Shri Haji Valimamad Suleman (known as Haji Kaka) resides in
Zura village. Belonging to Sindh (Pakistan), his family migrates to Kutch in Gujarat
generations ago. Originally, Haji Kaka
family was Hindu Rajput later converted to Islam. Haji Kaka believes that the Garasiya Maldhari
(animal herders) invited his ancestors to the village of Zura, insuring them
that they would benefit of all facilities. Nowadays, the Lohar community is
around 30 members, most of them are manufacturing bells, while some other are
making agricultural tools and equipments. Haji Kaka lives with 10 family members,
5 of them are involved in bells making with him which is the major source of
income. Haji Kaka taught his skill to his son, daughter-in-law, daughter and
son-in-law along with his grandson Suleman.
He has extended this craft training to more than 30 artisans who run now
their own workshop successfully.
The task of mashing the local clay and mixing cotton into is
performed by the women of the family. They shape the bell using with the copper
brass powder (known as “Takkankhar” locally) before it goes in the kiln for
firing. This process requires high degree of precision and final quality
depends on this process.
Haji Kaka is a senior copper bell artisan. He became famous
for his ability in providing voice tones to the copper bells. The copper bell
artisans are making tones on the demand of Maldharis (animal herders) who need
different tones of bell, helping them to locate their cow or buffalo herds grazing
in outskirts of the village. Before, many artisans were skilled enough to
supply this particular kind of bells, nowadays, only Haji Kaka and two other
artisans have this ability.
But since the demand of bells from Maldharis decreased,
Haji Kaka and other artisans had to change significantly the usage of their
crafts, converting the bells into wind chimes, musical instruments such the
saragema, door bells, etc. Haji Kaka is
fond of music. He plays ‘Morchang’ (a local musical instrument) during the
leisure times.
Haji Kaka has been awarded with a Merit Award from the
President of India in 2005 and the prestigious Kamaladevi award presented by the
Craft Council of India (CII) in 2007.
Photos by Pallon Daruwalla & Subrata Pandey
