The Global World of Indian Merchants, 1750±1947 Traders of Sind from Bukhara to Panama
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Cambridge University Press 0521622859 - The Global World of Indian Merchants, 1750-1947: Traders of Sind from Bukhara to Panama Claude Markovits Frontmatter More information The Global World of Indian Merchants, 1750±1947 Traders of Sind from Bukhara to Panama In his latest book, Claude Markovits tells the storyof two groups of Hindu merchants from the towns of Shikarpur and Hyderabad in the province of Sind. Basing his account on previouslyneglected archival sources, the author charts the development of these communities, from the pre-colonial period through colonial conquest and up to independence, describing how theycame to control trading networks throughout the world. While the book focuses on the trade of goods, moneyand information from Sind to such widelydispersed locations as Kobe, Panama, Bukhara and Cairo, it also throws light on the nature of trading diasporas in South Asia in their interaction with the global economy. In an epilogue, the author brings the story up to date in a discussion of the origins of the present-daydiaspora of Sindhi Hindus, the most wide-ranging of all the diasporas from the Indian subcontinent. This is a sophisticated and accessible book written byone of the most distinguished economic historians in the ®eld. It will appeal to scholars of South Asia and of the historyof diasporas, as well as to colonial historians, economic historians and to students of religion. Claude Markovits is Director of Research at the Centre National de la Recherche Scienti®que, Paris. © Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 0521622859 - The Global World of Indian Merchants, 1750-1947: Traders of Sind from Bukhara to Panama Claude Markovits Frontmatter More information Cambridge Studies in Indian History and Society 6 Editorial Board C. A. BAYLY Vere Harmsworth Professor of Imperial and Naval History, University of Cambridge, and Fellow of St Catharine's College RAJNARAYAN CHANDAVARKAR Fellow of Trinity College and Lecturer in History, University of Cambridge GORDON JOHNSON President of Wolfson College, and Director, Centre of South Asian Studies, University of Cambridge Cambridge Studies in Indian History and Society publishes monographs on the historyand anthropologyof modern India. In addition to its primaryscholarlyfocus, the series also includes work of an interdisciplinarynature which contributes to contemporarysocial and cultural debates about Indian historyand society.The series is thus designed to further the general development of historical and anthropological knowledge and to attract a wider readership than that concerned with India alone. 1 C.A.Bayly Empire and Information: Intelligence Gathering and Social Communication in India, 1780±1880 0 521 57085 9 (hardback) 0 521 663601 (paperback) 2 Ian Copland The Princes of India in the Endgame of Empire, 1917±1947 0 521 57179 0 3 Samita Sen Women and Labour in Late Colonial India: The Bengal Jute Industry, 0 521 45363 1 4 Sumit Guha Environment and Ethnicity in India, 1200±1991 0 521 64078 4 5 Tirthankar Roy Traditional Industry in the Economy of Colonial India 0 521 65012 7 © Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 0521622859 - The Global World of Indian Merchants, 1750-1947: Traders of Sind from Bukhara to Panama Claude Markovits Frontmatter More information The Global World of Indian Merchants, 1750±1947 Traders of Sind from Bukhara to Panama Claude Markovits Centre National de la Recherche Scienti®que, Paris © Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 0521622859 - The Global World of Indian Merchants, 1750-1947: Traders of Sind from Bukhara to Panama Claude Markovits Frontmatter More information published by the press syndicate of the university of cambridge The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge, United Kingdom cambridge university press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 2RU, UK http://www.cup.cam.ac.uk 40 West 20th Street, New York, NY 10011±4211, USA http://www.cup.org 10 Stamford Road, Oakleigh, Melbourne 3166, Australia Ruiz de AlarcoÂn 13, 28014 Madrid, Spain # Claude Markovits 2000 The book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of anypart maytake place without the written permission of Cambridge UniversityPress. First published 2000 Printed in the United Kingdom at the UniversityPress, Cambridge Typeset in Plantin 10/12pt System 3B2 [ce] A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress cataloguing in publication data Markovits, Claude. The global world of Indian merchants, 1750±1947: traders of Sind from Bukhara to Panama / Claude Markovits. p. cm. ± (Cambridge studies in Indian Historyand Society;6) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0 521 62285 9 1. Shikarpur (Pakistan) ± Commerce ± History. 