The transformed art, culture, tradition… (A case study on ship building and sailing in Mandvi, Gujarat) AUTHOR :
MANU KAMATH 201114001 MDES (COMMUNICATION DESIGN) DHIRUBHAI AMBANI INSTITUTE OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICAION TECHNOLOGY
COURSE :
PC721 APPROACHES TO CULTURE AND COMMUNICATION
INSTRUCTORS/ PROF. VISHVAJIT PANDYA GUIDES
PROF. MADHUMITA MAZUMDAR
1 PC721 Approaches to Culture and Communication Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology
Manu Kamath 201114001 MDes (Communication Design)
The transformed art, culture, tradition…
Table of Contents 1. Overview 2. Introduction 3. Project Brief : Concept map 4. Kutch (a brief history and background) 5. Mandvi (before and now) Observations 6. Conclusion 7. Acknowledgement 8. References and Biblography
2 PC721 Approaches to Culture and Communication Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology
Manu Kamath 201114001 MDes (Communication Design)
The transformed art, culture, tradition… Overview
Overview
The following document is a case study on the ship building tradition of Mandvi. For the end of semester project for the ‘Approaches to Culture and Communication’ course I along with my colleague, Avik Ganguly, had taken up a visit to the port city of Mandvi in the Kutch District of Gujarat, India. We stayed for two days in the city and were able to meet a few eminent people in Mandvi who helped us with the information about the local culture, ship building and also sailing as a traditional art and industry. In this document I have mainly tried to speak of the tradition and art of ship building and sailing, how it has changed over the years, its importance to the people, and also as a designer I have put down my takes and views about the question of preservation and development. With the subject being approaches to culture and communication I have very closely tried to relate most of my observations and views to mostly the instructions and materials that were given during the course. It is very evident that as a communication designer I am not at the liberty to base my views or findings with one particular frame work or let’s say based on the philosophy of any particular school of thought. Keeping in mind very closely how A.K.Ramanujan has stated how there is no one Indian thinking in his essay ‘Is there an Indian way of thinking?’[1] You will see how in my findings I have come across different views about the same art, tradition and culture of ship building and sailing. In addition to this I and Avik also found how there a lot of factors that have affected not just the ship building industry but also other industries and trades which were traditional to the people of the place. In the two day visit to this place we were unfortunately not able to cover as much as we wanted to but we made sure we made the best of the 2 days and reflect it in here.
3 PC721 Approaches to Culture and Communication Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology
Manu Kamath 201114001 MDes (Communication Design)
The transformed art, culture, tradition… Introduction
Introduction For the approaches to culture and communication course we were asked to write a report on the poetics and politics of display of a textile museum in Ahmedabad. During that visit I observed how there was a lot of rich art and tradition in Gujarat which was being show cased there proudly by the museum as a rare artefact. After that visit and after writing the report I got very interested in art forms and traditional businesses which were now so calling as ‘the dying art’ or ‘art and tradition that no longer lives’. I had the following questions in my mind. Firstly if the art was so very unique and extremely difficult to be learnt by someone else why was it allowed to die? And secondly even though some of the art forms displayed were not older than a couple of decades maybe so did the rich and powerful get them made and then let the art form die? These questions put in the curiosity inside me to learn more about the current traditional art forms or practices which were said to be either dying or already dead. So the first chance I got to do a project I chose it to be on similar lines. I had heard very much about the rich culture of the district and how there have been various studies done there on various art forms which are very peculiar to the place. On further findings on the internet and some help from my instructors and guides I came to know about traditional ship building which is a major industry in an ancient port city of Mandvi. After trying hard to get my hands on books or literature about the traditional ship building I gave up as I could not find much help with the resources that I had. So finally I decided to visit the place myself and teamed up with Avik for the same. Afer giving it some thought and doing some background reading on Kutch we finally decided to make a two day trip to Mandvi hoping to get some good insight and findings on the culture of ship building and how the as designers we can help improve its condition even though it is the major industry of Mandvi. But again we were prepared for the worse as well because we did not have enough background information about the season of ship building and because these are traditional ships they are made of wood and not iron so there might be a specific time of the year when they would be made. But nevertheless we were really excited to get on with our work and go make this trip even if it meant giving up two days in disappointment. To our surprise we were more than happy to have made the trip and were able to learn many things about the traditional ship building and also found out as to how even sailing is a part of their tradition.
