Market formation in Khandesh, c. 1820-1930

Indian Economic and Social History Review

Volumn 36, Issue 3, 1999, Pages 275-302

  Haynes, Douglas E ^a  

^a DARTMOUTH COLLEGE   (United States)

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EID: 22444451757     PISSN: 00194646     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/001946469903600302     Document Type: Review

References (121)

1. For exceptions, see works by C.A. Bayly, such as Rulers. Townsmen and Bazaars: North Indian Society in the Age of British Expansion, 1770-1870, Cambridge, 1983,
2. C.A. Bayly, idem, 'Town Building in North India, 1790-1830', Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 9(4), 1975, pp. 483-504;
3. Sumit Guha, 'Potentates, Traders and Peasants: Western India, c. 1700-1870', in Burton Stein and Sanjay Subrahmanyam, eds, Institutions and Economic Change in South Asia, Delhi, 1996, pp. 71-84.
4. Both concentrate on an earlier period than this article. Anand Yang's new study, Bazaar India: Markets, Society and the Colonial State in Gangetic Bihar, Berkeley, 1998, became available to me only in the late stages of completing this article.
5. For instance, see two books by E.A.J. Johnson, Market Towns and Spatial Development in India, New Delhi, 1965
6. The Organization of Space in Developing Countries, Cambridge, 1970;
7. V.K. Shrivastava, ed., Commercial Activities and Rural Development in South Asia: A Geographical Study, New Delhi, 1988;
8. Kashi N. Singh, 'The Territorial Basis of Medieval Town and Village Settlement in Eastern Uttar Pradesh, India', in R.L. Singh and Kashi N. Singh, eds, Readings in Rural Settlement Geography, Varanasi, 1975, pp. 61-81;
9. Hans-George Bohle, 'From Centre to Periphery: Changing Spatial Structures in Rural South India, 985-1985', Geojournal, Vol. 10, 1985, pp. 5-15
10. Hans-George Bohle, idem, 'South Indian Weekly Markets: A Case Study in Their Functions, Structure and Morphology', in A.B. Mukherji and Aijazuddin Ahmad, eds, India: Culture, Society and Economy: Geographical Essays in Honour of Prof. Asok Mitra, New Delhi, 1985, pp. 419-48.
11. Johnson, The Organization of Space in Developing Countries, p. 169 n. Johnson recognised that smaller periodic bazaars existed, but saw them as playing no real integrative function. His conclusion that England of the sixteenth century was well served by markets, and that India of the twentieth century was not, was derived in great part from noncomparable definitions of market towns. No doubt, many of the early English markets on his maps did not possess populations of 2,500, the lower limit he sets for Indian markets.
12. For instance, Bohle, 'South Indian Weekly Markets'.
13. See especially several of the essays in Carol A. Smith, ed., Regional Analysis, Vol. I, Economic Systems, New York, 1976. While such locational analysis may be too confident of its scientific character and may often ignore unique historical and geographical forces that shape the location of particular places, I would argue it does identify some general factors that influence spatial patterns.
14. Walter Christaller, Die Zentralen Orte in Suddeutschland, Jena, 1933;
15. G. William Skinner, 'Marketing and Social Structure in Rural China', Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 24 (1, 2 and 3), 1965, pp. 3-44, 195-228, 363-99.
16. Klara Bonsack Kelley, 'Dendritic Central-Systems and the Regional Organization of Navajo Trading Posts', in Smith, ed., Regional Analysis, p. 219.
17. Carol A. Smith, 'Causes and Consequences of Central-Place Types in Western Guatemala', in Smith, ed., Regional Analysis, pp. 255-300. See also Smith's introduction in her volume, pp. 28-44.
18. See scattered references in Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, Vol. 12. Khandesh (hereafter KDG) Bombay, 1880, pp. 440-75;
19. also Stewart Gordon, 'Kinship and Pargana in Eighteenth-Century Khandesh', in Gordon, ed., Marathas, Marauders, and State Formation in Eighteenth-Century India, Delhi, 1994, 122-54;
20. for towns in eighteenth century Maratha territories more generally, see Guha, 'Potentates, Traders and Peasants', pp. 71-73.
