Rafoogars of Najibabad

Working on restoring a carpet - rafoogar 
from Najibabad

 I met the craftsmen or rafoogars at an exhibition organised in Delhi to display the work of the craftsmen by Priya Ravish Mehra. She of course was not well and hospitalised and I was told supervised most of the work via skype or video calls from her hospital bed. She was suffering from cancer and breathed her last in May 2018. What remains there is her remarkable work with the rafoogars of Najibabad for whom she created a platform to meet artists, connoisseurs, art collectors, historians…to whom their work was remarkable and valuable. How else can one describe dexterous hands which can repair a 200 year old Pashmina shawl or an equally priceless carpet. Priya’s tryst with them began when she remembered how these darners would come to her grandfather’s house at Najibabad and work on old textiles to mend, a tear or a hole so well that one could rarely know where the tear was.

Priya Ravish Mehra, a textile historian, revivalists has worked with the Rafoogars of Najibabad to give them recognition and a platform where their works are visible to the world at large. The invisible population of rafoogars are seldom celebrated. An antique dealer may get a shawl restored from them and sell it through antique galleries at astonishing sums but the unsung hands which pieced and restored the piece is never visible. Priya Ravish Mehra has held baitaks where the darning work of the Rafoogars has been exhibited, more importantly it helps them to come in contact with people through whom there is a demand for their work. She has through her exhibitions in India and abroad created an awareness of the Rafoogars from Najibabad. This recognition has given them a sense of pride in their work and a confidence to continue with it and even encourage the next generation to take it up. The awareness also brings in orders and jobs and thus increases the earnings of the Rafoogars. It is after visiting one such held recently that I understood that the work done by the Rafoogar in a span of minutes is because of the skill he has honed over several years.  A deep legacy she has left behind. I was not fortunate enough to meet her during her lifetime.