Can sustainable development be achieved in rural areas by leveraging local arts and culture? The answer is a resounding yes, according to the entrepreneur who created social enterprise Banglanatak.com in West Bengal.
West Bengal is an eastern Indian region that is home to more than 100 million people. The area is rich in Indigenous culture with over 40 different tribes. According to a 2023 study conducted by the National Institution for Transforming India (NITI Aayog), West Bengal’s poverty level fell to 11.89% (2019-2021) from the 2015-2016 mark of 21.29%.
In this interview, Amitava Bhattacharya reveals how the power of creativity has proven to be a powerful force in diminishing rural poverty. The Founder and Director of Banglanatak.com, Amitava was trained as an engineer from IIT Kharagpur and was a Chevening Gurukul Scholar for Leadership and Excellence at the London School of Economics.
Amitava, who is from Kolkata, India, is a social entrepreneur with 29 years of global experience. In 1999, he left a job as a software engineer in Silicon Valley and returned to India, where he formed banglanatak.com, a non-profit organization working across India with a mission to foster inclusive and sustainable development using culture-based approaches.
Banglanatak works for the protection of the rights of women, children, and indigenous people. It also specializes in developing community-led creative industries based on intangible cultural heritage, like performing arts and crafts.
In 2004, Amitava launched Art for Life or AFL, the flagship project of Banglanatak, with 3,200 rural community artists engaged in six traditional art forms across six districts of West Bengal. Over 10,000 families have made the transition across the poverty line through microeconomies established by AFL that are based on traditional arts and crafts skills. In 2010, UNESCO accredited Banglanatak to provide advisory services to its intangible heritage committee.
Amitava (center) and the Banglanatak team. Photo: banglanatak.com
Sustainable Development Uses Creativity and Cultural Heritage to Alleviate Poverty
Meg: What was the catalyst for the creation of Banglanatak?
Amitava: We saw that lack of employable skills is a major cause of poverty and marginalization in India and identified the immense wealth of cultural and creative skills as a means to alleviate rural poverty. We started working on an experimental program to revitalize India's rural and traditional creative economy, which became successful over the years and was recognized globally as an evidence-based, replicable model called Art for Life (AFL) Programme.
During the 1980s, UNESCO envisioned cultural and human talents as drivers of sustainable development that contribute directly to socio-economic empowerment and human well-being, also articulated today in the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). According to the United Nations Development Program, SDGs are benchmarks set in place in hopes of ending poverty, protecting the planet, and ensuring that by 2030, all people can enjoy peace and prosperity.
Let me tell a story. I had the opportunity to roam around in rural India only after 10 years of my working life. During that time, I saw that there are many media-dark areas where communication relies only on the newspaper, radio, or television. All three of these were one-way communications. You cannot get feedback from people based on these three forms of communication.
After noticing this, I was inspired to create Banglanatak and focus on showcasing India’s culture and development. Culture and communication were the first phase of my journey, which started in 2000, as part of the Banglanatak journey. We call it C4D (Communication For Development, through theater and developing community-led creative industries based on intangible cultural heritage like performing arts and crafts).
While designing C4D, we opted for theater as the medium because I wanted to see the local community's involvement. Theater is a two-way communication process, and within it, we consume local folk art forms. Our goal was to raise awareness in villages about issues like health, sanitation, and the environment. We did this by developing shows for an interactive street theater.
We followed Augusto Boal’s form of theater, but the only difference was that our shows are entirely created from social research. While using theater as a form of communication for four years, we chose to focus on poverty and culture as the main themes since these need to be addressed, as well as the culture. The traditional culture needs to be addressed because the artists are not getting the recognition they deserve; rather, they are thinking that they are nothing but unskilled, daily laborers.
That pained me, and it told me that here is an opportunity for a social entrepreneur to work on this because a rickshaw van puller is pulling a van earning his livelihood from that, cursing his livelihood every moment, but in the evening when he goes back home, he is happily singing, painting, or dancing. I picked up that happiness factor, and I just tweaked his passion and made it his profession. Van pullers who used to believe that their passion would never give them a good earning now are a part of 40,000 handicraft creators, folk artists, performing artists, or visual artists who have a livelihood using their own art forms, getting recognition, and traveling all over the world on their own. So that is what our contribution is all about.
Sustainable Development with 'Art for Life'
Meg: Can you give an overview of how AFL works?
Amitava: AFL specializes in identifying, building and strengthening local traditional cultural skills, knowledge and capacities, as resources for sustainable income generation, poverty alleviation, and an inclusive economy. This model challenges the conventional view of the urban economy as the major economy, with the rural economy as a supplier of labour and primary products, and thus heavily dependent on urban economic opportunities. Rather, it holds that the exclusive cultural resources of rural India have massive economic potential on their own, and can grow as a strong entrepreneurial sector.
