Royal blue
KAUSALYA SANTHANAM
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Few can speak with such authority on the various aspects of indigo as Jenny Balfour-Paul.
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Photo: P.V. Sivakumar
Passion for colour: Jenny Balfour-Paul.
MAGICAL blue, miraculous blue: natural indigo transforms from yellow to blue, as if at the wave of a wizard's wand, in the vat through a process of oxidisation that enthrals all those who watch it. Indigo has enraptured the world for millennia by its steadfast colour. The "Queen of Dyes" was the royal hue — the choice of kings, sultans and pharaohs. Today, indigo is the global colour of denim. Natural indigo, which was the sole source of blue, is considered to have had its origins in the subcontinent. Four-fifths of the world's demand of indigo was met by Bengal till 150 years ago and Mahatma Gandhi's support to the oppressed indigo peasants in Champaran, Bihar, was an important chapter in the freedom struggle. When synthetic indigo was discovered, it dealt a great blow to natural indigo. But the latter is making a comeback owing to the efforts of all those who wish the soil and waters to remain unpolluted and chemical free.
Few can speak with such authority on indigo as Jenny Balfour-Paul. Her book, simply titled Indigo published by the British Museum, comprehensively surveys the historical, agricultural, botanical, economical and sociological aspects of the dye, its many sources and present status. The book is the result of 15 years of research.
Practising the craft
The Honorary Research fellow at the University of Exeter practices the craft of indigo dyeing, growing the plant through organic methods in the backyard of her home in Devon and turning out a variety of articles of clothing, among them scarves and stoles of Bengal silk. An exhibition "Indigo: a Blue to Dye For" with consultative inputs by Jenny and curated by Jennifer Harris of The Whitworth Art gallery, University of Manchester, will tour Manchester, Plymouth and Brighton in 2007.
Appropriate that Jenny's passion for colour was accentuated by a visit to India by land after completing school. "The colours of the saris here overwhelmed me," she says. "On my return to England, I took English literature at the university but went to a local Arts college in the evenings to acquire a degree in painting. A few years later, my father saw an ad for a `graduate with wide interests and a driving licence to work in a tropical country'."
Jenny applied and found herself social secretary to Glencairn, British Ambassador to the Middle East. "He was most unlike what I had imagined. Not at all pompous and with a talent for painting and poetry." She ended up marrying him! "His previous assignment was as Ambassador to Iraq in Saddam Hussein's regime. He was the only English ambassador Saddam spoke to directly as Glencairn was fluent in Arabic. But owing to a difference of opinion, Saddam threw him out." He was then posted to Jordan, an ancient centre of indigo dyeing, where Jenny met him. "We visited Damascus often. This was where I came into contact with Egyptian designer Titi Greiss Wedad who taught me about textiles and colours. I also learnt how to do Batik."
On the couple's return to England in the mid-1970s, Glencairn got a job to teach Arabic in the University of Exeter. " I joined the Devon Guild of Craftsmen and England's famous printer Susan Bosence became my guru," says Jenny. "She loved indigo and I assisted her in her sessions of indigo dyeing and printing." Some time later, when Jenny visited Zabid in Yemen, she found it was an ancient centre of indigo dyeing. "But out of 150 dyers working there in the late 1960s, only two were left when I went there. Susan encouraged me to record their work and facilitated a grant for me to do so. When I presented the findings at a seminar in Cambridge University, it evoked much interest."
Broadening her research
This motivated Jenny to do her Ph.D. Her thesis was published as a book, Indigo in the Arab World. The British Museum was willing to publish her work if she broadened her research — to the whole world. For the next eight years she visited known and remote places — wherever indigo was cultivated — South West China, Japan, North West India (Kutch), Central Europe, the Sumba islands in Indonesia and Senegal, among them. She became a member of an association that researches dyes, history and architecture and is now Fellow of the National Geographical Society.
Jenny feels practical problems have to be solved in order to popularise natural indigo. "Indigo is environmentally friendly but the problem of water has to be taken into account. The jeans industry might want to go green but you can't dye two billion pairs of jeans with natural indigo." Still, natural dyes will catch on, she feels. "New technology for old dyes is the answer. Research projects such as Spindigo are making progress. At one time organic food was associated with cranks — everyone laughed at Prince Charles. But now the market is full of organic food."
What is Jenny working on now? " Because of my research in indigo, I came across the journals of an Englishman who lived amidst the Indian peasants of Bengal in the 19th century. He wanted to write a book about indigo. I'm writing about him and his journey to discover more about this universal dye."
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