An interesting video about ancient India’s contribution to technology – zero, jantar mantar, step wells, damascus steel, water harvesting, the spinning wheel, plastic surgery and more.
(note: ignore the title of the video, it seems unrelated)
water harvesting
The Fair Trade Tour of India
This tour took place in February 2016. If you are interested in a similar tour, please connect with me via the CONTACT page.
Or check out our upcoming tour: The Cloth and Stone Tour to Gujarat
The Fair Trade Tour to India
This tour was created for those who like to see India through the lens of fair trade. Our clients are people who care about where their purchases come from and that the makers are being paid and treated fairly. They are also interested in visiting remote places to meet the makers and see the goods being made.
Through my research into fair trade organisations in India, I have enjoyed searching out quality stock for my online shop, KASU EMPORIUM. Now it is time to share the journeys with like-minded others. As with KASU EMPORIUM, a percentage of profits from KASU TOURS is donated to charities we work with in India to improve the lives of people living in poverty.
During the course of the tour, we meet makers and artisans working in traditional weaving, tribal arts, block printed fabrics and more. The places we visit all adhere to fair trade principles.
But India has such a wealth of wonderful things to see and do: in each destination, we also visit some local sites of importance. For example, Jantar Mantar in Delhi, the Museum of Man in Bhopal, the Anokhi Museum of Hand Printing in Jaipur.
We take various forms of transport in our travels within India including flights, trains, private buses, rickshaws and taxis. The ground level journeys are more than getting from point a to point b – they are opportunities to see India up close: the landscape, the women in brightly coloured saris, children playing, farmers farming, nomads with their herds, bullocks, colourfully painted trucks with their musical horns and of course the various landscapes … it is all a colourful experience that cannot be had from 30 000 feet up.
To take a virtual tour in the order of travel, click on the link at the bottom of this page. Continue in this manner and you will ‘visit’ each destination. There are more links on each destination page to some of the places included in the tour and some extras that may be visited in the free time we have in each place.
The tour starts and finishes in the capital city of India, Delhi >>>>
Share this:
Map the tours
The LUXURY TOUR of the LESSER-KNOWN RAJASTHAN takes up in a loop north and west from Jaipur, the capitol city of Rajasthan, through the Thar Desert. We stay in luxurious accommodation – a castle, some havelis (mansions) and some luxury village-style accommodation.
We get off the beaten tracks to places not many tourists get to. We visit a sanctuary for retired elephants, a temple inhabited by monkeys, and another where rats are revered and cared for; we visit the ‘outdoor art gallery’ of the Shekhawati region; hitch a ride on a camel taxi to enjoy lunch in the desert; hike to ancient cave art; visit a desert regeneration project; meet villagers in their homes; have cooking lessons in a castle; take in the wonder of a 13 stories deep step-well; visit some significant monuments; have fun at a camel festival and visit a master miniature painter…. and lots more! We travel in our own luxury vehicle so we can make unscheduled stops along the way.
Map the tour here >>>
The CLOTH and STONE TOUR to INDIA will take place in the state of Gujarat at ground level in our private vehicle. That means we can stop at will to enjoy the colour and diverse wonder that is India up close, and enjoy many encounters with locals and wildlife.
Click here for some pics from the tour >>>
Map the tour here >>>
The Timeless Varanasi tour begins in the city of Ahmedabad and takes us to Varanasi to immerse ourselves in the history, culture and spirituality of this ancient city.
Map the tour here >>>
Click here to check out some of the sights you might encounter on the tours.
Share this:
Village resort and the pastoralists of the Banni
I am staying in a mud-built resort – an initiative of and located in the village of Hodka in northwestern Gujarat, not far from the famous White Desert or Rann of Kachchh.
My tent at the mud resort at Hodka village
Meals are taken in the large open-air pavilion with grass roof and ceiling of colourful fabric. The central food station is attended by a group of lovely young men from the village. They are really friendly and I try to remember their names. In the tourist season they work here, then in off-season (summer – when it is way too hot for tourists) there are other jobs to do.
The guys ready to serve dinner. From left: Natha, Maya Valji, Manish and Gayani
Natha is from a family who do mud work and wall painting. Mani is 16 years old and the lowest in the pecking order here, doing general cleaning work and food serving. He has the biggest whitest smile always ready to light up his brown face, and tries to please all the time. Valji is one of the serving staff. He is a member of the family who do all the resort’s mud and mirror work for which this region is famous. They also make the wattle and daub fences and paint the walls with traditional designs. In the off-season, he goes to Mumbai and Delhi and works on mud-work commissions and he is planning on creating a bird sanctuary nearby.
