A deeper look at India’s economic underpinnings

Lakshmi Subramanian’s book, India before the Ambanis — A History of Indian Business Money and Economy, reviewed here is a rare work of lucid historical scholarship. Through her lively and brilliant work Subramanian fills a huge gap in our understanding of India’s economic history — especially of the Mughal period — with a clear rendering of the courage and risk-taking appetite of its traders and businessmen over centuries, several of whom she profiles. Most Indians are not aware of all this, leading them to believe that the Mughal empire was a sinkhole. Far from it!

The Empire, Subramanian brings out in her book, presided over an extraordinarily prosperous period of our history. As she states... ‘what is clear is the fact that money was available in plenty in Mughal India and men knew how to make it, accumulate it and redeploy it for social and commercial gain.’ A case in point being Mulla Abdul Ghafur, who Subramanian introduces as a ‘merchant prince and influential shipper who commanded an impressive fleet of ships and whose operations dominated the markets of West Asia (Mocha, Aden, Basra) by cornering trade in spices and textiles maintaining warehouses in India and overseas and leveraging political support for his commercial ventures.’

There were other Indians who come up in Subramanian’s book as India transited to colonial rule, among them the infamous Jagat Seths, bankers to the world, in Bengal who facilitated the East India Company’s entrenching in India. Others she profiles include the Gujarati businessman Tarwady Arunji who ‘came forward along with others to advance massive funds to help the company in its protracted struggle against the Marathas, Mysore and even the Nawab of Awadh.’

Subramanian’s book, clearly written with a popular readership in mind, gives us a good idea of how India became so wealthy — textiles being at the heart of it — and remaining so over centuries. Clearly the advent of British colonialism and the Industrial Revolution brought India’s long perch at the top to an end.

Subramanian also covers the places business-minded Indians like the Marwaris gravitated to. These were eastward locations, especially Kolkata in increasing numbers, as the British consolidated their control over India. Her account of how Bombay went on to become India’s most important economic hub and the rise of the Parsees to pre-eminence in business is exceptional.

Prominent businessmen

Subramanian’s profiles of some of India’s prominent businessmen from the past include those like Jamshedji Jeejeebhoy after whom the famous JJ Hospital in Mumbai is named and Dwarkanath Tagore, a rare one from Bengal. Her account of the rise and rise of Jamshedji Nusserwanji Tata, one of many Indians who contributed to the lucrative British controlled opium trade with China and who went on to establish textile mills in Nagpur and Bombay and set up India’s largest steel plant in what is known as Jamshedpur, is rich in detail. There is an interesting coverage of Ardeshir Burjorji Sorabji Godrej who, in a display of enlightened self-interest, built an entire township in Bombay to house his workers — much like the Tatas had in Jamshedpur.

The founder of Kirloskar Industries, Laxmanrao Kirloskar, and the founder of the TVS conglomerate TV Sundaram Iyengar find mention in Subramanian’s book. The book’s inclusion of Jamnalal Bajaj is particularly noteworthy in that he, like many other leading Indian industrialists of his time, was a strong nationalist supporting Mahatma Gandhi while remaining on cordial terms with the British.

Though unstated, Subramanian’s book brings out the intimate connect between big business and the state as an inevitable phenomenon. Without such connections no big industry can come up and its true to this day.

Indian economy

Along with accounts of Indian businessmen and their pathways to growth, Subramanian covers the nature and character of the Indian economy and business in considerable detail. In this regard her introduction to her book and the chapter on Money in the Bazar: A Story of indigenous Credit are outstanding.

It is very well to state that until the advent of British rule India had long been the biggest economy after China’s. However, few understood the basis for this assertion and it took Subramanian’s work to tell us why it was so and how it attained this status.

What makes Subramanian’s book stand out is its brevity without sacrificing detail unlike the British historian Christopher Bayly’s Rulers, Townsmen and Bazaars. Engaging as it is, Bayly’s work at over 500 pages is a daunting read unlike Subramanian’s snappy book which is half as long making it a crisp and terrifically illuminating read.

The reviewer teaches at IISc Bengaluru

Title: India before the Ambanis — A History of Indian Business Money and Economy

Author: Lakshmi Subramanian

Publisher: Penguin Business -India 2024

Pages: 250

Price: ₹699