Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T20:35:27.341Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Out of Tradition: Master Artisans and Economic Change in Colonial India

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 October 2007

Get access

Abstract

This paper explores the context in which skilled artisans introduced innovations in India around 1900 and suggests that such steps carried the potential for conflicts between the innovator and those affected by his actions. Conflicts could arise over the protection of knowledge, over the right to make a change, in the form of resistance, or as a choice between maintaining and diluting quality. Conflicts were absent when the mediation of social and political leaders was available and when skilled artisans emerged from unconventional backgrounds. By stressing the capacity of artisans to innovate and by suggesting that individuals were the agents of innovation, this paper refocuses attention on the skilled individual within a historiography that has been rather neglectful of both craftsmanship and the craftsman.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

List of References

Bagchi, A. K. 1978. “Deindustrialization in India in the Nineteenth Century: Some Theoretical Implications.” Journal of Development Studies 22 (1): 135–64.Google Scholar
Bandyopadhyay, A. 1979. Bangalakshmir Jhanpi [Folk Arts and Crafts of Bengal]. Calcutta: Ananda.Google Scholar
Banerjei, N. N. 1905. Woolen Fabrics of Bengal. Calcutta: Government Press.Google Scholar
Bayly, C. A. 1986. “The Origins of Swadeshi Home Industry: Cloth and Indian Society.” In The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective, ed. Appadurai, A., 285322. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bengal. 1908. Review of the Industrial Progress and Prospects in Bengal in 1908 with Special Reference to the Industrial Survey of 1890. Calcutta: Government Press.Google Scholar
Chatterjee, A. C. 1908. Notes on Industries of the United Provinces. Allahabad: Government Press.Google Scholar
Chaturvedi, V. P. 1950. Moradabad mein Pital ke Bartanon ka Gharelu Udyog wa Vyavasaya [The Cottage Industry and Trade in Moradabad Brassware]. Allahabad: Government Press.Google Scholar
Fernandes, G. P. 1932. Report on the Arts-Crafts of the Bombay Presidency. Bombay: Government Press.Google Scholar
Gazetteer, Bengal District (Gaya District). 1919. Patna: Government Press.Google Scholar
Gazetteer, Bihar District (Gaya District). 1957. Patna: Government Press.Google Scholar
Gazetteer of the Province of Oudh. 1877–78. Lucknow: Government Press.Google Scholar
Ghilardi, C. O. 1905. A Monograph on Wood Carving in Bengal. Calcutta: Government Press.Google Scholar
Greif, A., Milgrom, P. and Weingast., B. R. 1994. “Coordination, Commitment and Enforcement: The Case of the Merchant Guild.” Journal of Political Economy 102 (4): 745–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guha, S. 1989. “The Handloom Industry of Central India: 1825–1950.” Indian Economic and Social History Review 26 (3): 297318.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gupta, G. N. 1908. A Survey of Resources of Eastern Bengal and Assam for 1907–1908. Shillong: Government Press.Google Scholar
Habib, I. 1975. “Colonialization of the Indian Economy, 1757–1900.” Social Scientist 8(3): 2353.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harnetty, P. 1991. “Deindustrialization Revisited: The Handloom Weavers of the Central Provinces of India.” Modern Asian Studies 25 (3): 455510.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harris, H. T. 1908. A Monograph on the Carpet Weaving Industry of Southern India. Madras: Government Press.Google Scholar
Havell, E. B. 1887–88. “The Printed Cotton Industry of India.” Journal of Indian Art II(19): 1820.Google Scholar
Haynes, D. 1991. Rhetoric and Ritual in Colonial India: The Shaping of a Public Culture in Surat City, 1852–1928. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haynes, D. 1996. “The Logic of the Artisan Firm in a Capitalist Economy: Handloom Weavers and Technological Change in Western India, 1880–1947.” In Institutions and Economic Change in South Asia, ed. Stein, Burton and Subrahmanyam, Sanjay, 173205. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Haynes, D. 2001. “Artisan Cloth-Producers and the Emergence of Powerloom Manufacture in Western India 1920–1950.” Past and Present, no. 172:170–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haynes, D, and Roy, T.. 1999. “Conceiving Mobility: Migration of Handloom Weavers in Precolonial and Colonial India.” Indian Economic and Social History Review 36 (1): 3567.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoey, W. 1880. A Monograph on Trade and Manufactures in Northern India. Lucknow: Government Press.Google Scholar
Indian Industrial Commission. 1916–18. Report and Minutes of Evidence (I–V). Calcutta: Government Press.Google Scholar
Jones, E. L. 1988. Growth Recurring: Economic Change in World History. Oxford, U.K.: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
McGowan, A. 2003. “Developing Traditions: Crafts and Cultural Change in Modern India, 1851–1922.” PhD diss., University of Pennsylvania.Google Scholar
Mines, M. 1994. Public Faces, Private Voices: Community and Individuality in South India. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mokyr, J. 2002. The Gifts of Athena: Historical Origins of the Knowledge Economy. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Morris, M. D. 1967. “Values as Obstacles to Economic Growth in South Asia: An Historical Survey.” Journal of Economic History 27 (4): 588604.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morris, M. D. 1983. “Growth of Large Scale Industry to 1947.” In The Cambridge Economic History of India, vol. 2., c.1757–c.1970, ed. Kumar, D., 553676. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Mukharji, T. N. 1894. A Monograph on the Brass, Bronze, and Copper Manufactures of Bengal. Calcutta: Government Press.Google Scholar
Mukharji, T. N. 1888. Arts and Manufactures of India. Calcutta: Government Press.Google Scholar
Mukherji, N. G. 1903. A Monograph on the Silk Fabrics of Bengal. Calcutta: Government Press.Google Scholar
Mukherji, N. G. 1906. A Monograph on Carpet-Weaving in Bengal. Calcutta: Government Press.Google Scholar
Narayana Rao, D. 1929. Preliminary Report on the Survey of Cottage Industries in the East Godavari District. Madras: Government Press.Google Scholar
Ogilvie, S. 2004. “Guilds, Efficiency and Social Capital: Evidence from German Proto-Industry.” Economic History Review 57 (2): 286333.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pandey, G. 1992. “The Bigoted Julaha.” In Construction of Communalism in Colonial India, ed. Pandey, G., 66108. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Ranga, N. G. 1930. The Economics of Handlooms. Bombay: Taraporevala.Google Scholar
Rosenberg, N. 1972. “Factors Affecting the Diffusion of Technology.” Explorations in Economic History 10 (1): 333.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roy, T. 1993. Artisans and Industrialization: Indian Weaving in the Twentieth Century. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Roy, T. 1997. “Capitalism and Community: A Study of the Madurai Sourashtras.” Indian Economic and Social History Review 34 (4): 437–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roy, T. 1998. “Music as Artisan Tradition.” Contributions to Indian Sociology 32 (1): 4365.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roy, T. 1999. Traditional Industry in the Economy of Colonial India. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roy, T. 2002a. “Acceptance of Innovations in Early Twentieth Century Indian Weaving.” Economic History Review 55 (3): 507–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roy, T. 2002b. “Madras Handkerchiefs in the Interwar Period.” Indian Economic and Social History Review 39 (2–3): 259–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roy, T. 2005. Rethinking Economic Change in India: Labor and Livelihood. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rutten, M. 2002. “A Historical and Comparative View of Indian Entrepreneurship.” Economic Sociology 3 (2). http://econsoc.mpifg.de/archive/esfeb02.pdf [accessed July 27, 2007].Google Scholar
Sahasrabuddhe, G. N. 1906. “Industries of Ellichpur.” In Proceedings of the Second Industrial Conference, Calcutta, Appendix I, xxxiii–xxxviii. Calcutta: Mazumdar Press.Google Scholar
Sherwill, W. S. 1848. General Remarks on the District of Monghyr. Calcutta: Government Press.Google Scholar
Silberrad, C. A. 1898. A Monograph on the Cotton Fabrics of United Provinces of Agra and Oudh. Allahabad: Government Press.Google Scholar
Specker, K. 1989. “Madras Handlooms in the Nineteenth Century.” Indian Economic and Social History Review 26 (2): 131–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tarlo, E. 1996. Clothing Matters: Dress and Its Symbolism in Modern India. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Thurston, E. 1898. Monograph on the Woollen Fabric Industry of the Madras Presidency. Madras: Government Press.Google Scholar
United Provinces. 1923. Industrial Survey of the United Provinces, Bareilly District (B.K. Ghoshal). Allahabad: Government Press.Google Scholar
United Provinces. 1924. Industrial Survey of the United Provinces, Shahjahanpur District (Mohamed Mushtaq). Allahabad: Government Press.Google Scholar
Watt, G., and Brown, P.. 1904. Official Catalogue of the Indian Art Exhibition at Delhi. Delhi: Government Press.Google Scholar
Yanagisawa, H. 1993. “The Handloom Industry and its Market Structure: The Case of the Madras Presidency in the First Half of the Twentieth Century.” Indian Economic and Social History Review 30 (1): 127.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yusuf Ali, A. I. 1900. A Monograph on Silk Fabrics Produced in the North-Western Provinces and Oudh. Allahabad: Government Press.Google Scholar