Hi UK50,
I found the following citation to a thesis in Digitial Dissertations
(formerly Dissertation Abstracts):
PUBLICATION NUMBER AAT 8523449
TITLE CASTE AND COMMERCE IN INDIAN SOCIETY: A CASE STUDY OF
NATTUKOTTAI CHETTIARS, 1600-1930 (INDIA)
AUTHOR RUDNER, DAVID WEST
DEGREE PhD
SCHOOL UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
DATE 1985
PAGES 484
SOURCE DAI-A 46/08, p. 2352, Feb 1986
SUBJECT ANTHROPOLOGY, CULTURAL (0326)
The dissertation presents an ethnohistorical study of the Nattukottai
Chettiars, the major banking caste of South India, from 1600 to 1930.
Based on archival and field research carried out in Tamil Nadu from
October 1979 to November 1981, it analyzes the social institutions and
activities of the caste, and demonstrates the pre-colonial roots of
Chettiar financial organization. Chapter One provides an introduction
to the Chettiars and describes previously published studies. Chapter
Two discusses the range of theoretical perspectives developed by
anthropologists and historians for interpreting Indian commerce,
generally. Chapter Three develops a model of Chettiar religious and
commercial activities in the seventeenth century, when caste members
confined their activities to small-scale, in-land salt trading.
Chapter Four provides an historical context for analyzing Chettiar
social organization by tracing the explosive growth of their Southeast
Asian financial empire from its early scattered mention in nineteenth
century East India Company documents to the prominent role it plays in
the Banking Enquiry Reports of 1930. Chapter Five describes the
'formal' organization of financial cooperation among caste members,
especially in regard to their system of deposit banking, exchange
banking, and collective decision-making about interest rates. The
'informal' bases of this organization are explored in Chapters Six and
Seven, which focus on descent-based cults and marriage alliance,
respectively. Chapter Eight concludes with a discussion of the
implications of Chettiar social organization for standard
anthropological conceptions of caste. The findings of the dissertation
bear directly on the nature of non-capitalist economic formations and
proto-industrialization, the impact of colonial rule on indigenous
commercial systems, and variety and change in India's caste and
kinship groups. They show not only that colonialization and captalist
penetration did not dissolve pre-colonial ties of caste and kinship,
but that Chettiars used these ties to take advantage of the commercial
world of colonial Southeast Asia.
In addition, the following three articles were found in Sociological
Abstracts (all are to journal articles, not theses per se):
Record 1 of 3
DN: Database Name
Sociological Abstracts
TI: Title
Merchant Houses as Spectacles of Modernity in Rajasthan and Tamil
Nadu
AU: Author
Hardgrove, Anne
SO: Source
Contributions to Indian Sociology, New Series, 2002, 36, 1-2,
Jan-Aug, 323-364
AB: Abstract
This article examines the production of visually spectacular
ancestral houses by migrant merchants in colonial South Asia
between 1860 & 1930, as well as the recent transformation of these
now-abandoned homes into sites of tourism. I primarily consider
the elaborately painted houses belonging to the migrant Marwari
traders of north India in the Shekhawati region of eastern
Rajasthan, & comment upon the south Indian ornamental houses built
by the Chettiar merchants in Madras Presidency, now known as Tamil
Nadu. I argue that these empty mansions are being rapidly
appropriated into new objects of visual consumption through
international tourism, thereby transforming spaces of the private
into spaces of public access. Visual practices in India have to be
understood as part of a global & capitalist modernity, & not just
in terms of Indian pre-modern past. Through practices of tourism,
spatial geographies of diasporic identity formation are being
re-created through a visual orientation of the past. 9 Figures, 49
References. [Copyright 2002 Sage Publications, Inc.].