4 PC721 Approaches to Culture and Communication Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology
Manu Kamath 201114001 MDes (Communication Design)
The transformed art, culture, tradition… Project Brief : Concept Map
Project Brief With the given set of guidelines for our final project at first I wanted to make sure that I could stick with one particular topic but what I really want to work on falls under two separate topics. If I have to speak about ship building as a culture or tradition then my first argument would be to speak about how political‐ideology along with the development in a technology would and will bring about a change not just in the culture of ship building but will also bring about a change to the tradition that follows. We all know how earlier ships or boats used to be propelled by the use sails or they would be propelled by rowers like the ‘galleys’ which sailed in the Mediterranean regions but now with the advancement of technology clubbed with the idea of going faster and also being able to carry a lot more weight we can see how most of the boats and ships are now propelled by motors and a lot of ships that’s carry cargo are now made of steel rather than wood. We can see how designs have changed over the period. Also if I am specifically talking about Mandvi which has a recorded history of ship building over the past 500 years I also have to look at how the culture and tradition got affected post colonization or port the British Rule. I have drawn out a concept map to make sure that I ask the right questions and cover all that needs to be done to be able to define my exact problem definition on the basis of culture and communication. Below are the list of questions that I had on my mind before I made my trip to Mandvi : 5 PC721 Approaches to Culture and Communication Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology
Manu Kamath 201114001 MDes (Communication Design)
The transformed art, culture, tradition… Project Brief : Concept Map
Along with the given question above the following was the plan of action that I intended to follow :
6 PC721 Approaches to Culture and Communication Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology
Manu Kamath 201114001 MDes (Communication Design)
The transformed art, culture, tradition… Kutch (a brief history and background)
Kutch a brief history and background
Kutch is located on the western most tip of the country and is also the largest district in India. It covers an area of about 45,652 sq. km.[2] The district has 10 talukas, of which the major ones are Bhuj(district headquarters), Anjar, Mandvi, Mundra and Gandhidham. Kutch is specially very known for the rural tourism and is specially famous for its palaces, museums, handicrafts (Ajrakh and Bandhani)[3], royal heritage, pilgrimage, beaches, resorts, festivals, fairs and wildlife. The government of the state specially promotes the ‘Rann Utsav’(Dessert Festival) where they arrange a fair for 3 to 4 days to promote and showcase the various handicrafts and art forms. Out of the total 136 industrial cooperative societies, 71 belong to handicrafts. The district is also highly resourceful due to the existence of many industries and also foreign remittances by NRIs(Non‐ Resident Indian) from Africa, the Gulf Countries, UK and USA. The Madhapur village in Kutch is considered to be Asia’s richest village due to foreign remittances by NRIs. Due to the presence of 2 major operational ports namely Kandla and Mundra, Kutch also accounts for a high movement of cargo.
The history of Kutch has been traced back to the Indus Valley Civilization and especially an archaeological site at a place called Dholavira is believed to have been inhabited between the 2900BCE and 1900BCE[4]. Kutch was founded in the 13th century by a Samma Rajput branch called Jadeja Rajputs. The Jadeja dynasty ruled the Kutch for several centuries until the independence of India and before independence Kutch has become British protectorate in the year 1815. During that time Kutch had its own currency while the rest of British India was using rupees. It is noticeable how Kutch has a history of trade with Africa, Middle East and also some parts of Europe. Kutch is virtually an island as it is surrounded by the Arabian Sea in the west, Gulf of Kutch in the south and southeast and the Rann of Kachchh in the north and northeast. Hence we can see how the geographical location of Kutch has allowed it to be a natural sea port and thus we can also see how ship building comes to existence in this place.
