RISE TO PROMINENCE - Up Country Network

Up-Country Network

—Organization of credit produced network of contacts all over the country which could be used for the selling and purchasing of the goods traded in the ports. British traders poor knowledge of the north-western parts of India, their absence of a network of agents and the competition of the natives accounted for the weak representation of British merchant capital in these areas. Foreign firms naturally found themselves dependent on Marwari merchants with such network.

—The unwillingness of other trading communities to move up-country was partially due to the sorts of humiliations which upcountry traders had to sustain in connection with inland levies on goods. The Marwaris were presumably willing to pocket the humiliation of up-country trading which left other communities at somewhat of a disadvantage

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RISE TO PROMINENCE - Access to Capital

Access to Capital

The genius of a trading community lies in its manipulation of credit. With this genius for credit acquisition, it is no wonder that trading communities managed to acquire the capital resources which have enabled them to play a dominant role in the industrial development of India.

—The port merchant disposed of his imports by supplying them on 3 or 6 month credit to his correspondent upcountry. The merchant acquired cotton and jute from the farmer by advancing him credit for the crop season.

—Traders of had access to capital or access to its surrogate, credit. Industrial entrepreneurs where thus people who had access to capital or credit.  

—After 1853, India became a net importer of capital for several decades. British firms no longer dependent on their Indian collaborator for working capital were thus less likely to offer them less honorable and lucrative terms. The older collaboration firms which were mostly Bengali were reluctant to take up these new terms. On the other hand Marwari firms whose bargaining position was not as goods, emerged to step into the collaborating role.

In a case of Marwari merchants in Banaras it is learnt that they had access to capital from fellow merchants who made capital available overnight without collateral. There were preferential interest rates for fellow Marwari, account for which was settled once in a year. 

During 1st World War India was completely cut-off from Europe, in 1920 the government of India undertook a series of programs to encourage selected Industries. It was encouraged by lack of competitive imported goods from abroad.

—Empowered with capital accumulated during the war through speculation in commodities and experience in supplying raw materials to the Industry a substantial number of Marwari’s entered manufacturing.

In the 2nd World War some businessmen made money supplying the troops and speculating on wartime markets. Others exploited the natural protection to setup a series of industries to meet domestic needs. Still others made money supplying war needs by exports to Far East and Europe which had turned into battle grounds.

Capital accumulated during this process was utilized to take over Industries and occupy enclaves left by the British post Independence.  

 

 

 

REGION OF MIGRATION - Burma

Burma

Some Marwaris moved from Calcutta to Burma after its conquest by the British in 1885. —Here again they faced stiff competition from Chettiars and Memons who were well established in Burma by then. —Still the Marwari firms in timber and rice exports were factors to be reckoned with.

—Many Indian merchants fled Burma during the Japanese occupation (1942-45). —The bulk of the remainder were expelled along with other non-indigeneous in the years that followed. 

REGION OF MIGRATION - Bombay & Malwa

Bombay & Malwa

—Migrations to Bombay started after 1800. This was much earlier than Calcutta which could have been attributed to the International character of Bombay as a Center of Trade. —They however faced resistance from Gujarati moneylenders in Ahmednagar and Parsee merchants in Bombay City who had long before established themselves in the region.

—In central India, the rural areas of Bombay Province, the Marwari’s became the pre-eminent local moneylenders and merchants.  They financed especially the growth of cash crops which the British demanded. —After the reduction in land revenue (1835-50) created some surplus with the peasant on which a meager retail trade could be based. —Ingenious businessmen never seem to have existed in any number of this area.

Marwaris in this region often started as small shopkeepers, rapidly taking on to money-lending for financing crops which were demanded by the British, at first opium and then cotton. —Many of the migrants arrived just before 1860. Their fortunes may well have been founded on their participation in the cotton-export boom of Bombay during the American Civil War years, when the American raw cotton supplies to mills in Britain were disrupted. —A Later spurt of migration seems to have occurred between 1890 and 1910, much of it via Indore. 

—One Aggarwal firm in the Central Provinces was particularly noteworthy. The firm of Bacchraj Jamnalal Bajaj based in Wardha was especially prominent in supplying cotton to the Japanese. —By 1913 the firm shipped out 40K bales/year and reaped a profit of Rs.75 Lakhs. The firm became famous because of its proprietors, Seth Jamnalal Bajaj played a leading role in the independence struggle.

