Tradition and Change: Artisan Producers in Gujarat

Abstract

This paper takes a closer look at the problems of petty producers belonging to traditional artisan communities in Gujarat, India. Broadbasing of entrepreneurship being one of the cardinal objectives of the entrepreneurship development movement in India, artisan communities, where production skills are transferred hereditarily, have borne the brunt of mechanisation and commercialisation that accompany economic development. In the absence of any meaningful measures to develop them into tiny entrepreneurs, many artisans have shifted to non-traditional vocations, mostly as casual wage workers. At the same time, lack of access to productive assets seems to have prevented the emergence of ’entrepreneurialism’ within these communities.