Creative Refusal and Freedom in Craft Making: The Case Study of Dhaka Weaving and the Development Assistance in Eastern Nepal

Yuko Takamichi

Authors

Yuko Takamichi Kyoto University of Advanced Science

Keywords:

Dhaka cloth, development assistance, handicrafts, creative refusal, craft studies, Nepal

Abstract

This study explores the conflict between local handicraft production and development assistance interventions through the case of dhaka, a hand-woven cloth produced in the eastern hilly region of Nepal. Drawing on studies of development assistance in Nepal and the perspective of “culture as creative refusal,” this paper argues that the characteristics of dhaka cloth and its production practices have been shaped through local people’s conscious rejection and selective adoption of elements introduced by various development programs implemented in the region. Since the 1980s, the KHARDEP program in Town M has served as a catalyst for the implementation of numerous development assistance projects and government policies related to dhaka production. These interventions created opportunities for local people to reflect on their own practices of making dhaka—practices that had not previously been self-consciously articulated—by comparing them with methods introduced through development initiatives and industrial production. Through this process, people came to recognize their own modes of production, reconsider what they regarded as important in making dhaka, and either reject or selectively adopt externally introduced approaches. Based on case studies of development interventions related to local handicraft production, this study examines how people in the research area responded to such interventions and how their acts of refusal and selective acceptance became connected to the features now regarded as characteristic of dhaka cloth and its production practices.

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