Community labels and working potters

An 1892 government monograph compiled by C. J. Hallifax associated Kumhar with pottery while warning that its figures did not reliably measure the number of working potters. District returns used different bases: some counted a named population, others people practising a trade. He also distinguished town potters selling for cash from village potters receiving customary payments for supplying households. These arrangements varied locally, including the importance of making vessels for irrigation wells. His colonial classification and administrative returns require their own historical setting. The account cannot establish an unchanging occupation, shared descent or present social position for everyone identified as Kumhar.[1]

Changing work in a Chakwal village

In a study published in 2015, Sana Shaukat and Mahwish Zeeshan investigated 51 potter households at Khokhar Zer, Chakwal. They used observation, interviews and case studies over two months. Their account records people taking jobs in masonry, driving and overseas employment. It also includes a contrasting case of Saqib, who developed clay sculpture rather than abandoning the craft. These are reported experiences in one village; they do not establish a Punjab-wide occupational trend. The contrasting cases show why change cannot be reduced to a choice between preserving an inherited skill and leaving it entirely.[2]

A Rawalpindi market in 2020

Zulfikar Baig’s July 2020 report locates another pottery setting in Kumhaar Gali, in Rawalpindi’s Gawalmandi area. An unnamed veteran potter recalled a busier market and customers travelling to buy clay goods. He described demanding labour and reduced profits, while acknowledging customers who continued to value the craft. This is a dated professional recollection, rather than a measured sales series. The report preserves a craftsman’s account of trading conditions and the relationship between making and selling pottery. It gives the market a human voice without establishing the circumstances of every Kumhar household.[3]

Sources & notes

Source records include access dates and, where known, limits on what was examined. Checks used AI assistance; independent human or specialist review has not been completed.

  1. C. J. Hallifax. Monograph on the Pottery and Glass Industries of the Punjab, 1890–91 ↗Colonial monograph · Source date: 1892 · Locator: Title; pp. 12–13, sections 23–27. Accessed 2026-11-02.Selected original page images inspected; historical classifications remain attributed.Return to Community labels and working potters, paragraph 1 ↑
  2. Sana Shaukat; Mahwish Zeeshan. Precursors of Occupational of Occupational Change among the Kumhars of Khokhar Zer, Chakwal ↗Village field study · Source date: 2015-01/02 · Locator: Science International 27(1), pp. 777–779. Accessed 2026-11-02.Actual paper inspected; selected local findings, with no population-wide inference.Return to Changing work in a Chakwal village, paragraph 1 ↑
  3. Zulfikar Baig. Home to the dying art of pottery-making ↗Reported interview · Source date: 2020-07-04 · Locator: Gawalmandi and veteran potter passages. Accessed 2026-11-02.Publisher’s search-cached body inspected; direct page returned 403.Return to A Rawalpindi market in 2020, paragraph 1 ↑
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Record PH-COM-0070 · English edition · human review not performed