Traditional craft base cultural industries are linked with the specific local community where craft products create an economic, regional, and cultural identity of the community. In a family-based business, identity is constructed through family histories, knowledge, and skill of craft. Sholapith craft is a traditional ritualistic, seasonal, and festive craft that is associated with the ethnic identity of Malakars of West Bengal. The present ethnographic study focuses on the 'commercialization' of this craft and craftspeople from the perspective of change and transformation of traditional craft as it undergoes globalization. Commercialization forced Malaklars to hire other people as labour beyond their community. On one hand, the involvement of wage laborers helps them expand their market and brings some challenges, competition, and politics in the family-based cultural industry. The present paper tries to capture issues of transition in the production process of cultural goods like construction of the market network, circulation of products, competition, and politics prevalent among various stakeholders in the extended market. By addressing these issues, the present study attempts to answer the larger question-still caste identity matter in the commercialized community-linked cultural industry? This research study analyses the problems of insecurity and identity attached to transformative craft production.
A total of eleven workshops from Surul have been purposively selected for the present study. The techniques of primary data collection were observation methods and semi-structured interviews. The present study reveals multiple layers of commercialization of craft products and their impact on various stockholders directly involved in this commercialized craft. Shola craft is no longer considered an ethno-craft as it exceeds the habitual boundaries of an economically confined social group. The study also revealed various factors responsible for the success in the market and how they cope with this situation by adopting various resilience strategies.
