Socio-economic conditions

In Punjab the the Ebroidery work of Phulkari is done only by the local women of Punjab at homes  or  at the common facility centre . 

                                                      JANKI DEVI OF TRIPURI

THE PATIALA HANDICRAFT CENTRE OF RAJPURA (THUHA VILLAGE)

WOMEN LEARNING AND WORKING TOGETHER

History of Punjab

In 1947, the Punjab Province of British India was divided along religious lines into West Punjab and East Punjab. The western part was assimilated into new country of Pakistan while the east stayed in India. This led to massive rioting as both sides committed atrocities against fleeing refugees. The Partition of India in 1947 split the former Raj province of Punjab; the mostly Muslim western part became the Pakistani province of West Punjab and the mostly Sikh and Hindu eastern part became the Indian province of Punjab. Many Sikhs and Hindus lived in the west, and many Muslims lived in the east, and so partition saw many people displaced and much intercommunal violence. Several small Punjabi princely states, including Patiala, also became part of India. The undivided Punjab, of which Punjab (Pakistan) forms a major region today, was home to a large minority population of Punjabi Sikhs and Hindus unto 1947 apart from the Muslim majority.

History of craft

Phulkari is the skillful handling of a single stitch, which

when positioned in a sequence forms striking designs.

A  reference to phulkari in literature comes from Guru Nanak

Dev ji who wrote: "Kadd kasidha paihren choli, tan tu

jane nari" (only when you can embroider your own choli

with the embroidery stitch, will you be accepted as a

woman).  It brings to mind several visions of the life of a

Punjabi  woman of yesteryears: embroidering her phulkari

for her wedding and spinning cotton on a painted charkha;

the elaborate ceremonies of her marriage with the wedding

phulkari  draped over her; going out to the fields with a pot

of butter-milk and corn-flakes on her head, dressed in a full

yellow skirt with a black kurta and richly embroidered

phulkari  covering her from head to knee; the birth of her

sons and daughters and the beginning of embroidering

phulkari  for the distant but happy occasions of their

marriages; and on her death, when she is lifted on a bier by

her  sons, covered with a red phulkari, the symbol of a

happy end, of prosperity, of fulfilment.

PHULKARI ARTISANS: Sikhs were the main

practitioners and patrons of this art form. The craft remains

the mainstay of the Bahawalpur community, which

migrated from Pakistan during Partition. Thousands of

members of this community were settled in a separate

township created for them in Patiala city called Tripuri by

the erstwhile ruler of Patiala, Maharaja Yadavindra Singh.

At least one woman, if not more, of each household in the

mini township of Tripuri is engaged in this work.