COMMUNITIES THAT PROMOTED ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN INDIA

1. THE PARSIS:

Parsis migrated from Persia in the century. They performed artisans, carpenters, weavers etc, in the 17th century. By 18th century, they became wellknown shipbuilders; they had set merchant houses in Bombay, Burma, China and London. Their chief overseas trade comprised of yarn and opium.

They acted as brokers for the European traders at Bombay and Surat. They were regarded as merchants and traders of repute. They emerged as the most prominent trading and financing community or Bombay and Gujarat. Parsees and Gujarat trading castes that controlled even foreign trade become the wealthiest Indian communities by the 19th century.

2. TRADERS FROMSOUTH INDIA:

The trading castes of South India were the chettis. They were dividing into various groups such as the Telugu komatia, the Tamil, Nattukottai Chettis, and Beri- Chettis etc. The Komatia were the chief traders not only in the Telugu districts but also in Mysore, Coimbatore, Canara and other places. The chief financiers are bankers of South India were the Nattukottai Chettis. Trading in drugs grain and cloth was done by the Beri-Chettis. In the early 19th century they were known to be respectable peddlers who traveled in caravans. The communities that traded had trade relations with South- East Asian countries like Burma, Ceylon, and Malaya, Singapore etc. The chettiars established connections with reputed Indian business firms and also made good investments in and property. They became important suppliers of rural credit. The Nattukottai Chettiars were a well- known business community in Burma. Their working funds invested abroad were mainly employed in Burma.

Trading was done by Syrian Christians called Nazrani Mappilas and Mohammedan merchants known as Moplahs on the West coast in South

India. The Nazrani Mappilas financed internal trading activities of Travancore and Cochin. Moplahs traded in Malabar and Canara. They shared the functions of trade with the koknies who conducted banking business in the country.

When the monopoly of the East India Company ended in 1857, a period of boom began for the Christians who prospered as merchants. They played the role of private bankers. The Syrian and Chaldean Christians were active in promoting Joint Stock Banks at the end of the 19th century.

3. THE MARWARI COMMUNITY:

This important and fairly developed business community came from Marwari in Rajasthan. The trading and money lending cases got tremendous development in Gujarat and Rajputana on account of the famous route from Gujarat ports to the historical center of the Great Mughal state.

Rajputana was torn by feudal strife during the first half of the 19th century. It was not the place for large scale trading and money lending operations. Though the local trade was good, it provided a limited scope for development. Trade remained fairly constant and it was because of this that investment crossed the borders of Rajputana. Trade spread in towns throughout the north, east and west of India, especially to the commercial centers of Bombay and Calcutta.

With the rise of British commerce, these traders gradually replaced the Bengalis who served as British agents in Calcutta. The Brahmins and the Kayasthas of Bengal who operated as the British agents started tuning their attention to investments in land. They even got into 9 professions and administrative services. But the Subarna Banika, a Bengal trading community filled the void created by such an occurrence. But Bengal soon became the center for political revolution. The Britishers both rulers and traders did not approve of this. Wherever possible, they tried to replace a Bengali by someone who proved to be more dependable. The Rajasthani traders tried to be more co-operative than the Bengali Commercial castes. It is because of this that the Bengali names in business are relatively un important and where they occur; they mostly represent the professional agent class and not the indigenous trading class.

 Besides the above trading, money- lending communities that could be regarded as the source of entrepreneurs in India. There were the Bhatia’s and Lohanas. These communities carried out local trade and were spread all over the country. The “Khatris’ a community that trade not only in Punjab but also in Afghanistan, Central Asia etc. has also been a source of entrepreneurs. In Maharashtra the contribution of Yajurvedi Brahmins and the Chitapavan Brahmans who took active part in trading, money lending ad indigenous banking cannot be forgotten.