Priti David

Sharmila Joshi

Editor

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“See this photo of a tag on a kurta
[marketed by a big brand] talking about ‘Toda embroidery’. It is a print
stamped on the cloth! And they have not even bothered to get the facts right,
calling the embroidery ‘pukhoor’ and other words that don’t even exist
in our language,” says Vasamalli K.

In the Toda language, the community’s embroidery is called pohor. Vasamalli,
in her 60s, is a veteran embroider who lives in Karikadmund hamlet in Kundah taluk of the Nilgiris district of Tamil
Nadu. Around 16 kilometres away, in Ooty (Udhagamandalam) town, Sheela Powell, who runs a Toda embroidery products outlet, was incredulous
too when she saw a ‘Toda’ saree being sold online for just Rs. 2,500 by another
well-known retailer. She immediately ordered it. “It was advertised as a ‘Toda
embroidered saree, skilfully hand embroidered by the women of Tamil Nadu’. I
wanted to know how they could price it so low and where it was done.”

The saree was delivered in a few days. “I saw it was machine
embroidered, and the reverse was covered with a strip of cloth to hide the
untidy threads,” Sheela says. “Yes, the embroidery was in black and red, but
that was the only similarity.”

Traditional embroidery, done by
women in the Toda community, has distinctive red and black (and occasionally
blue) thread work in geometric designs on unbleached white cotton fabric.  The traditional Toda dress is a
distinctive shawl, the putukuli. Considered a grand garment, it is only worn
for special occasions like visits to the temple, festivals and finally as a
shroud. Around the 1940s, Toda women began to do made-to-order piece work for
British buyers – tablecloths, bags and other items. For the next many decades,
sale was limited to those who requisitioned the items. Only
cotton thread was used in the past, though now most Toda women use wool thread,
because, they say, it is less expensive and faster to work with.

“Even so, it’s very intricate [work] and strains the eye, so
one can only work for three to four hours a day,” says Simmavani P., 54,
Vasamalli’s sister-in-law. There are no traced designs, and the warp and weft
of the fabric are used as a grid to embroider. Some stitches are tightly held,
others have loops of thread hanging as part of the design. There is no reverse
in a Toda embroidered piece, so neat is the work on both sides – a matter of
great pride among the artisans.

“A six-metre saree takes at least six weeks to embroider and
will sell for at least Rs. 7,000 rupees. It is not economically possible to
sell a genuine piece for Rs. 2,500-3,000,” explains Sheela.

Not only are the descriptions by the big brands misleading, they
could also be an infringement. Toda embroidery received a GI (geographical
indication) certificate in 2013. A GI is given by the government to protect the traditional knowledge
of a community or producers of particular foods, trades and craft. It’s like an
intellectual property right. The GI
status for Toda embroidery means anything created outside the Nilgiris district
is an infringement, as is any method
of production not done by hand. The Toda embroidery GI is jointly owned by
Pompuhar (the Tamil Nadu Handicrafts Development Corporation), Keystone
Foundation (an NGO working in the Nilgiris) and the Toda Nalavaazhvu Sangam (a
body of some Toda artisans and a non-Toda dentist based in Coonoor).

Despite the GI, says Vasamalli, “big companies outside the
Nilgiris are copying our embroidery using machines or as a print and calling it
‘Toda embroidery’. How can they do this?”

It’s not just big companies, other craftspeople are also
infringing. At a handicraft exhibition in Jaipur, Vasamalli found Toda designs
on woollen shawls in another stall. “One customer came to fight with me saying why are your items so
expensive when they are selling the same thing for the half the price?” she
says. “It [the other stall’s item] was not hand embroidered, but
a stamped pattern and [so] it was much cheaper.&quot;

There is also a fear within the community of non-Todas
acquiring the embroidery skills because the Toda population is small – just 2002 people in 538 households
across an estimated 125 Toda hamlets in the Nilgiris (Census 2011).  By their own estimates, there are around 300
women in their community who practice pohor. However, the interest among younger
women is dwindling, which puts the future of the craft at risk.

In Nedimund,
a Toda hamlet in Coonoor taluk,
23-year-old artisan N. Sathyasin’s predicament speaks for others like her: “The
work is a lot and it takes a lot of time. As labourer in a [tea] estate I can
get 300 rupees or more a day. For this work I spend two to six hours a day and
get only about 2,000 rupees at the end of the month.”

