India, Dec. 19 -- I grew up thinking Luddite was a bad word - someone afraid of or resistant to new technologies. Brian Merchant's Blood in the Machine: The Origins of the Rebellion Against Big Tech helped dispel my ignorance.

As the Industrial Revolution gained hold, textile workers in England in the early 19th century broke looms in protest and threatened factory owners. However, their fight was not against technology. Rather, it was against the mill owners who used mechanisation to wrest a greater share of profits, leaving labourers with less pay even as their workload increased and working conditions worsened.

So, instead of the irrational, violent people they are made out to be, they were crusaders for a fairer world. They fought w...