Once I have shown an interest in a few of the guys, spruiking my few sentences of Hindi, asking names, what their roles are etc., the others also want to tell their stories and I realize that it is my genuine interest in them that is the main difference between me and a visiting Indian family who treat them as staff only and as such, do not take an interest. That is the difference between a society built on class and caste and the Australian egalitarian style. The side benefit for me, of course, is that I get extremely good service and attention from these lovely guys, and after less than one day here, they are beginning to anticipate my needs. (Later, when it came time to leave, they lined up to bid me goodbye.)
Valji, who will be married in March after a thirteen year engagement (he and his future wife must have been betrothed as children), sensed my genuine interest in the place and the people and gifted me a book which I find both fascinating and educational. It outlines the biocultural community protocol of the Maldharis of Banni (the pastoralists of the Banni grasslands in this district in the north of Kachchh, Gujarat). The Maldharis have been the custodians of the biodiversity-rich Banni grassland ecosystem and have protected it and nurtured it for over 450 years.
This is an important document with the agreement between at first the Maharajah Radheshua-ji of Kachcch in the 18th century. There is documentary evidence (reproduced in the book) that the Madlharis have paid pancheri (grazing tax) since old times, in exchange for the right to graze their animals in Banni without any private land allocation or agriculture. It seems to me uncertain that contemporary governments have ratified this protocol and this document is a well researched and produced call to action to continue the historical rights of the Maldharis.
The Protocol in brief:
We believe that nature has entrusted us with the responsibility to protect Banni and the right to practice our traditional way of life in the Banni and through this biocultural community protocol we call on the government to respect and affirm this right.
In Maldharis biocultural community protocol we clearly state who we are, where we live, our relationship to Banni and our animals, our rights to land, our breeds and associated traditional knowledge and our duties to protect this ecosystem.
There are different stories of how these people came to live in the Banni. Here is one account from one of the elders of the Meghwal Hindus:
Our elders have told us that in 1736, and army from Sindh (now in Pakistan) led by Khaloda Mohammad Mir invaded Kachchh . Our ancestors were asked by the Maharajah Radheshua-ji of Kachcch to fight with his armies and defend the land from invaders. Though we lost many lives and suffered much in the ensuing battle, the Maharajah was, with our help, victorious. To reward our loyalty and valour, the Maharajah gave the Maldharis title to the Banni. As we were pastoralists the Maharajah also decreed that the grasslands should not be used for agriculture.
From further reading, I learn that the Maldharis have developed the unique Banni buffalo especially adapted to the grasses of the Banni.
The Maldharis hold their cattle in high regard. Some of us take our shoes off before we enter the place where our animals lie. Historically the measure of a man was based on different animals he kept. A Maldhari who had a good pedigree pure animals and expert in traditional knowledge was known as ‘bhagiya’ – he who is lucky with animals.
They have also developed a unique water harvesting system that enables them to suvive the harsh Kachchh summers. Temporary wells known as ‘virdas’ are built as a community activity by all the men of the village. The shallow wells are built in the place where a water hole has dried up but where ground water is not far below. The well is lined with logs of wood and Banni grasses: the wood prevents the well from collapsing and the grass filters the water.
I also learn that there are 18 Muslim communities and two Hindu in the Banni. There are strong ties between the communities and in solidarity with the Hindu, the Muslims refrain from eating beef. The Muslims provide milk and ghee to the Hindu Meghwals, who in turn provide leather shoes, saddles, water satchels and help building their bhungas (round houses).
The book goes on to list all the grasses of the Banni with images, the various tribal groups, the indigenous livestock and breeding protocols, and even home-grown vetinary treatments and much else. Challenges to their way of life are also catalogued, chief amongst them is poisonous effluent from industry on the fringes of the Banni: buffalo are dying because of poisoned waterholes. Another threat is police harassment.
I am finding it fascinating to delve a little deeper in the various cultures of India, and treasure this book and the brief time I have shared with the Maldharis of Kachchh.
Banni pastoralist with his herd
Banni buffalo
Share this:
Below Ahmedabad
Day 2 has been busy, spending a lot of time in autoricks with the late winter breezes tangling my hair and rendering me a rather scruffy, but happy, individual. The mission today was to visit the wonderful Calico Museum of Textiles and stepwells Adalaj and Dada Harir Vav.
After a sustaining hotel Indian style breakfast with some excellent masala chai, I headed off to the Museum, only to find that I had missed the one very controlled tour (restricted to 20 visitors) for the day and would have to book in for Monday. Continue reading
Kasu Tours 
You must be logged in to post a comment.