21. Arvind Deshpande, John Briggs in Maharashtra: A Study of District Administration under Early British Rule, Delhi, 1987, pp. 28-36.
22. Sumit Guha, 'Forest Polities and Agrarian Empires: The Khandesh Bhils, c. 1700-1850', in Indian Economic and Social History Review (hereafter IESHR), Vol. 33(2), 1996, pp. 133-52;
23. Captain Wingate, Report by Captain Wingate, Revenue Survey Commissioner, on the Plan of Survey and Assessment Most Suitable to the Province of Khandesh, Selections from the Records of the Bombay Presidency (hereafter Selections), Old Series, No. 1, Bombay, 1852;
24. Monstuart Elphinstone, Report of the Territories Conquered from the Paishwa, Calcutta, 1821, pp. 4-7.
25. Deshpande, John Briggs in Maharashtra, p. 126;
26. Collector, Khandesh to Registrar of the Sudder Fauzdaree Adaulat, 18 September 1852 in Maharashtra State Archives (hereafter MSA), Judicial Department (hereafter JD) 1852, Vol. 9, Comp. 98, p. 11.
27. Guha, 'Forest Polities and Agrarian Empires', p. 144.
28. Guha, Forest Polities and Agrarian Empires Ibid., pp. 150-53;
29. Deshpande, John Briggs in Maharashtra, pp. 149-51.
30. KDG, p. 214;
31. Captain Wingate, Report by Captain Wingate, pp. 13-14.
32. Administrative Report of Khandesh District, 1873, in MSA, Revenue Dept. (hereafter RD) 1874, Vol. 6, Comp. 1173, p. 8.
33. Sumit Guha, 'Commodity and Credit in Upland Maharashtra', Economic and Political Weekly (hereafter EPW), Vol. 22(52), 26 December 1987, pp. A-126 to A-140.
34. A classic discussion of capitalist control over small peasants is found in Jairus Banaji, 'Capitalist Domination and the Small Peasantry: Deccan Districts in the Late Nineteenth Century', EPW, Vol. 12 (33 and 34), August 1977, pp. 1375-1404.
35. Guha, 'Commodity and Credit in Upland Maharashtra'.
36. See also Guha's 'The Land Market in Upland Maharashtra, c. 1820-1960', IESHR, Vol. 24 (2 and 3), 1987, pp. 117-44 and 291-322,
37. and his book, The Agrarian Economy of the Bombay Deccan, 1818-1941, Delhi, 1985, pp. 129-31.
38. David Hardiman disputes the general applicability of Guha's argument for all of upland Maharashtra, but accepts the characterisation for cotton-growing areas of Khandesh. See Hardiman's Feeding the Baniya: Peasants and Usurers in Western India, Delhi, 1996, pp. 273-309, esp. p. 283.
39. Government of India, Royal Commission on Agriculture in India. Vol. 2, Part 2, Evidence Taken in the Bombay Presidency, London, 1927, p. 310;
40. Testimony of V.V. Garud and Written Evidence of Dhulia Taluka Agricultural Development Association in MSA, Bombay Provincial Banking Enquiry Committee files (hereafter BPBEC), 1929-30, File 22/WR, and Testimony of East Khandesh Central Cooperative Bank, Jalgaon in MSA, BPBEC, File 30/10.
41. Administrative Report of West Khandesh, 1906-07 in MSA, RD, 1908, Vol. 22, Comp. 511, Pt. 9.
42. Report of the Assistant Collector from Pachora, Chalisgaon and Jamner, July 1891 in MSA, RD 1892, Vol. 16, Comp. 1743, Pt. 3, p. 309.
43. Papers Relating to the Revision Survey Settlement (hereafter RSS) of 227 villages of the Erandol Taluka of the Khandesh Collectorate, Selections, New Series (hereafter NS), No. 239, Bombay 1890, p. 9.
44. Report of the District Deputy Collector, Southern Division, Khandesh, 20 July 1893 in MSA, RD 1893, Vol. 21, Comp. 67, Pt. 6, pp. 241, 337;
45. Administrative Report of Khandesh District, 1903-04, in MSA, RD 1905, Vol. 18, Comp. 281, Pt. 2, p. 19;
46. Administrative Report of East Khandesh District, 1906-07 in MSA, RD 1908, Vol. 22, Comp. 511; Pt. 9, pp. 15, 261-63. There are repeated references to rising wage rates in other administrative reports of this time as well.
47. Wingate, Report by Captain Wingate, p. 13.
48. Collector, Khandesh District, to Registrar of the Sudder Fauzdaree Adaulat, 18 September 1852, in MSA, JD 1852, Vol. 9, Comp. 98, pp. 15-17.
49. James Rose, Bheel Agent, Magistrate, 7 April 1854 in MSA, JD 1854, Vol. 49, No. 790.
50. Assistant Magistrate, Khandesh to Magistrate, Khandesh, 6 April 1842, in MSA, JD 1842, Vol. 39/816, Comp. 190, p. 37.
51. Report on Mhyjee Fair, 26 April 1866 in MSA, JD 1866, Vol. 10, Comp. 615, p. 101.
52. Prices in general more than doubled during this period. See Michelle McAlpin, 'Price Movements and Fluctuations in Economic Activity (1860-1947)', in Dharma Kumar, ed., The Cambridge Economic History of India, Vol. 2. c. 1757-c. 1970, Cambridge, 1982, pp. 878-904.
