Ajrakh: From Caste Dress to Catwalk

Ajrakh is a double-sided, block-printed textile worn as caste dress by cattle herders in the desert regions of Kachchh and Thar in north-west India and Sindh in Pakistan, where it is made by Khatri artisans. Readily identified by its distinctive combination of geometric and floral designs, traditional ajrakh is notably printed on both sides of the cloth and is dyed with indigo and madder. In the past forty years ajrakh has not only been transformed from a rustic block print into a popular fashion fabric, it has also become the signature cloth of the Khatri communities at Dhamadka and Ajrakhpur in Kachchh and is their most successful product. This article analyses the interventions that led to the successful adaptation of ajrakh as a regional product to a modern design milieu. It discusses early government initiatives that resulted in the introduction of artisan-designer collaborations in the 1970s, as well as later design developments that were led by Indian and foreign entrepreneurs. It traces the continuing trajectory of ajrakh from rural western India to the catwalks of New Delhi, Mumbai and beyond. Case studies of three fashion companies illuminate the factors that have influenced the commercial ascent of ajrakh. This textile is also considered in respect of recent initiatives to organise and protect the craft sector by the Government of India and by non-governmental organisations. In a final section, the article appraises the value of ajrakh as both a successful commodity and a cultural asset.     

The Servilia tomb: an architecturally and pictorially important Roman building

One hundred and eleven samples from the important Servilia Roman tomb have been analysed for the first time by Raman spectroscopy, resulting in a complete characterisation of the pigment palette used for its remarkable wall paintings: 73 different pigment mixtures have been identified for the composition of its 11 colours and their tonalities. Dyer’s weld, an ancient organic yellow pigment, which was described by Vitruvius, has been identified and characterised for the first time in Roman wall paintings. Distinctive Raman spectroscopic signals which differentiate between haematite and caput mortuum (a violet colour from haematite which has been subjected to thermal treatment) are also reported. The use of the very expensive lazurite for a balance relates the importance of this otherwise ordinary instrument with psychostasia (the human soul weighing process) and is not found elsewhere in the tomb. The distribution of white minerals alone or in admixture is not related to any particular colouring pigment or figure; this possibly indicates that there was no specific use for each white mineral and that several craftsmen worked on the paintings, perhaps in different periods, or that the frescoes have been subjected to unrecorded restoration. We conclude that Raman spectroscopy is a valuable analytical technique for the unambiguous identification of mixtures of both organic and inorganic compounds, to study the degree of mineral crystallinity and for identifying treatment. These data are relevant for the holistic interpretation of the artwork in its historical, economical and social context.     

Book reviews

Rachel Sharp (ed.), Apocalypse No: An Australian Guide to the Arms Race and the Peace Movement. Pluto Press, Sydney and London, 1984.

David Martin, Armed Neutrality for Australia. Dove Communications, Blackburn, Vic., 1984, pp. xii + 294. $14.95.

Jeffrey T. Richelson and Desmond Ball, The Ties That Bind. Allen and Unwin Australia, North Sydney, 1985, pp. xvi + 402. $29.95.

Deborah Welch Larson, Origins of Containment: A Psychological Explanation. Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J., 1985, pp. xvi + 380. $US40.50.

Michael Ghertman and Margaret Allen, An Introduction to the Multinationals. Macmillan Press for the Institute for Research and Information on Multinationals, London, 1984, pp. 143. $11.95.

Neil Renwick, Multinational Corporations and the Political Economy of Power. Canberra Studies in World Affairs No. 14, Department of International Relations, Australian National University, Canberra, 1983, pp. 207. $10.00.

David Hawdon (ed.), The Energy Crisis: ten years after. Croom Helm, London and Canberra, 1984, pp. iii + 137. $27.95.

Robert L. Downen and Bruce J. Dickson (eds), The Emerging Pacific Community: A Regional Perspective. Westview Press, Boulder (Suppliers Bowker Publishing Co. Epping UK), 1984, pp.245. $US23.00

Donald Denoon, Settler Capitalism: The Dynamics of Dependent Development in the Southern Hemisphere. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1983, p. viii + 280. $56.00.

John Ravenhill, Collective Clientelism The Lomé Conventions and North‐South Relations. Columbia University Press, New York, 1985, pp. xxi + 389. $US49.00.

Miron Dolot, Execution by Hunger: The Hidden Holocaust. W.W. Norton, New York, 1985, pp. xvi + 231. $32.90.

W. Laquer and B. Rubin (eds), The Israel‐Arab Reader: A Documentary History of the Middle East Conflict. Fourth edition. Penguin Books, New York, 1984, pp. xi + 704. $7.95.

David Newman (ed.), The Impact of Gush Emunim. Croom Helm, London and Sydney, 1985, pp. 276. $35.95.

Alan Dowty, Middle East Crisis: US Decision‐Making in 1958, 1970 and 1973. University of California Press, Berkeley, 1984, pp. xiv +416. $71.95.

Michael Smith, Jane McLoughlin, Peter Large and Rod Chapman, Asia's New Industrial World. Methuen, London and New York, 1985, pp. 136. $8.95.

Lim Joo‐Jock and Vani S. (eds), Armed Communist Movements in Southeast Asia. Gower, Aldershot, 1984, for the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore, pp. xviii + 204. $28.50.

Lim Joo‐Jock and Vani S. (eds), Armed Separatism in Southeast Asia. Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore, 1984, pp. 270. $S44.00 (cloth), $S32.00 (paper).

Beverley Hooper, Youth in China. Penguin Books Australia, Ringwood, 1985, pp. x + 235 pages. $7.95.

Chang Pao‐Min, Kampuchea Between China and Vietnam. Singapore University Press, Singapore, 1985, pp. xi + 204. No price given.

Carmel Budiardjo and Liem Soei Liong, The War Against East Timor. Zed Press, London; Pluto Press, Sydney, 1984, pp. xviii + 253. $14.95.

Michael C. Williams, Sickle and Crescent: The Communist Revolt of 1926 in Banten. Cornell Modern Indonesia Project, Cornell University, 1982, pp. 81. $US6.00.

Patricia Herbert, The Hsaya San Rebellion (1930–1932) Reappraised. Centre of Southeast Asian Studies, Monash University, 1982, pp. 17. $3.00.

Abd Chamid. The Poorest of the Poor: Three Case Studies from Indonesia. Centre of Southeast Asian Studies, Monash University, 1982, pp. 42. $3.00.

Benjamin A. Batson, The End of the Absolute Monarchy in Siam. Oxford University Press (for the Asian Studies Association of Australia), Singapore, 1984, pp. xviii + 349. $13.95.

Kim Richard Nossal, The Politics of Canadian Foreign Policy. Prentice‐Hall Canada, Scarborough, Ont., 1985, pp. 232. No price given.