Description
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Small Town Capitalism In Western India by Douglas E. Haynes
This book charts the history of artisan production and marketing in the Bombay Presidency from 1870 to 1960. While the textile mills of western Indias biggest cities have been the subject of many rich studies the role of artisan producers located in the regions small towns have been virtually ignored. Based upon extensive archival research as well as numerous interviews with participants in the handloom and powerloom industries this book explores the role of weavers merchants consumers and laborers in the making of what the author calls smalltown capitalism. By focusing on the politics of negotiation and resistance in local workshops the book challenges conventional narratives of industrial change. The book provides the first indepth work on the origins of powerloom manufacture in South Asia. It affords unique insights into the social and economic experience of smalltown artisans as well as the informal economy of late colonial and early postindependence India.