53. I am not able to account fully for the unprecedented year in 1857. These statistics, gathered by the British as they collected taxes on the fair, are of course problematic as exact figures, but may be used to provide some idea of the general level of commercial activity.
54. Assistant Magistrate, Khandesh to Magistrate, Khandesh, 6 April 1842, in MSA, JD 1842, Vol. 39/816, Comp. 190, p. 19.
55. Collector, Khandesh to Registrar of the Sudder Fauzdaree Adalat, 18 September 1852 in MSA, JD 1852, Vol. 9, Comp. 98, pp. 9-11;
56. Letter from Mr Binny, Dharangaon, 4 August 1852 in MSA, JD 1852, Vol. 9, Comp. 98, pp. 26-27.
57. Report of Second in Command, 2nd Bheel Corps to Magistrate Khandesh, 2 April 1860 in MSA, JD 1860, Vol. 45, Comp. 587.
58. J. Nissim, Monograph on Wire and Tinsel in the Bombay Presidency, Bombay, 1909, p. 9.
59. See Nissim, Monograph, p. 9;
60. Administrative Report, Maheji Municipality, in MSA, General Department (hereafter GD) 1896, Vol. 10, Comp. 480, p. 11;
61. Annual Report of the Mhyjee Fair, 1864 in MSA, JD 1865, Vol. 19. Comp. 127, p. 188.
62. See Superintendent, Mhyjee Fair, 10 May 1859, in MSA, JD 1859, Vol. 51, Comp. 589.
63. Papers Relating to the RSS of the Pachora Taluka of the Khandesh Collectorate, Selections, NS, No. 266, Bombay, 1893, p. 5.
64. Petition of Rajaram Shankarsett Wanee and others, Merchants and Traders of Erandole, Jalgoan, Berhanpore, Amalner, Dhurangaon, Nasseerabad, Parola and Yewla in MSA, GD (Plague) 1899, Vol. 606, Comp. 245, p. 99.
65. Categories were not identical from year to year. I have tried to make figures comparable. Totals may differ from the sum of specific items due to amounts of goods unsold (usually small).
66. Collector of Khandesh to Secy., Govt. of Bombay, 18 May 1859 in MSA, JD 1859, Vol. 51, Comp. 589, Preface.
67. Such figures are apparently not available for much later dates.
68. Report, Assistant Collector, Khandesh to Collector, 7 May 1858, in MSA, JD 1858, Vol. 45, Comp. 940, p. 72.
69. See also the Report for 1856 in MSA, JD 1856, Vol. 44, Comp. 500, p. 12.
70. Report on Mhyjee Fair, 7 June 1865 in MSA, JD 1866, Vol. 10, Comp. 615, p. 5.
71. The figures for 1883 and 1884 are inflated because of the unusually high value of volume in bills of exchange; nearly Rs 4,100,000 of business in hundis were done in both years, and some of this clearly was for items not passing through the fair.
72. Ibid.
73. Papers Relating to the Second RSS of the Pachora Taluka and Bhadgaon Peta, Selections, NS, No. 598, Bombay, 1924, p. 9.
74. Collector, Khandesh to Registrar of the Sudder Fauzdaree Adalat, 18 September 1852 in MSA, JD 1852, Vol. 9, Comp. 98, p. 11.
75. See 'Potentates, Traders and Peasants', p. 82. According to Guha's figures, the 41 principal towns of Khandesh collectively imported Rs 232,105 of grain on an annual basis, and exported other goods worth Rs 78,312. While not precisely comparable to the statistics available for Maheji, they do seem to suggest a volume of trade significantly below the fair.
76. Skinner, 'Marketing and Social Structure', esp. pp. 5-9. I use the term 'minor bazaar' and 'bazaar' instead of Skinner's 'minor market' and 'standard market' largely because the two types of markets do not appear to be exact equivalents. All bazaars in Khandesh appearing in the records carried consumer items from outside (in contrast to Skinner's minor markets) and none carried much commerce in commercial crops (in contrast to Skinner's standard market). The terms 'intermediate market towns' and 'central market towns' seem to work very well in the Khandesh examples.
77. Skinner, 'Marketing and Social Structure', p. 7.
78. Papers Relating to. . . . Pachora Taluka.
79. Papers Relating to the RSS of the Chalisgaon Taluka of the Khandesh Collectorate, Selections, New Series (NS), No. 350, Bombay, 1896.
80. KDG, p. 217.
81. Papers Relating to the Introduction of Revised Rates of Assessment in Eight Talookas and Two Pettas of the Khandesh Collectorate (1854-62), Selections, NS, No. 93, Bombay, 1865, pp. 135-36.