7 PC721 Approaches to Culture and Communication Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology
Manu Kamath 201114001 MDes (Communication Design)
The transformed art, culture, tradition… Kutch (a brief history and background)
Kutch (Kachchh) District
Mandvi
Figure 1. Author : Antur; Source : Wikipedia (Inset Gujarat on the map of India.)
8 PC721 Approaches to Culture and Communication Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology
Manu Kamath 201114001 MDes (Communication Design)
The transformed art, culture, tradition… Mandvi (before and now)
Mandvi before and now Mandvi was once a major port of this region and also the summer retreat for Maharao, the king, of Kachchh. This city has almost a 500 year old ship building industry that even today manufactures small sized cargo vessels which are used mainly for trade. These ships used to carry out trade between India and East Africa, Persian and Gulf Countries and also parts of the Malabar and even today do so. The port is located at the mouths of the Rukmavati River where the river meets the Gulf of Kachchh. The Establishment of Mandvi is dated back to 1581 AD. In the early 19th century Mandvi was a major port for inland trade with Malwa, Marwar and Sindh. It was also at the junction of two famous trade routes the maritime spice trade‐route and the desert camel caravan trade‐route which made it a very important centre for trade.
Currently there is no rail route or airport in Mandvi so the sea and the road is the only way you can access the place. I and Avik had to take a bus that took about 8 to 9 hours from Ahmedabad, Gujarat. Mandvi is about 60 kilometres from the city of Bhuj and about 450 kilometres from the city of Ahmedabad. As we were on a trip to explore this new place on a totally different prospective we had to keep our eyes open for everything. We wanted to make sure that we did not enter the place like tourists but nevertheless the moment you are spotted with a camera people around you get curious as to who are you and most of them have an impression that you are there either to enjoy the beaches or you are a photographer or film maker. You enter the main part of Mandvi by crossing the bridge over the river Rukmavati and as soon as you get on the bridge on your left is a very beautiful sight where you can see the ships being built on both the side of the river bank and then straight up ahead you can see the river meeting the Gulf of Kachchh. Now Mandvi doesn’t have the prestige of being the most important port for trade anymore due to the development of other ports but the 500 year old traditional ship building industry is still the biggest in the city and also the most important. The city is small and the roads are narrow. One can make out form the structure of the roads and lanes that this was once a walled city as you can see some very old buildings and structures around the city. The sight of the ship building yard or I would say the river banks with the ships lying to be built was a great relief because our worst fears were gone now and we were sure that we are going to learn about the ship building and have actually seen the actual ones being built. People in Mandvi mostly speak Kachchhi and otherwise everyone can understand Gujarati and Hindi and due to the tourism being promoted very much by the Gujarat Government in this area some of the locals can also understand English. Without wasting much time we immediately checked into a home stay which is managed by the Jain community there and then we set off to start meeting people and start our work. Our first point of contact was Dr. Harshad Udeshi who has a clinic in Mandvi and also is the District Governor of the Rotary Club. What was very much noticeable was how people 9 PC721 Approaches to Culture and Communication Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology
Manu Kamath 201114001 MDes (Communication Design)
The transformed art, culture, tradition… Mandvi (before and now)
seemed to know almost most of the people we spoke of. We had to just get into an auto rickshaw, which is the only mode of public transportation in the city, busses only have intercity routes and the roads of Mandvi are so small that a bus cannot get into the interior parts, and then ask the driver to take us to this person’s place and then he would surprisingly know. I am also assuming that maybe we met mostly people who are very much known throughout Mandvi as they are some of the most eminent people of the city. Dr. Udeshi was kind enough to give us the reference of some other people who could help us with details about the ship building in Mandvi. We next met Dr. Pulin Vasa who is a doctor by profession but has a very keen interest in archaeology and has made a major contributions by finding artefacts that dates back to the ancient civilizations and trade between Mandvi and the world. He told us about his findings and was also kind enough to give us a tour of his collection of some of those artefacts which he found. Dr. Vasa has mentioned about his findings of a small village near Mandvi called Nani Rayan in his book.