: Icons of meaning, commercialization and commoditization. Tourism Management, 33(3), 489-499.
• 38.   United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Human Development Report (2004). p.97.
• 39.   UNESCO (2005). Senior Experts Symposium, Jodhpur Consensus, 22-26 February 2005, Jodhpur, India
• 40.   Vecco, M. (2010). A definition of Cultural Heritage: From the tangible to the intangible. Journal of Cultural Heritage, 11(2), 321-324.
• 41.   Vijayagopalan, S. (1993). Economic Status of Handicraft Artisans. National Council of Applied Economic Research, New Delhi.
• 42.   Wattenmaker, P. (2018). Craft Production and Social Identity in Northwest Mesopotamia. In craft and Social Identity, In C. Costin and R. Wright (Ed.), American Anthropological Association, Washington, Archaeological Paper No.8, pp.47-56
• 43.   Yang, S.M. (2008). The Successful use of handicrafts in Guizhou Province for poverty alleviation, Tourism and handicrafts: a report, The international conference on tourism and handicrafts, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran, May 2006, 51-59.

Data Sharing Statement

Funding