Mohammed Yusuf Khatri Biography 
Mohammed Yusuf Khatri is a craftsman from Bagh of Madhya Pradesh best known for his contributions towards Bagh printing. He is the son of Ismail Sulemanji Khatri, a renowned painter and internationally acclaimed artist and craftsman from Madhya Pradesh who re-invented and re-established Bagh print, a part of the centuries-old hand block printing practice. Ismail Sulemanji Khatri revolutionised the art of Bagh printing taking inspirations from Taj Mahal and common jali patterns, used on bed sheets, saris and fabrics and also improvised and discovered new colour shades of dyes used for this purpose.
Among his 4 siblings, Mohammed Rafik Khatri and Mohammed Dawood Khatri are leading names in this field. Mohammed Yusuf Khatri is the second eldest among the siblings. His son Mohammed Bilal Khatri is the successful Bagh printing artist from his family belonging to this generation. After Mohammed’s father employed numerous people in this industry, he carried forward the tradition which has popped up to multiple proportions from hundreds in the 1970s to 12,000 in Dhar district alone.
Earlier the family prefabricate different traditional dresses for different groups of people based on caste, religion, tradition etc and they used to be identified by the type of dress design chosen. In the 1990s, Mohammed Rafik Khatri started experimenting with foreign clothing as well for international market. Some of his experiments include incorporating modernity in the wooden blocks and colours, block printing with hand and designing cultural clothing firstly, printing on bamboo mat, leather, jute etc.
He is credited to colours on bamboo mat, which was the first recorded sample in the world of art, which was a revolutionary invention in India. Apart from several state level and national awards, he is also a recipient of art and crafts awards by UNESCO twice in 2007 and 2014.
Published: January 22, 2019
Updated: January 22, 2019
