Republic Day 2025: President Murmu's Bamboo Invitation Box For Home Event Has South Indian Flavour

India celebrates Republic Day on January 26, 2025, to honour the complete adoption of the Indian Constitution in 1950. President, Draupadi Murmu at the 'Home Event' held at Rashtrapati Bhavan is set to showcase India's cultural diversity at 76th Republic Day celebrations. For the 'At Home' celebrations, usually, a stiff white card embodied with the 'Lion Capital of Ashoka' is the invitation card format. However, things look different in 2025. The guests will get a gift box that will have South Indian craft.

What elements are there inside the Republic Day invitation box?

For the unversed, the President on Republic Day hosts the 'At Home' event every year. This year the invitees will get a craft box curated from India's south states- Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Telangana, and Andhra Pradesh with the invitation card. The box has unique handicrafts from South India designed by the National Institute Of Design. To begin with, the recycled invitation box was made from bamboo and engraved with Kalamkari art, which is a traditional painting style in Andhra Pradesh.

The removable fabric base of the box can be utilised as a rolled-up pencil pouch made out of Pochampally's Ikat fabric, famous in Telangana. Pochampally is renowned for its Ikat weaving technique, which uses varied motifs and colours. The box also has an attractive fridge magnet showcasing craftsmanship and depicting Ganjifa art from Mysore. The traditional Ganjifa playing cards are known to depict hand paintings on mythological folklore.

Republic Day 2025: Art in a box at 'Home Event'

Kerala's ladies are known for their skilful screwpine leaves weaving technique, used in art forms like baskets and mats. The craft is shown via a handmade bookmark. The artistic box also has a pouch made purely out of Tamil Nadu's Kancheepuram silk. Worldwide, this silk is known for its majestic richness and fine craftsmanship. The box also contains Etiopakka dolls from Andhra Pradesh. The village of Etiopakka is best known for its colourful wooden, lacquered toys in traditional outfits.

Curation of the art box by the National Institute Of Design

For the unversed, the NID received the prestigious opportunity to work on the invitation kit development and production for the 2025 Republic Day at Home event at Rashtrapati Bhavan. The overall theme of this year's event is the Southern State of India, as per NID's Instagram caption. Dr. Ashok Mondal, the Director of NID Ahmedabad and Mr. Susanth C S, Dean of NID Bengaluru, had many rounds of presentations and discussions with the officials at Rashtrapati Bhavan before finalising the concept of the box and the products to be placed inside the box.

The coordination of the entire invitation kit preparation from design to production was done from NID Bengaluru campus under the leadership of Mr. Susanth C S, Dean, with the support of NID Ahmedabad and NID Andhra Pradesh. NID faculty members, staff, students, and many artisans from various schools contributed to this project.

Challenges faced in preparing the art box

NID, on it's Instagram handle, revealed that one of the major challenges was the preparation of bamboo boxes, which have various components and details. However, the support from bamboo artisans from Kerala and the NID team from Andhra and Telangana, with their hard work, made it possible to realise the large quantity in a short duration of time.

What do you think of the Republic Day invitation box?

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