Bania (caste)

For the Nepalese community, see Bania (Newar caste).

Bania (also spelled Baniya, Banija, Banya, Vaniya, Vani, Vania, and Vanya)^[1] is a mercantile caste primarily from the Indian states of Rajasthan and Gujarat, with significant diasporic communities in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Maharashtra (particularly Mumbai) and northern states of India.^[2][3][4]

Traditionally, the Bania community has been associated with occupations such as trade, banking, and money-lending. In modern times, many members of the community are involved in various business and entrepreneurial ventures.^[5][6]

Etymology

The Hindi term baniyā is derived from Sanskrit vaṇija ("trader"), whereas the Marwari bā̃ṇyõ and Gujarati vāṇiyo are derived from Sanskrit vāṇija ("trader").^[7] The community is also known by the term "vanik".^[8]

In Bengal the term Bania is a functional catch-all for moneylenders, indigenously developed bankers, readers of grocery items and spices, irrespective of caste.^[2]

Society

16th century Portuguese painting of a Baneane merchant man and woman from Cambay.

The community is composed of several sub-castes including the Agarwal, Khandelwal, Maheshwari, Oswal, Porwad and Shrimali Baniyas, among others.^{[3][9][10][11]} Traditionally (dating to at least the 15th century), the Gujarati Baniyas had 84 divisions (as did Gujarati Brahmins), although many were simply formulaic. Subcastes are also divided into Visa and Dasa divisions, which are also centuries old, and prohibit intermarriage.^[12]

Most Banias are followers of either Hinduism or Jainism, but a few have converted to Sikhism, Islam, Christianity and Buddhism.^[13][14][15] In Gujarat, Hindu Banias are largely Vaishnavas and are followers of Vallabhacharya.^[16][17] It is hypothesized by historians that the Vaishnav Vaniyas of Gujarat are the descendants of the now-extinct Buddhist merchants who were formerly present in the region.^[17]

Banias are composed of caste in the mercantile and business fields, which have delineated the Baniya identity.^[18] The term baniya has historically been applied to various mercantile communities who belong to diverse castes.^[17]

Bania men of Surat, Gogo, and Ahmedabad, Gujarat, British India.

Bania women in British India. Image taken before 1860.

Baniyas are vegetarians, and some groups have greater restrictions on the foods that can be consumed. They also take care not to kill insects when preparing and eating food.^[19]

Baniyas were known to be hard working and frugal. Only minimum expenses would be made on clothing, food, and furniture.^[19]

During the day, Baniya boys were sent to schools called patshalas where they would learn business skills and habits. They learned how to read and write, as well as in secret merchant scripts that were hidden from non-Baniyas. They also learned ciphers, accounting, and arithmetic. The correctness of mathematical calculations was extremely important to Baniyas, and they learnt various methods and tricks so they could perform advanced mental arithmetic. A mercantile ethos was also instilled in the boys, as they learned the chief aim of life was to acquire wealth and only profitable transactions were worthwhile. After school hours, boys would spend time in the family shop and learn the business. After education was complete boys would try to start their own businesses and if successful, would be allowed to manage the family business.^[19]

When Baniyas made transactions, they often had dubious qualities that allowed the accumulation of many small profits. These include short-weighing, adulteration of products, and regular undervaluation of a debt repayments. They were also known for being well-spoken and not confrontational. They were very secretive about their business accounts, and would use secret scripts or illegible handwriting. Often two sets of account books were kept, one for showing officials if needed, and one only for family. Business dealings were kept within the family, and in cases of dispute other Baniyas would arbitrate in order to keep business deals secret from non-Baniyas. Their preference for compromises instead of confrontations often led non-Baniyas to think of them as cowardly.^[19]

In order to prepare for further business success, Baniyas also had to have high levels of information access. They had messengers, intelligence networks, and postal services in order to make sure that they knew about any important knowledge as early as possible. Such information was often used in speculation in futures exchanges, which in turn sometimes turned into gambling.^[19]

Baniyas of Delhi

Honour was very important to Baniyas, which they called abru. Their honour was tied to their credit worthiness, which were valued higher than their lives. A bankrupt Baniya was stigmatised, and those who were caught to be dishonest with another Baniya were boycotted, bankrupted, and stigmatised. Honour was also tied to socioreligious conduct, as maintaining marital relations within the community, having a strong patriarch, and adherence to religious principles were all highly valued.^[19]

Wealthy Baniyas only spent large sums of money for specific purposes: hosting feasts, buying jewellery (mainly for women), construction of havelis, and the most honourable being donating to religious causes such as temples or religious festivals. Such displays of wealth allowed Baniyas to show their status and high honour.^[19]

