Jaya Jaitly, politician and writer, 70, is at least two decades younger than her age. She was in Cairo to organise “Akshara: Crafting Indian Scripts”, an exhibition of over 100 museum-quality pieces created through her association by over 60 producers, whether groups or individuals, in 14 Indian languages and scripts using 21 different crafts, textiles and art forms, across 16 states of India. “It is unique and innovative as there has been no such work attempted ever before,” she says. The exhibition at Al-Hanager Art Centre on the Cairo Opera House grounds, which took place from 15 to 21 April, was held as part of the India by the Nile festival, and it showcases India's great written heritage expressed through craft forms in multi-faceted ways, linking calligraphy and design. Jaitly explains that it creates a new repertoire of designs that brings together ancient and contemporary art. “Handcrafted applications of scripts on metal, carved and inlaid wood, clay, stone, pottery and stoneware, a range of embroidered and woven textiles, and different areas of traditional art like paper cutting, hand block printing and a variety of lesser known forms of folk art are all on display,” she adds. Jaitly founded Dastkari Haat Samiti to enable traditional artisans to gain confidence in the market place through innovative strategies. She has an intimate knowledge of the craft traditions of the country, having worked in the field for over 40 years. She regularly guides craftspeople in design, organisation and marketing all over India and organises major exhibitions promoting India's arts, crafts and culture, whether in India or abroad. Craftspeople are the staple of these. She now restricts her public work to the craft sector and writing, although she is still champions many political issues, including women's empowerment, Tibet, Burma and human rights. A prolific writer, Jaitly has published Crafts of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh, Traditions of India, Viswakarma's Children (a socio-economic study of crafts people) and Crafting Nature, among many other books. Jaitly studied English literature at Smith College in the USA and travelled to Japan, Burma, Belgium and the UK with her father – who was a diplomat. Her work has brought together the craftspeople of India and Pakistan, Vietnam, African and Asian countries; and it has been taken up by the government as an instrument of diplomacy and a means to sharing skills and assisting in capacity building. Jaitly was in mainstream politics for 25 years and headed the Samata Party as its national president in 2001. She has published stories on crafts for children that are widely distributed in many regional languages through the well known NGO Pratham. She assisted in creating a syllabus for schools of India's craft heritage for NCERT. She was also deeply involved in heritage issues at all levels and has received awards from the PHD Chamber and FICCI for her work in culture and the arts and as a role model for women leaders. She has created an enormous record of the arts, crafts and textiles of India through 24 highly artistic and unique maps of all the states, compiled in a major publication called The Crafts Atlas of India. She was impressed by the Arabic calligraphy artworks she saw in Egypt and pointed out that, although calligraphy in India is restricted to Muslim Indians, it is a very old tradition of writing. Jaitly says she seized the opportunity to share her extensive experience with Dr Heba Handoussa, founder of the Egypt Network for Integrated Development (ENID), which aims to create a viable process for the identification of problem areas and for the dissemination of solutions to selected national problems in an integrated process, and with different groups of Egyptian artisans. “I am sure that this will create a strong platform for sharing of skills and experiences in the development of handicrafts, exchanging knowledge, designs and ideas,” Jaitly commented. She announced that she will organise workshops in India where Egyptian artisans from poor districts of Upper Egypt can show their designs in a modern context. She had a good chance to tour the momentous art centres of Egypt such as the Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) in Al-Darb Al-Ahmar, Cairo, which is part of the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN), whose mission is to develop and promote creative solutions to problems that impede social development, mainly in Asia and East Africa. She also visited Al-Azhar where Khayamiya and patchwork craftsmen are centered. She found a resemblance between the Dastkari Haat Samiti association and the Ramses Wissa Wassef Art Centre, the home of a unique experiment in tapestry weaving located in Sakkara, dedicated by its founder to releasing the innate creativity of young Egyptian villagers freed from the constraints of a formal education. Jaitly also expressed her admiration for Assiut tally (black fabric embroidered with silver threads) and the pottery museum established in Al-Fustat in Old Cairo. Asked about the concept of Dilli Haat, which she developed in India, she said, “Dilli is the name of Delhi in ancient Indian culture and the word Haat means suq or market so it means Delhi suq and it enables thousands of artisans with sustainable livelihoods to preserve their cultural heritage and is one of the best-known popular spots for visitors and Indians alike. Dilli Haat now serves as a model for other such establishments…” She concluded her tour with a visit to the Bibliotheca Alexandrina where she discussed with officials the possibility of holding the exhibition again next year at the library. Asked which of her many activities is dearest to her heart, Jaya Jaitly immediately replied, “I believe in the emotional commitment to working with people to improve their life and it is good to share the beauty of craft for social development. In politics I have been trying to enforce women's empowerment to improve our society and build the country.” She chose to end the conversation with a message to Egyptian woman after the 25 January Revolution: “Egyptian women must have courage and confidence in themselves because every human being has the capability to do great things, so they shouldn't allow themselves to be pushed back in any way by anyone.”