Sathyasin works with Shalom, the Toda products outlet run by Sheela (who is not from the Toda community). Shalom
too has
been criticised by some Todas for employing non-Toda women. “They do the ancillary work such as stitching, attaching
beads and tassels, but not embroidery,” Sheela counters. “I am aware that the
craft will lose some of its value if just anyone takes it up. Right now it is
precious because it is so little, only so many pieces a year and each piece is
unique. But it’s a big challenge to get this work done and to keep it going.”

The outlet was started in 2005
and has 220 Toda women on the rolls embroidering pieces which get converted to
products like sarees, shawls, bags and linen. Of each saree sold for Rs. 7,000,
around Rs. 5,000 goes to the artisan, and the remaining is used for the
material and marketing, Sheela says.  Most
of the experienced artisans earn, on average, between Rs. 4,000 and Rs. 16,000 a
month, depending on the amount of work they take on. Shalom
posted a turnover of Rs. 35 lakhs in 2017-2018 and many in the Nilgiris credit
it with helping the market for these products grow.  

Vasamalli shrugs, resigned to the inevitable: “If non-Todas
do it, it will lose its value. But on the other hand if enough people don’t,
it will die out completely.”

With a high literacy rate
of 84 per cent, Todas now have jobs in banks and other services and are
considered fairly well-to-do. Vasamalli too has a Masters in Sociology, is a member
of the Tamil Nadu Tribal Welfare Board, and a published author with the Sahitya
Akademi. 

“It is the headache of us Toda females! The men are not
bothered who is doing embroidery and who is copying,” she says.  “Selling [of our hand embroidery] and doing
business is not a traditional thing in our culture, so men are not serious
about it. For us women it is both – we have to protect our cultural right and
at the same time not incur economic loss.”

The Toda embroidery cause is not helped by the fact that
there is no single overarching body of Toda artisans to address these issues.
“We are scattered as a community,” Vasamalli says. “There are multiple bodies,
it has become very political. I am a member of many organisations, but even I
am unable to gather everyone around this. We need help.”

Meanwhile, Bengaluru-based lawyer Zaheda Mulla, who specialises
in intellectual property rights, patents and copyrights, and was commissioned
by Keystone Foundation for the Toda embroidery GI, is in no doubt that there is
a legal case. “In Toda embroidery, the ‘method of production’ refers to
embroidery done by hand only,” she says. “If this embroidery is done in any
other way such as by machine, then it is incorrect to call it ‘Toda
embroidery’. In other words, machine embroidered products sold as ‘Toda
embroidery’ would amount to infringement. As part of the registration process,
certain unique designs are also registered.”

However, she adds, “You need muscle power to
implement and propagate awareness among end consumers. GI holders and
genuine producers (called ‘authorised users’ in the GI certificate) affected by
counterfeit sales must seek legal remedy by filing an infringement
suit [in the high court of that jurisdiction].”  

The two brands marketing so-called Toda embroidery, that are
referred to in this story, are Siyahi of Reliance Trends and Tjori.com. Despite
repeated emails seeking clarity on the product and its description as given on
the site, Tjori did not respond. 

In response to an email sent by this reporter,
customercare@reliancetrends.com wrote: “Siyahi
is a brand that takes inspiration from Traditional Indian crafts. We do not do
original products produced by Craftsmen. Embroideries are all machine done.
Embroideries are all done on computer embroidery machines in factories.
Inspiration has been taken from Toda shawls.”

But Vasumalli is not placated.  “Copying our designs and using our name is
not correct,” she says.

'Copying our designs is not correct'

'ನಮ್ಮ ವಿನ್ಯಾಸಗಳನ್ನು ನಕಲು ಮಾಡುವುದು ಸರಿಯಲ್ಲ'

'ഞങ്ങളുടെ രൂപകല്‍പന പകര്‍ത്തുന്നത് ശരിയല്ല'

‘আমাদের নক্সা নকল করা মোটেই ঠিক নয়’

'எங்களது டிஸைன்களை காப்பியடிக்கிறது சரியல்ல'

‘आमची नक्षी चोरणं काही बरोबर नाही’

‘हमारे डिज़ाइनों की चोरी करना सही नहीं है’

’ہمارے ڈیزائنوں کی نقل کرنا صحیح نہیں ہے‘

‘ଆମ ଡିଜାଇନ୍‌ର ନକଲ କରିବା ଠିକ୍‌ ନୁହେଁ’

Karikadmund

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'Copying our designs is not correct'

Despite a GI certification, the distinctive Toda embroidery of the Nilgiris is being widely copied. This, along with the falling numbers of artisans and a lack of collective action, are adding to the craft’s uncertain future

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