Brown Hands Blue Begins
නිල් Nila.
Color of Nilakantha, the blue-black one with the sapphire throat. I.N.D.I.G.O. One of the many meanings of Nila in Sanskrit literally means to be dyed with Indigo. A color synonymous with the Sacred Subcontinent.
The centrality of India to Indigo, so perfectly held in the name itself; 'a substance from India'. A seemingly miraculous substance, lusted after by insatiable European colonial appetites. As more is unearthed about the Indus Valley civilization it becomes clear that a high level of refinement and sophistication of indigo dyeing was established and spread out of the subcontinent to its cultural, geographical neighbors. Nila & India have danced for 1000's of years.
Recently, while reading an article about German block printers in a popular magazine, I came across the idea that block printing spread to Europe due to 'lively trade relations' in the early modern era. I couldn’t help but giggle internally. That the fleecing, poaching, unashamed robbery of an entire subcontinent's knowledge, skills, innovations & cultural artifacts can now be termed 'lively trade relations' is typical of the collective amnesia that defines the denial of colonial crimes to this day. Let me tell you bluntly kids, they stole our stuff. To this day they haven't given it back. To this day academics, historians, archaeologists and passionate, concerned citizens of South Asia are fighting to get our texts, our treatises, monuments & spiritual treasures back home.
Why do we not talk about the actual lively relations between the subcontinent & our neighbors to the east & west? Ancient, ongoing ties with east-African kingdoms; with South-East Asia, directly connected as part of the Indic Hindu-Buddhist cultural sphere; the strong cultural-spiritual ties with far off Japan? Zones of Indigo culture inter-connected by history, by belonging to pre-western trade networks of busiest ocean in human history for the longest time; the Indian Ocean. In Benoy Behl’s documentary to support the book of the same name, exploring the history of Japan-India relations “Hindu Deities Worshipped in Japan” there is an interview with Japanese ambassador Yasukuni Enoki where he makes the following astute observation; "It is very important for the Japanese to know that at the bottom of Japanese culture, Indian culture is very firmly imprinted". We now start to have a sense of how deep this textile story goes.
How much of this knowledge, of the ancient ties between South Asian, East Asian and Indian ocean peoples, of the common roots which feed our cultural evolution, have been taken away from us? Systematically. What happened to the birthplace of Indigo as we know it? Who talks about the destruction of our truly ancient native indigo culture by those who poached, abused, supplanted with a mishmash of foreign techniques & then abandoned generations of farmers with blue in their veins...to dust? Do those who claim to love this color of our land know that the banks of the Brahmaputra ran blue with blood & abuse & colonial excess? Do we look twice at the strange tick of dissonance in our collective cultural mind when the new generation of experts now sell this stolen, white-washed 'expertise' back to us? Does the culture of indigo that is reappearing in fledgling form on the subcontinent bear any resemblance to the native one that evolved over 1000's of years?
If you look around at those writing the books, claiming expertise, writing histories, culturally & socially 'placing' indigo, you would be forgiven for thinking the word Indigo & India were only vaguely related. Perhaps even by accident. Such has been the success of white washing, of colonizing indigo culture.
When indigo started whispering to me, I looked and wondered....where are all the brown hands blue?
Where are the voices and faces of South Asian experts, teachers, dyers, indigo workers? Why was I having to look so hard to source dyed fiber from descendants of the land that gave the dye its name & significance?
Why has the Indic been made IN-visible from IN-digo?
I'm bringing indigo home. I feel it's time. I start to hear the message behind the indigo whisperings I singing to me last year.
Indigo comes home. Brown hands are once again.... blue.
Namaskaram,
Daki
