Abstract
Hereditary artisans have been an important segment of Punjabi society since the medieval times. Pre-colonial Punjab was an agricultural province, where industrial production was largely confined to village industries, which catered to meet the demands of the local population. Tanning and leather making was one of the professions that was a traditional village industry in which the methods of production were old, and technology had not changed much from the medieval period. The onset of colonial rule introduced modified and new technologies in all industries, which invariably impacted traditional industries. The tanning and leather industry was among the village industries in which modified and new processing and production technologies were introduced. The scope of this paper is to study how the new technology in the tanning and leather industry modified the old, whether it improved the processing time, quality and quantity of products and what was the nature of its impact on the traditional artisans connected with tanning and leather in colonial Punjab.
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Notes
The Sepi System was an arrangement where the artisanal classes performed services based on mutual obligations for work and payment. It signified the relationship between food producing families and those who provided services.
Chamar is a scavenging or leather worker caste in northern India whose hereditary occupation is tanning leather. The name is derived from the Sanskrit word charmakara (“skin worker”).
The mochis were both Hindus and Muslims. In the eastern Punjab, the term was applied to skilled workmen making country shoes. In the western part, however, it was used to designate a worker in leather, be he a tanner or a shoe-maker; chamrang was the Muslim hide tanner encountered mostly in Sailkot; dabgar was an allied caste that was mainly Muslim, who-’se traditional occupation was confined to a work in raw hides; chanals were professional skinners of the Simla hills; and raigars were traditionally saltpetre makers, but in the Hissar district also undertook tanning.
The flaying (skinning the carcass) and curing (initial treatment) to keep the hide in good condition was defective in practice. The workers were ignorant and did not take proper care of carcasses during flaying and during transportation to the tanneries. They used blunt knives while flaying and transported carcasses carelessly dragging them in soil, which resulted in cuts and marks on the skins and hides. They sold hides in green condition without removing flesh so that they could get more money as the hides were sold by weight (RamlalAnand, 1938).
Chrome tanning, which evolved only during the British period was undertaken using minerals and chemicals like chrome salts, formaldehyde, alum and salt. The discovery of the tanning power of chrome salts, first introduced in the USA and Europe as early as 1890, had already led to drastic technological improvement in the production of leather. The improved technology was, therefore, applied in practice in industrial production by the British. In India, chrome tanning started on an experimental basis in a factory set-up by the Government of Madras in 1904 at the initiative of A. Chatterton, a Government servant.
The chrome liquors are usually prepared from chrome alum, sodium or potassium dichromates or technical by-products from oxidation processes in which chromic acid has been used as an oxidizing agent.
United Provinces, a Central Province in British India.
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The author is working as Project Scientist in Punjab State Council for Science & Technology and completed Ph.D. from Panjab University, Chandigarh on ‘Technology and the Colonial Punjab: Impact on Society’.
Glossary
- Amaltas
-
Tree-Cassia fistula
- Amla
-
Indian gooseberry-Phyllanthus emblica
- Bahera
-
Bastard myrobalan-Terminalia belerica
- Bangaru
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Low caste artisans preparing leather from tanned skins
- Ber-Jujube tree
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Zizyphus jujube
- Chamar
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Principal Hindu Leather worker Caste
- Chamrang
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Important Muslim tanning caste in the area of Sialkot
- Chanal
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Professional skinners of the Simla Hills
- Charsas
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Leather article like a whip
- Chir
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Pine tree-Pinus longifolia
- Dabgar
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Artisan class preparing articles from raw hide
- Desi Jutis
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Country made Indian shoe
- Ekka
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Two wheeled vehicles drawn by a horse or bullock
- Harrar
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Black myrobalan-Terminalia chebula
- Hukka
-
Indian smoking pipe
- Khatik
-
Mohammedan caste of tanners
- Khoja
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Principal Muslim trading caste
- Kikar
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Tree-Acacia arabica
- Mochi
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Tanning and shoe making caste
- Pasi
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Caste engaged in skin tanning and pig keeping
- Raigar
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Traditional saltpetre making caste in Punjab who also engage in tanning in Hisar area
- Tonga
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Light two wheeled carriage drawn by a horse
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Thakur, M. Technological modifications in the tanning and leather industry from pre-British to colonial Punjab. Indian J Hist. Sci. 57, 218–222 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43539-022-00058-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s43539-022-00058-w