“Pious Labor: Islam, Artisanship, and Technology in Colonial India” by Amanda Lanzillo
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, working-class people across northern India found themselves negotiating rapid industrial change, emerging technologies, and class hierarchies. In response to these changes, Indian Muslim artisans began publicly asserting the deep relation between their religion and their labor, using the increasingly accessible popular press to redefine Islamic traditions “from below.” Centering the stories and experiences of metalsmiths, stonemasons, tailors, press workers, and carpenters, Pious Labor examines colonial-era social and technological changes through the perspectives of the workers themselves. As Amanda Lanzillo shows, the colonial marginalization of these artisans is intimately linked with the continued exclusion of laboring voices today. By drawing on previously unstudied Urdu-language technical manuals and community histories, Lanzillo highlights not only the materiality of artisanal production but also the cultural agency of artisanal producers, filling in a major gap in South Asian history.
Read an extract from the book published on Moneycontrol. It is taken from the chapter on “Lithographic Labor – Locating Muslim Artisans in the Print Economy”.
The book is published in India by Three Essays Collective.
Amanda Lanzillo is Lecturer in South Asian History at Brunel University London.
2 July 2025
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