82. Based upon figures for bazaars in Jalgaon during the 1920s, in Papers Relating to the Second RSS of the Jalgaon Taluka of the East Khandesh District, Selections, NS, No. 593, Bombay, 1922, p. 3. More minor marts in Jalgaon had 200-300 attendees.
83. Differences between the two were more of scale than function. I did feel it important to use two separate terms, otherwise markets doing Rs 25 a week and those doing Rs 1,500 a week would appear equivalent.
84. Papers Relating to . . . Chalisgaon Taluka; Papers Relating to the RSS of the Jalgaon Taluka of the Khandesh Collectorate, Selections, NS, No. 262, Bombay, 1892.
85. See Papers Relating to the RSS of the Sindkhed Taluka of the Khandesh Collectorate, Selections, NS, No. 273, Bombay, 1893
86. Papers Relating to the RSS of the Jamner Taluka of the Khandesh Collectorate, Selections, NS, No. 250, Bombay, 1896.
87. Skinner, 'Marketing and Social Structure in Rural China', pp. 10-16.
88. Papers Relating to. . . . Jalgaon Taluka, appendix.
89. Papers Relating to. . . . Chalisgaon Taluka, p. 8.
90. Papers Relating to the Second Revision Settlement of the Chalisgaon Taluka, Selections, NS, No. 614, Bombay, 1927, p. 8.
91. Indian Central Cotton Committee, General Report on Eight Investigations into the Finance and Marketing of Cultivators' Cotton, 1925-28, Bombay, 1928.
92. KDG, pp. 216-17.
93. KDG, pp. 216-17. Ibid.
94. Papers Relating to the Second Revision Settlement of Erandol Taluka of the East Khandesh District, Selections, NS, No. 595, Bombay, 1923, p. 5.
95. KDG, pp. 215-17.
96. Papers Relating to . . . the Chalisgaon Taluka, p. 8.
97. Papers Relating to the Second RSS of Chalisgaon Taluka, p. 8.
98. Papers Relating to the Second Revision Settlement of Pachora Taluka and Bhadgaon Peta, appendix.
99. KDG, p. 442.
100. Govt. of India, Royal Commission on Agriculture in India, Vol. II, Pt. II, Evidence Taken in the Bombay Presidency, London, 1927, p. 310;
101. Papers Relating to the RSS of the Dhulia Taluka of the Khandesh Collectorate, Selections, NS, No. 375, Bombay, 1898, p. 6. Several settlement reports from surrounding talukas mention the importance of Dhulia to the export of cotton in the area they cover.
102. KDG, pp. 442-43.
103. Papers Relating to . . . Dhulia Taluka, p. 8;
104. Papers Relating to the Second Revision Settlement of the Dhulia Taluka of the West Khandesh District. Selections, NS, No. 583, Bombay, 1921.
105. Sources are the various taluka settlement reports found in Selections.
106. The density of markets in areas further to the east was even higher, but I was unable to obtain all the taluka maps needed to construct a map of that area.
107. One very strong determinant of market placement was location on communication lines - railroads, roads and rivers.
108. Interview with Chandu Rajkotia, Jalgaon, 1996, and with merchants in Malegaon and Yeola.
109. Guha, 'Commodity and Credit in Upland Maharashtra', A-134-A-135.
110. Hardiman, Feeding the Baniya, chapter Seven, esp. p. 139.
111. Hardiman sees this form of dependence as confined to some of the poorest tracts. For Khandesh, see Administrative Report of the Western Division, Pimpalner, 1892-93, in MSA, RD 1894, Vol. 25, Comp. 1087, p. 165;
112. Administrative Report of West Khandesh, 1908-09, in MSA, RD 1910, Vol. 17, Comp. 511, Pt 14, p. 131.
113. Interview with A.D. Wasave, Dhulia, July 1997.
114. Testimony of B.V. Halbe, Senior Inspector Dondaicha Division, 27 October 1929, in MSA, BPBEC, File 30/9, p. 3; KDG, pp. 218-19.
115. Papers Relating to the RSS of the Taloda Taluka of the Khandesh Collectorate, Selections, NS, No. 387, Bombay, 1899.
116. Papers Relating to the Revision Settlement of the Nandurbar Taluka of the West Khandesh Collectorate, Selections, NS, No. 510, Bombay, 1912.
117. Papers Relating to. . . . Taloda Taluka, p. 3.
118. Papers Relating to. . . . Nandurbar Taluka, p. 4.
119. Papers Relating to. . . . Taloda Taluka, p. 16.
120. Papers Relating to the Second Revision Settlement of the Amalner and Parola Talukas of the East Khandesh District, Selections, NS, No. 585, Bombay, 1921, p. 10.
121. For instance, K. Bhardwaj, 'A View on the Commercialisation of Agriculture in India', Journal of Peasant Studies, Vol. 12(4), 1985, pp. 7-25.