Muslim Businessmen in South Asia c. 1900–1950

Abstract

The relationship between islam and capitalism has been viewed mostly from the point of view of the ‘centre’ of the Muslim world,¹ less so from the perspective of its ‘peri-phery’, with a few exceptions such as those represented by Clifford Geertz’s studies on Indonesia.² The specialists of South Asian Islam have generally paid little attention to the economic aspects of the life of the subcontinent’s Muslim communities. As to the literature regarding the mercantile world of South Asia, it has little to say about the specific role of Muslims.³ One likely explanation for that state of affairs is that the most successful amongst Indian businessmen have generally been Hindus (or Parsis), and rarely Muslims. However, the Muslim businessmen of pre-Partition India do not deserve to be totally obliterated from the record, as they have been. The development of a dynamic private business sector in post-1947 Pakistan is a timely reminder that, in the subcontinent, the entrepreneurial spirit was not a monopoly of the Hindus. Even in contemporary India, Muslims, while not occupying a prominent place in economic life, are far from being absent from the commercial and industrial world. It is therefore worth having a look at the recent past of Muslim capitalism in South Asia and reflecting on the place of Muslims, and more particularly of Muslim businessmen, in the economic life of colonial India during the first half of the twentieth century.

Translated from M. Gaborieau (ed.), Islam et Société en Asie du Sud, Purusartha 9 (Paris: Edition de l’Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, 1986), pp. 112–26.