Pious Labor - (Islamic Humanities) by Amanda Lanzillo (Paperback)

About the Book

"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 massive changes, Indian Muslim artisans began to publicly assert 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 tells the story of colonial-era social 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"--

Book Synopsis

A free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press's Open Access publishing program. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more.

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.

From the Back Cover

"The history of technology in South Asia has mostly been devoted to the 'temples of modernity, ' accenting the monumental, the secular, and the modern. Amanda Lanzillo introduces us to a very different history, where technology, religion, and tradition domesticate modernity within intimate laboring cultures."--Projit Bihari Mukharji, Professor of History, Ashoka University

"Lanzillo explores entirely new vistas of the intertwined history of religion and labor in colonial South Asia, making a fascinating case for the flourishing of an 'artisan Islam' in the industrializing cities of the subcontinent."--Nile Green, Ibn Khaldun Endowed Chair in World History, University of California, Los Angeles

"Pious Labor opens up vital new conversations between scholars of Islam, vernacular print culture, labor, and technology studies. This work will have a major impact on the fields of South Asian history, Islamic studies, and beyond."--Julia Stephens, Associate Professor of History, Rutgers University

Review Quotes

"Given the subject matter, this study could have been dense and challenging to read. Lanzillo, however, writes regularly for general audiences and expertly blends academic writing with writing for a general audience without disregarding scholarly rigour. . . . One is left respecting the artisans who challenged capitalist and colonial intrusion and the hegemony of religious elites to carve spaces to assert their values and identities."-- "Anthropos"

"Pious Labor is a highly original and engaging work based on the recovery of important and understudied source material. Its insights provide a robust challenge to the general neglect of labor practices in the study of knowledge traditions in South Asia."-- "Isis: A Journal of the History of Science Society"

"A multilayered, complex, and compelling study for how much of the artisanal production of the mid-and late-nineteenth through early twentieth-century era reflected a 'divine, ' 'prophetic, ' nature easily associated with the revelation,
piety, and other aspects of the Muslim tradition."
-- "Religious Studies Review"

"Amanda Lanzillo's interesting and well-argued Pious Labor is a welcome addition to the historiography of South Asian artisanal labor studies and the history of technology."

-- "Technology and Culture"

"Historians of science who have argued for the vital agency of artisans in the production of knowledge will find many resonances and much to learn from this work."-- "British Journal for the History of Science"

"Pious Labor stands as a testament to the enduring power of artisan Islam and its significance in shaping the socio-economic fabric of colonial and post-colonial India."-- "Religion"

About the Author

Amanda Lanzillo is Lecturer in South Asian History at Brunel University London.