Traditional Industry in the Economy of Colonial IndiaThe majority of workers in South Asia are employed in industries that rely on manual labour and craft skills. Some of these industries have existed for centuries and survived great changes in consumption and technology over the last 150 years. In earlier studies, historians of the region focused on mechanized rather than craft industries, arguing that traditional manufacturing was destroyed or devitalized during the colonial period, and that modern industry is substantially different. Exploring new material from research into five traditional industries, Tirthankar Roy s book contests these notions, demonstrating that while traditional industry did evolve during the Industrial Revolution, these transformations had a positive rather than destructive effect on manufacturing generally. In fact, the book suggests, the major industries in post-independence India were shaped by such transformations. Tirthankar Roy s book offers new and penetrating insights into India s economic and social history. |
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Agra Allahabad Amritsar Andhra artisans Asia Benares Bengal Berar Bombay brass brassware Calcutta Cambridge capital Census of India cent Central Provinces Chamar Chatterjee cloth coarse colonial competition contract cotton craft decline Delhi demand District dyeing Eluru embroidery employment Enquiry European evidence example export factories famine firms growth handloom handloom weaving hides Hindu important increased Indian Industrial Indian Tariff Board Industrial Survey interwar period jari Kanpur karkhanadar karkhanas Lahore leather long-distance trade looms Lucknow Madigas Madras mainly major manufacture Masulipatnam merchants metals mills Mirzapur Mochi Monograph on Tanning Moradabad Muslim nineteenth century north Indian northern India Poona powerloom production Provinces and Berar Punjab putting-out region Report rural saris scale Sholapur silk weavers skilled Sourashtras sources supply Surat tanners tended textiles thread tion Tirthankar towns twentieth century United Provinces urban ustad village wage labour western India Woollen workers workshops yarn Yeola