[5] He then told us about the ship building industry and his views on it. It is very interesting to see how different people have a different perspective towards art, tradition and culture. He made a major emphasis on how the ship building tradition was a fading one and that in another 100 years the tradition might vanish. This particular statement felt quiet strange because later I found out how the ship building industry is the biggest industry in Mandvi. It was mostly an interview with Dr. Vasa where we put forth our curious questions and he was very kind to us to tell us all we wanted to know. He further told us how this was a 400 plus year old tradition of ship building and maritime trade and apart from just ship building even sailing or seafaring was an art that came to the people of Mandvi naturally. Mostly after independence the overall tradition of ship building and sailing started to fall. The art slowly started to fade and now it is mostly just an industry. There merely just 10% of the people who belong to Kutch or Mandvi who work on the ships that are being built and the rest of the workers are hired labourers from the southern part of the country mostly Andhra Pradesh, Kerela and some from Tamil Nadu. Strangely what I interested here me the most was how Dr. Vasa explained and talked about the art of sailing and seafaring rather than the art or tradition or ship building. He explained how the art of sailing is something that is almost vanished now due to the rise in technology which is an opinion that was similar to another point of view which we later came across. He explained how sailors could navigate through the sea without the help of a compass; they could predict the region by the colour of the water, the type of sand found in the sea bed and also the positions of the stars. Usually if the ship is sailing towards Africa the sailors would refer the position of the pole star which wold help them determine how far or how close they are from the equator and hence allow them to reach the coastlines of East Africa. Similarly they have a metal tumbler sort of a device that can be submersed into the water and is tied to a rope on the other end. When it hits the ground it collects some sample of the sand in the bed and the sailors would pull up the rope and by looking at the kind of sand they could predict as to which part of the Middle East they were travelling. Dr. Vasa then suggested us to visit an old sailor, Mr. Shivji 10 PC721 Approaches to Culture and Communication Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology
Manu Kamath 201114001 MDes (Communication Design)
The transformed art, culture, tradition… Mandvi (before and now)
Bhudha who had given us some wonderful information about the ship building, its history, and tradition and also threw light on a question that is very obvious: How do we preserve such a tradition and pass it on to the further generations? Our next meeting was with a veteran sailor and currently running an institution and workshop where he makes miniatures of the ships that are going to be built and also has a small self‐made training facility for sailors. Meeting with him was very insightful and he shared a lot of information about ship building on a sailor and ship builder’s point of view. According to Mr. Bhudha, the tradition of ship building can be traced back to about 500 years and it that it would take 5 to 6 people to work on building a ship at that time. 500 years ago the first model for a ship was conceived by taking the reference of the Saptarishi Constellation of stars also known as the Ursa Major or the Big Dipper. During those times the ships used sails to propel the ships in the sea. Locally in Mandvi the first ships were known as ‘Dungi’. They were made much more slender in shape as compared to the recent design so that they could move faster. The vessels had a capacity of about 30 to 35 tons and weighed about 17 to 18 tons. The cost of manufacturing or building a ship then was about 4000 to 4500 rupees. Even the design of the ship was tried and tested and modifications were made later on. The first ships that were built had a fault in them due to which during the voyage the water used to fill in on the decks. Mr. Bhudha explained in very simple terms how the ship moves on water. He says that when the ship is in the water it creates a ‘Khado’( hole) in the sea and then when the ship moves forward due to the sail this Khado is filled up very fast with water due to which the ship gets additional thrust from the back. The earlier designs had a fault basically because when the water used to push in from behind it had no obstruction in the back due to which it found an easy way on the ship itself. The builders corrected this design fault by putting in