In a speech at Madras, on the occasion of laying the foundation-stone of the building for the Handicrafts Emporium, Shri T T Krishnamachari remarked with some asperity, “We have yet to learn the aret of making people come to our shops.” He suggested that the main difficulty lay in making products acceptable to the buyers to the extent of making them buy them.
It is true that salesmanship is a neglected art and that prospective buyers are very often turned away by the general indifference that greets them at most of the shops dedicated to handicrafts. It is also true that in a number of cases the range of selection is strictly restricted.
It is unfortunate that in India handicrafts are generally associated with some sort of austerity that extends even to the sales arrangements of cottage industry products. The consumer of these products is generally expected to endure all that he gets by way of service as well as quality of the products, and protests are looked upon as evidence of a sophisticated mind….It was rather unnecessary to remark that it would take Dr Mahanalobis six to seven years to appreciate that by this the price of both factory goods and handicrafts would go beyond the purchasing capacity of the people. But his point was well taken.
The relative position of handicrafts and factory-made goods has yet to be worked out on a rational basis. At present the approach seems to be far too much tinged with sentimentality and there is all the appearance of industry being held down to give handicrafts the opportunity it needs.
(EDIT, July 2, 1955.)
