Delhi: Hidden Pottery Village Treasure Tour – Kumhar Gram

Seven hundred potter families, inside Delhi

Kumhar Gram sits in west Delhi, near Uttam Nagar, and it is exactly what it sounds like: a village of potters inside a city of twenty million. The families came from Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh around sixty years ago and they have been throwing pots on the same lanes ever since.

Every surface is drying pottery. It stacks on roofs, along walls, down the middle of the lanes, and it is one of the few genuinely unmediated things a visitor can see in Delhi — nobody built this for you to look at.

What you watch

The wheel, which here is often still kicked or hand-turned rather than electric. A practised potter throws a matka in well under a minute, and the speed is the thing that stays with you.

Drying, which is most of the process and all of the risk — a monsoon week can destroy a family's stock.

And firing, in open kilns fuelled with whatever burns: wood, husk, and unfortunately a good deal of scrap, which is a real health problem in the settlement and one the potters will talk about if you ask.

What is made

Matkas and surahis, the unglazed water pots that cool by evaporation through the clay and are still how a large part of India drinks in summer. Diyas by the hundred thousand for Diwali, which is when this village works around the clock. Planters, tandoors, kulhads for chai.

You can usually try the wheel. You will be bad at it.

Buying

Directly from the maker, at maker prices — which are a fraction of what the same pot costs in a Delhi boutique. Ask before photographing people; most are happy, some are working.

Practical

Two hours. The lanes are narrow, dusty and stacked with unfired pottery — wear closed shoes, watch where you put your feet, and do not lean on anything.

Avoid the monsoon, when the work stops and the lanes flood.