flat planks of wood on the rear end of the ship which would obstruct the water or the wave pushing whereby the wave would get deflected to the side and wouldn’t allow the water to get in on the decks. He then talked about how sailing back then was very seasonal as they had to depend on the wind and the conditions in the sea. Usually he said the ships would set sail 15days before the ‘Phagun Mahino ‘(the period from Februray to March). The ships would then sail for about a month and then finally reach Africa where the ship would then take rounds of the nearby region in Africa itself i.e. taking goods from on port and deliver to another and vice‐versa. This trip would last for about 3 months and then finally about a month before Diwali the ships would set sail for India again. They call the ships from Mandvi as ‘Kachcchi Vessels’. Later on he said that there was a demand for bigger ships and soon they started building ships that could carry upto 100 tons of weight. The vessels started becoming bigger and soon they found that even a 100 ton vessel was not enough for the amount of trade that they could carry on with one ship. The design of those ships did not allow them to be any bigger because of the sail they had in the ships and then they soon had to shift to engines instead of sails. Currently Mandvi builds ships that can hold upto 2000 ton of cargo. Next I and Avik wanted to know about the wood and where they get it from to which he explained how the 11 PC721 Approaches to Culture and Communication Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology
Manu Kamath 201114001 MDes (Communication Design)
The transformed art, culture, tradition… Mandvi (before and now)
wood used in the ship is Malaysian Timber which is imported at Gandhidham and then brought here to Mandvi. He then told us about the various kind of cargo that is being loaded in the ships like, coconuts, ivory, spices, toys etc. used to be exported from India earlier and now these ships that are built here are then towed by other ships to other ports where they are fitted with motors which are usually purchased from Dubai or other gulf countries as they get them cheaper there. They usually sail now from ports like Jamnagar, Porbandar, Okha, Mundra and Mumbai. The ships export goods like Onions, Mangoes, watermelons, rice, plastic pipes and sometimes cattle/animals and import dates, old tyres etc from the gulf or places like Somalia. Mr. Bhudha then told us about the hierarchy that followed on a ship. The following is the hierarchy:
Khalasi: A sea man and a sailor who works on the decks and the lowest or they also say the entry rank on a ship.
Bhandari: Is technically the cook and after sailing for about two years as a Khalasi you are eligible to be promoted to this post according to the work that you put in.
Sukhani: He is the one who steers the vessel and is one rank above the Bhandari .
Sarang: Is the head‐of‐staff on the ship and is the second highest position on the ship.
Nakhwa: Is the post given to a captain of the ship if he is a Muslim.
Malam: Is the post given to a captain of the ship if he is a Hindu.
This ranking of sailors as we can clearly notice is based on the duties on perform on‐ board the ship and is not really based on tests or exams. We can also see how religion also gives two separate names to the same rank of the captain on a traditional ship in Mandvi. During our conversation Mr. Bhudha also threw light on sailing and the use of lights on their masts and their meanings. They use a Red Light for distress and specially on a steamer on which Mr. Bhudha used to work he said that if the steamer is sinking they would light one red light for distress and if the steamer had touched the ground then they would light two red lights to indicate the same so that the rescue party knows the position of the ship (i.e. the ship is sinking and has hit the ground). He then told us about the make of a steamer but however he did not mention about steamers being built in Mandvi. The basic difference between a steamer and a ship is that the ships in Mandvi are not divided into individual compartments and so if there is a leak or crack for the water to come in, the entire ship would be filled with water. Whereas in a steamer there are separate compartments which are individual and can be closed and sealed so if water fills up in one compartment the others might not be affected at all due to which the steamer can still be afloat and can sail. Coming back to my basic question which was ‘what affected the traditional ship building’ Mr. Bhudha’s first response was ‘Government rules and norms’. Post colonization and freedom the Indian government put some laws according to which children and senior citizens couldn’t work on ship. As per the law after the age of 60 the sailor has to retire and 12 PC721 Approaches to Culture and Communication Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology
