Weaving Histories

Abstract

Weaving Histories looks at the economic history of South Asia from a fresh perspective, through a detailed study of the handloom industry in colonial 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, spinning and weaving before the nineteenth century. The rupture and re-configuration of these connections produced a sea-change in the lives of ordinary weavers. Weaving Histories uncovers the impact this transformation had on different kinds of weavers, particulalry those who wove coarse cloth. It unpacks the configuration of forces – social, political and economic – at different levels – local, regional, national and global – that came together to shape this transformation. The book uses this story of the transformation of the handloom industry to throw light on the historical processes at work in creating what has come to be called the ‘informal sector’ in India and more broadly reflect on debates around industrialisation.