Jasleen Dhamija (born 1933 ) is an Indian textile art historian, crafts expert and former UN worker. Based in Delhi, she is best known for her pioneering research on the handloom and handicraft industry, especially history of textiles and costumes. She has remained professor of living cultural traditions at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. ...

. Over the years, during her career as a textile revivalist and scholar, she has authored several books on textiles, including ''Sacred Textiles of India'' (2014).

Early life and background

Dhamija grew up in Abbotabad, in the North Western Frontier Province, before her family migrated to Delhi in 1940, where they lived in Khyber Pass locality of

Civil Lines, Delhi The Civil Lines is a residential area and one of the 3 subdivisions of the Central Delhi district of Delhi in India. It is one of the 12 zones under the Municipal Corporation of Delhi. It was the hub of European-style hotels in the city until ...

, and graduated from

Miranda House Miranda House is a constituent college for women at the University of Delhi in India. Established in 1948, it is one of the top ranked colleges of the country and ranked as number 1 for consecutively six years (as of 2022). History Miranda ...

, University of Delhi.

Career

She started her career in 1954, with culture and craft revivalist

Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay (3 April 1903 – 29 October 1988) was an Indian social reformer and freedom activist. She was most remembered for her contribution to the Indian independence movement; for being the driving force behind the renaissanc ...

in the Government of India, and started working on craft revival, community development and women's employment. In the 1960s, she worked with the Handicrafts Board of India, next she started working with artisans directly in rural area, this in time lead to her work with the UN developing self-help programmes for women in war-torn Balkan countries. Over the years, she has curated several textile and crafts exhibitions. Besides several books, on crafts and textile, she has also written two cookbooks, including ''Joy of Vegetarian Cooking'' (2000). In 2007, she published a biography of Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay and her role in the revival of the arts and crafts in modern India. She has remained faculty at the National Institute of Fashion Technology, New Delhi, where she taught History of Indian Textiles and costumes.

Works

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dhamija, Jasleen 1933 births Living people Textile arts of India Indian art historians People from Abbottabad Delhi University alumni Cultural historians Indian social sciences writers Cookbook writers University of Minnesota faculty 20th-century Indian historians Indian women historians 20th-century Indian women writers 20th-century Indian women scientists Educators from Delhi Vegetarian cookbook writers Women educators from Delhi Writers from Delhi Women writers from Delhi Indian art writers 20th-century Indian non-fiction writers Historians of Indian art 20th-century Indian social scientists 21st-century Indian social scientists 21st-century Indian women writers 21st-century Indian writers Textile historians