A global disaster reminds us of the value of our village crafts economy

It takes a global health disaster to remind us of the value of crafts production in villages, of things made by hand. Jaya Jaitly on why we should look seriously again at traditional knowledge

Who would think that a Kashmiri papier mâché artist, who has been in isolation and lockdown for many more months than all of us, would still be creative and positive? Hakim Ghulam Mohamad calls from Srinagar regularly and describes how he is engaged in making artistically decorated writing slates for schoolchildren and games like ludo, snakes and ladders, and noughts and crosses to keep people occupied indoors now and to sell at bazaars later. “Ab zamana aise badlega ki aage ke liye kuchh to naya sochna hai, na? (Times are changing so rapidly that we need to think up new