Over a period of 25 years, we have worked with 30,000 rural artists across 2,600 villages in four states of India, and have established rural cultural entrepreneurship and a people-centered approach leading to healthy and strong collective economies, also contributing to SDGs (sustainable development goals) 1, 5, 6, 8, and 11.
AFL’s integrated model and focus on local economies have also led to strong rural cultural tourism, with principles of responsible and sustainable tourism at its core. Instead of marginalizing rural youth with temporary labor jobs, this model of community-led cultural tourism considers the rural artist communities as the nucleus of this local industry. This brings a lot of pride to the village, the artist, and art forms. Such local cultural tourism destinations have also significantly boosted local economies and have created opportunities for income and entrepreneurship for youth running local home stays, guest houses, eateries, shops, etc. Thus, it supports complete development.
The resilience and sustainable nature of this kind of tourism became increasingly evident during the Coronavirus period. During this time, national and international travel industries were severely impacted, but village cultural tourism, which is dependent on local tourists and visitors, survived and recuperated faster. We saw over 90,000 domestic visitors to these rural cultural hubs between Dec. 2020 and Feb. 2021, and direct handicraft sales of over 11 million INR ($121,308 USD) by the rural artists, and even got a mention by the Honourable PM of India.
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Finding Success at Art For Life
Meg: Can you describe how people become successful entrepreneurs through working with the Art For Life program?
Amitava: Art For Life has three pillars. First is building capacity (the process of developing the skills, abilities, and resources that organizations and communities need to thrive in a fast-changing world). Secondly, we need to create a direct market linkage (connecting rural communities to market information, products, and related services in order to boost their productivity and improve their incomes and livelihoods). Direct is a very important word, so that the middleman doesn't take the profit away. And third is we need to facilitate an international cultural exchange.
Now there are two elements one needs to understand. Whatever you do, whatever you make, being a traditional artist, if it doesn't bring money or if it doesn't earn you recognition, then you probably will continue because of your passion, but your next generation will not continue. That is a fact of life.
So, who will safeguard the art form? Some PhD students or some art lovers like us will try to preserve it from the outside. We will write essays. We will print stories. But that will not benefit these artists. And you have to remember most of these artists are illiterate or undereducated, now formally educated. Very interestingly, why was that happening?
When I first viewed a Pattachitra, which is a scroll painting, I learned that they use natural colors that come from vegetables to make the paints. In 2004, when I first went there, I saw a husband and wife returning to their village. I asked, ‘Where did you come from?’ and they said, ‘We go begging every day, and we just returned now.’ So I sat with them and understood how their lives work. Then I saw eight beggars there who were also artists.
Others might think they are only beggars, but they aren’t. There were about 70 families there who knew how to make Pattachitra art, but were not pursuing it because they thought it was a losing game.
In 2018, 15 years later, there are 325 Pattachitra artists who, on average, make $400 USD a month, and many of them in the top 10% earn between $600 to $1000 USD. All of their houses are now quite clean with proper sanitation. All of them send their children to school. Not only that, it has influenced the neighboring villagers to do something on their own because a lot of visitors come to this village.
Somebody has created a guest house. A petrol pump is there. The government also understood that people are visiting these areas. So they have made beautiful roads, good water, and local banks. Now, what made that change? Have we taught them Patachitra, which is their skill? No, they knew Patachitra. It is their thing. But we just identified a possible skill that can be strengthened.
Both today’s and the prior generation started creating this art again as a career. People who left came back. Why do people come back? Two reasons. If income goes up, recognition goes up. How will income go up? That means you have to build on productivity. That means their painting has to be better. So gurus will train, and then after the training is over, we take them to different markets.
Life is always like a pyramid. A few guys at the top are excellent, a large portion, about 40%, are in the middle, and the bottom guys are also there, existing. So we created three types of markets. International and national markets in the top 10-15%; we facilitate connecting them with venues like Mumbai Airport and the art galleries of London, Paris, and even to the Smithsonian’s Folklife. The second, the middle range, we link them to markets in the Indian cities of Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, and Bangalore. The third is the local market; once people see the local market begin to rise in popularity, they really start believing that, yes, this can bring earnings.
So what is marketable? Not what the market needs. No, marketable is what you are doing to keep that tradition. In this case, artists may go back to natural color because people all over the world appreciate the fact that they can make paint from vegetables, which is a valued heritage skill. So people from all around the world started visiting the village to learn about it, to know it, and to appreciate it, which increases the footfalls to the villages. We actually marketed that here is a group of people who know how to make natural colors with beautiful paintings, storytelling, and singing.
In 2010, I began Art For Life here, establishing a festival to celebrate the village’s unique art and culture. In Art For Life, we never play with ritual. We always work on their art and cultural parts only. And when the village started receiving visitors, then we realized it is not a museum, it is a village where people live. So we need to identify which are private places and which are public places, in case families need privacy on a day when tourists are coming.
