The Artisans in 18th Century Eastern India (A History of Survival)

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About the Author Vipul Singh (b. 1969) is Lecturer of Medieval History at Motilal Nehru College, (University of Delhi). New Delhi, where he has been teaching since 1998. He obtained his M.A., M.Phil and Ph.D in History from Delhi University.

Dr. Singh specialises on eighteenth century Indian history which is considered as a period of transition from medieval to modern. He has to his credit a number of research papers, articles and book-reviews, published in journals of repute. He has participated in many national and international conferences.

Among his publications, the chapter entitled "Ecology and Encounters: The Maratha Demands and its Impact on Land-use Pattern in Eighteenth Century Marwar" published in the book Resource Conservation and Food Security (Concept Publishing Company, New Delhi, 2004) has been widely acclaimed for its meticulous research. Presently, Dr. Singh is engaged in writing a volume on the environmental history of Marwar.

Preface This work has been in the offing for a long time. My fieldwork and research on this subject began in 1994 with the funding of Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR), New Delhi, continuing till 1996 as part of M. Phil thesis. However, I could not get down to the work of writing a book in real earnest till I had finished my another research project for Ph.D. degree again on the eighteenth century, but on a different Indian region. In between 1 managed to publish few articles in different journals of repute and got the feedback from various quarters. Then I decided to revise my M.Phil thesis and a manuscript for this was prepared by incorporating relevant literatures published since 1996.

Eighteenth century is a period sandwitched between two major empires the Mughal and the British and therefore, historical research has created ripples and debates of two divergent expositions called 'continuity' and 'change'. The present book challenges many cherished notions of prosperity in the second half of the eighteenth century. In response to the 'continuity' thesis, the book views the colonial state as being located externally to the Indian society and sees colonialism economically exploitative in nature and substance.

The central theme of the book is the socio-economic condition of the artisans and their survival in the wake of the colonial onslaught in the eastern part of India i.e. Patna during the second half of the eighteenth century. The primary documents used for this volume are Francis Buchanan's Account of Patna District, Fort-William India House Correspondence and two untapped vernacular literatures- Naqsh-e-Paidar and Yadgar-e-Rozgar.

Researching for and writing my thesis and more recently this book, lead to deep obligations and debt to many people who encouraged and assisted in one way or another.

The present book would hardly have been possible without the friendly prompting and personal interest of Shri Ashok Kumar Mittal, Concept Publishing Company, New Delhi.

Introduction Over the last few decades the scholars researching on the eighteenth century Indian history have not been able to distance themselves from ongoing debate on the nature of the eighteenth century. There is no denying the fact that no one pattern of change characterizes the century and different regions followed their own trajectories of development, but some general features are certainly discernible across the country, specially in the wake of the beginning of the colonial rule.

The eighteenth century is featured with two critical transitions, which changed the structure of power and initiated important social and economic refigurations-the Mughal decline in the first half and political and economic prominence of the East India Company in the second half. Therefore, studies on the first half of the eighteenth century have their own line of arguments on the nature of economic and social change in the wake of imperial collapse and have led researchers to take either of the two divergent positions of 'Dark age"-meaning political, economic and social breakdown-and 'economic prosperity" meaning political and economic reconfigurations by regional powers. The debate on the second half of the eighteenth century centres around the implications of transition in society and economy with the political supremacy of the English East India Company. One set of positions views the colonial rule as determining economic as well as political disjunction, indicating 'change'. This view is contested by the argument that the East India Company was sucked into the vibrant indigenous political economies and continued many of the regional economic and cultural referents meaning 'continuity" of the earlier period. The proponents of this continuity thesis argue that the disintegration of the Mughal empire didnot produce destabilizing effects on country's trade and commerce and the artisans. On the contrary, it generated forces of regeneration and growth throughout India. The continuity in the economic development was thus maintained without being interrupted by the establishment of British imperial power in later half of the eighteenth century. But the moot point to understand here is that the East India Company took advantage of the absence of strong opposition to step into it, and therefore, it was bound to have serious implications on polity, society and economy.

The present study of an important region-Patna, located in the eastern part of India in eighteenth century Bengal, tries to highlight the centrality of the region in European export trade in textiles, silk, and other items leading to prosperity of artisans well upto 1765 before the East India Company got the diwani of Bengal. But the gradual intervention and take over by the company rule, the artisans in particular had to suffer tremendously. We have tried to trace the history of survival of the artisans in the wake of colonial onslaught. The focus is on the socio-economic affairs of the artisans and their industries, tracing the gradual demise of their economic status and their resistance to formidable European companies like the Dutch East India Company and the English East India Company.

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