—An apocryphal story when Jamnalal Bajaj entered business it was common practice for Marwari traders to sprinkle water on the cotton bales to increase its weight while selling to mills. When firm’s munshi suggest him to do the same he refused to do so. Instead he put up a banner “Dry Bales for Sale”. The purchaser with prospects of not having to bear the risk of buying water sprinkled bales where he was uncertain of water sprinkled gladly paid a premium for dry bales offered by Jamnalal Bajaj.

—After Independence their heirs took the Bajaj firm into industry outside Wardha and played a crucial role in post-independence industrialization of the nation.  

REGION OF MIGRATION - Assam

Assam

Marwari’s started arriving in Assam soon after its conquest by British in 1818. —Unlike other parts of India where they faced competition from local trading community in Assam due to absence of trading indigenous trading community they monopolized the trade from day one. —Before the arrival of Marwari’s trade in Assam was limited to barter of goods between adjacent villages.

As a unique and one of its kind example of early Marwari migration a prominent Marwari from Churu in Shekhawati, Harbildas Aggarwal’s father apparently took an Assamese wide and adopted Assamese lifestyle. —He established branches in Tejpur, North Lakhimpur and Dibrugarh. He was one of the first Indians to purchase a Tea Estate in 1868, called “Tamulbari”. —He however continued to maintain ties with fellow marwaris and helped many settle down as merchants in the region.

In 1990’s, assam had witnessed an anti-Marwari movement on the part of ULFA which sparked an exodus of Marwaris from the area. —Anti-Marwari agitations in Orissa also began in early 1980’s. —Many marwari families from Orissa, Assam and Bihar migrated to Raipur in Chhattisgarh. —These migrants were aided by Marwari families who had been living there for generations.

REGION OF MIGRATION - Bengal

Bengal

Marwari migration to Calcutta started in 1830. They formed a Panchayat to handle quarrels and maintain discipline in the community. —The first migrants to Calcutta seem to have hitched rides as super cargos aboard river boats at Mirzapur in East-Uttar Pradesh. —Many marwaris came and started their career first at Calcutta but in search of better fortune they further migrated from Calcutta to the country side.

—The basic reason for such further migration might be the fact that Calcutta was a cosmopolitan city where there was a keen competition among various merchant communities, apart from the fact that Bengali business entrepreneurs had been very well established in Calcutta at that time. 

The first Marwari firms in calcutta date from before 1857. It was only in the 1870’s that we get a sense of the Marwari’s arriving in Calcutta in large numbers. —Until 1860’s the trade of Calcutta was with Bengali and to a lesser extent in Khatri and North Indian bania hands. 

Slowly starting 1880’s, the marwaris started replacing Khatris and Bengalis as banians to British firms. By the turn of the century the list of invitations to the Viceroy’s Leeves published in the newspapers show a sizable group of Marwaris and only one or two Khatris. By 1911, the Calcutta Marwari population was 15,000 and that in Bihar, Orissa, Bengal and Assam was 75,000. 

This co-indices with discovery of synthetic Indigo Dye by German chemical company BASF. First discovered in 1878 its industrial scale production in 1897. Before its invention plant based Indigo cultivated in Bengal was the only source of blue dye. Bengali businessmen particularly had a majority stake in trade of Indigo. A notable Bengali bhadralok Dwarkanath Tagore (father of Rabindranath Tagore) had an important stake in its trade. 

Among early Calcutta Marwari migrants is Seth Nathuram Saraf who was full of feeling for his caste fellows and opened up a basa for marwari migrants in which they could stay free of charge. He facilitated further migration, especially from his hometown of Mandawa. He became the 1st Marwari Banian. In Sutapatti, Mandawa stores were numerous in comparision to other cities, there were once 45 cloth shops from Mandawa, specializing in the fine melmel variety of cloth.

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REGION OF MIGRATION - Introduction

Introduction

The Marwari migration did not occur within a short period. Its pace was gradual and increasing in nature. —One Male member of a family in Rajasthan came first to this region in quest of a fortune and stayed here for a few years doing business. —After having established himself, he helped other members of his family, whom he left behind in his native place at the time of his migration, to come and join his business. —Sometimes he also helped a neighbor who came in search of subsistence, by giving him a temporary engagement in his firm along with providing him the facility of free food and lodging at his basa or gaddi (office)