From Bankers to Landlords: The Evolution of the of the Banian Class from 1750 to 1850

Abstract

In the western littoral of India the word banian loosely refers to a caste which was predominantly involved in mercantile ventures. In Bengal too we find reference to this caste (referred to as Banik) with its own subcastes like swarnabanik and gandhabanik. However in the early colonial times with the advent of the Europeans we the term acquired a much broader meaning. It was no more just a caste connotation but also referred to a class of successful intermediaries who helped in facilitating the expanding European trade. They could not be clubbed into one single caste owing to their diverse background. This paper uses the term to refer to this intermediary class rather than a caste group. The main aim of this paper is to show the evolution of the bengali banian class between c. 1750 and 1850 and analyse why it failed to turn into a group of successful bankers/capitalists despite all prevailing conditions. It analyses their evolutionary trajectory from their early role as banker to the later role of managers and finally to that of landed zamindar and tries to explain how that was made possible not by one but a multitude of factors including increasing dependence on European agency houses, the redirection of capital into landed property under the Permanent Settlement, and structural constraints imposed by colonial institutions.