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This book studies the hitherto unexplored history of the shawl and silk industries of the himalyan state of Jammu and Kashmir, India. It focuses on the three processes - production, circulation, and consumption - of the textile industry of the region to highlight its socio-economic and political importance in 19th- and 20th-century Kashmir. Using the micro-history approach, it studies the sites of production - the home looms or the small karkhana - efficiency of labour, and innovations by weavers in their techniques to suit the demands of the market. It also locates the impact colonialism had on transforming the labour economy in the Kashmir textile industry. Further, it compares these karkhanas with the Scottish factories or home looms to illuminate many sites of difference and comparison between the working styles and technologies. Mapping a history as complex as the weave on the finest Kashmiri shawl, this book brings to life the interface between culture, commodity, and colonial networks. It will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of South Asian history, colonial and imperial history, cultural studies, and economic and labour history.

Present historiography and its critique -- Kashmiri shawls and their history -- Shawl trade and the monopoly of Kashmir -- De-industrialisation, globalisation and the crafts -- Silk industry of Kashmir -- Identity of the textile artisans -- The 'ugly' Kashmiri : weavers' exploitation and resistance.

Articles on microfinance and its role in economic growth of women with reference to Rajasthan, India

This article delineates the transition of the representation of Dalits in Hindi cinema. For that purpose, the article categorizes Hindi cinema into two phases—first, the pre-liberalization phase, and the second, is the post-liberalization phase for the understanding of—why Dalits are treated as 'Others'. The question of Dalit is fixed in the imaginaries of upper-caste as a matter of consumption. In the pre-1991 era, Dalit's were represented as poor, wretched, non-heroic, and absolutely clientele characters. In the post-1991 scenario, Dalits came up as educated, skilled, competent and confident in the modern institutional setup, but Hindi Cinema did not present Dalits as protagonists. The continuous clientele depiction of Dalit characters in Hindi Cinema aggravates upper-caste prejudices against Dalits. The article argues that there is an 'Absence of Presence' of Dalit experiences beyond upper-caste imaginaries, and also, there is a complete exclusion of 'New Dalit Middle Class' from the popular cinema narratives. A commoner troupe is used to represent the Dalit and it further extends the question of 'Real' and 'Reel' representation. Thus, this article tries to investigate the above-mentioned questions in the broad context of post-liberal Hindi cinema and flag some theoretical issues emerging from this engagement.