Most Hindi language primers identify the alphabet “th” with the thatheras — the traditional copper and brass utensil makers who operate out of a small settlement called Bazaar Thatherian in Jandiala Guru, a non-descript town 10 km from Amritsar. Their products range from household items such as katoris, thalis and gagar (pots for water and milk) to huge cooking vessels used in community kitchens at weddings, temples and gurdwaras, such as degh, pateela and karahi. In December last year, this unique craft found its way into UNESCO’s List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH), alongside Turkish art of marbling, and the Japanese technique of making hand-made paper, called Washi. It is a rare honour — this is the first time a traditional craft from India has made it to the prestigious list — but it has not managed to revitalise their dying craft. From 500 families employed in the profession in the 1940s, it has come down to a mere 15-odd families now. “With the growing popularity of toxic but cheap aluminium and plastic vessels, ours has become a dying art. A pateela made by us costs Rs 800, which is what you pay for an aluminum dinner set produced in factories. Why will someone buy from us?” says 75-year-old Ajit Singh Malhotra, one of the few thatheras left in Jandiala. His grandfather had migrated to Punjab from Pakistan in 1947 and the family has always been involved in the art, till Malhotra’s son joined the media and broke the tradition. “Ours is essentially an oral tradition and we still use hand-held tools and traditional wood-fired ovens to mould the metal. We can’t compete with mass-produced utensils. All that we are making now are big vessels that are bought by gurdwaras in Canada and the UK. The next generation is not joining the profession anymore,” says Malhotra. The history of the thatheras can be traced back to over 200 years. According to the District Gazetteer of 1883, the craftsmen colony was established during the reign of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, who encouraged skilled metal workers from Kashmir, primarily Muslims, to settle in his kingdom. Jandiala Guru became a bustling mandi for brass and copper utensils. Another such mandi was in Kujranwala, now in Pakistan. The two towns had trade links between the artisan communities. In 1947, during the Partition of India, the metal workers’ community of Kujranwala, primarily Hindus and Sikhs, crossed the border and settled in Jandiala Guru, while the Muslim craftsmen migrated to Pakistan. Till date, Jandiala Guru remains a crafts village. In fact, the element “Jandiala Guru de Thathere” is also included in the inventories of the Sangeet Natak Akademi (SNA) and Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA). While SNA Archives has 2.5 lakh photos, and over 16 thousand hours of audio and video recordings on thatheras, IGNCA’s repository has 54,000 hours of audio-video recordings, and 250 publications. It was Yaaminey Mubayi, a Delhi-based researcher, who came across the settlement in Jandiala. She had been invited by the Punjab government to prepare the nomination dossier for UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list and chose the thatheras. It was submitted to the UNESCO as India’s entry in 2009. The thatheras were finally put on the list in December 2014. “Breaking up of families, and modern lifestyle has reduced their ritualistic importance. But their craft took a hit when the state government reduced subsidies on raw material such as coal and metals in the late ’60’s and ’70s,” Mubayi had said in an earlier interview. Sukhdev Singh, convenor of the Punjab chapter of INTACH, says, “We all know that eating food in brass utensils, and drinking water from copper pitchers is a healthy practice. These utensils also have ritualistic importance. For instance, a particular type of bowl called Madhupurkha is used to feed a mixture of curd and honey to a new bridegroom after the nuptials. From time to time, we hold workshops and lectures underlining the importance of these utensils, we conduct demos for students in colleges. But all these do not translate into any help as such. The bottomline is that they need monetary help to survive.” The UNESCO heritage listing does not come with monetary benefits, but when a government nominates a craft or heritage for the ICH list, it has to give an undertaking that it will provide welfare measures for the craft. Accordingly, a team from SNA visited Jandiala in May. Suman Kumar, deputy secretary at the ICH section, SNA, who was part of the team, says, “They are being considered for showcasing the processes of their craft at various tourism complexes in the region. There are also plans to set up a crafts museum to commemorate the region’s cultural heritage.” But in Jandiala, these visits and this new-found limelight is viewed with scepticism. As Jujhar Singh, another veteran thathera, puts it, “After the UNESCO honour, sarkaari officials come to file their reports. None of them can help us. We need a market for our goods and cheaper raw material. Can someone help us there?”
