The Revival of Indigenous Art- A Necessity?
“The aim of art is not to represent the outward appearance of things, but their inward
significance.” –Aristotle
India is a diverse country with each region containing an art form that it calls its own. At the
same time, various artforms originate from one region. This is induced due to the diverse social
and linguistic groups born on this land.
Every art form has its own history and its own cultural significance. Art transports you to a place
of beauty, self-reflection and thus, fills one with a feeling of bliss. It contains a quality to capture
and sustain the concept of time. Also, it has played a key role in preserving and evolving
cultures.
Due to modernisation, many traditional arts and crafts of India are disappearing. For instance, the
Handmade tales of India are getting replaced by machine-made products. Some of the dying arts
and crafts of India include Chamba rumal paintings, Madhubani Paintings, the craft of
Kendrapara, Handloom Weaving, Warli paintings from Maharashtra, or the traditional Naga
bamboo handicrafts, rangoli designs, and portraits.
The culture and traditional art forms are breathing a laboured life in today’s fast-paced world.
For instance, the indigenous art and crafts that were practiced in rural India, are taking a
backseat. This has brought suffering to the lifestyle of Artisans, the flag-bearers of preserving the
rich culture of our country.
Cultural Industries inclusive of books, multimedia, and the audiovisual sphere are large
generators of jobs, income, and revenue. They also provide the means for the promotion and
showcasing of the diversity of our vast and beautiful culture. It is extremely important for us as a
collective society to put in our effort to promote the development of and sustainability of cultural
enterprises, both small and large. This is due to the fact that such small-scale industries and
enterprises are packages of our culture. One manner of supporting this cause is integrating these
artistic and literary elements into our cultural goods and services. Such products, once protected
by copyright, could be spread globally to gain the recognition and the appreciation it is deserving
of. The artisans and artists behind the works of art ought to be recognised as they are equally
important.
Urbanization and modernization have taken over our day-to-day lives in a seemingly harmless
manner but have indeed led to the decline of many traditional and indigenous art forms.
Traditional art forms of various kinds and cultural industries are slowly moving into the depths
of oblivion. There is an increasing need in today’s fast-paced world for us to be more aware of
such changes since we now run a huge risk of losing a precious part of our history, culture, and
elements of what has made us, ‘us’.
We ought to make honest efforts to spread knowledge about our cultural heritage and raise
awareness on its fading state of existence. We could make efforts to learn more about our art
forms and culture to pass it on to the generations to come and keep it alive through our interest
and the love we show it.
