The Crafts and Capitalism : Handloom Weaving Industry in Colonial India - Tirthankar Roy

The Crafts and Capitalism

Handloom Weaving Industry in Colonial India

By: Tirthankar Roy

Hardcover | 12 February 2020

At a Glance

Hardcover


RRP $284.00

$200.95

29%OFF

or 4 interest-free payments of $50.24 with

 or 

Available for Backorder. We will order this from our supplier however there isn't a current ETA.

This book presents a comprehensive history of handloom weaving industry in India to challenge and revise the view that competition from machine-produced textiles destroyed the country's handicrafts as claimed by historians until recently. It shows that skill-intensive handmade textiles survived the competition on a large scale, and that handmade goods and high-quality manual labour played a positive role in the making of modern India. Rich in archival material, The Crafts and Capitalism explores themes such as the historiography of craft technologies; statistical work on nineteenth-century cotton cloth production trends; narratives of merchants, the social leaders, the factory-owners; tools and techniques; and, shift from handloom to power loom. The book argues that changes in the handloom industry were central to the consolidation of new forms of capitalism in India.

An important intervention in Indian economic history, this book will be useful to scholars and researchers of Indian history, economic history, colonial history, modern history, political history, labour history and political economy. It will also interest nongovernmental organizations, textile historians, and design specialists.

Industry Reviews

'The literature on decline and survival of the handloom sector in India in the nineteenth century had been ideological, focusing on the British policies of deliberate destruction of the industry. This book, based on data and quantitative estimation rather than preconceived assertions, is a much-needed contribution to the literature. A leading contributor to Indian economic history, Roy more than anybody else is well positioned to write this narrative.'

Bishnupriya Gupta, Professor of Economics, University of Warwick, UK

'Given the continued importance of artisanship generally and handloom weaving particularly, both in cultural and economic terms, the book would be likely to find a wide audience among development workers, those interested in cultural heritage, as well as anyone interested in economic history more broadly.'

Abigail McGowan, Associate Professor of History & Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, University of Vermont, USA

More in Colonialism & Imperialism

Colonialism : A Moral Reckoning - Nigel Biggar

RRP $34.99

$31.75

Orientalism : Western Conceptions of the Orient - Edward W. Said

RRP $24.99

$18.95

24%
OFF
Elizabeth and John : The Macarthurs of Elizabeth Farm - Alan Atkinson
marramarra : Indigenous artists making history visible - Brook Garru Andrew
Batavia - Peter FitzSimons

Paperback

RRP $34.99

$31.75

1788 : The Brutal Truth of the First Fleet - David Hill
Blood and Ruins : The Great Imperial War, 1931-1945 - Richard Overy
Empireland : How Imperialism Has Shaped Modern Britain - Sathnam Sanghera
Inflamed : Deep Medicine and the Anatomy of Injustice - Rupa Marya
The Sydney Wars : Conflict in the Early Colony, 1788-1817 - Stephen Gapps
Rum : A Distilled History of Colonial Australia - Matt Murphy