Community –Ganpati Idol making community

Community search process-The whole process of community search itself has been very interesting. From kudasan (a village near gandhinager) to pashu-jaivik sansthan near torrent, craft mela in paldi and than gulbaipeth which is called Hollywood in Ahmedabad, the whole process has been very interesting learning process. The ganesha idol making community I had visited 6, 7 months back and that was somewhere in back of my mind.so in a way without going there again ,I could guess that it satisfies most of the criteria of “Community by trade “.
Brief of the communityt-This community of gulbai tekra is basicaly group of Artisans ,migrated from rajasthan 150 years back.They make ganesha idols from plaster of paris. According to them their ancestors had come here 150 years back. Previously they used to make “jute ki Rassi” because the raw material for making rope was easily available. When I asked how they shifted to this Idol making profession, they said one artisan came from Maharashtra and he taught this to some of the people in the community. Some people said that their great grand father went somewhere in Maharashtra in search of work and they learnt it from there. Every person has its own story to tell and that makes this whole research interesting.raw material for making idols is Pop,liquid rubber,coconut fiber and paint. They make the idols in different sizes and the price depends upon the size of the idols and can cost up to Rs.12, 000 for the bigger ones.production cost varies according to the size of the idols .overall production cost for 11 feet high idol is approximately5000 to 7000 .bring raw material like coconut fiber from south India to add it to the clay mould. Some of the artisans sell the coconut fiber amongst the community also .Because of being unorganised community they have their own sets of problem .Because of Lack of proper storage space they have to keep the moulds out in the open during the year, often damaging them. They then have to repair and make new moulds, wasting time and money. because of environmental issues some artisans have started making clay idols.

Additional informations- The large-scale celebration of Ganesha Chaturthi started in Pune in 1893 by Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak to collect people for Indian nationalism and freedom struggle.he was one of the first to use Hinduism for a political and social goal, a tradition which has carried through Indian history to this day.Lord Ganesha was chosen as a rallying point for protest against British rule, because of his wide appeal as "the God for Everyman".Ganesha Chaturthi has grown to enormous proportions in Maharashtra and all over India and along with it the idols have grown to larger than life size.