From The Frontcover Of 'Artisans Of The Punjab' By Harish C. Sharma 

Artisans and other low caste communities constituted nearly one-third of the population of colonial India. The present work is a study of the artisans known as kamins (serving village society under the sepidari or jajmani system in the traditional socio-economic set up) and their response to changing conditions under British rule in the Punjab.

The author reviews the objective and subjective social, economic and political realities in the Punjab from the perspective of the lower castes in general and the artisans in particular. In evaluating the changes he has taken into account the impact of the commercialization of agriculture, the influx of manufactured goods from outside, the growth of mechanized industry, canal colonization, the new means of communications, the spread of modern education and the ameliorative efforts of socio-religious movements, Their cumulative effect brought about a disruption in the complimentarity between agriculture and industry and rendered the services of village artisans less remunerative, who then felt obliged to move towards new occupations in the village and outside. This occupational and spatial mobility was accompanied by changes in the structure of social and economic relationships between the artisan and other castes and among the artisan castes themselves. The new social relationships and aspirations eventually led to the emergence of their own socio­religious organizations, and, in some cases, to organized political articulation also.

This study is based on a variety of official and unofficial sources analyzed quantitatively and supplemented by field work and personal interviews of the members of different artisan castes. 

About The Author 'Harish C. Sharma' Of 'Artisans Of The Punjab'

HARISH C. SHARMA is Reader in History at Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar. His major areas of interest are social change and political articulation on which he has published a number of articles. He was a Fellow at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla, during 1992-4.