Online Via Zoom
“Laila Tyabji is a craft designer, writer, and Chairperson of DASTKAR, the craft NGO she helped found. Laila has been working with grassroots artisans all over India for over four decades. Many of her most rewarding projects involve creating new livelihood avenues through craft for pastoral & marginalized rural communities - bonded labour in Bihar, displaced villages in Ranthambore, tribals in Orissa and Karnataka, victims of insurgency in Kashmir, and, most recently, craftspeople decimated by the Covid pandemic and subsequent lockdowns. Ms Tyabji studied art in Baroda & Japan and has worked as a freelance designer in textiles, graphics, interiors, and theatre. She writes regularly on craft, design, development, and Social Issues. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Padma Shri in 2012 for her work in the craft sector, and was the first Asian to receive the AID TO ARTISANS Preservation of Craft Award in Néw York in 2003."
She will be in conversation with Professor Aparajita Basu. Professor Aparajita Basu is an Assistant Professor in the Humanities and Languages division of the School of Arts and Sciences at Ahmedabad University. She completed her PhD at UC Berkeley, where her dissertation examined the contributions of Indian women’s rights reformers to discourses of Asian civilizational unity prevalent in the early twentieth century in India, often characterized contemporarily as ‘Asianism’. Her research is broadly focused on the intellectual and cultural history of the subcontinent in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Laila Tyabji has been working with grassroots artisans all over India for over four decades. Many of her most rewarding projects involve creating new livelihood avenues through craft for pastoral & marginalized rural communities - bonded labour in Bihar, displaced villages in Ranthambore, tribals in Orissa and Karnataka, victims of insurgency in Kashmir, and, most recently, craftspeople decimated by the Covid pandemic and subsequent lockdowns. Ms Tyabji studied art in Baroda & Japan and has worked as a freelance designer in textiles, graphics, interiors, and theatre. She writes regularly on craft, design, development, and Social Issues. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Padma Shri in 2012 for her work in the craft sector, and was the first Asian to receive the AID TO ARTISANS Preservation of Craft Award in Néw York in 2003.
Professor Aparajita Basu is an Assistant Professor in the Humanities and Languages division of the School of Arts and Sciences at Ahmedabad University. She completed her PhD at UC Berkeley, where her dissertation examined the contributions of Indian women’s rights reformers to discourses of Asian civilizational unity prevalent in the early twentieth century in India, often characterized contemporarily as ‘Asianism’. Her research is broadly focused on the intellectual and cultural history of the subcontinent in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
