The tiny unassuming village of Nirona in Kutch is home to a rare art form, dating back to 400 years. For seven generations now, the men of the Khatri family have practised the ancient skill of Rogan painting here.
It was considered a dying art form till the family patriarch, Abdulgafoor Khatri, decided to salvage some vestiges of Rogan art’s former glory.
From his kuchha house in Nirona, exquisite Rogan paintings have made their way to the homes of film actors and world leaders.
When Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the US in October 2014, he chose to gift US President Barack Obama a painting made by Khatri, symbolising the tree of life.
“Mere isi kuchhe makaan mein Bharat ki badi badi hastiyan aayi hain (India’s greatest personalities have visited me in this kuchha house),” smiles the 50-year-old artist, who counts Amitabh Bachchan, Shabana Azmi and Shekhar Kapur, among his many admirers. “But all this is not because of me, it’s due to the beauty of this art form,” he adds.
The art makes use of a six-inch-long stylus, which is dipped in luminous pigments of varied hues.
The word ‘rogan’ refers to oil-based in Persian. It is prepared by heating castor oil in a vessel, continuously stirring it for more than 12 hours… this is then mixed with cold water till it thickens into a sticky elastic residue. This is mixed with natural colours for painting.Sangeeta in her blog lifeisavacation.wordpress.com.
She had visited Nirona in 2013 and was amazed at the dexterity with which the master painter drew geometric and floral patterns in freehand across the cotton fabric.
Transforming a Dying Art Into a Global Wonder
Amazingly, a perfect mirror-imprint is formed when the artist folds the cloth. The process is time consuming and the technique extremely tricky, which takes a lifetime to master.
Khatri does it effortlessly.
Yet, the going was not always good for Khatri, whose family is known to be the last living practitioners of Rogan art. He saw the art dying before his very eyes as famine left the village bereft of money and resources.
There was no longer any buyer for our art. So, even though I had learnt the craft from my grandfather and father, I turned away from it.Abdulgafoor Khatri
With no money to even afford schooling, he moved to Ahmedabad and then to Mumbai, where he eked out a living as a vegetable seller and, often, as a daily wage labourer. “I would at times get merely two to five rupees a day,” he says.
Khatri was persisting with his daily struggles when a call from his grandfather changed the trajectory of his life. He was ailing and had a big order to finish.
“Also, he didn’t want the art to die with him and my father. So I went back and picked up the stylus. There has been no looking back ever since,” he says.
Luckily, his return coincided with the state government’s decision to revive dying art forms.
Khatri began to get orders from emporiums. In 2010, his work got exhibited at the Crafts of India Gallery set up by the Union Ministry of Textiles at the INA Metro Station, Delhi.
His intricate work on a sari – completed in over a year – also won him the National Award.
“Why Should Women be Excluded?”
While geometric patterns remain his favourite, Khatri has experimented with Mughal-style motifs as well. However, he is not content with merely earning laurels for his work. Khatri has taken it on himself to create awareness about the art and also train others to take Rogan art forward.
I could never go to school, but I insisted that my son should study. He is a master now. My uncle’s three daughters have also taken up the art – as have three of my brothers.Abdulgafoor Khatri
“Nirona has begun to attract a lot of tourists, who visit only to see our work. And their biggest question is: why do only men practise art, why not women?”
In the ancient time, his ancestors, perhaps, believed that once a girl got married, she would take the art to the other family. They wanted to be exclusive, rather than inclusive.
I don’t believe in that. I believe in sharing of knowledge. Also, I wanted to silence these taunts, so I started teaching Rogan art to girls as well, without any fee.Abdulgafoor Khatri
Today, nearly 200 women have learnt the art from him and 30 have taken it up full time. He hopes to double his marketing efforts in the near future so that the glory of this art can spread to all corners of the globe; and also to archive and record the work handed down in his family over generations.
“And my ardent wish is that I continue to practise Rogan art till my last breath,” says Khatri.
(Avantika Bhuyan is a freelance journalist who loves to uncover the invisible India hiding in nooks and crannies across the country.)
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