Kenya 'Samaj': Indian Merchants, Community Life, and Urban Society

KENYA ‘SAMAJ’: INDIAN MERCHANTS, COMMUNITY LIFE, AND URBAN SOCIETY IN COLONIAL EAST AFRICA, C. 1890-1980 By Misha A. Mintz-Roth A dissertation submitted to Johns Hopkins University in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Baltimore, Maryland May 2019 ABSTRACT Much scholarship about Indian populations in East Africa examines their histories through categories of race and class. Immigrant groups, according to these narratives, are often seen as agents of the British Empire or as a minority racial diaspora that experienced marginalization during the colonial and post-independence periods. This dissertation takes a different approach. Examining Indians as interconnected yet separate vocational populations, it argues that Indian immigrants played a central role in making Kenya’s colonial economy, urban society, and post- independence political order. Indian merchants—the focus of this dissertation—assumed positions of economic, social, and political prominence in Kenya, building up household wealth by situating themselves between African agrarian societies, the territory’s urban markets, and the colonial state. Despite the rise of anti-Indian sentiment during the colonial period and after independence, Indian merchants cultivated linkages to new political leaders and activated longer-standing communal connections to re-assimilate into Kenya’s post-independence environment. Community networks, I argue, not race or nation, became the primary mode of belonging among Indian merchants in twentieth century Kenya, as they migrated, settled, and accumulated wealth, among other goals. This dissertation examines a diversity of historical sources, including traders’ diaries, merchants’ memoirs, court records, commercial contracts, newspapers, and records from the Kenya and India National Archives. It argues that, over the course of the twentieth century, Indian merchant groups cultivated an urban society around the tenets of a samaj, or a social collective comprised of distinct merchant communities moving in a “united manner,” as the Indo-Aryan word implies. This society, oriented around caste and kinship networks, allowed merchants to maintain control over household wealth and marriage alliances, while simultaneously integrating ii themselves into avenues of local commerce and trade. Moreover, as British colonization intensified, strategies of integration enabled Indian merchants to align their capital interests with Kenya’s colonial legal institutions and imperial political realms. What is more, they also enabled them to cultivate webs of connection about the colony and circumvent the state’s regulatory intentions, acquire urban property and public assistance, and erect social and prayer halls and other urban institutions. Integrative corporatism is the term I use to describe how merchants were able to maintain endogamous communities and commercial dominance while integrating themselves into Kenya’s colonial and postcolonial urban societies. Dissertation Advisor: Professor Pier Larson iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to acknowledge the support of several individuals who helped me to complete this dissertation. Foremost, I wish to acknowledge the time, patience, and enthusiasm of Pier Larson, who, along with members of Johns Hopkins University Africa Seminar, including Sara Berry, Jane Guyer, Randall Packard, and Elizabeth Thornberry, provided me with invaluable direction and feedback. I also wish to acknowledge the support of several others who helped me with its development and completion. These people include Ralph Austen, Mark Bradley, Ambreena Manji, Charlotte Walker-Said, Paul Ocobock, Chella Vaidyanathan, and Heather Dana Davis Parker. In addition, I would like to thank the individuals who helped assist and guide my research. They include Murtaza Gandhi, of the Gandhi Memorial Museum (Ahmedabad); Ramji Savalia, of the Bho Je Institute (Ahmedabad); Richard Ambani, of the Kenya National Archive (Nairobi); and Radha Upadhyaya, of the University of Nairobi, Kenya. I also wish thank mentors and teachers. They include Arvind Bhandari, Archana Patel, and Pinky Pandya, of the American Institute for Indian Studies; Nilotpala Gandhi, of Gujarat University; Adhya Saxena, of M.S. University; Chhaya Goswami, of S.K. Somaiya College; and Sachin Ramesh Nikarge, of the United States- India Educational Foundation. I also wish to thank the following research and grant-giving institutions: the British Institute in Eastern Africa, the Johns Hopkins University Department of History and Office of the Dean, the Lois and William Diamond Fellowship Fund, and the IIE/USIEF Fulbright-Nehru Doctoral Research Fellowship Program. Last, I wish to thank friends and colleagues from various institutions and research sites. They include Julia Bailey, Hannah Elliot, Sheline Lugonzo, Emma McGlennen, Jessica Levy, Kirsten Moore, Julia Cummiskey, Nathan Marvin, and Sudev Sheth. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................... 1 Indians, Africans, and Race ..................................................................................................... 5 Trade Diasporas, Commercial Solidarities, and Circulatory Societies .................................... 11 Corporate Networks, Social Investments, and Urban Society ................................................. 14 Sources and Outline .............................................................................................................. 19 CHAPTER ONE: NETWORKS, MARKET KNOWLEDGE, AND MOBILITY ...................... 26 Colonization, Infrastructure, and Interior Commerce ............................................................. 31 Ebrahimji Adamji: Ivory Merchant and Travel Diarist ........................................................... 35 Corporate Structures and Networks ....................................................................................... 39 Caravan Leaders, Assistants, and Porters ............................................................................... 44 “Natives,” Protections, and Market Informants ...................................................................... 50 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 53 CHAPTER TWO: COMMERCE AND COLONIAL LAW ..................................................... 56 Merchants, Administrators, and Kenya’s Anglo-Indian Legal Sphere .................................... 63 Partnership Agreements ........................................................................................................ 65 Real Estate and Rents ............................................................................................................ 69 Chits, Mortgages, and Settlements ......................................................................................... 71 Arbitration and Legal Conformism ........................................................................................ 77 v Exposures, Liabilities, and Counterclaims ............................................................................ 82 Estates and Inheritance .......................................................................................................... 84 Portfolios, Specializations, and Capital Expansion ................................................................ 87 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 95 CHAPTER THREE: MERCHANT ACTIVISTS AND IMPERIAL POLITICS ........................ 97 Indians, Europeans, and Racial Competition........................................................................ 102 Associations, Activism, and Agitation ................................................................................. 106 Petitions, Pleas, and Interventions ....................................................................................... 110 Legal Appeals ..................................................................................................................... 115 Cotton Traders on the Imperial Stage .................................................................................. 117 Empire, Citizenship, and Immigration ................................................................................. 121 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 125 CHAPTER FOUR: MERCHANT CAPITALISTS, STATE REGULATORS, AND AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION: THE CASE OF GHEE .................................................. 128 Ghee Production, Wartime Controls, and Marketing Schemes ............................................. 134 Traders, Dairies, and Councilmen ....................................................................................... 139 Adulterators, Traffickers, and “Black Marketeers” .............................................................. 145 Smugglers, Competitors, and Inter-Territorial Movement .................................................... 151 Contacts, Connections, and Credit ....................................................................................... 156 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 163 vi CHAPTER FIVE: COMMUNAL ASSOCIATIONS, URBAN INVESTMENTS, AND SOCIAL WELFARE ............................................................................................................................

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