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Imperial Gazetteer of India, v. 3, p. 169.

ARTS AND MANUEFACTURES 169 It is impossible to enter into an elaborate dissertation, inter- The com- esting as the subject would be, on the influence of religion and munities concerned racial characteristics upon the crafts. The caste system is pro- in Indian bably a less potent factor than might at first be supposed. arts and manufac- Castes are very rarely trade guilds: in fact, an exact parallel tures. to the guilds of Europe can hardly be said to exist, perhaps never did exist, in India.' The same caste may embrace several crafts, and, as a rule, MLuhammadans and Hindus engage in the same trade, each working for his own com- munity. Sometimes they take recognizable sections of a craft and work separately. At other times they may be found in the same workshop; and Hindus now often employ Muham- madan craftsmen, whereas formerly the Hindus were the labourers and the Muhammadans the employers. Taking, therefore, a wider conception than that of caste or even craft, the communities concerned in the arts and manufactures of India may be grouped as follows, according as they are engaged in- (I) Rural industries, directly associated with agriculture or agricultural produce. (2) Manufacturing and urban occupations-the textile industries proper. (3) Sylvan occupations-the collection or utilization of natural or wild products. (4) Occupations connected with mines and metals. Under each of these four groups both skilled and unskilled labour find their place. The wild products assume in India a greater importance than in most countries, on account of their aggregate value, and also because of the employment they afford to the poorer communities of the inhospitable tracts in which they are, for the most part, found. India may be divided into five great industrial areas, which Local are enumerated below along with their more important com- distribu- arn tion of mercial and artistic productions. industries. BENGAL AND ASSAM. Commercial. India-rubber, oilseeds and oil, lac, indigo, jute, paper, hides and skins, silk, opium, tobacco, tea, sugar, rice, gram, coal, iron, saltpetre, mica, pot- tery. Artistic and Minor. Ivory-carving, umbrella-making, shell-carving, DYacca muslins, embroidery, mat-making. NORTHERN INDIA (the United and Central Provinces, Raj- putana and Central India, the Punjab and the Frontier Pro- The nearest approach is found in the caste associations in some of the towns of Western India.