Record 2 of 3
DN: Database Name
Sociological Abstracts
TI: Title
Individuality and Achievement in South Indian Social History
AU: Author
Mines, Mattison
SO: Source
Modern Asian Studies, 1992, 26, 1, Feb, 129-156
AB: Abstract
To argue that the role of the individual in India has been
understated, the Beeri Chettiars, a merchant class of Madras City,
in southern India, are studied during three time periods:
1652-1708, the moiety division of castes reflected the primary
competition of individual headmen-brokers, each of whom stood at
the apex of an intercaste production & trade network; 1717-1816,
headman-traders segmented the town into constituency domains,
enabling the heads of the moieties to compete within their own
territories for economic preeminence; & 1867-1890, leading men
garnered allies & forced a restructuring of the Beeri Chettiar
caste, curtailing the autonomous authority of headmen in the civil
courts & imposing bureaucratic standards of administration that
deflated their power. Thus, individualism does play a role in
Indian society, though not based on the values of equality &
liberty that characterize Western individualism. Different traits
include (1) individualistic social identity defined by public
reputation; (2) uniqueness marked by preeminence; (3) achieved
identity associated with a deliberate striving after personal
gain, dominance, & prestige; & (4) autonomy marked by
responsibility for who one is & what one does. 54 References. G.
Castaneda.
Record 3 of 3
DN: Database Name
Sociological Abstracts
TI: Title
Banking and Trading Castes in the Colonial Period: The Case of the
Nattukotai Chettiars of Tamil Nadu
AU: Author
Menon, Ramdas
SO: Source
South Asia Bulletin, 1985, 5, 1, spring, 19-26
AB: Abstract
An examination of the economic activities of the Nattukotai
Chettiars, a small group of bankers & moneylenders from Tamil
Nadu, India, who migrated to Southeast Asia in the early
nineteenth century & established a wealthy & influential
community. A historical analysis of the pattern of their business
operations between 1800 & the 1930s reveals that government trade
policies & lack of opportunities for investment within the
slow-growth nonagricultural sector of the Madras Presidency were
the factors primarily responsible for the Chettiars' migration to
the British colonies of Malaya, Ceylon, & Burma. This shift of
operations abroad did not mean a complete break with the
Presidency, as business headquarters & Chettiar women remained in
India, but involvement grew more limited. Some speculations are
offered as to why the Chettiars shifted from traditional
moneylending activities to industrial investment, & the
devastating effects of the Depression on their businesses are
explored. Comparisons are made to the Parsis & Marwaris, other
merchant groups operating in the colonial era. 1 Table, 30
References. K. Hyatt.
These four articles were found in the International Bibliography of
the Social Sciences:
Record 1 of 4
DN: Database Name
IBSS: International Bibliography of the Social Sciences
TI: Title
Caste and capitalism in colonial India: the Nattukottai Chettiars
AU: Author
Rudner, David West
SO: Source
American ethnologist, vol. 24 no. 1, pp. 255-256, Feb 1997
Record 2 of 4
DN: Database Name
IBSS: International Bibliography of the Social Sciences
TI: Title
Caste and capitalism in colonial India: the Nattukottai Chettiars
AU: Author
Rudner, David West
SO: Source
Contributions to Indian sociology, vol. 31 no. 1, pp. 147-148,
Jan-Jun 1997
Record 3 of 4
DN: Database Name
IBSS: International Bibliography of the Social Sciences
TI: Title
Caste and capitalism in colonial India: the Nattukottai Chettiars
AU: Author
Rudner, David West
SO: Source
Asian studies review, vol. 20 no. 1, pp. 203-205, Jul 1996
Record 4 of 4
DN: Database Name
IBSS: International Bibliography of the Social Sciences
TI: Title
Chettiar finance in colonial Asia
AU: Author
Schrader, Heiko
SO: Source
Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, vol. 121 no. 1, pp. 101-126, 1996
I hope these are of interest to you. I found them by searching
various databases (ones that yielded unique results are noted above)
for the terms "chettiar OR nagarathar". In most cases very little was
discovered.
Librariankt |
