Today knowledge and innovation are considered as the two main resources of economy. Rightly, as described by Schumpeter (1943), ‘innovations’ are the engines of capitalism, the fundamental impulse that sets and keeps the capitalist engine in motion. However, innovations not only keep the capitalist engine moving and growing but it equally boosts the economies of the so called ‘communist’ countries. Innovations are rightly considered as the elixir of life for firms, countries and societies regardless of their size or other attributes. Innovations, both the formal and informal are increasingly defining and shaping our future. Innovation explicitly is not about new products and processes but the important aspect inherent to innovations is that it produces and disseminates new forms of knowledge.
So far the popular discourse among the innovation theorists by and large, has revolved around the formal sector firms (big MNCs, TNCs etc.) and individual innovators or entrepreneurs (like Edison and Steve Jobs). However, the changes in the technological innovations during the last five decades have altered this discourse. A shift in innovation discourse is visible. From the Revolutionary Entrepreneurs proposed by Schumpeter (1934), to the Hippel’s (2005) concept of innovation communities one can experience the change in the innovation discourse. Today, western innovation theorists are more interested in the Southern Models of innovations (Africa, Latin America and Asia). For instance, innovation scholars from the west are increasingly debating and exploring the nuances of Juggad Innovations (India), Juakali Innovations (Kenya), Jeitinho (Brazil) and Zizhu Chuangxim (China). These informal innovations or more precisely innovations by ‘common people’ are gaining much popularity. Nonetheless, in this article, I am going to delineate on another new area of innovations, known as ‘traditiovations’ with special focus on innovation from Kashmir.
What is this new thing called as ‘traditiovations’, how is this different from the innovations we already know and how relevant and important this is to Kashmir are some questions to be explored here. Cannarella and Piccioni (2011) in a paper titled Traditiovations: Creating innovation from the past and antique techniques for rural areas define traditiovations ‘as the practices and techniques deriving from historical or past traditional knowledge or re-invented practices and techniques.’ This re-inventing process of the historical and traditional knowledge according to the authors also takes place using science, research and technology. Now the point to debate here is why to re-invent past? And what is the economic significance of traditional knowledge and cultural things/products? Many scholars argue that traditional ideas or practices are always in conflict with ‘change’ and carry no economic value per se. Nonetheless, the findings of the above cited paper and our case study on a Kashmir based local organisation (National Masala Mills /Kanwal Foods) proves this popular perception wrong. We find that tradition, modernity and science are not always conflicting; if tapped properly together these will lead to more economic outputs and can guarantee more employment. In Kashmir, we tried to explore traditiovations by examining some of the products launched by a local company - National Masala Mills (Kanwal Foods) started some 45 years ago. National Masala Mills as already reflected is an indigenous company with a global reach and an annual turnover of around $7 million. The main thrust of the company is ‘spices’, nonetheless it has expanded its business to other areas as well. During our investigation we found that many of the new products (innovations) launched by Kanwal foods are the classic examples of ‘traditiovations’. The startling findings of our study on Kanwal reflect the brilliant blending of culture, tradition and history with science, technology and art. We will not delineate on all such traditiovations of Kanwal in detail here. However, we limit our analysis to only one of the company’s product - ‘Shahi Kehwa’. What makes this product a classic example of ‘taditiovation’ and how science, technology is used for the value addition of this product will be deliberated here. ‘Kehwa’ or Kahwah a traditional (tea) is prepared in a brass kettle known as a samovar. The tea is made by boiling green tea leaves with saffron strands, cinnamon bark and cardamom pods. Occasionally, roses are also added for great aroma; crushed nuts, usually almonds or walnuts are also mixed for taste. Traditional way of preparing Kehwa is time consuming and a little expensive. Some researchers also argue that the brass kettle ‘samovar’ is perhaps not the right kettle to prepare Kehwa because the chemical concentration coming from samovar while boiling the tea affects both the taste and health (albeit not ‘scientifically’ proven). This tea although is famous around the globe but hitherto no attempts were made to ‘globalize’ this traditional drink. But, the efforts of Kanwal in reinventing this traditional product at a global scale deserve special attention and appreciation as well. Many may see ‘Shahi Kehwa’ as a simple innovation or what we call incremental by nature, nevertheless the detailed observation and research of this innovation unfolds thousands of success stories. It not only adds ‘soft power’ to Kashmir and Kashmir Market but also reflects how ‘modern science’ can be best used to reinvent past. We see this innovation as a ‘glocalisation’ attempt, where local products are given global touch in terms of marketing and branding. Looking at this product from the innovation and use–centric perspectives, one would conclude that Shahi Kehwa is a best blending of science, culture and research. What makes this product more famous and worth study is that the powder (readymade Kehwa) leaves no residue after preparation and the taste hardly changes during the course of preparation.
To cut the long story short, one would argue that traditiovations like ‘Shahi Kehwa’ is possibly the best reaction to the western models of economic growth and innovations, where ‘dirty industries’ and ‘destructive innovations’ are increasingly fused to our local markets. These western or precisely alien models of innovations are most of the times flawed, ethically repugnant, logically inadequate and ecologically myopic. The answer to all these unsustainable models of innovations probably is traditiovations or ‘localisation of innovations’, a trend diametrically opposed to globalisation.
