Oil-lit chaaki is flickering, so is Assamese culture!

By our Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, Oct 25: An oil-lit chaaki (an earthen lamp) symbolizes sanctity, the essence of Assamese culture. However, with the advancement in modern education, such values are on the wane, so is traditiol Assamese culture. What should one call such an education that makes people work-shy?

Ceramic (pottery) is an age-old cottage industry in Assam. Though a few potters are still there to keep the traditiol industry that has much to do with the culture of the State alive, potters’ products have few takers these days. Thanks to the electrical products for lightening which have glutted the market in the State. Youths educated in modern education not being interested in traditiol works is enough an indication of the extinction of the traditiol industries in the State.

Trades like pottery are generally practiced by families for generations. However, this practice is on the wane in Assam unlike some other States like West Bengal. The reluctance on the part of the newer generations to take their family business is pushing the State towards large-scale unemployment, besides allowing products from other States glutting the local market.

Most of the educated youths from potters’ families are reluctant to continue their family business. They are behind making quick bucks. This practice has its cascading effects on the State and its culture. With Diwali coming closer, one can witness how potters’ products from West Bengal glut the market in Assam.

Meet these four persons who do business on potters’ products in the city. Near Kamakshya Gate and Nursery there are four families doing business on pottery. They are wholesalers as well as retailers of potters’ products. While going by the road one can see the site full of pots of diverse sizes and designs by the side of the road and in the courtyards of the houses that sprawl near the railway tracks. Anda Paul, who has a shop near Nursery, is a wholesaler as well as a retailer. The others engaged in the same business are Ramesh Prajapati, Dilip Das and Sontora Devi. All the four collect earthen lamps and other products from Goalpara, Gauripur, Pathsala, Malibari and West Bengal. All the products that are from Assam are plain, while the ones that come from West Bengal are beautifully coloured and designed. This essentially smacks of the fact that unlike in West Bengal, in Assam the industry has not developed with the passage of time. The difference in the art between the local products and the ones that come from West Bengal has its reflection in the pricing. The wholesale price of 1,000 pieces the smallest size local earthen lamp is Rs 430. The retailers sell them in the market at Re 1 apiece, while big ones are sold at up to Rs 50 apiece. On the other hand, a piece of the smallest size earthen lamp from West Bengal is sold at Rs 4. The big ones from West Bengal are sold at up to Rs 300 apiece.

Talking to this reporter, Anda Paul said: “In the last Diwali, the business was good. I hope a similar business this year as well. Products keep coming from various places in Assam and West Bengal.”

Paul is worried as the younger generation in Assam is not interested to keep such traditiol trades alive. “They are hankering after easy money, and while chasing money they often end up by losing everything. Work culture in the State is worst affected, perhaps with the advancement in education. I don’t feel that electric products will spell doom for earthen products.”

Sontora Devi said: “My father-in-law was a potter here. However, my sons are reluctant to continue the trade. Clay is not easily obtained nowadays. Now I’m just a wholesaler as well as a retailer. The prices are high at the sources.”