About
To safeguard intangible cultural heritage by generating, disseminating and advocating for access to knowledge about India's traditional arts, crafts and textiles.
The Craft Revival Trust (CRT) is a registered non-profit organisation set up in 1999, mandated on the principle that access to knowledge and its dissemination forms the vital core of safeguarding intangible cultural heritage. Led by Ritu Sethi, CRT works across six routes: the Asia InCH Encyclopedia (the leading open educational resource on intangible cultural heritage of traditional arts, crafts and textiles across South Asia and seven other Asian countries); India InCH (a directory of 70,000+ traditional craftspeople, weavers and folk artists across India in more than 2,500 categories); the Global InCH Journal (an international journal on living heritage with 500+ essays, 40 categories, 200+ contributors); advocacy and policy; consultancy; and platforms for dialogue and discussion. CRT is represented on policy-making bodies in India and internationally and has contributed to cultural policy design through advocacy and dialogue.
Craft Revival Trust was established in 1999 at a time when India's craft heritage was recognised in cultural circles but systematically absent from policy frameworks and digital documentation. Ritu Sethi, who has since become one of India's leading voices on intangible cultural heritage policy, built CRT around an information model: that the primary barrier to craft preservation was not lack of appreciation but lack of accessible, structured knowledge. Asia InCH, begun almost two decades ago, is now the widest and most in-depth encyclopedia of traditional arts, crafts and textiles across South Asia. India InCH lists 70,000+ traditional artisans and weavers across 2,500 categories -- a documentation scale that government bodies have not matched. CRT has also contributed to post-conflict and disaster recovery work, conducting the first Post-Disaster Needs Assessment in India (post-Kerala floods) that included traditional arts, crafts and performing arts -- a methodology that recommended integrating cultural loss assessment into disaster response frameworks.
Founding & Leadership
Ritu Sethi is one of India's leading experts on intangible cultural heritage policy. She has led CRT since its founding in 1999 and is represented on national and international policy bodies for ICH. She has contributed to UNESCO, IRCI and other international bodies on craft heritage and policy.
Initiatives & Portfolio
The leading open educational resource on intangible cultural heritage of traditional arts, crafts and textiles across South Asia and 7 other Asian countries. Started over two decades ago.
Comprehensive directory of 70,000+ traditional craftspeople, weavers and folk artists across India in more than 2,500 categories.
International journal on living heritage. 500+ essays, 40 categories, 200+ contributors. Open access.
Policy engagement at national and international levels. Contributed to the first Post-Disaster Needs Assessment in India that included traditional arts and crafts (post-Kerala floods). Sri Lanka post-conflict assessment.
CRT's significance is as the primary knowledge infrastructure organisation for India's craft and intangible cultural heritage ecosystem. Its documentation (Asia InCH, India InCH) provides the factual base that policy, funding, and market decisions about crafts rely on. Its policy advocacy has brought ICH into frameworks -- disaster recovery, cultural policy, sustainable development -- where it was previously absent. The 70,000+ artisan directory is the most comprehensive public directory of India's traditional craft practitioners in existence.
[Atlas Perspective] CultureAtlas profiles the Craft Revival Trust as one of the most important infrastructure organisations in India's cultural ecosystem -- not because it produces visible cultural events, but because it produces the knowledge base that makes other cultural work possible. Its Asia InCH and India InCH platforms are resources that CultureAtlas itself uses and that every researcher, funder, and policymaker working with India's craft and artform ecosystem depends on. CRT's low public profile relative to its ecosystem importance is a characteristic of infrastructure organisations: they are essential and invisible. CultureAtlas recommends CRT as a key partner for any institution working in craft artform documentation and policy.