In the context of Indian handicrafts, what is ‘Sujini’ in Bihar?

Question

UnlockIAS · Accepted Answer

Correct — C, A type of embroidery. The Geographical Indications Registry settles this in its own words, and the record is public. Application No. 74 on the GI register is titled 'Sujini Embroidery Work of Bihar'; its status is Registered, its date of filing 21-09-2006, its class 26, its goods category 'Handicraft' and its geographical area 'Bihar'. The applicant is not a private firm but the Development Commissioner (Handicrafts), Ministry of Textiles, Government of India, at West Block No. 7, R.K. Puram, New Delhi — the same office that filed most of India's craft indications. The registry advertised the application in GI Journal No. 18 with an availability date of 03-08-2007, issued Certificate No. 45 on 23-11-2007, and the registration currently runs to 20-09-2026. The authorised users entered against it are village women's collectives rather than firms: the first on the list is Mrs Nirmala Devi, President of the Bhusura Mahila Vikas Samiti of Gram Bhusura, and the Adithi/Plan Project, the development organisation credited with reviving the craft commercially, appears on the same list alongside societies at Benipatti, Pandaul, Andhrathadhi and Jhanjharpur. Sujini, also spelt Sujani, is worked as a quilt: layers of soft used cotton cloth are stacked and then stitched over in coloured thread, the needlework itself simultaneously binding the layers together and drawing the figures — women, animals, village scenes, and in the modern revival social themes such as dowry, female foeticide and girls' schooling. That the entire object is made with the needle, and that the registry filed it under the word 'Embroidery' in its very title, is why the answer cannot be any of the other three.

Why the other options are wrong — (a) Bihar has no registered glassware indication at all, and India's glass GIs belong to Uttar Pradesh — Firozabad Glass (applications 155 and 156) and Varanasi Glass Beads (application 177), with Chunar Glaze Pottery (621) as the nearest glazed-ware entry. The option is tempting only because 'Sujini' means nothing in particular to a candidate meeting it for the first time, and any craft word can then be attached to it; the defence is to know the Bihar handicraft GIs by technique rather than to guess from the sound — Sujini is the stitched one. Note too that glass is an urban, kiln-and-furnace industry, whereas every one of Bihar's registered crafts is a household or village craft worked by hand.  (b) Bihar holds no metal-craft GI either. The registered metal crafts of India sit elsewhere — Moradabad Metal Craft (161 and 162) and Jalesar Dhatu Shilp (722) in Uttar Pradesh, Bastar Dhokra (83) in Chhattisgarh, Pembarthi Metal Craft (194) in Telangana, Budithi Bell and Brass Metal Craft (89) in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka Bronzeware (62) and the Aranmula metal mirror (3) in Kerala. Candidates who half-remember Dhokra lost-wax casting as an eastern-India tribal tradition often misfile it under Bihar, when the registered indication is Chhattisgarh's.  (d) Again nothing in Bihar. The pottery indications on the register are Khurja Pottery (178) and Nizamabad Black Clay Pottery (459) in Uttar Pradesh, Blue Pottery of Jaipur (66) and Pokaran Pottery (519) in Rajasthan, Manamadurai Pottery (561) in Tamil Nadu and Meghalaya Lyrnai Pottery (1095). Nizamabad black pottery is the specific trap, because Nizamabad here is a town in Azamgarh district of Uttar Pradesh — not a Bihar place, and not the Telangana city of the same name either.

Concept: A geographical indication is a sign used on goods that have a specific geographical origin and possess qualities or a reputation due to that origin. India legislated for them in the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999, which came into force on 15 September 2003 to meet the country's TRIPS obligations under the WTO; registration lasts an initial ten years and is renewable, and section 24 bars a GI from being transferred, mortgaged, assigned or licensed, so it can never become tradable private property in the way a trademark can. The first Indian GI was Darjeeling tea. The register distinguishes a registered proprietor — normally an association, a government body or the Development Commissioner (Handicrafts) — from authorised users, who are the actual producers entitled to apply the mark. Bihar's registered handicrafts form a short and learnable list: Madhubani Painting (application 37), Applique or Khatwa Work of Bihar (73), Sujini Embroidery Work of Bihar (74), Sikki Grass Products of Bihar (75), Bhagalpur Silk (180) and Manjusha Art (656). Three of those — Khatwa, Sujini and Sikki — were filed together on 21 September 2006, which is why they so often appear as a set in question papers.

State PCS 2023 Q62 — Art & Culture PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2023 Q62 — Art & Culture PYQ with Answer