A History of Indian Craft: 1850s to the Present

Dr Nadine Zubair is the Digital Humanities Manager at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, University of East Anglia (UEA). She has a PhD in South Asian architectural history from UEA, an MSc in Information Systems Management from Carnegie Mellon University, an MA in South Asian Art History from the University of Pennsylvania, and an MA in South Asian archaeology from the University of Peshawar. Her dissertation, titled Material Histories and Wood-Carving: Fragments from Modern Punjab, was fully funded by the South Asian Decorative Arts and Crafts Collection (SADACC) in Norwich.

Nia Thandapani is a design historian and graphic designer whose work focuses on colonial and post-independence design in the Indian subcontinent and the UK, specifically engaging with imperialism’s presence within museum and heritage spaces, and its impact on design. She is co-founder of Chandigarh Chairs, a long-term project that works towards critically re-evaluating the history of Chandigarh’s modernist furniture. Nia was a 2019 artist-in-residence at the William Morris Gallery in London and co-created the exhibition ‘Distant Fellowship,’ which explored Morris’s connections with South Asia. Her work includes artist books, alternative museum guides, installations and experimental zines.

Dr Amanda Lanzillo is Lecturer in South Asian History at Brunel University of London. She is a historian focused on the intersections of labour, religion and technology in colonial-era India. Her first book, Pious Labor: Islam, Artisanship, and Technology in Colonial India examines Muslim artisan communities’ engagement with new industrial technologies in 19th- and early 20th-century north India. Amanda holds a PhD in History from Indiana University, and was a Cotsen Postdoctoral Fellow at the Princeton University Society of Fellows. Her research and public scholarship have appeared in Modern Asian Studies, South Asia, Journal of Social History, The Wire, Scroll, and Himal.

Laila Tyabji is an Indian social worker, designer, writer and craft activist. She is co-founder and chairperson of Dastkar, a Society for Crafts & Craftspeople, and has been working in the crafts sector since 1978. She was awarded the Padma Shri award in 2012 for her extensive contributions to Indian crafts, and is the second-ever recipient and the first Asian to receive the Aid to Artisans Preservation of Craft Award in New York, in 2003.

Sudheer Rajbhar is a Mumbai-based artist, activist and designer. He is the founder of Chamar Studio, an emerging design studio and leatherworking cooperative based in Dharavi that works to overcome centuries of caste-based oppression and recently state-sanctioned leather bans. By replacing leather with recycled rubber from tire waste, Chamar Studio works with Dalit and Muslim leatherworkers to create items such as bags and shoes. He is represented by Gallery æquō and his works have been exhibited at PAD Paris, Serendipity Arts Festival and Clark House. He is also the recipient of Royal Ontario Museum’s 2021–22 I ARTS Textiles of India Grant along with Sajdeep Soomal.