We needed to make an assembly point for the artisans and tourists. The government of West Bengal responded very nicely by creating a beautiful folk resource center, which is a two-story building in the middle of the village. The land was donated by the district collector to the artists themselves a long time back. That resource center's first floor has accommodations where guests can stay, and the ground floor has been made into a community museum. So this is how it continues, and all of these villages that we work in have the same model.
We also facilitate an international cultural exchange. When international artists come to work with local artists, that increases the community's sense of pride. Sharing the stage with international artists also opens up an opportunity for these talented rural artists to visit other countries.
I will say I'm very happy about one fact. None of the people in any of the villages that we worked in so far have migrated from village to city. So we have really stopped the entire out-migration of that area, and the art leadership has built up this, and now, honestly, they are really on their own. They have also acted as a positive catalyst for the neighboring villages to improve their circumstances.
Art Attracts Audience
Meg: Can you share your point of view on why art needs an audience and not just any audience, but an appropriate audience?
Amitava: I think I would say art attracts an audience. The audience also needs art. Art needs an audience. So it's actually a mutual story.
The art quality has to be good. But one thing we have to understand is that for art to survive, the artist must survive. If the investment is in people, then art will survive. I think that's a very important part.
Many times, people talk about sustainability. I often say that I'm unpopular because of the following statement. I say, "How much have you invested in sustainability?” Because my parents invested in my education, and that's how it has sustained. But if they had left it after grade 4, then it wouldn't have been sustained. So, this is a very important part of any investment.
India’s growth story is currently too city-centric and English-focused; meanwhile, rural India remains an untapped gold mine of traditional art and culture. I am a strong believer that nobody comes to any country to see a 70-story or eight-star hotel. They come to see a culture. They come to see people.
The people of Kolkata and the people of Boston have almost a similar culture. But the rural Bengal or Madhya Pradesh have a completely different culture, and that will fascinate the people of Boston or Stockholm. I think that's the essence, that it is the diversity of culture that attracts people, something they have never seen. ‘Wow, what is this? I want to go deep into it.’ Now, where is that deeper part? That means the opportunity for going in-depth into the culture must be there rather than just being touristic.
We prioritize investing in artists and creating infrastructure for audiences to visit villages. This direct engagement allows visitors to learn from the artists, understand the nuances of their work, and to know the pluses and minuses. There are minuses in the village. There are minuses in the art form. But let that be discussed between the art patron, the visitor, and the producer.
So I think it is very important not to portray only the glossy part. Let people go to the village to see for themselves because seeing is believing. I know it is a very advertisement-oriented world, but I am also a believer that context matters. In that way, Bengal actually has a tremendous advantage because our writing, poetry, art forms, and dances are extremely high quality at any point. That's why I believe this art and audience also need contemporary thinking. They also need new thinking, but they also need to know what tradition is.
The city boys and girls of Kolkata never knew about Chhau dance, Patachitra, the Raibenshe dance, or Kalimpong dance. They know nothing because they have never seen it. In my childhood, I never saw any of this because these people were not known. When future generations learn about it, then they are really appreciative.
How do I reach out to the urban audience? Urban doesn't mean only Kolkata, but also means the district capitals. We do heritage education programs. We reach out to school and college students, and we tell them these are the traditions of your district. We show them videos, and we present one or two artists to show. We also make graphic comics just to appeal to the kids. We also compile music; we have an app for Android, it's not yet ready for the iPhone; it's called Folks of Bengal. One can download 3,000 songs of different genres, all different forms.
So the point is, the audience needs to be created, true. But the audience must also get to see quality artforms. Otherwise, it's very, very difficult.
How Banglanatak Fosters Cultural Exchange
Meg: Banglanatak fosters cultural exchange and collaboration based on the belief that the meeting of minds and sharing of knowledge stimulates artist creativity and creates new bonds of friendship. I'd love to have you talk a little bit about this idea of cultural exchange that Banglanatak has fostered and the results it has achieved.
Amitava: See, I come from Bengal, which always believes in the universal brotherhood rather than the nationalistic agendas. This can be seen in poet Rabindranath Tagore’s life, who has a university named after him. He went to Italy, France, and Hungary, and everybody thought he was asking for money. No, he asked for books, and he created the first Hungarian center outside Hungary in Kolkata. He did the same with Italy and with others. So, getting to know the world is a very important element in Bengal.
You know Mother Teresa traveled to Kolkata and stayed here till her death, and that's why Mother Teresa is named today as Saint Teresa of Kolkata in the Vatican when she became a saint. I think this is a culture that we have, that we believe that one has to get out into the world, understand, and look at it, because traveling to other cultures gives you the knowledge of the world.
