Traditional Textiles of North East India - A Catalogue of The IGNCA Collection

This catalogue presents traditional textiles of various ethnic groups of the North East India. All These selected materials incorporated in this catalogue are fine specimens of tribal textiles preserved in the Cultural Achieves of the Janapada Sampada Division of the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, New Delhi. These materials were meticulously collected and documented by the researchers of the IGNCA acquired from different ethnic groups of the North Eastern States. Some of the materials presented here are endangered and are on the verge of extinction. It is hoped that this catalogue will help in revival of these beautiful textiles for the posterity. This catalogue not only presents a repertoire of tribal costumes and apparels but also comprehensive account of land, people and culture of the region. This will help researchers in their effort to investigate further in the realm of traditional textiles and its social milieu. A selected number of textiles pieces are duly illustrated with high resolution photographs. A number of photographs depict the ecology and day to day life of the people of North East India. This catalogue also incorporates all the textile pieces of the IGNCA cultural archives with full ethnographic details India. This book will be useful for all those who are interested in the traditional life and culture of the ethnic population of North East India.

Dr Aoiswarjya Kumar Das held Maulana Azad Chair Professor of Museology at the National Museum Institute, New Delhi. Prior to the holding of the chair professor he occupied the post of one of the Directors of the National Museum of India. He also had a brief stint at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts as Associate Professor. Presently he is the honorary Director, Lal Bahadur Shastri Memorial and Research Center, New Delhi. He is a Ph D in Cultural Anthropology and trained in Museology. Prof. Das is a known scholar in Museum ethnography in India and specialized in the little known areas of tribal and folk art. His continued work in the realm of Museum is immense and in fact he was responsible development of several museums in India. He was recipient of Senior Fellowship of the Government of India followed by Korea Foundation Fellowship to pursue field research in South Korea. In the year 2013 he was awarded the prestigious Tagore fellowship of the Ministry of Culture, Government of India. Prof Das had written several books and catalogues in English language in addition to some one hundred papers scattered in various journals in India and abroad. For his three decades of dedicated work in the field of museum and museology he was conferred Life Time Achievements Award by the Museum Association of India in 2011. Prof. Das was an active member of the ICOM and served as the executive member of the Indian National Committee of ICOM. He also held the position of the member of the Executive Board of the ICOM-ICTOP. He was the recipient of ICOM fellowship of 1998. He traveled extensively in USA, Europe, Australia, Japan, Korea, Taiwan and South-East Asia as well as SAARC countries.

The Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts (IGNCA) since its inception had initiated T multiple research programmes for the understanding of the arts in a holistic frame- work. The research modules here are outlined in such a manner as to incorporate textual tradition as well as folk traditions, bringing into focus the inter relatedness and inter-connections of the artistic manifestation. This multi- disciplinary research frame-work is unique to IGNCA as an institution dedicated to the preservation and promotion of Indian art. Over the years, IGNCA launched several major collection and documentation programmes under the auspices of the Janapada Sampada Division, whose main focus is the folk tradition. The ethnographic collections, a field based research work conducted under the Loka Parampara module of the Janapada Sampada division, especially in the North East India resulted in a rich collection of tribal and folk art materials. Basketry and textiles, the twin industries of the North East were subjected to research, collection and documentation. A good number of basketry and textile specimens were acquired as a reference collection by way of field work. The significance of these ethnographic objects in contemporary times should be measured in the light of the tremendous changes that have occurred over time in North East India. The Janapada Sampada Division took timely decisions to make all this cultural data lable to artists, scholars, students, teachers, and others for research and publication. re is an urgent need to prepare a series of catalogues to facilitate the future studies researches in respect of tribal and folk arts of India. A catalogue of basketry has ady been brought out by IGNCA. The present catalogue entitled Traditional Textiles el North East India' is a step towards fulfilling this academic need. It would not be out of place to mention that the present catalogue will be followed by another in respect of the rare Naga art collection acquired from Milada Ganguli of Kolkata. The publication of these catalogues will help, to some extent, in reviving the endangered craft traditions of the region, which are gradually on the wane.

The Indira Gandhi Centre for the Arts (IGNCA), from its very inception, initiated research based programmes in terms of assembling, documenting and interpreting academic structure of IGNCA has been critically designed and framed to pursue multi disciplinary and integrated approaches in documentation, research and dissemination. Over the past 25 years, IGNCA has systematically studied Indian artistic and cultural traditions in a structured frame-work. The outcome of this initiative is visible in multiple dissemination modules consisting of seminars, conferences, lectures, exhibitions, audio nvisual and multimedia presentations, interactive dialogue and publications.

IGNCA has launched several major field based programmes under the auspices of Loka- Parampara and Kshetra Sampada. The ethnographic collection, a field based research. and documentation programme of the Janapada Sampada Division, gave rise to a repertoire of valuable arts and craft objects presently preserved in the Ethnographic Archives of the Division. One of the significant reference collections of the archive is the traditional textiles of North-East India. The cultural value of these textiles should be measured in the light of the tremendous changes that have occurred over time in North East India. The present catalogue of the textile collection of IGNCA is the outcome of the Tagore Research Fellowship awarded to the author by the Ministry of Culture, Government of India. I would like to express my deep gratitude to the authority in the Ministry of Culture for giving me this rare opportunity to undertake the research and documentation work leading to this publication. I am thankful to Mrs. Dipali Khanna, Member Secretary, IGNCA for allowing me to pursue research and documentation work in the Janapada Sampada Division and her continued encouragement. I must also mention Mrs. Veena Joshi, Joint Secretary, IGNCA for her prompt support whenever I required any administrative help. I felt absolutely at home working in the peaceful and academic environment of the Janapada Sampada Ethnographic Archives. I am extremely grateful to Prof. Molly Kaushal for facilitating my work. I would like to especially thank Dr. Ramakar Pant, Head of the Department for looking after my research needs. I have to thank the members of academic staff of the Janapada Sampada Division namely Dr. Richa Negi, Dr. Sangeeta Dutta, Shri Narayan Hari and Shri Rajinder Taragi- for their timely help and assistance and Shri Jayanata Chatterjee, DFA and his team for administrative support. Last but not least, my sincere thanks to the Kala Nidhi Library, IGNCA, for allowing me to refer to books and journals without any hindrance. Finally, I would like to bless my students namely Ms. Arya Sabu, Ms. Jasmine Xavier, Ms. Rimjhim Ghosh Ms. Surbala and Mrs Hansa Das, my wife for their continuous technical assistance in the preparation of the catalogue. Special thanks to the Ph.D. Scholars of the Department of Cultural Studies, Tezpur University, Assam for allowing to use photos of tribal costumes in this catalogue.

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