Faces of India 353 – Padma Shri Abdul Gafur Khatri, Rogan Artist
During my recent trip to Gujarat I had the privilege of meeting Abdul Gafur Khatri, Rogan artist, in Nirona village, near Bhuj Gujarat. Gafur Bhai, as he is popularly known, is the head of the last family producing the unique traditional Rogan Art. He was awarded the Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award by the Government of India, in 2019.
Faces of India
a series through which I intend to portray the various characters of my country whom I met during my travels. I bring back souvenirs, frozen moments from my travels, why not some memories of people I have met and interacted during the travels. Faces of India is a weekly series in my blog since MARCH 2011. See more here…
Story of Padma Shri Abdul Gafur Rogan Artist
He narrated to us his interesting story of how the Rogan art was revived from the brink of disappearance in the 1980s. Gafur Bhai left his family tradition of Rogan painting in 1980 as he felt there was no future in it. He moved to Ahmedabad and then Mumbai for employment. His grandfather kept coaxing him to return and save the art. Abdul Gafur finally relented and returned home two years later. He took up producing the art seriously.
The Tree of Life symbol was produced through Rogan painting in 1985, ever since there has been no looking back. Khatri was awarded the State Award in 1988 and the National Award in 1997. All male members of his family are expert at this art and state and National level awardees. In his words, “Six generations of my family slogged to keep this art alive, and now my sons and I are reaping the benefits, I couldn’t be happier.”
Prior to 2010, women were not taught this art, as the girls get married and move on to a new family. They feared this would dilute the uniqueness of Rogan Art. But since the demand is high and just one family isn’t able to cater to market demands he has trained nearly 200 girls in this art. They are able to produce basic Rogan art pieces.
With Padma Shri Abdul Gafur Bhai Rogan Artist
I requested for a picture with him and he obliged. I am so thankful to Gafur Bhai for the honor. I have pictures of Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan awardees in my Faces of India series – KK Muhammed Archaeologist, Prof. U R Rao Scientist and Pankaj Advani Billiards Player.
Thanks for sharing these stories. I love learning about other cultures and countries.
I love learning about new artists. Thank you for this spotlight.
What a lovely tribute to this artists. It’s interesting to read more about their story tool
Interesting! A nice story about a person and place is always good to know.
This is such an interesting story. It’s always nice to put a face to artistry. I know when it comes to a lot of art… we don’t even know what the actual creator looks like.
An incredible feature! It’s important to keep art alive and inspire those as well by taking the time to feature artists like this. Thank you for sharing! What an exciting moment for you.
What a fabulous idea and I can’t wait to see all the photographs from our series of faces of India and learn more about the person
What an amazing story wow!!! This is very very interesting. I love the faces of India series…
It must have been interesting to go meet the artist and hear his story. It’s amazing that the art form he does has been going for 6 generations