Indian merchants were unique in that they had always used their wealth to assert their caste status and Marwadi merchants to this day in every part of the country use their wealth to assert social power. Even in the biggest of cities like Mumbai they live in clan enclaves ensuring that no one else buys property in the locality they live in through an informal network of tacit bullying. Financially precarious members of their community aren’t allowed to sell their property to outsiders and are instead expected to sell, rent or borrow money through this informal network. This has led to them creating the only all-vegeterian McDonald’s franchise outlet in India to be in that neighbourhood. It is possibly the only all-vegeterian one in the world.
Also the reason for the ostracism toward Muslims is that the majority of Indian Muslims are lower caste converts and upper caste Indians want to maintain caste distinctions even after conversion (which is often done to escape caste in the first place).
Fascinating. My mind goes to Ancient Rome because I’ve been reading about it lately. While the aristocrats looked down on trade, they relied on merchants to maintain their wealth. I’m sure there must be instances of merchants who used their wealth to influence state power back then.
Indian merchants were unique in that they had always used their wealth to assert their caste status and Marwadi merchants to this day in every part of the country use their wealth to assert social power. Even in the biggest of cities like Mumbai they live in clan enclaves ensuring that no one else buys property in the locality they live in through an informal network of tacit bullying. Financially precarious members of their community aren’t allowed to sell their property to outsiders and are instead expected to sell, rent or borrow money through this informal network. This has led to them creating the only all-vegeterian McDonald’s franchise outlet in India to be in that neighbourhood. It is possibly the only all-vegeterian one in the world.
Also the reason for the ostracism toward Muslims is that the majority of Indian Muslims are lower caste converts and upper caste Indians want to maintain caste distinctions even after conversion (which is often done to escape caste in the first place).
https://academic.oup.com/book/56170/chapter/442935947
Fascinating. My mind goes to Ancient Rome because I’ve been reading about it lately. While the aristocrats looked down on trade, they relied on merchants to maintain their wealth. I’m sure there must be instances of merchants who used their wealth to influence state power back then.