Manu Kamath 201114001 MDes (Communication Design)
The transformed art, culture, tradition… Mandvi (before and now)
also the new sailors who want to work on the ships should have a minimum educational qualification of upto at least graduation from a college or university. I couldn’t get the exact information from Mr. Bhudha about the specifications of the minimum educational qualifications required but he pressed on saying that the children are always excited about working on the ships but now a days the parents end up spending around two lakh rupees for the education of their children and after spending so much money they don’t press on their kids to take up work on a boat but rather prefer to send them outside to pursue other careers which can make them more money faster because the ship doent pay as much as the other jobs that pay outside. It was pretty evident that the economy factor was huge due the current cultural trends following in almost all places in the state where the children are often sent abroad or to other, more developed cities for education. Now Mr. Bhudha himself has this workshop where he has transformed the same traditional ships into ‘miniatures’ and currently he and his grandchildren are working together in the work shop to build the miniatures. This is a very interesting fact to note how even though on a larger scheme of events the culture or tradition might look like its fading away but in these miniatures we could clearly see how ever part of tradition and culture was preserved and showcased in its own beauty. These miniature ships apparently serve as a blue print or a reference for the builders to build the actual ship and what is even more interesting is how these miniatures are exactly built like the actual ship. It is carved as per the owners demand but otherwise these miniatures are built exactly like their actual versions. The wooden pieces, the frame, the body everything is exactly a miniature of the actual ship. And with these miniatures Mr. Bhudha has managed to save even the designs which were originally made using sails as opposed to the modern ones that use engines. He showed us how the base of the ships has changed and how the ships now function in a totally different way than how they used to 500 years ago. After a long and enlightening conversation with Mr. Bhudha the next day we had a meeting with the Mr. Vadilal B. Doshi who is currently the president of the chamber of commerce. He gave us an overview about ship building as an industry and hi point of view was rather encouraging to the tradition of ship building as well. He gave us a lot of stats and figures and also some of my questions were answered very well here. According to Mr. Doshi there are about 125 registered ships at the Mandvi port that have a capacity in the range of 500 to 1500 tons. The ships after building are sent to Mumbai and from Mumbai they sail to Dubai,UAE and basically trade cement, fruits and some other materials. The trip lasts for about 5 days and those ships bring back dry fruits from Dubai back to India. The ship building industry and also the trade lets about 25 Khalasis work on one ship and on an average this business of trade/sailing and ship building earn wages for about 12000 families in Mandvi itself. Earlier there were only 5 ships that were built every year and now they have orders for about 30 ships every year. So in a way over the last few year this number has increased by almost 600%. The ships are mostly made out of Malaysian hard wood (Teak) which is purchased from a nearby city Gandhidham, which is one of the highest 13 PC721 Approaches to Culture and Communication Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology
Manu Kamath 201114001 MDes (Communication Design)
The transformed art, culture, tradition… Mandvi (before and now)
importers of wood in the country. The nuts and bolts are purchased from a place called Nadiad again in the same state but not in Kutch. Overall in Mandvi today the biggest industry is their ship building industry which is approximately a 400 crores rupees industry and surprisingly they achieve all this without any support from the Government whatsoever. The population of Kutch is about 50 lakh and in Mandvi there are about 50,000 people living out of which about 400 sea men work abroad. The other major businesses apart from ship building are farming and animal raring. Something very important to also note here is how Mandvi over the past 100 years is also affected with migration and there have been a lot of people who move to cities like Mumbai to pursue other professions and now Mandvi also has a lot of NRIs who are based in Muscat and Dubai. Most of them are into businesses like trading, law and others. The two days of the trip enabled us to have an interaction with an Archaeologist, a Sea man and a ship builder and also a Business man which gave a pretty good idea about the overall ship building and its current state.
