Handicrafts and GI Tags of Uttar Pradesh: District List

Uttar Pradesh is the largest handicraft state in India, and the reason is historical rather than accidental. The Mughal and Awadh courts kept whole quarters of artisans at Agra, Varanasi and Lucknow; the Ganga plain gave weavers cheap grain and cheap labour; and the old trade routes carried finished goods to the ports. What remains is a map in which almost every district is known for one thing, and that map is exactly what the examiner asks. In recent years the same crafts have been given legal protection as geographical indications, so a modern question may ask which craft carries a GI tag as easily as it asks which city makes brassware.

What a geographical indication is

A geographical indication, or GI, is a sign used on goods that come from a definite place and owe a quality or reputation to that place. In India it is governed by the Geographical Indications of Goods, Registration and Protection, Act of 1999, which came into force on 15 September 2003. The GI Registry sits at Chennai under the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks, in the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. A registration runs for ten years and can be renewed, and only the registered producers of the named region may use the name. The first Indian product to be registered was Darjeeling tea. Uttar Pradesh is among the states with the largest number of registered GIs, and Varanasi alone accounts for a long list of them.

The craft map of Uttar Pradesh

Chikankari and the Banarasi saree

Chikankari is shadow embroidery worked in white thread on fine cotton, muslin or chiffon, and its names are examinable: tepchi, the running stitch; bakhiya, the shadow stitch worked from the back; murri and phanda, the grain-shaped knots; and jaali, in which threads are pushed apart to make a net without cutting the cloth. Zardozi, the other Lucknow craft, uses metal thread, sequins and beads on heavy cloth and was court work before it became bridal work. At Varanasi the brocade loom is the centre of the economy: silk is woven with gold and silver zari into Jangla, Tanchoi, Tissue, Butidar and cutwork patterns, and the GI registration of Banaras brocades and sarees covers Varanasi and the neighbouring districts, which is why a weaver in Chandauli or Mirzapur may also use the name.

Metal, clay, glass and scent

Moradabad works brass into engraved and enamelled vessels and lamps and has moved on to iron, aluminium and glass fittings for export. Firozabad blows glass into bangles, chandeliers and laboratory ware. The two pottery traditions are opposites: Khurja in Bulandshahr makes thick glazed ware painted in bright floral patterns, while Nizamabad in Azamgarh makes thin black pottery, rubbed with mustard oil and fired in a closed kiln, then given silver-coloured patterns with a zinc and mercury paste. At Kannauj, flower petals and sandalwood are distilled in copper vessels over wood fire by the deg and bhapka method, which also makes mitti attar, the scent of the first rain, from baked clay.

Agricultural GIs and the ODOP scheme

Not every GI of the state is a handicraft. Malihabadi Dussehri mango of the Lucknow belt, Allahabad Surkha guava and Kalanamak rice of the Terai districts are registered agricultural GIs, and the examiner likes to mix one of them into a list of crafts. To tie the whole map to policy, the state government launched the One District One Product programme in January 2018, which picks one traditional product for every district and supports it with credit, design, packaging and marketing help; the idea was later taken up at the national level. For an examination, learn the ODOP product of the famous districts along with the GI list, because both appear in the same question paper.