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 Deborah
Thiagarajan, the Chairman and Founder of the Madras Craft
Foundation (MCF), moved to India in 1970 to join her
husband Raj Thiagarajan, Chairman, Bank of Madura. Deborah
and Raj Thiagarajan met as students at the University of
Pittsburgh.
She founded the Madras Craft Foundation in 1984 and the
same year became convener and founder of the Tamilnadu
chapter of the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural
Heritage, INTACH, a position she held for 14 years. INTACH
works for the preservation of the cultural and
environmental heritage of India.
 She
set up Madras Craft Foundation with the intention of
preserving the arts, crafts and architecture of South
India. Working for the Tamil Nadu Nutrition Project and
CARE in the villages near Karur and Pollach, she spent a
lot of time with villagers in their homes, speaking to them
about their problems. She noticed a lot of crafts skills
getting neglected as there was no impetus given to arts and
artisans. And thus was formed her vision for the promotion
and preservation of aspects of everyday art of South India,
which has taken shape in the form of Dakshina Chitra.
Dakshina Chitra is a heritage museum of living traditions
set in an authentic 18th and 19th century architectural
ambiance of each state of South India, namely Kerala,
Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.
It has taken six years of research work to put up Dakshina
Chitra. Her background in Anthropology has helped her
immensely in this project. Apart from her Post Graduate
work in Anthropology from the University of Rochester,
Deborah holds a host of other degrees and Doctorates from
the University of Pittsburgh (Masters in International and
Development Education), University of Pennsylvania (Masters
in South Asian Studies) and the University of Madras (
Doctorate in Ancient Indian Culture and History).
Deborah speaks four languages -French, German, Tamil and
English. She is the proud mother of three lovely daughters.
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