14 PC721 Approaches to Culture and Communication Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology
Manu Kamath 201114001 MDes (Communication Design)
The transformed art, culture, tradition… Conclusion
Conclusion After the two days of visit to Mandvi most of my questions now were answered and like I mentioned before that the problem doesn’t fall under one specific category but rather the ship building in Mandvi has different takes on it as per the various sub cultures as well. I have written down the answers to all the questions that I asked and also put up other questions that have arised : 1. Has the traditional ship building culture in Mandvi transformed? Yes the traditional ship building in Mandvi has transformed over the years due to the development of technology and also due to the need of building ships that are bigger and can carry more cargo. To build more ships even the locals have started hiring labourers from other states only to make the ship building more easier and faster. 2. Is preservation of the culture required? This is a question for which an archaeologist will immediately agree to saying that ship building is a dying culture here and it needs to be preserved in books or in forms of a film or movie. But I feel that the ship building itself preserves itself in the form of miniatures. The art and tradition of the older ships to the current ones is clearly preserved and maintained in the miniatures and even though they are miniatures they are blue prints to the actual ship. So here we can see how the culture itself transforms itself into the miniature and speaks for the tradition. 3. Does any organization or institution work for the preservation of this culture? So far there is no active organization that is working towards preserving this culture however people have always mentioned the ship building culture and tradition in books and I had also found that University Grants Commission of India plans to have an intensive study on the culture and methods of ship building in Mandvi as part of their project to document and record the history and heritage of Kutch. 4. How has the ship building changed over the years? Well earlier they say instead of nails and the bolts they used to clamp two pieces of wood to hold together in the ship which now a days got transformed to the usage of nails and bolts. I see that with time the culture of ship building has adapted new ways of ship building. Earlier the ships were narrower so that the sails could pull the ship faster through the sea but now as the ships are motorized and the problem of the shape doesn’t really remain a problem for the ship to sail in the sea. So according to me not just has the change in times or economy affected the ship building but also the change in technology also brought about a large change. I now clearly see how this current problem statement can be related to two different sides. At one side there is the culture of ship building which is itself in form as well as the way it 15 PC721 Approaches to Culture and Communication Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology
Manu Kamath 201114001 MDes (Communication Design)
The transformed art, culture, tradition… Conclusion
communicates due to the political‐ideology and current financial trends and also with the availability of new technology to support the change. Thus we can see how designs of the traditional Kachcchi vessel changes and how the sails are replaced by the motors and also how materials used for construction also change. On the other hand we see how this culture is interpreted differently by various sub groups of Mandvi itself. An ex‐sailor communicates the art and tradition in a very different way and gives more importance to the art of navigation and sailing rather than the very art of ship building. He preserves and transforms the ships into miniatures and creates blue prints which in a way can help build this same piece of cultural art at a later stage in the future. An archaeologist on the other hand views the art and culture as something which dying and the ship building speaks to him in a totally different way than to an economist or a business man the art and culture is the main industry that supports the livelihood of the people of Mandvi. I feel that the miniature shop of Mr. Bhudha can serve as an example to how an art or a tradition can itself preserve itself. How it not just serves as a blue print but also speaks about the art and tradition of the locals there in Mandvi.
16 PC721 Approaches to Culture and Communication Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology
Manu Kamath 201114001 MDes (Communication Design)
The dying art, culture, tradition… Acknowledgement
Acknowledgement Without the support of my faculty and guides at DA‐IICT and also without the help and time given to me by the people of Mandvi it would not have been possible for me to pursue this project in Approaches to Culture and Communication. I would like to thank the following people involved in the process of helping me develop this project: Prof. Vishvajit Pandya Prof. Madhumita Mazumdar Dr. Harshad Udeshi Dr. Pulin Vasa Mr. Shivji Bhudha
17 PC721 Approaches to Culture and Communication Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology
Manu Kamath 201114001 MDes (Communication Design)
The dying art, culture, tradition… References and Bibliography
References and Bibliography [1] ‘Is there an Indian way of thinking?’ Essay. Author : AK Ramanuj [2]http://www.vibrantgujarat.com/documents/profiles/kachchh‐district‐profile.pdf [3]http://globalgujarat.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=108&Itemid= 113 [4] The Indus civilization: a contemporary perspective By Gregory L. Possehl (Pg.67 Table 3.5) [5] "Nani Rayan", the mystery unveiled: an archaeological research of the buried civilization, its culture, and trade with the outer world Author : Dr. Pulin Vasa L.F. Rushbrook Williams (1958), The Black Hills Kutch in History and Legend.
18 PC721 Approaches to Culture and Communication Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology
Manu Kamath 201114001 MDes (Communication Design)