Scene from a Festival of India abroad with the textile display.

Festivals of India were conceived as showcases of India's culture and heritage in art, music, dance and textiles across the world. The mandate was to showcase modern and contemporary India along with the traditional legacies. Handmade textiles were an important part of such display as the subject was very close to Pupul Jayakar, the Chairperson of the Festival Committee. The man who developed these in the field with the aid of the Weavers’ Service Centres was Martand Singh. The many hundreds of textile panels that eventually came to be grouped under Visvakarma series was the direct result of the Festivals of India except Pudu Pavu, which was commissioned by Tamil Nadu State for its textile cooperative, Co-optex. The commissions for the Festivals aimed at giving a contemporary flair to traditional skills of weaving and surface design on textiles, that was apt for a global audience. The first Festival of India was held at London in 1982, in which textiles and ceramics were displayed at the Royal College of Art. Simultaenously there was an exhibition on science and technology at the Science Museum and a Cinema India Programme at National Theatre, London. This blue Tanchoi panel was developed for the exhibition at USSR titled Jaali (lattice), a recurring architectural feature in India.