Technological modifications in the tanning and leather industry from pre-British to colonial Punjab

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.