Merchants, Traders, Entrepreneurs: Indian Business in the Colonial Era

The merchant world represents a relatively neglected area in South Asian History. Merchants were important actors in the economic, political, and cultural life of India, and deserve more attention than they have been given. This book bridges that gap by bringing together a number of issues which deal with the Indian mercantile world in Colonial India, and its relationship with politics and society.  Three major themes are taken up: the relationship between the business world and the world of politics in the late colonial era, with special emphasis on the links between business interests and political nationalism; the position of merchants and big businessmen in relation to society and the economy; and merchant circulations, in particular the ways in which specific trading networks extended the range of their operations during the colonial period to cover the entire subcontinent as well as the wider world.  Written by one of the major contributors to the socio-economic history of Modern India, this book will interest all South Asianists, students of Colonialism, and historians of Indian economy and society over the past two centuries.