Sheikh Fayaz Ahmad is a researcher at the Centre for Studies in Science Policy, School of Social Science, JNU, Delhi
So far the popular discourse among the innovation theorists by and large, has revolved around the formal sector firms (big MNCs, TNCs etc.) and individual innovators or entrepreneurs (like Edison and Steve Jobs). However, the changes in the technological innovations during the last five decades have altered this discourse. A shift in innovation discourse is visible. From the Revolutionary Entrepreneurs proposed by Schumpeter (1934), to the Hippel’s (2005) concept of innovation communities one can experience the change in the innovation discourse. Today, western innovation theorists are more interested in the Southern Models of innovations (Africa, Latin America and Asia). For instance, innovation scholars from the west are increasingly debating and exploring the nuances of Juggad Innovations (India), Juakali Innovations (Kenya), Jeitinho (Brazil) and Zizhu Chuangxim (China). These informal innovations or more precisely innovations by ‘common people’ are gaining much popularity. Nonetheless, in this article, I am going to delineate on another new area of innovations, known as ‘traditiovations’ with special focus on innovation from Kashmir.
What is this new thing called as ‘traditiovations’, how is this different from the innovations we already know and how relevant and important this is to Kashmir are some questions to be explored here. Cannarella and Piccioni (2011) in a paper titled Traditiovations: Creating innovation from the past and antique techniques for rural areas define traditiovations ‘as the practices and techniques deriving from historical or past traditional knowledge or re-invented practices and techniques.’ This re-inventing process of the historical and traditional knowledge according to the authors also takes place using science, research and technology. Now the point to debate here is why to re-invent past? And what is the economic significance of traditional knowledge and cultural things/products? Many scholars argue that traditional ideas or practices are always in conflict with ‘change’ and carry no economic value per se. Nonetheless, the findings of the above cited paper and our case study on a Kashmir based local organisation (National Masala Mills /Kanwal Foods) proves this popular perception wrong. We find that tradition, modernity and science are not always conflicting; if tapped properly together these will lead to more economic outputs and can guarantee more employment. In Kashmir, we tried to explore traditiovations by examining some of the products launched by a local company - National Masala Mills (Kanwal Foods) started some 45 years ago. National Masala Mills as already reflected is an indigenous company with a global reach and an annual turnover of around $7 million. The main thrust of the company is ‘spices’, nonetheless it has expanded its business to other areas as well. During our investigation we found that many of the new products (innovations) launched by Kanwal foods are the classic examples of ‘traditiovations’. The startling findings of our study on Kanwal reflect the brilliant blending of culture, tradition and history with science, technology and art. We will not delineate on all such traditiovations of Kanwal in detail here. However, we limit our analysis to only one of the company’s product - ‘Shahi Kehwa’. What makes this product a classic example of ‘taditiovation’ and how science, technology is used for the value addition of this product will be deliberated here. ‘Kehwa’ or Kahwah a traditional (tea) is prepared in a brass kettle known as a samovar. The tea is made by boiling green tea leaves with saffron strands, cinnamon bark and cardamom pods. Occasionally, roses are also added for great aroma; crushed nuts, usually almonds or walnuts are also mixed for taste. Traditional way of preparing Kehwa is time consuming and a little expensive. Some researchers also argue that the brass kettle ‘samovar’ is perhaps not the right kettle to prepare Kehwa because the chemical concentration coming from samovar while boiling the tea affects both the taste and health (albeit not ‘scientifically’ proven). This tea although is famous around the globe but hitherto no attempts were made to ‘globalize’ this traditional drink. But, the efforts of Kanwal in reinventing this traditional product at a global scale deserve special attention and appreciation as well. Many may see ‘Shahi Kehwa’ as a simple innovation or what we call incremental by nature, nevertheless the detailed observation and research of this innovation unfolds thousands of success stories. It not only adds ‘soft power’ to Kashmir and Kashmir Market but also reflects how ‘modern science’ can be best used to reinvent past. We see this innovation as a ‘glocalisation’ attempt, where local products are given global touch in terms of marketing and branding. Looking at this product from the innovation and use–centric perspectives, one would conclude that Shahi Kehwa is a best blending of science, culture and research. What makes this product more famous and worth study is that the powder (readymade Kehwa) leaves no residue after preparation and the taste hardly changes during the course of preparation.
To cut the long story short, one would argue that traditiovations like ‘Shahi Kehwa’ is possibly the best reaction to the western models of economic growth and innovations, where ‘dirty industries’ and ‘destructive innovations’ are increasingly fused to our local markets. These western or precisely alien models of innovations are most of the times flawed, ethically repugnant, logically inadequate and ecologically myopic. The answer to all these unsustainable models of innovations probably is traditiovations or ‘localisation of innovations’, a trend diametrically opposed to globalisation.
Sheikh Fayaz Ahmad is a researcher at the Centre for Studies in Science Policy, School of Social Science, JNU, Delhi