Baniyas historically are very religious, with the Jain and Hindu Vaishnavs' beliefs, rituals, prayers, and ceremonies being often very similar. Pushtimarg Vaishnavs would perform emotional seva to Krishna, and Jains would be austere and follow the Jain vows. Lakshmi Puja was performed by Baniyas, for Lakshmi to bestow wealth and welfare on the family.^[19]

According to Basu, the culture of Gujarati Baniyas is viewed ambivalently by outsiders, stating "on the one hand, it is associated negatively with usury and commercial calculation, and on the other, it carries positive connotations of Jaina and Vaiṣṇava religious traditions that place special emphasis upon values of vegetarianism, nonviolence ( ahiṃsā ), and purity".^[17]

They are described as belonging to the Vaishya varna.^[20]

Notable people

Main article: List of Baniyas

• Thakkar Pheru (early 14th century) (Shrimali), treasurer, mint director, and numismatics author in the court of Alauddin Khalji^[21]
• Jhaveri family (Oswal)^[22]
  • Shantidas Jhaveri (1584–1659), Indian jeweller, bullion trader, and moneylender^[23]
  • Khushalchand Jhaveri (1680–1748), Indian jeweller and financier^[22]
  • Lalbhai Dalpatbhai (1863-1912), Gujarati industrialist^[23]
• Jagat Seth family (Oswal), merchant, banker and money lender family in Bengal^[24][25]
• Girdhar (1787–1852) (Lad), Gujarati poet^[26]
• Family of Mahatma Gandhi (Modh)^{[27][note 1][29]}
• Premchand Roychand (1832–1906) (Oswal), 19th century Indian businessman and founder of Bombay Stock Exchange.^[30]
• Karsandas Mulji (1832-1871) (Kapol), Gujarati writer and social reformer^{[31][note 2][33]}
• Mangaldas Nathubhai (1832-1890) (Kapol), Gujarati merchant in Bombay^[34]
• Hargovinddas Kantawala (1844-1930), Gujarati writer^[31]
• Birla family (Maheshwari), a prominent Business and Industrialist family.^{[35][note 3]}
• Lala Lajpat Rai (1865-1912) (Agarwal), Indian independence activist.^[37][38][39]
• Krishnalal Jhaveri (1868-1957), Indian scholar and judge^[40]
• Seth Hukumchand (1874-1959), Indian industrialist^[41]
• Walchand Hirachand (1882-1953), Indian industrialist and founder of Walchand group^[42][43]
• Maithili Sharan Gupt (1886-1964), Hindi poet.^[44]
• Sarabhai family (Dasa Shrimali), a prominent Business family.^[45][46]
• Ram Manohar Lohia (1910-1967), Indian independence activist.^[47]
• Dalmia and Sahu Jain families, industrialist families^[48]
• Dhirubhai Ambani (1932-2002), 20th century Indian businessman.^[49]
• Amit Shah (1964-present), Indian politician.^[50][51]
• Arvind Kejriwal (1968-present), Indian politician and current Chief Minister of Delhi.^[52]
• Brij Behari Prasad, former Science and Technology minister in Lalu Prasad Yadav's cabinet.^[53]

See also

• Vaishya

Notes

1. The Gandhis were expelled from their caste when Mahatma Gandhi crossed the seas.^[28]
2. Karsandas Mulji was expelled from his caste for travelling to England in 1862, and he never attempted to rejoin.^[32]
3. The Birlas were expelled from their caste in 1922 when Rameshwar Das Birla married a Kolvar woman.^[36]

References

1. Haynes, Douglas E. (30 October 1991). Rhetoric and Ritual in Colonial India: The Shaping of a Public Culture in Surat City, 1852-1928. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-06725-7.
2. Schrader, Heiko (1997). Changing financial landscapes in India and Indonesia: sociological aspects of monetization and market integration. LIT Verlag Münster. p. 68. ISBN 978-3-8258-2641-3.
3. Hanks, Patrick (8 May 2003). Dictionary of American Family Names. Oxford University Press. pp. xcvi, 103. ISBN 978-0-19-977169-1. The Banias of northern India are really a cluster of several communities, of which the Agarwal Banias, Oswal Banias, and Porwal Banias are mentioned separately in connection with certain surnames
4. Other citations for native and diaspora region

