Selling traditional North Indian block print handicraft

Hand-Block Printing History

Hand-block printed fabric designs of north India are some of the best known traditional manufactures of India.

Archeological remains from the Indus Valley civilisation in the 3rd millenium BCE include cotton fragments dyed with 'madder', the same earthy red pigment which features in many of our hand block printed products. Dye vats, spindles & bronze needles found at sites like Mohenjo-daro indicate highly developed fabric work.

Indian textiles were carried along the great trade routes of the Ancient World, becoming highly prized in the Persian, Greek & Roman civilisations for their brilliant colours.

Special expertise in the complex process of hand block printed fabrics developed in the Jaipur area of Rajasthan to service myriad royal courts in India. Many of those designs outlasted the rise and fall of other fashions and became a staple of home furnishings in Europe.

Modern industrial methods threatened every traditional handicraft, including hand block printing, with extinction. Mahatma Gandhi made strenuous efforts to support traditional handicrafts, especially fabric production. If he had had his way the centre of the modern Indian flag would have been occupied by a simple spinning wheel, not the more martial chariot wheel. Gandhi believed that rapid industrial growth, driving people from the villages to the cities, robbing them of autonomy and cultural identity, was not the appropriate form of development for India. He wanted to sustain and enrich village life and traditional culture. He accepted that science and industry offered many benefits to the people, but not at the expense of their fundamental livelihoods. At the time he was regarded by many as hopelessly idealistic yet his views can be seen reflected in the support the Government of India still gives to small-scale cottage industries.

You can clearly see Gandhi's analysis played out in the field of hand block printing. Modern industry in the form of screen printers were able to take the classic hand block designs and reproduce them much more cheaply. A centuries old artisan tradition virtually died.

However US and European health concerns led to restrictions on the use of certain screen printing dyes. The cost implications for many Indian screen print manufacturers meant that Europe, US and other major markets were effectively now closed, forcing them to shut many of their units as a result. The Government of India has actively sought to revive the traditional art of hand block printing as part of a strategy to address economic damage to the fabric screen print industry.

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