Weaving Histories The Transformation of the Handloom Industry in South India, 1800-1960

by Dietrich Wielenga, Karuna

• ISBN13: 9780197266731
• ISBN10: 0197266738
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2020-12-29
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Weaving Histories looks at the economic history of South Asia from a fresh perspective, through a detailed study of the handloom industry of South India between 1800 and 1960, drawing out its wider implications for the Indian economy. It employs an unusual array of sources, including paintings and textile samples as well as archival records, to excavate the links between cotton growing, cleaning, spinning and weaving before the nineteenth century. The rupture and re-configuration of these links produced a sea-change in the lives of ordinary weavers. Weaving Histories examines the configuration of forcesâlocal, regional, national and globalâthat drove this transformation, and uncovers its effects on different groups of weavers.

The handloom industry is used as a case study to throw light on the historical emergence of the 'informal sector' in India, and to re-examine contemporary debates about industrialisation and economic development.

Author Biography

Karuna Dietrich Wielenga, Azim Premhi University

After obtaining her Ph.D from the University of Delhi, Karuna Dietrich Wielenga was a Newton International Fellow at Oxford University. She is a historian of south Asia and her research interests span economic, social and labour history. She has worked on the history of handlooms, labour legislation, and the emergence of the informal sector in India. Her papers have been published in Modern Asian Studies and the International Review of Social History among other journals. She currently teaches at Azim Premji University in Bangalore, India.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. The Geography of Weaving: South India in the Early Nineteenth Century
2. Statistics, Looms and People: The Changing Contours of the Handloom Industry
3. From Cotton to Cloth: The Linking Threads
4. Weaving: Changing Structures
5. Caste and Work
6. Solidarity and Action
7. The State and the Weaver
Conclusion
Appendix: Note on the Loom Tax
Bibliography
Index