Tackling the design deficit

Decades from now, she will either be hailed as a design catalyst or be consigned to a footnote in the history of Indian design, a diva of space and form or someone whose attempt to turn design solutions into discourse was well-intentioned but poorly served. But right at this moment, in Mumbai, Rajshree Pathy is in her element - even if she's chewing her nails backstage in between sessions as Thomas Heatherwick and Christian Louboutin strut their stuff before a packed NCPA filled with corporate honchos, students, sponsors, entrepreneurs and young professionals.

In the cold chill of a Delhi winter, two months ago, she had morosely announced, "Design suffers from a lack of priority in India. Indians don't think design." You could have argued then about Indian aesthetics and how form followed function when even wooden combs were beautifully created, and wasn't the lota once hailed as the finest example of design ever? Except, of course, that was a long, long time ago. Except, of course, she was absolutely, spot-on right. When was the last time you saw something that was stamped "Made in India" that made you proud? Not some fussy garment, or piece of jewellery, or handicraft, but a product of our times - a pair of shoes, a kitchen gadget, some piece of furniture, a mobile phone? Something that represented the spirit of India but had global appeal? A lota, if you will, for the 21st century?

Pathy, one among a privileged few, was fortunate to grow up in a maverick Bauhaus (or "expressionist modernism") house designed by Sri Lankan architect Valentine Gunasekara, surrounded by the opinions of the Sarabhai clan, exposed to the architecture of Louis Kahn, and grew up designing her own spaces instinctively to create a home where her daughter Aishwarya found a similar freedom - and vocation. A sugar baroness, Pathy and her daughter conceptualised the Contemporary Centre for Contemporary Arts (CoCCA), and just when everyone thought that an art museum was next on the cards, snuck in the India Design Forum last year like a wakeup call.

A year later, India is still snoozing. Like last year, the roster of speakers consists of designers who are in high demand around the world but especially in China and Japan. If India is not yet on their schmooze calendar, it's because the country continues to deadend architecture and product design. No wonder the Pathys have their task cut out for them, chasing design leaders across countries and continents to get so much as an appointment, leave alone their concurrence to address an audience in a country with a past in design practice rather than a present. The roster is rich with names you're more likely meet in Manhattan than in Nariman Point - Anouska Hempel, William Russell, Roberto Gavazzi, Renny Ramakers, Dror Benshetrit, Ross Lovegrove, and from India, Sumant Jayakrishnan, Subodh Gupta, Sabyasachi Mukherjee...

Design has long been the differentiator not just for products but also across cultures and countries, but "Indian contemporary design has no language", feels Pathy - with reason. An art collector, she's keen to make India Design Forum "like the TED of design", which seems a far call given how little Indians as patrons or as heads of companies have considered its possibilities. Till then, it'll remain, at most, a tamasha. Even given the buzz around the Design Week that heralded the forum, the Pathy platform is aimed at providing a podium for an exchange of ideas but could remain grounded for lack of harvesting. Will India remain design deficit in the 21st century as well? Pathy, I'm guessing, hopes not.

Kishore Singh is a Delhi-based writer and art critic. These views are personal and do not reflect those of the organisation with which he is associated