There will always be, more India

In some ports my brother and I signed up for pre-planned trips. Our first trip in Chennai was a three day Art of Living course hosted by an artisan heritage village. Artisans come in rotation form all around India, to display their crafts in this village. The first person I met was a rock carver from Pakistan. He immediately told me how he would be down in this village for ten days with his friend, and they had come this far in hopes of making some sales. His table was packed full of little green carvings of Ganish in every shape and form. He sat me down and showed me the six little iron scrapers from his extremely modest tool kit. Each crafts person whom I talked with showed me the same basic tools, yet their crafts were all very different. The village hosted traditional palm leaf engravings, “green rock” carvings, glass blowing, Henna artwork, mat weaving, painting miniatures, and a traditional herb store.
Upon approaching each booth the usual high pressure sales situation I had grown accustomed to was replaced with a polite and interesting walk through on how each particular craft was created. One man specialized in palm leaf engravings. A series of palm leaves were strung together to make a sort of folding mat on which was engraved elaborate designs and circles with pictures in the middle depicting traditional stories. These engravings were made using the same tools I had seen earlier, only now for engraving. Each of theses circles folded over so that the mat could display either the traditional gods of India, a traditional story, or of course various pictures of the Kama Sutra. The mans best work, which also had the Kama Sutra option, was hung up to the side of the booth and he informed us that it had taken him nine months to finish. It was amazingly elaborate, each strip of palm leaf connected perfectly with the next, the craftsmanship was superb. It was strange to observe how each of these traditional works of art and depictions of sacred could so quickly, and yet secretly, be transformed into Kama Sutra pictures. My first reaction was that the Kama Sutra presence was a tourist hook, and nothing more. But after spending some more time in the village, and in Chennai, I noticed, by talking to various people, that in fact India does have a very sexually charged subculture beneath its conservative surface... just not when many other people are around.
Each persons craft was very specific, and the craftsman was very reluctant to do anything of which he was not precisely trained. There was a glass blower who specialized in making little boats with figures on them, swizzle sticks, and pendants with an air bubble. I ask if he knew how to make beads. He looked at me very uncomfortably and said he was not trained as a beads craftsman, but he could show me how to make an air bubble glass pendant. At this time a girl walked up and asked if he could make a dolphin. He quickly fired up his torch and in about three minutes had a dolphin swizzle stick ready to go. He looked up at the mystified girl, handed her the dolphin, and without missing a beat asked “how many?”
We were able to speak with a woman from India who travels the world doing various charities; she was able to give us some insight into the market. She told us how there were many orphanages, and that when a child was old enough to leave; they had three options open to them. First was getting married and moving out with their spouse, second being college if the child had found the means, and third being a workshop which would teach them a specific craft, such as stone cutting or engraving. This artisan / crafts person group is composed largely of males, yet some females engrave and weave mats. Every craft at this village was an example of a craft that would be taught in this situation; although it was unclear weather these particular craftsmen originated this way. The main source of income for these small crafts people were of course tourism, although some of the more conventional crafts, such as the weave mats, were used by the locals. She also brought up the good point that, no Indian house would be complete without many little stone statues of Ganish or Shiva.
On the way to this village our group had stopped at a couple stone temples. Each time we got off the bus we were swarmed with craftsmen of this exact type, selling anything and everything with the Kama Sutra engraved on it somewhere. Many stone pendants, little bamboo drums, and small reproduced paintings were insisted upon us. They would ask to trade any article of clothing our bodies, from shoes to our watches. This reoccurring situation, later combined with more of an understanding of the purpose and market (tourism) of this artisan class, is a bittersweet image. On the one hand these people were trying very hard to produce something that I really wanted, and in exchange wanted only my dollar store watch. On the other hand, these craftsmen were part of a system which was trying its hardest to lift more Indians from poverty. Needless to say we all bought endless little trinkets.
The last couple countries, Thailand, Vietnam, and China all had complicated tourist infrastructures set up to take advantage of the gigantic market, such as clubs, vacation packages, sight seeing packages, etc... India on the other hand had the basic institutions, but beyond transportation and a translator, these artisans were the only tourist money extracting element I found. Since declaring independence, India simply has not had the time, or lack of more pressing matters, to care about developing a tourist infrastructure, outside of the Taj and a few other exceptions. For Vietnam, Thailand, and China the tourist capital input has become a very important part of their economy. The result of India's lack of tourist infrastructure is that tourist cash flow goes directly to the impoverished artisans, and sadly enough to anyone in a position to exploit those craftsmen. Many, many people are in such a position. The carpet making store which our Auto-Rickshaw driver insisted we go in was of the same nature as these basic arts and crafts, only of higher quality. He sat us down and explained to us the detail with which each carpet was made, and that each had a very specific and unique cultural reliance. Needless to say, we bought on of those as well, and on the way back, our driver stopped to photocopy our receipt, because he had taken us specifically to that store, knowing he would get his own share.