Kutch · Arid Northwest

People

Name	Years	Field	Known for
Ram Singh Malam	18th century	Craftsman and architect	A Kutchi sailor shipwrecked on a voyage, who spent years in Holland learning glassmaking, tilework, clockmaking and enamelling, returned, and was set to work by Maharao Lakhpatji. The Aina Mahal at Bhuj is his, and it is a rare instance of European technique arriving in India inside an Indian craftsman rather than alongside a European one.
Maharao Lakhpatji	Ruled 1741–1760	Ruler and patron	Patron of the Aina Mahal and of the workshops around it, and the ruler under whom Bhuj's craft establishment was assembled. The port of Lakhpat carries his name.
Maharao Pragmalji II	Ruled 1860–1875	Ruler	Built the Prag Mahal, the Italianate palace and clock tower that stands damaged beside the Aina Mahal.
Maharao Khengarji III	1866–1942	Ruler	Ruled for over sixty years and oversaw the railway, the water works and the schools of the Kutch state, as well as the building of the Vijay Vilas Palace at Mandvi in 1929.
Shyamji Krishna Varma	1857–1930	Nationalist and scholar	Born at Mandvi; a Sanskritist who took a lectureship at Oxford, founded the Indian Home Rule Society and India House in London in 1905, and published The Indian Sociologist. He died in Geneva; his ashes were brought to India in 2003 and are held at Kranti Teerth in Mandvi, in a building modelled on India House.
Mekan Dada	18th century	Saint	A Kutchi ascetic remembered for going out into the Rann with a dog and a donkey carrying water and food to find travellers lost on the salt. His shrine at Dhrang holds an annual fair and a working langar, and the practice he is remembered for is the practice the shrine still performs.
Jesal and Toral	Traditionally placed in the medieval period	Legend and devotional tradition	A Jadeja bandit and the woman who is said to have turned him to religious life. They are traditional rather than documented figures, but their joint samadhis at Anjar are a functioning shrine, several standard Gujarati bhajans are attributed to Toral, and the story has been staged and filmed repeatedly for a century.
Chandaben Shroff	—	Craft development	Founded Shrujan in 1969 during a drought, on the principle that Kutchi women already possessed a skill worth paying for and needed a market rather than relief work. It became the model for the craft organisations that followed here, and she was awarded the Padma Shri.
Judy Frater	—	Craft development and design education	Founded Kala Raksha at Sumrasar Sheikh in 1993 and, in 2005, a design school that teaches artisans to design for themselves rather than executing designs sent from cities. It reversed the usual relationship between designer and maker in Indian craft development.
Abdul Gafur Khatri	—	Rogan painting	The best-known practitioner of Rogan painting at Nirona, from the family that kept the craft alive when it was reduced to almost nothing, and awarded the Padma Shri. He also began training women from other communities in it, which is why the craft now has more practitioners than the family that saved it.
Ismail Mohmed Khatri	—	Ajrakh block printing	Ajrakh printer of Dhamadka and then Ajrakhpur, awarded an honorary doctorate by De Montfort University for his work on natural dyes. He led the move to Ajrakhpur after the 2001 earthquake, when the old village's water would no longer produce the colours.

People from Kutch who shaped its history, arts, science, sport and public life. (11)