&ldquo;IIT Jodhpur is committed to impart quality education to facilitate the creation of qualified, competent and responsible human resources to meet the emerging technological challenges of the world. It is working towards creating an equitable learning platform that is positive, accessible and effective in the face of the modern societal and scientific advancements.

Flexibility in curriculum, in all its academic programs, encompassing elements of teaching, research, creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship is the most unique feature of IIT Jodhpur. The Department of Science and Technology (DST), under the National Mission on Cyber Physical Systems, has identified IIT Jodhpur as a Technology &amp; Innovation Hub in the area of Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality. The institute has also been nominated as the coordinator for the Jodhpur City and Knowledge Cluster by the Office of Principal Scientific Adviser, Government of India.

The sprawling 852-acre IIT Jodhpur campus is a majestic tribute to the deep-rooted diverse cultural heritage of the region. The campus is an architectural masterpiece, which is slated to become an international exemplar of sustainability with net-zero energy, and advanced water and waste management strategies.&rdquo;

IIT Jodhpur

Craft in contemporary India is a loaded signifier of the handmade, the vernacular, the traditional, and the authentic. Handloom saris, as part of a pan-Indianized repertoire, index the virtues of traditional femininity, local patronage and craft-based aesthetics. However, a decline in their consumption has led to revival projects centred on addressing concerns of livelihoods, markets, and consumer identities. This article presents a historically contextualized study of elite women who are engaged in handloom sari revival. Through an analysis of their sartorial preferences and interventions in handloom revival, the author suggests that their involvement in the field of craft is a performative strategy that consolidates their elite status. These actors affirm belonging in elite spaces using the discourses of crafts difference, biomoral consumption, and aesthetic taste. Moreover, revival is always presented as on the verge of happening but never actually achieved, justifying the need for sustained elite intervention, in turn cementing elite status. © The Author(s) 2019.

School of Liberal Arts (SoLA)

Journal of Material Culture

Hand-crafted identities: Sartorial taste and belonging amongst elite women in urban India

This article analyses the homologies between colonial knowledge projects and post-colonial revival programmes through Indian textiles and dress. In the nineteenth century, the colonial bureaucracy treated Indian textiles as samples of ‘native’ artisanship, using them to police discourses of race, gender and citizenship. Concomitantly, the nationalist movement created a model of Indian womanhood that conscripted women to be both ‘traditional’ and ‘modern’, signified in the Nivi sari, linking this to emerging craft conservation movements. Post-Independence, elite women became the directors of craft revival by linking sartorial taste to ideal womanhood in a continuation of colonial discourse. © 2019 South Asian Studies Association of Australia.