The Historiography of Artisan Cloth Producers in South Asia

Artisans in South Asia have often been considered as figures standing outside capitalism, as persons subject to its devastating impact during the colonial period but not as participants in making the central structures of the economy.  This paper traces the twentieth-century historiography of cloth–producing artisans, arguing that handloom weavers and others have never been completely understood as figures involved in shaping the character of Indian capitalism.  Nationalist historiography viewed artisans as victims of competition with modern European factories. “Revisionists” such as Morris Morris argued that many handloom weavers continued to ply their trades under colonialism, but tended to regard these as “survivals” of a pre-colonial age.  More recent scholars such as Tirthankar Roy have pointed to the very creative ways artisan cloth-producers became involved in shaping new markets and new forms of productive organization.  But they have tended to place their findings in a rather straightforward universal narrative of transition, in which pre-capitalist economic forms give way to more fully capitalist structures and which labourers working for wages have little agency.  While acknowledging some value in all of these approaches, this paper calls for an alternative perspective that recognizes the vital role of artisan actors in the creation of South Asian capitalism since the pre-colonial period, stresses the dynamic role of conflict between artisan-labourers and karkhandars (owners of artisan workshops) in shaping the character of workshop relations, and highlights the adaptive ability of the karkhandar family in introducing new technologies and other innovations.  This new understanding is critical to appreciating the dominant place of powerloom workshops, which are often outgrowths of handloom establishments owned by karkhandars in small towns, in the contemporary economy of India.