Joe Shearer
PROFESSIONAL
- Joined
- Apr 19, 2009
- Messages
- 27,493
- Reaction score
- 162
- Country
- Location
Wasn't there an Oswal merchant who financed British against Nawab? Baniks don't seem to play to a dominant role in Bengali society as Baniyas play in North India and Gujarat (the Vania hub).
Yes.
He was OmiChand, the Jagat Seth. People get awfully confused and think that these are two different persons. Jagat Seth is the leading banker of a region - maybe a city, maybe a part of a province - who sets the interest rate, and whose lead every other banker very strictly follows. This is still prevalent in the Punjab, or was when I first went there in 1976.
I am looking forward to read the ethnographics of your tweet and blog next after this.