2. Hyderabad (India) ± Commerce ± History. 3. Sindhi (South Asian people) ± Commerce ± History. 4. India ± Commerce ± History. 5. Pakistan ± Commerce ± History. I. Title. II. Series. HF3790.5.Z9 S555 2000 382'.095491'8 ± dc21 99±047925 ISBN 0 521 62285 9 hardback © Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 0521622859 - The Global World of Indian Merchants, 1750-1947: Traders of Sind from Bukhara to Panama Claude Markovits Frontmatter More information To the memoryof myfather Paul Markovits (1912±1993) © Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 0521622859 - The Global World of Indian Merchants, 1750-1947: Traders of Sind from Bukhara to Panama Claude Markovits Frontmatter More information Contents List of maps page viii List of tables ix Acknowledgements x Glossary xii Introduction 1 1 South Asian merchant networks 10 2 The regional context: Sind economyand society, c. 1750±1950 32 3 The Gate of Khorrassan: the Shikarpuri network, c. 1750±1947 57 4 From Kobe to Panama: the Sindworkies of Hyderabad 110 5 Patterns of circulation and business organization in two 156 merchant networks 6 The business of the Sind merchants 185 7 The politics of merchant networks 212 8 Communityand gender in two merchant networks 249 9 Epilogue: the Sindhi diaspora after 1947 277 Conclusion 286 Appendices 298 Bibliography 307 Index 320 vii © Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 0521622859 - The Global World of Indian Merchants, 1750-1947: Traders of Sind from Bukhara to Panama Claude Markovits Frontmatter More information Maps 1 Sind in the colonial period page 33 2 The Shikarpuri network, c. 1900 58 3 The Sindworkie network, c. 1890±1940 112 viii © Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 0521622859 - The Global World of Indian Merchants, 1750-1947: Traders of Sind from Bukhara to Panama Claude Markovits Frontmatter More information Tables 3.1 Trade of the Punjab with Kabul and Bukhara, page 70 c.1860±1890 3.2 Population of Shikarpur and Sukkur 1891±1931 107 4.1 Destinations of applicants for certi®cates of identityin 127 Hyderabad district 1915±1916 4.2 Annual emigration of skilled labour registered in Karachi 129 1928±1946 4.3 Destinations of employees of six major ®rms in Hyderabad 131 4.4 The population of Hyderabad 1872±1941 136 4.5 Major Sindwork ®rms in the 1930s according to date of 140 foundation 5.1 Characteristics of partnerships in Hyderabad 162 6.1 The debt portfolio of Totomal wd Jeumal, Shikarpuri banker 189 of Namangan 6.2 Reexport of silk manufactures from India to selected 196 destinations in 1893±1894 and 1913±1914 6.3 The sales account of a Sindhi merchant in Port Said in 207 1930±1931 8.1 List of associations representing Sindhi merchants 258 9.1 The Sindhi worldwide diaspora 281 ix © Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 0521622859 - The Global World of Indian Merchants, 1750-1947: Traders of Sind from Bukhara to Panama Claude Markovits Frontmatter More information Acknowledgements Manypeople contributed in manywaysto this work. I owe particular thanks to the staff of the Oriental and India Of®ce Collections of the British Librarywho dealt gracefullywith myinsatiable demand for documents. The Trustees of St Anthony's College, Oxford, helped considerablyin awarding me a Deakin Fellowship in 1995±6 which allowed me to complete the research for this book. In Oxford, David Washbrook, Judith Brown and Nandini Gooptu, among others, contrib- uted to the creation of an atmosphere propitious to intellectual inquiry. Mycolleagues of the Centre d'Etudes de l'Inde et de l'Asie du Sud in Paris did not bear me anygrudge for deserting them for a while, and I thank them for it. I am grateful to Chris Bayly and to Sanjay Subrahmanyam for the interest theyshowed in this project and for manypleasant moments. Preliminaryversions of some chapters of this book were presented at seminars and conferences at the Universityof Washington, Seattle, the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, the Centre for Indian Studies, St Antony's College, Oxford, the Commonwealth History Graduate Seminar at Oxford University, the Centre of South Asian Studies of the Universityof Cambridge, the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, Edinburgh University, Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches Internatio- nales, Paris, London School of Economics. I wish to thank all conveners and participants for their patience and their useful comments. Special thanks are due to those members of the Sindhi commercial communitywho were kind enough to