Caravan and KAARU bring Indian art to urban consumers
By Kavyaa Rajesh Rajan & Akanksha Nene
Various Indian brands have started to bring the forgotten, almost forgotten, and rare art forms to urban spaces and to customers that are always on the lookout for unique and functional products.
In India, a country that celebrates diversity in all forms and manifestations, two organizations are working toward uplifting Indian art and artisans and catering to a customer base that has an affinity towards handcrafted and functional products.
Being one of the most populated countries in the world with 29 states, India is an amalgamation of various cultures that span across the subcontinent which is backed by rich history. With so many cultures, it has numerous kinds of art forms which not only originate from each state but also from groups or sect of people from within each state.
Caravan, based out of Bangalore, partners with artisans from different “craft clusters” to make products using traditional techniques. The brand works with thirty-one kinds of crafts from all over India, including Bidri inlay work, Meenakari, Filigree, and many more.
“Customers see value in and are willing to pay a premium for handcrafted and functional products and Caravan delivers just that,” said Kunal Sachdev, founder, MD, and CEO of Caravan.
Caravan has ties with about twenty thousand artisans from different communities of artists and craftsmen from all over India, but with only a small section of the same working at any given point in time. He also mentioned that the artisans go through a training process once they are recruited to familiarise them with what exactly the brand is set out to do.
KAARU is yet another one of these organisations that works with traditional Indian craftsmen to make products that most generally fall under the home decor category.
Both organisations stress the importance of design, innovation, and research in crafting their products. The products are designed by the designers at the organisation, keeping in mind the functionality and tastes of the audience that they are catering to, and are then created by the partner artisans who know their techniques best.
Anjalee Wakankar, Co-founder and Head of Business of KAARU said that the whole process is an expensive one and it is challenging to sustain the business from a practical standpoint because
“In India clients most often don’t understand or value the cost of innovation and originality of a work.”
“Initially it was hard to engage with the artisans because they are generally skeptical about associating with people from outside. But we partnered with the government very early on and that made things much easier” said Sachdev about the challenges that Caravan faced while recruiting artisans.
Partnering with companies like Caravan and KAARU has proven to be beneficial for the artisans because once the organisation looks to partner with a set of craftspeople, they run a diagnostic to gauge what the community needs, economically and otherwise. Sachdev said that it is the benefit the artists receive that encourages them to continue working with Caravan. Whether the art is being promoted or the artists might be a debate that has no end but according to Mr. Sachdev, the two share a symbiotic relationship and by promoting one, the other is automatically promoted.
Wakankar adds, “It’s rewarding to see our artists win National Awards, and most importantly their children, who at one time refused to continue are now working on their ancestral craft.”
As a society that is now revisiting and valuing Indian art, one of the things that can be done to bring it back to the forefront according to Wakankar is to “Understand the value of the what we have inherited. Take pride in our roots. India is the only place in the world that has offered solutions to ultimate freedom from suffering- it’s culture is deeply rooted in this ideology. All our arts represent this ‘way of life’.”
“Indian art is varied and unique and every single sari, or piece of furniture, or anything that it might be is different from anything else,” said Sahana Das, a patron of the Indian arts agreeing with Ms. Wakankar. Das also observed the gradual integration of the Indian arts with glamour.
“People have slowly begun to take pride in owning Indian handicrafts. The association of Indian art with ‘cheap’ is slowly going away. If someone can pay lakhs of rupees to buy a Sabyasachi then surely they can invest in an authentic Banarasi sari. When you wear a Banarasi sari, you wear a piece of art” said Das.
