Step into the old quarters of Moradabad on any weekday morning and the city announces itself through sound before sight. The rhythmic clinking of chisels on metal, the low roar of furnaces, the shuffle of men carrying stacks of polished trays through lanes barely wide enough for two — this is a city permanently mid-production.
Known as ‘Peetal Nagri’, or the Brass City, this town in western Uttar Pradesh sits about 167 kilometres from Delhi and houses one of the most extraordinary industrial craft ecosystems in the world.
The bowl on a shelf in Stockholm, the lantern in a Zara Home catalogue, the decorative vase in an IKEA lookbook — the odds are better than you might think that they were shaped, engraved, and polished somewhere in these lanes.
A city born from royal ambition
Moradabad was established in 1625 by Rustam Khan, governor of Katehar under Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan, and named after the emperor’s youngest son, Prince Murad Bakhsh.
A city permanently mid-production — Moradabad’s old quarters breathe metal, fire, and centuries of craft memory.
What began as a garrison town soon attracted artisans from Kashmir, Banaras, and Agra, who brought the refined knowledge of metalwork that had flourished under imperial patronage.
Influences from Persia, Turkey, and Egypt, carried to India by traders and courtiers, introduced ornamental engraving techniques that transformed everyday objects into items of beauty. During Shah Jahan’s reign, brassware from Moradabad was already being exported to Iran, Turkey, and the Middle East, a remarkable fact that puts the city’s global outlook in perspective.
Under British rule, Moradabad’s brassware entered wider export networks, with the East India Company placing orders for metalware.
In the 18th century, Moradabad’s brass industry blossomed as the British East India Company ordered large quantities of brassware for export, bringing the craft into the international spotlight.
By the late 19th century, Moradabadi lacquerware was captivating audiences at international exhibitions, including the Wembley Exhibition in London in 1924–25.
How sand, fire and handwork shape Moradabad brass
There is a detail about Moradabad’s metalwork that explains, in part, why it has resisted easy imitation for centuries. One particularly distinctive feature of Moradabad Metal Craft is the Ram Ganga River sand used in the metal casting process.
Artisans in Moradabad use hand-held chisels to trace intricate floral and geometric patterns in a technique known as nakashi — a process that can take hours on a single piece.
This sand is so fine and soft that it acts as the ideal binding material for casting intricate shapes, and it is part of what earned the craft its GI tag in 2014. This local material is considered one of the reasons Moradabad’s metal craft carries such a distinct identity.
Much like how Banarasi silk or Kondapalli wooden toys carry the geography of their making within their identity, Moradabad’s brass is, quite literally, of the land.
Production begins with casting molten metal into sand moulds, followed by filing and smoothening, then the application of copper sulphate to darken the surface before engraving.
The engraving itself, known as nakashi, is done entirely by hand, with craftspeople pressing fine chisels to trace floral motifs and geometric patterns that can take hours per piece. Polishing and enamelling complete the process, filling engraved grooves with coloured lacquer to give Moradabadi brassware its distinctive jewel-like quality.
The small lanes behind a global brass trade
The numbers behind this city’s industry are startling. Moradabad accounts for nearly 40% of India’s brass handicraft exports and supplies to global brands in the USA, UK, France, Italy, Germany, UAE, and Japan.
Major international importers and buying groups like IKEA, Pier 1 Imports, Zara Home, H&M Home, and Anthropologie have historically sourced decorative and utility brassware from Moradabad-based manufacturers. The district is home to approximately 9,000 industries and 600 registered export units, with annual exports worth Rs 4,500 crore.
Just as India has seen remarkable craft-economy stories — from the blue pottery of Jaipur to the Dhokra metal casting of Chhattisgarh — Moradabad represents a particularly striking case of a craft that moved from royal courts to retail shelves without losing the handmade quality at its core.
The artisans keeping Peetal Nagri alive
Behind these export figures is a workforce whose labour is dramatically undervalued relative to what it produces. At least 80% of the artisans in Moradabad are Muslim, and there are around 30,000 to 40,000 manufacturers and close to 2.5 lakh workers in the broader ecosystem.
Moradabad accounts for nearly 40% of India’s brass handicraft exports, supplying global brands including IKEA, Zara Home, and H&M Home.
The industry runs through a three-tier structure: karigars who do the casting, engraving, and polishing; manufacturers who aggregate their output; and exporters who connect the product to global buyers.
On a large order where an exporter earns Rs 6,000, the artisan who did the skilled handiwork might take home Rs 500 to 600.
The physical conditions are equally demanding. Artisans face harmful air pollutants from coal-based furnaces, poor living conditions, low wages, and inadequate power supply.
The National Green Tribunal’s intervention in 2018 led to the closure of at least 75 brass-making units for pollution violations, leaving hundreds of daily-wage workers without immediate recourse.
A growing number of artisans have migrated out of Moradabad, with some going to Bangladesh and Nepal to work, while others have shifted to jobs like driving e-rickshaws. Competition from cheaper brass-like alloys produced in China and Thailand has further undercut the incentive for some buyers to pay a premium for the handmade original.
Can Moradabad’s brass craft protect its makers?
What has kept Moradabad relevant through all of this is an instinct for adaptation. Artisans are increasingly incorporating contemporary designs and innovative techniques to appeal to modern consumers, while exporters have begun working with aluminium, stainless steel, and iron to meet the needs of foreign buyers.
On an export order worth Rs 6,000 to a trader, the artisan behind the skilled handwork may take home as little as Rs 500. Photograph: (The Voices)
Design studios now work with CAD tools to prototype new forms that karigars then execute by hand, a hybrid of old technique and new market awareness. The Uttar Pradesh government’s One District One Product scheme has also identified Moradabad’s metalcraft as a flagship, directing attention to skill development and cluster infrastructure.
For a city whose craft has been globally circulating for four centuries, the challenge now is less about proving the quality of what its hands can make and more about ensuring the people doing the making are fairly seen, compensated, and supported in staying.
That IKEA vase did not arrive on a shelf by accident. It arrived through a chain of extraordinary skill, centuries of accumulated knowledge, and the daily labour of thousands of artisans in a city that the world buys from but rarely thinks to name.
Images courtesy of: International Women’s Media Foundation
