This ethnographic study is an empirical exploration of caste through the story of Indian potters who have transformed caste into a marketable brand in the business of selling sculptures. To these contemporary potters, caste is in their blood, caste is about being a creative and independent artist, and caste is about business, as they engage in a competitive market to sell their artworks.
Caste, Entrepreneurship and the Illusions of Tradition is an ethnographic study of the potters of Kolkata's Kumartuli, an analysis of their lives and the related commodification and instrumentalisation of caste. This group of artisans turned artists do not display passive responses to colonial and capitalist encounters but engage actively with the modern and economic developments of society at large, redefining the concept of caste identity in the process. It suggests new academic direction for the study of modern India, and of caste in particular, through an empirically grounded portrayal of the synthesis of traditional categories and contemporary realities.
'Through a meticulous ethnographic study, this book offers an interesting account of how caste identity and the potters' craft of the Kumars of Kumartuli have survived in a competitive modern world of global capital. As there are not many serious academic studies on artisanal castes of Bengal, this book will be welcomed by scholars.' - Sekhar Bandyopadhyay, Head, School of History, Philosophy, Political Science and International Relations, and Director, New Zealand India Research Institute, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand
'This ethnographically based study of the potter caste of Kolkata is a solid account that helps us understand how tradition adapts to globalization. It is also a loving account of Kolkata and its society.' - Arild Engelsen Ruud, Professor of South Asia Studies, University of Oslo, Norway
