Middlemen vanish from patua painters’ lives, thanks to social media

Social media has redefined the way in which Muslim patuas, or scroll painters, of West Bengal, go about doing their business now.
A patua painter at work; (inset) A boy  peeps over bottles painted by the scroll painters Aishik Chanda, Samrat Maity (Photo | EPS)
A patua painter at work; (inset) A boy peeps over bottles painted by the scroll painters Aishik Chanda, Samrat Maity (Photo | EPS)

KOLKATA: Social media has redefined the way in which Muslim patuas, or scroll painters, of West Bengal, go about doing their business now. It has enabled them to deal with customers directly and get a better margin for their product, thus removing middlemen from the scene. The patuas of Naya village in Paschim Medinipur district have been selling scrolls depicting traditional Hindu mythology across rural Bengal since ages.

A village of 250 people, with all of them having a common surname – Chitrakar (which means painter) – Naya is a symbol of the cultural syncretism in Bengal that has withstood the poison of communal disharmony infested by Partition and subsequent communal violence over the years.“Our work is above the narrow communal boundaries. Our Muslim village is nestled among Hindu villages. Neither have the Hindus criticised us nor have other neighbouring Muslims distanced themselves from us,” says veteran Swarna Chitrakar.

According to the oral history of potchitro (scroll painting) prevalent in Naya, the patuas begged around the villages using the scrolls by slowly unfolding the scrolls depicting stories from Hindu mythology, accompanying the act with singing religious folk songs.

Patua artist-cum-entrepreneur Raju Chitrakar says, “Customers contact us directly over phone and send us their colour and pattern preferences on WhatsApp.”

NGO Banglanatok.com may be credited with giving the village a global platform when it started organising a three-day annual fair – Potmaya – at the village every November-end.

Banglanatok.com organiser Tapan Das elaborates on the gender differences in the art. “The men generally paint the traditional Kalighat and Bangla schools of pots (scrolls) depicting stories from the Ramayan, the Mahabharat and Manasa Mangal (Bengali Hindu folklore). The women are focused on the market-oriented scroll paintings like umbrellas, bottles, lamps, and pen stands that are based heavily upon Bengali and Santhali folklores,” Das says.

Painted using homemade colours derived from vegetables, a good quality scroll can cost anywhere between Rs 5,000 and Rs 20,000 or upwards. The scrolls are also given to guests while felicitation during important state-sponsored festivals.

Apart from West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, the patuas of Naya have been felicitated by Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal and former UP CM Akhilesh Yadav when they were presented with the scrolls painted by veteran Manu Chitrakar. 

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