The prison-handicraft complex
Convict labour in colonial India
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3646971 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Aimei Yang (0000-0003-2740-9378, University of Washington, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 57 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 808-834 |
| Publication date | 2023-05-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Modern Asian Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0026-749X • E-ISSN: 1469-8099 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0026749x22000324 |
| OpenAlex | W4322499869 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 13 |
Prison labour was an integral part of the penal order in colonial India in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Especially in Bengal, such coerced labour, overwhelmingly male, was increasingly deployed in handicrafts production rather than in extramural construction projects, a regimen that led to the development of a prison-handicraft complex. Colonial efforts to refine this system focused largely on increasing the severity of the conditions of incarceration and indoor work, but also on the conflicting goal of maximizing the profits of its handiwork. Prisons thus emerged as effective sites of handicrafts production, with the products of their forced labour facilitating the revival of the crafts industry whose growth is generally attributed to the rise of an international arts and crafts movement in Britain and India
Archaeology · Colonialism · Convict · Economic growth · Economics · Geography · Handicraft · Political science · Prison · Production (economics · Work (physics · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Colonial History and Postcolonial Studies · Engineering · Historical and Contemporary Political Dynamics · Law
| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2 |
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |