Exploring the Effects of Globalization on Silk Weaving Tradition of Bishnupur Region in West Bengal, India

Abstract

Over the years, increasing concerns among the scholars incline to see the adverse effects of globalization. One of the major reasons for this ever-increasing concern is the gradual infiltration of market-driven production system and global capitalism among different groups of people who earn their living either as wage laborers or artisans. This effect has been most profoundly noted among those whose place is on the fringe of the national economy. Another main reason is that the states are increasingly losing their capacity to govern and to regulate in this increasingly borderless world, where resourceless artisans have become the worst sufferers both in the cultural and economic frontiers. This article attempts to examine the effect that the process of globalization has made among the silk weavers of Bishnupur region in West Bengal, India. It adopts a transformational approach and uses both contextual reading and ethnographic data collected through firsthand fieldwork among the aforesaid community. The ethnography describes the messy and unquantifiable relationship between local actors and the international process.