Indian Crafts For Senior Secondary (Classes XI and XII)
Indian Crafts
Introduction : India is the only country in the world with a unbroken, living
vibrant tradition of crafts. While agriculture employs the largest number of
people in India, the crafts sector is next and sustains over 20 million
practitioners. The wide geographic spread embraces all of India and covers a
huge gamut of widely differing work structure and cultures. Crafts communities,
using similar materials that range from clay to precious metals, work with
widely differing techniques and technologies to create a rich variety of forms.
Acknowledging the importance of handicrafts in India the National Curriculum
Framework – 2005 sought to integrate it into the school curriculum and formed a
National Focus Group on Heritage Crafts. The Focus Group submitted a position
paper that includes several recommendations and concluded that Indian craft and
its mi llions of practicing craftspeople are a huge and important resource of
traditional knowledge and indigenous technologies that could add value to the
educational system in a number of ways. It was suggested that Indian Crafts
should be taught as a theoretical social science with a strong component of
field study and applied creative activity.
With the learning of crafts traditions many skills could be developed among
the students. These include the consideration of relationship between the
student and his/her environment and the inter- ependence of: societal skills,
information processing skills, reasoning skills, enquiry skills, creative
skills, entrepreneurial skills and a work related culture.
The Objectives: To impart an all rounded and holistic education that equips
the Indian youth of today to face challenges of a global and rapidly changing
world, while preserving their own cultural assets, traditions and values this
new subject area will be introduced for senior secondary level in schools with
the following objectives:
- To understand the critical role of the crafts community and its integral
relationship to the Indian society.
- To enable students to understand the relationship between economics, culture
and aesthetics,
- To enable students to explore the linkages between environment, craft
traditions and society through field studies,
- To develop a respect for the diversity of Indian craft traditions and to
uphold the dignity of its practitioners by understanding the difficulties that
they face,
- To introduce Indian culture through the crafts, so that school students
appreciate the variety of skills and expressions of the Indian artist
- To provide students a creative aesthetic experience of the unique visual and
material culture of India and develop values of conservation, protection of the
environment, resources and heritage of the country,
- To enable students to understand the relationship between tradition and
contemporary trends, form and function, creator and consumer.
- To understand the processes of creating a craft object from start to finish,
- To equip students with the tools to extend craft traditions to wider
applications through applied crafts,
The syllabus : The subject of Indian Crafts will consist of three
components in each year (classes XI and XII):
I. Theory 40 marks
II. Field Study 30 marks
III. Applied Crafts 30 marks
I. Theory 40 marks
The theory part of the syllabus will have Two Units;
Unit I will consist of a general introduction, an introduction to the crafts
traditions of India, details about the different crafts, their classifications,
regional distribution etc. Each of these topics wi ll incorporate aspects such
as the
i. Philosophy and aesthetics,
ii. Materials, processes and techniques,
iii. Environment and resource management,
iv. Social structures,
v. Economy and marketing and
vi. International examples.
Unit II of the theory will discuss all these aspects in detail. A textbook
will be required which will have the print material with maps, photographs,
illustrations, anecdotes and case studies in boxes and the book may be
supplemented with a CD having slides, video-clippings etc. showing different
crafts traditions and their processes.
UNIT I
Introduction
This chapter will be an exhaustive part of the textbook, which will include
different dimensions of the Indian crafts traditions, such as the history,
philosophy, sociology, economy, environment and resources etc. in general. To
introduce the subject, teachers may have a few brainstorming sessions with
students about their perception and understanding of crafts and what crafts
actually are. They can initiate or orient themselves with their home first,
where they could look for objects created by traditional crafts persons, bring
them to the classroom and discuss them. A general introduction to the seven
major issues related with crafts traditions, identified as core areas will be
carried out here. These issues will be repeatedly referred to during the two
years of theory and project work, as well as during the applied crafts component
of the syllabus. They will also cut across the chapters on various crafts
traditions. These crafts related issues are: i. Crafts Traditions, ii.
Philosophy and Aesthetics, iii. Materials, Processes and Techniques, iv.
Environment and Resource Management, v. Social Structures, vi. Economy and
Marketing and vii. International Examples.
1.1 Crafts Traditions: A historical overview of crafts traditions from
ancient and medieval, to modern and contemporary periods would be required in
order to situate them in the cultures that produced them. The associations
between living practices and temples or hunting traditions, nomadic journeys,
ritualistic practices, ceremonial occasions, customary beliefs, would all in
some way or the other become part of the study of the culture of crafts. The
history of a particular craft tradition, its geographical distribution, myths
and legends associated with different i nfluences on the craft and patterns of
patronage etc. may be discussed.
1.1.1 Clay : Being one of the most basic materials found in every
corner of the country, clay has been used for making earthen ware, figurines,
bricks, tiles, beads etc. Terracotta objects are one of the earliest artifacts
found during excavations of archaeological sites as early as the chalcolithic
period and continue to exist in the present times. This chapter will deal with
the different practices, techniques and distribution of pottery and terracotta
crafts in India. 1.1.2 Stone work Another basic material that does not need much
processing and technology is stone. Different types of stones from the most
common ones to region specific ones to precious gems have been used in different
ways from architectural construction, to sculptures, to making jewelry and so
on. One would need to discuss different aspects of stone works that have existed
through thousands of years.
Taking a cue from the Common Admission Test (CAT), the Central Board of
School Education (CBSE) is planning to take its All India Engineering Entrance
Examination (AIEEE) online from next year. However, this would be a much more
challenging proposition, as compared to the 2.5 lakh aspirants who appeared for
the not-so-successful online CAT last year, AIEEE will have 11 lakh students in
over 3,000 exam centres.
Students of class IX and X will be evaluated on a 9-point grading system.
Each grade, given on the basis of both formative and summative assessments, will
correspond to a range of marks as indicated below: 
Besides
creating scientific literacy, key expectations from teaching-learning of
science at school stage include developing questioning and enquiring
skills, acquiring process skills, developing problem-solving and
decision-making skills and promoting scientific temper in the learners
and helping them to understand and appreciate close inter-relationship
between Science, Technology and society. This demands interactive,
participatory, hands-on, innovative and creative learning experiences to
be provided to them. The Board has initiated many steps in the recent
past to provide such experiences. One such step refers to organisation
of Science Exhibitions at Regional and National levels. The event is
aimed at providing a common platform to schools, teachers and students
to given shape to their creative and innovative ideas. Based on the past
experience of enthusiastic response from schools, it has again been
decided to organize the Science exhibitions for the year 2010-2011.
These exhibitions are likely to be organized at Regional level in the
month of July/August and at National level in
the month of September/October,2010. 
