11 July,2021 08:08 AM IST | Mumbai | Sucheta Chakraborty
Photos and captions by Meher Ali
Journalist, writer and researcher Meher Ali's Instagram page @meheraligarh is full of stories and pictures of old residents of Aligarh and their ancestral homes, the crafts that they have dedicated their lives to, and how commerce and industry has impacted their traditional ways. Ali's interest in documentation started with her photographing abandoned cotton mills in and around Ahmedabad. There was something sad but beautiful about observing spaces that had transformed from being hubs of commercial activity and labour to those of neglect.
When she moved to Aligarh, the city's old mansions drew her in, including her own built in 1935 by her great grandfather Abid Husain Khan. Ali says many families had shifted to Aligarh after the establishment of the Aligarh Muslim University. "Aligarh, in many ways, has stood for Indian Muslim empowerment and upward mobility through education," she remarks, adding that working class Muslims have not had as much access to it, leading to some resentment in the community. When visiting ancestral homes in the Civil Lines area near the university, she spoke with the families. This led to publishing a first photo essay in the Himal Southasian magazine. A fellowship later brought the opportunity of documenting rural areas around Aligarh and stories of its craftspeople followed.
Nem Singh is one of the oldest basket weavers of Mahmoodpur Nagariya village, about an hour and a half from Aligarh, in the Etah district. During mango season, the entire village seems to spill out onto their aangan or patios to weave baskets, as in and around Aligarh, mangoes are typically stored in these. All those who weave them belong to the Jatav caste and identify as Dalits. Before Independence, they used to work as bonded labour for the upper-caste zamindars. Nem Singh was seven when he became a bonded labourer.
Taj Bakery in Upar Kot, Aligarh. Pervez Alam, 62, is one of the last remaining pupils of the original matri-maker Latif Khan, who introduced matri to Aligarh, according to the local craftspersons. Originally from Gorakhpur, Khan came to Aligarh after he got married. Making matris was Khan's "baap-dada ka kaam" or his ancestral work, says Alam. Here, Alam places a piece of unbaked matri on a tin sheet. All sheets are stored in the windowless room behind him for at least four hours for the matris to rise before baking.
Reshma Bano has been embroidering since she was nine. About 65 kilometres from Aligarh is the town of Marehra where women do beaded embroidery on cushion covers and table mats. The goods are meant for export. This work, known as Karchobi, is an import from Iran and arrived in India around the 17th century, according to historian Irfan Habib. The term comes from âkar-chob' which refers to the wooden frame on which the embroidery is done. Here, Bano embroiders a snow-flake pattern using white and silver beads on a white satin cloth. This set of orders was for Christmas.
Abdul Rashid Khan has worked in a workshop in the Beni Israilian mohalla for close to 40 years. The workshop is owned by one Aziza Akhtar whose grandfather's company "Scout" became the first to manufacture brass whistles in the country that were supplied to the police and Indian army. Khan whose father owned a workshop in Tandon Pada that produced brass whistles, learnt the craft in his childhood.
Locksmith Mohammad Iliyas Ansari has spent his life in the old Beni Israilian area of Upar Kot, where he was born in 1957. Unlike the more affluent Civil Lines area of Aligarh, Upar Kot has many working class families. Many of them have converted a part of their homes into workshops so that commerce and industry exist alongside domestic life, as is the case with Ansari's home. He runs a workshop on the ground floor of his house that produces parts for locks and keys.
Rashida Begum, a locksmith and single mother, has set up a workshop in her home in Upar Kot, the centre of Aligarh's lockmaking industry. To save on rental costs, artisans who manufacture lock and key parts typically do so from their homes. Rashida Begum's daughter and her siblings help their mother manufacture locks.
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