Emerging Community Identities Among the Factory Workers Among the Factory Workers in Colonial India

Abstract

In this paper an attempt is made to explore the neighbourhood linkages among the lower caste factory workers in colonial India and the ways in which this acted as an agency to forge a community identity among them. For the purpose of this work theme such as the settlement patterns of the neighbourhoods, the nature of leisure activities and the transformations that some sections of the lower caste factory workers under went as a consequence of upward mobility have been taken up. This paper focuses on the leather workers of Kanpur an industrial town of the United Provinces (Uttar Pradesh), the period of study is the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the initial stages of industrialization.