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Evaluating Leather Trade and the Dalit in Colonial Punjab
( VINAY KUMAR ) **
The industrial revolution took place in Europe which further motivated the European
powers to initiate a trade with the African and Asian countries to earn more and more profits.
The British East India Company took initiative to expand its trade in Asia in general and Indian
subcontinent particularly. They started exhausting the natural resources available for them in
the colonies for their own benefits. In the Indian context, the interrelationship between the
social and cultural institutions and the agricultural activities, the use of forest and water
resources, suggests that the colonial period displays a separation from the pre-colonial period.1
The initial industry introduced in the colonial period in India was the plantation industry. It
was the beginning of European exploitation of Indian resources. The British encouraged indigo,
jute, tea and coffee plantation in India. In the 19th century, they introduced the factory industry,
which took place in the handicrafts. The cotton industry may be considered as the first in this
context. In 1851, the Bombay Spinning and Weaving Company founded the first cotton mill in
India. Similarly, with the development of Railways, the industrialization flourished in India.
Many coal mines were opened in the different parts of the country to meet the requirements of
the industry and the railways.
Foundation of Leather Industry in Punjab:
The industries somehow developed up to 1880 were the cotton, jute, coal, iron and steel
industries.2 The industry, which was in the process of development, was the leather industry.
In 1869, a beginning was made in the direction of producing leather manufactures by modern
methods, when the government established a factory for supplying leather goods to the army.
The tanning industry of Madras had some claims to be called a modern industry. This industry
owed its origin to Charles De Susa who, in 1845, introduced certain improvements in the
** Dr. Vinay Kumar, Associate Professor & Head PG Department of History, JC DAV College, Dasuya
(Hoshiarpur) Punjab.
1 Sabyasachi Bhattacharya “Introduction” in Dharma Kumar (Ed.), The Cambridge Economic History of
India, Vol. II, New Delhi: Orient Longman, 2008, pp. xxv.
2 Morris D. Morris, “The Growth of Large-Scale Industry to 1947” in Dharma Kumar (Ed.), The
Cambridge Economic History of India, Vol. II, New Delhi: Orient Longman, 2008, pp. 566.
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methods used in tanning in India. Initially, it was started in Madras city and, later on, it
flourished in the other parts of the presidency though it mostly constrained here only. The
export of tanned and half tanned hides was also started in England and some other European
countries. It proved harmful for the independent artisans and helped in the emergence of the
small capitalist class.3 The workshops of leather tanning were established and the work of
leather purely became an export industry. Although, the leather produced was of very low
quality yet it survived because it had two distinct advantages, those of cheap raw material and
cheap labour. Soon, the export from other parts of India was also started but the Madras
Presidency remained significant.4
India was one of the worlds’ greatest sources of skins and hides. Every stage of tanning
and manufacturing in the West was being organized into extensively mechanized large-scale
enterprises using sophisticated chemical processes; the sub-continent remained almost a
handicraft producer of leather goods and an exporter of raw or only half-tanned products. The
tanning of skins and hides, throughout the 19th Century, was carried out by a small scale
traditional method. The bulk of exports were shipped in raw form in all parts of India.5 Leather
and agricultural implements were the industries in India which had a rare clientage outside the
village. Leather was probably the most important of the quasi-services that became
commercialized during the colonial period. “Each village has its own workers in leather, who
were also, to a large extent, their own tanners; and it is part of their recognized duties to keep
their patrons in boots, and to cure and make up the hides required for the leather buckets made
for irrigation.”6 Factory Act was passed in 1891 by the British which proved helpful for the
overall development of industry and even benefitted the labour working there.7 At the close of
the 19th century, the discovery of the chrome process of tanning in America proved a big
setback for the Indian leather industry as the government did not support it, and the exporters
3 D.R. Gadgil, The Industrial Evolution of India in Recent Times (1860-1939), Bombay: Oxford
University Press, 1971, pp. 60-61.
4 D.R. Gadgil, The Industrial Evolution of India in Recent Times (1860-1939), Bombay: Oxford
University Press, 1971, pp. 84.
5 Morris D. Morris, “The Growth of Large-Scale Industry to 1947” in Dharma Kumar (Ed.), The
Cambridge Economic History of India, Vol. II, New Delhi: Orient Longman, 2008, pp. 595.
6 George Watt, A Dictionary of Economic Products of India, London: 1890, pp. 613, Cited in Tirthankar
Roy, “Foreign trade and the artisans in colonial India: A study of leather” in The Indian Economic and
Social History Review, 31, 4, New Delhi: Sage, 1994, pp. 462.
7 D.R. Gadgil, The Industrial Evolution of India in Recent Times (1860-1939), Bombay: Oxford
University Press, 1971, pp. 82.
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were also not in the position to follow this development. Some attempts were made to revive
it on the non-governmental level; even the chrome process of tanning was introduced, but it
remained unsuccessful. So, the crude method was followed in most of the industries.
Flaying and Tanning of Leather in Punjab:
In Punjab, there was also a close link between the leather industry and the agrarian
economy. The domestic trade of leather and leather goods continued in India due to the urban
and army demand. The Punjab government showed its intention to enact legislation aiming at
the utilization of dead animals. In Punjab, the dead animal ipso facto became the property of
the village kamin or was sold to him at a nominal price. But the flaying process was generally
unhygienic which, apart from the wastage of useful materials, also proved a threat to sanitation
and health of the people. The tanners generally complained that the flayers did not know their
job and mostly the cuts were given in the wrong manner. The main reason for it was that the
flaying was not the major source of income of the kamins, who were otherwise agricultural
labourers or the domestic servants of the landowners. They had no proper flaying implements
and even no proper arrangement for the conveyance of the carcass to the flaying place. Both
the shortcomings caused serious damage to the hide. As the majority of the hides were
damaged, the purchasers had become indifferent and no incentive in the shape of higher value
was given for better flaying.8 Punjab is an agriculture dominating region and, for a long time,
it remained unattached with industrial development. More than 80% of its population was
dependent on agriculture.9
If we initiate the study of the leather industry in Punjab, we have to
study the progress of leather work from the artisan’s point of view, for in Punjab, as the British
observers noticed, those belonging to the leatherworking caste were as much leather workers
as labourers for the field. One such observer was H. A. Roge who set about explaining the word
Chamar. In Punjab, he wrote,
“The Chamar is the tanner and leather worker of North-Western
India, and in the western parts of the Punjab, he is called Mochi
whenever he is, as he generally is, a Muslim, the caste being one
8 Gurdit Singh & Tilak Raj Bhalla (Ed.), Report of The Board of Economic Inquiry, Punjab (India)
on Utilization of Dead Animals in the Punjab, Punjab: Economic and Statistical Organization, 1955, pp. 1-5.
9 H.C. Sharma, Artisans of Punjab, New Delhi: Manohar Publications, 1996, pp. 65.
