Behind every Indian craft is a history of who made it, who paid for it and how it reached the world. Knowing a little of that history helps you understand why crafts look the way they do, and why some are thriving while others struggle.
Crafts passed down in families
For centuries, many crafts in India were practised by particular communities and handed down within families, often linked to caste. A weaving or potting family might work in the same lane for generations, and skills, designs and tools passed from parent to child. This gave crafts great depth and continuity. It also tied people to occupations and status they did not choose, and some communities faced discrimination because of the work they did.
Today the picture is more mixed. Many artisans still come from hereditary craft families, while design schools, workshops and training programmes have opened crafts to others. Many traditional artists now sign their work and are known by name.
Temples, courts and patrons
Much of India’s finest art was made for patrons. Temples commissioned sculpture, bronzes like the Nataraja, and painted cloths like Pichwai. Royal courts kept workshops of painters, weavers and jewellers. Village and household art, such as floor and wall painting, was made by communities, often by women, for festivals and weddings, and was not sold at all.
India and world trade
Indian cotton textiles were traded across Asia, Africa and Europe for centuries. From the 17th century, European trading companies shipped huge amounts of painted and printed Indian cloth to Europe. Over the 18th and 19th centuries, factory-made cloth from Britain, together with colonial trade policies, undercut Indian hand weavers and many lost their livelihoods. This is why hand-spun and hand-woven cloth, khadi, became a symbol of the independence movement led by Mahatma Gandhi.
Revival after independence
After 1947, India set up bodies to support crafts, such as the All India Handicrafts Board and state emporia, led by figures such as Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay. Many folk traditions that had been made only for home use, such as Madhubani painting, moved onto paper and cloth for sale from the 1960s onwards, which brought income and recognition to artists.
Crafts today
Crafts are still a major source of work in India: the Fourth All India Handloom Census (2019–20) counted about 3.5 million handloom workers. They face competition from cheap machine-made copies, rising costs and young people leaving for other jobs. Geographical Indication tags, handloom marks, online selling and collaborations with designers are some of the ways crafts are adapting.
What you can do
- Ask who made a piece and where, and value the answer.
- Pay fairly for hand work, and learn to tell it from machine copies with our buying guide.
- Buy from artists, cooperatives and sellers who are open about their makers.
Sources
Main sources: Ministry of Textiles, Fourth All India Handloom Census 2019–20; Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay, Handicrafts of India; Jasleen Dhamija, Indian Folk Arts and Crafts, National Book Trust; Rosemary Crill (ed.), The Fabric of India, V&A Publishing, 2015; Victoria and Albert Museum, South Asia collection.
Last checked: November 2026.