Camel’s Indian Legacy: From Swadeshi Ink to Generations of Artists

For generations of Indians, Camel was not introduced as a heritage brand. It simply appeared—inside a school bag, beside a drawing book, on a classroom desk or in the crowded shelf of a neighbourhood stationery shop. The familiar colours often arrived before the vocabulary of art itself.

That everyday familiarity can make Camel easy to underestimate. Behind the poster-colour bottles, oil-pastel boxes and watercolour cakes is a story that begins in Mumbai in 1931, grows through the Swadeshi spirit, and eventually connects schoolchildren, hobbyists and professional artists across India.

Camel’s real legacy is not one famous product. It is the creative ladder the brand built: a child could begin with crayons or poster colours, become a serious student with watercolours and gouache, and later work with artist oils, acrylics, canvases, mediums and drawing materials—without leaving the same familiar name.

Camel at a glance

1931: a Swadeshi beginning in Girgaum

The Camel story begins far from the scale of a modern manufacturing company. According to Kokuyo Camlin’s official heritage record, Digambar Dandekar began making ink powder in his Girgaum chawl residence in 1931. The powder developed into tablets and then into ready-to-use liquid ink, sold in reused glass bottles.

This was also the age of the Swadeshi movement, when producing goods in India carried meaning beyond commerce. A locally made ink was practical, but it was also part of a larger belief: products used in Indian schools, offices and homes could be designed and manufactured in India.

The beginnings were modest—powder, tablets, bottles—but the idea was ambitious. Camel would make creativity and writing more accessible through Indian manufacturing.

How Camel and ink became Camlin

In 1946, Dandekar & Co. was renamed Camlin. The name itself tells the company’s early story: Camel + Ink = Camlin. The business also moved into a new office and factory in Mahim, Mumbai.

This distinction became especially important decades later. In 2021, Kokuyo Camlin reorganised its public-facing range so that Camel represented art and Camlin represented stationery. That is why current artist paints, pastels, canvases and many creative materials carry Camel, while writing and school-stationery products often carry Camlin. In everyday Indian speech, however, the names are still affectionately interchanged.

From ink to colour: becoming part of Indian childhood

A heritage brand survives only when it becomes part of ordinary life. Camel achieved this through materials that were approachable enough for school projects yet broad enough to support increasingly serious work.

Poster colours taught generations how opaque paint could cover a surface. Wax crayons and oil pastels encouraged direct, pressure-sensitive marks. Watercolour cakes introduced transparency and mixing. Drawing inks, charcoals, pencils and brushes extended the vocabulary. Later, artist oils, acrylics, gouache, mediums, prepared surfaces and professional drawing tools gave users room to grow.

This range matters because an artist’s journey is rarely neat. A schoolchild may use poster colour for a competition, return to art years later through oil pastels, and eventually begin painting on canvas. Camel remained recognisable at each stage.

Explore Camel Premium Poster Colours.

The competition that made art a national activity

Camel’s cultural reach was not built through products alone. The All India Camel Colour Contest brought drawing into schools on a huge scale. In 2011, the contest entered the Guinness World Records after receiving 48.5 lakh entries, according to the company’s heritage timeline.

The number is remarkable, but its deeper meaning is more important. Millions of children were invited to treat imagination as an event worth preparing for. For many, a colour contest was their first experience of making something for an audience, finishing a picture within a set time and seeing art recognised alongside academic work.

That is one reason Camel feels larger than a materials brand. It became associated with the ritual of Indian school art itself.

A timeline of the Camel–Camlin journey

The Kokuyo chapter: change without erasing memory

In May 2011, Japan’s Kokuyo S&T acquired a controlling stake in Camlin. The partnership became Kokuyo Camlin Limited, bringing together a deeply recognised Indian name and Kokuyo’s experience in stationery, paper and workplace products.

Partnerships of this kind can create a difficult design problem: how do you modernise a familiar brand without removing what people remember? Camel’s later product and packaging changes show an attempt to keep the emotional recognition while improving range architecture, formats and presentation.

The clearest example came in 2021. Instead of forcing one name to cover everything, the company separated the promise: Camel would speak to creativity, while Camlin would speak to stationery. The result made the brand easier to understand without discarding either name.

One brand, several stages of an artist’s life

The usefulness of this ladder is easy to miss. A first set should invite experimentation, not intimidate. A later set should reveal greater control, stronger colour choices and new surfaces. Camel’s catalogue spans those transitions rather than serving only one level.

Explore Camel Artist Water Colours.

Oil pastels: perhaps the most democratic painting stick

Oil pastels capture much of what made Camel successful in India: they are compact, direct and versatile. A child can use them without preparation, while an experienced artist can layer, scrape, blend and combine them with other media.

The medium also removes several barriers. There is no jar of water to spill, no palette to set up and no drying time before another mark can be added. That simplicity makes oil pastels useful in classrooms, travel kits and home studios alike.

Read our Oil Pastels vs Soft Pastels guide, or view Camel Artist Oil Pastels.

A legacy brand still learning new tools

Legacy is valuable only if it remains useful. Camel’s current range includes acrylic markers, art markers, brush pens, artist HD acrylics, modern painting kits, specialised papers and expanded brush formats alongside its familiar paints and pastels.

This evolution reflects a changing Indian art market. Artists now learn from short-form videos, join online communities, mix illustration with craft and move quickly between paper, canvas, wood and found surfaces. A modern art brand must serve that flexibility without abandoning foundational media.

Explore Camel Acrylic Markers.

Why Camel became an Indian creative memory

1. It was present at the beginning

Camel often met people before they called themselves artists. That first contact—at school or home—gave the brand a place in personal memory.

2. It made progression feel possible

The catalogue allowed users to move from simple colouring to serious painting through familiar materials and increasingly specialised formats.

3. It treated participation as part of the product

Colour contests, workshops, artist camps and the Camel Art Foundation created reasons to make and share art, not simply purchase supplies.

4. It remained recognisably Indian while evolving

From a Girgaum chawl and Swadeshi manufacturing to a partnership with Kokuyo, the business changed scale without losing the origin story people recognised.

Camel and the future of Indian art materials

India’s creative market is now larger, more informed and more demanding. Artists compare pigments, surfaces, lightfastness, handling, sustainability and value. They expect clear product information and materials for both traditional and emerging techniques.

Camel’s advantage is trust earned across generations. Its challenge—and opportunity—is to pair that trust with increasingly precise artist information, ambitious professional ranges and contemporary design. The 2021 brand separation and newer product formats suggest that the company understands the need to keep moving.

The deeper lesson of Camel’s history is simple: access creates artists. When colour is affordable, available and culturally familiar, more people are willing to begin. Some will remain casual makers. Some will become designers, teachers or professional painters. But all of them need a first box of colour.

Explore Camel art supplies in India

Stationerie carries Camel and Camlin materials across colour, drawing, surfaces, brushes and studio accessories. Browse the complete Camel & Camlin Art Supplies collection, including poster colours, watercolours, gouache, oil pastels, markers, papers, canvases and mediums.

If you are building your first kit, begin with our Beginner Art Supplies Checklist. Watercolour artists can also read the Watercolour Paper Guide.

Sources and further reading

• Kokuyo Camlin: official heritage timeline
• Kokuyo Camlin: about the company
• Camel: official art-materials website

Editorial note: This Stationerie journal is an independent historical and product overview based on official company sources. Camel, Camlin and Kokuyo Camlin are trademarks of their respective owners.