Send message to Author

Paper short abstract

The paper investigates how access to capital shapes the community identity in a south-Indian metro city. It studies the Marwaris, a hereditary mercantile community with a history of indigenous financial practices to understand caste-based exclusion and loss of traditional financial practices.

Paper long abstract

Marwari baniyas are a hereditary mercantile community constituted by several castes with a history of indigenous financial practices. In the 21st century, they have taken up occupations in formal banking and finance. Despite having alternative financial practices and the social processes supplementing them, the community has seen decline in wealth and loss of traditional financial practices. I investigate this loss in the city of Hyderabad, a south-Indian metro-city where Marwaris have been migrating since the 16th century. I triangulate my study of the Marwari community by conducting interviews of 15 business family households, tracing the role of Marwaris in the state by archival work and look at their representation among the wealthy elite by analysing secondary data. I adopt the social reproduction approach by Barbara Harriss White to study the Marwari caste associations, their community identity and their interaction with the state. In this paper, I argue that access to capital in the city of Hyderabad has produced a larger Marwari identity. The paper underscores that the Marwari identity has expanded due to access to capital as more castes have come to identify as Marwaris in the city. It suggests that caste based financial practices despite being indigenous remain discriminatory and contribute to loss of community knowledge.