Continuing the legacy of Gandhi’s Tolstoy Farm established in 1910 in South Africa as a centre to practise self-reliance and sustainable living, Vaikunthbhai Mehta Research Centre for Decentralised Industries (VMRCDI) is hosting the first edition of Tolstoy Farm 2.0. The exhibition campaign offers an organised platform to empower artisans from decentralised industries across India. This includes selling art and craft products by artisans who function from local village set-ups, artisan-led workshops and live demonstrations to understand the labour that goes behind handmade products, book discussions, reading circles and expert-led talks.

Sanchita Das, member, VMRCDI and assistant professor, Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), explains how the campaign will help move closer to its objective of forging an alternative economy and promoting self-sufficiency. She notes, “Our purpose is to not just maximise sales but to also connect people with the exhibition’s broader ideology. We want to engage with visitors to [facilitate a refocus on] self-reliance, offer a chance to talk to the artisans and understand how they manage to continue engaging with their work and the challenges they face. We are establishing a rural-urban linkage in an effort to strengthen decentralised industries.”