Paper short abstract:

As Mughal authority waned in Gujarat, the East India Company and the Gaekwads shared power. The paper traces how Gujarat's mercantile culture was shaped by former Mughal revenue officials through the story of the entrepreneurial Lalludas Dayaldas, a minister of the Nawab of Bharuch.

Paper long abstract:

Lalludas Dayaldas was the trusted chief minister of the Nawab of Bharuch in the late eighteenth century with full authority in all matters save those relating to the shari'a. As the Nawab's agent, he negotiated with the increasingly powerful Gaekwads of Baroda and representatives of the East India Company. His family had been desais or revenue officials in the Mughal administration and as the Mughal fiscal system in Gujarat began to give way to 'a vast market in the rights of revenue collection, or rather, of shares in imperial sovereignty' (Hasan, 2006, 119), Lalludas and his relatives became prosperous portfolio capitalists. They offered credit and insurance facilities, tax and inheritance advice, and sold cotton, ghee, and other goods. Lalludas was also a prominent Vaishnava patron and builder in Bharuch, remembered reverently as an elder of the Modh bania caste. Local officials and revenue entrepreneurs such as Lalludas acquired unprecedented decision-making power at this time, and shaped, to a considerable extent, the dominant culture of Gujarat. To whom would Lalludas grant his allegiance? This paper examines the mercantile ethos of the late eighteenth century through the story of Lalludas, as he decided whether to support the Nawab, the Gaekwads, the Company, or the interests of his own family.