So, celebrating cultural diversity and pluralism is part of our culture, and Banglanatak absolutely believes, practices, and preaches that cultural exchange is a very important element not only for the city people or the educated people but also for the village.
I’ll give an example of Pattachitra; I’ll refer to the Pattachitra once more. In 2009, I brought four visual artists from London to Pattachitra, including Polish-British artist Magda Fabianczyk. After the workshop, when Magda and the others had left, I went back to the village by myself. I asked the artists, “What did you learn?” They said they had learned about the concept of an 'installation.'
I smiled. I thought they must have heard this jargon. So I asked, “What is installation?” and they said, “The usage of space.” I said, “Okay, and how will you apply it?” They said, “How much space do you have? Tell me the measurements, and I will create it.’” I said, “Wow.” So rural traditional artists have actually learned the most modern thinking of installation of art through an international collaboration.
Meg: That's very cool.
Amitava: And that gave me the power to continue. So far, we have brought over 500 artists from different parts of the world, including two theater artists who came from New York. So each and every aspect of our work, be it theater, a presentation, music, visual art, or a handicraft, we always look for cultural exchange because I've seen it really works. It brings pride and also helps our artists to learn something new, and it spreads through word of mouth and through the hands of the international artist communities.
Stimulating a Creative Economy
Meg: In your experience, what is the key to stimulating a creative economy?
Amitava: We believe that there are fundamental components of creating a successful community-based creative economy include:
Basic skill development programs are held under the protection of traditional masters (Gurus) for the transfer, upgradation, and refinement of traditional skills.
Capacity development workshops are held on business and marketing skills, digital technology, and various ways to connect directly with the markets.
Design workshops are organized to train the artists in modernizing and diversifying products for today’s markets.
Community artists are organized to form collective institutions to strengthen their unique identity, production capacity, and negotiation power. Exchanges and collaborations are organized with experts from outside the community, and artists are directly connected to the market through promotion of the artists themselves.
What is Empowerment
Meg: The term empowerment can mean different things to different people. I would love to know what empowerment means to you and if you can share a couple of examples of how participants in your programs have been empowered
Amitava: Let's say Kantha, it’s a teaching form. In 2012, when I first visited a Kanta village near Santiniketan, I saw 3,000 women working on Kantha, and many of them were wearing burkas, so mostly Muslim women. They were earning 300 monthly, but their work is fantastic. The same sari that they make sells at 10,000 in the Kolkata market.
While we worked to connect these women to the market, they faced severe domestic abuse. In one horrific instance, a woman was met with an acid attack simply for asking her husband for hair oil and a comb. Today, the community has been transformed; those same women now run their own enterprises.
50 to 60 women together, led by one of the women, and not only the monthly income, but the power structure has changed completely.
I will describe empowerment in three ways. One is empowerment is enlightenment. Secondly, empowerment is exposure-driven and also economic empowerment, and that will also include socio-economic improvement. At that time, they didn't have a voice to express that they wanted to go for a shower.
Their husbands have a habit of drinking if they get money, and when they have too many drinks, they have no clue what they are doing and the abuse is high, and that time has impacted lots of women historically. Through government policy and our targeted efforts, we have seen a tremendous shift toward empowerment within the community.
I also have a small point here. Empowerment is a very nice word, but we need to be careful because we are catalysts only. Our empowerment should not be a controlled empowerment, because whoever you are empowering can also go above you. You should always be flexible towards that. It should not be that we are empowering X and keeping X lower than me. That is a very important note.
Many of the rural communities have qualified for government initiatives for the poor. In reality, the level of poverty has changed in many places. The empowerment has happened, but these people will still sometimes allow themselves to be considered as poor to be eligible for the government programs. So that's why handicraft artists, even if their actual income is, let's say $400, they will still say $4 because otherwise they will miss the program.
The Power of a Creative Economy
We create documentation of the traditional art forms, and publish print and multimedia content, which help tradition bearers to learn, practice and innovate. Intellectual property instruments like Geographical Indications and a code of ethics for community art are used for promoting and establishing artists' rights.
The livelihood of underprivileged artist communities is enhanced by creating a sustainable financial and ecological model that works to reduce unsafe migration and transforms villages into a cultural destination that improves the overall quality of life, in terms of higher income, recognition, self-sustenance, infrastructure and living conditions, and creating opportunities for the larger community.
Folk Art Centres are established in the artist villages as centers of practice and promotion. Community museums are developed in the villages celebrating the heritage of the place and strengthening collective identity.
The Key to Banglanatak's Success with Sustainable Development
Meg: What is the key to Banglanatak's success?
Amitava: Our approach is integrated and cross-cultural. This is achieved through multi-stakeholder involvement, ownership building of local administration and community institutions, public-private-people partnerships, and policy advocacy with government and global institutions.
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Header courtesy of Banglanatak dot com