   • Anthony Webster; Ulbe Bosma; Jaime de Melo (13 October 2015). Commodities, Ports and Asian Maritime Trade Since 1750. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 161. ISBN 9781137463920. By the late eighteenth century, a large number of Bania and Parsi merchants had relocated to Bombay.
   • Aniketh Aga (2021). Genetically Modified Democracy: Transgenic Crops in Contemporary India. Yale University Press. p. 187. ISBN 9780300262582.
   • Jeffery, Roger; Jeffrey, Craig; Lerche, Jens (31 March 2014). Development Failure and Identity Politics in Uttar Pradesh. SAGE Publications. p. 74. ISBN 978-93-5150-428-3.
   • Mahavir Singh (2005). Home Away from Home: Inland Movement of People in India. Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies. p. 61. ISBN 9788179750872. John Malcolm, a British traveller, wrote in 1829, 'almost every businessman in Madhya Pradesh is a Baniya. Most of them are Marwaris from Rajasthan and some from Gujarat'
5. Hardiman, David (1996b). "Usury, Dearth and Famine in Western India". Past & Present (152): 113–156. doi:10.1093/past/152.1.113. ISSN 0031-2746. JSTOR 651058.
6. Cheesman, David (1982). "'The Omnipresent Bania:' Rural Moneylenders in Nineteenth-Century Sind". Modern Asian Studies. 16 (3): 445–462. doi:10.1017/S0026749X00015262. ISSN 0026-749X. JSTOR 312116. S2CID 145722413.
7. Turner, Ralph Lilley (1962–1985). A Comparative Dictionary of the Indo-Aryan Languages. Oxford University Press. pp. 655, 670.
8. Hardiman 1996, p. 62.
9. Pradesh (India), Madhya; Krishnan, V. S. (1971). Madhya Pradesh District Gazetteers: Supplement. Government Central Press. p. 142.
10. Kotani, Hiroyuki (2002). "Rural and Urban Caste Structure in Eighteenth-Nineteenth Century India: The Deccan and Gujarat". In Panikkar, K.N.; Byres, Terence J.; Patnaik, Utsa (eds.). The Making of History: Essays Presented to Irfan Habib. Anthem Press. p. 196.
11. Shah, A.M. (1998). The Family in India: Critical Essays. Orient Longman. p. 136. For example, just as there were Modh Vanias, there were Modh Brahmins, and similarly Khadayata Vanias and Khadayata Brahmins, Shrimali Vanias and Shrimali Brahmins, Nagar Vanias and Nagar Brahmins, and so on.
12. Hardiman 1996, p. 63.
13. Marenco, Ethne K. (1974). The Transformation of Sikh Society. HaPi Press. p. 151. The Banias were again predominantly Hindu, but there were many Jain Banias and also Sikh and Muslim Banias in lesser numbers, and very few Buddhist Banias. Such was the picture in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
14. Tyler, Stephen A. (1986). India: An Anthropological Perspective. Waveland Press. p. 186. ISBN 978-0-88133-245-2. Some, like the Khojah caste, are Bania groups converted to Islam by Muslim pirs (saints).
15. John, Jose Kalapura (2000). "King, Fort, Zamindaris and Missionaries: The Founding of Bihar's Oldest Christian Community, 1745". Proceedings of the Indian History Congress. 61: 1011–1028. ISSN 2249-1937. JSTOR 44148177.
16. Rajeev Bhargava; Amiya Kumar Bagchi; R. Sudarshan (1999). Multiculturalism, Liberalism, and Democracy. Oxford University Press. p. 228. ISBN 978-0-19-564824-9. Most of the Hindu banias of Gujarat in the nineteenth century were followers of Vallabhcharya of the Vaishnava sect; the rest were Jains or Shravaks.
17. Tambs-Lyche, Harold. "Trade and Merchants". In Jacobsen, Knut A.; Basu, Helene; Malinar, Angelika; Narayanan, Vasudha (eds.). Brill's Encyclopedia of Hinduism Online. Brill.
18. Hardiman 1996, p. 63-67.
19. Hardiman, David (1996). Feeding the Baniya: Peasants and Usurers in Western India. Oxford University Press. pp. 62–92.
20. Citations mentioning vaishya caste:

    • Lawrence A. Babb (1975). The Divine Hierarchy: Popular Hinduism in Central India. Columbia University Press. p. 15. ISBN 9780231038829. The term Bania is used generally for mercantile castes in North and Central India, and these castes are accorded Vaishya status in the varna system.
    • Irawati Karve (1990). Kinship Organization in India. Munshiram Manoharlal. p. 7. ISBN 9788121505048. Vaishya generally go by various names : Vaishya, Bania, Vani, Sethi and Shetti.
    • Luis Cabrera (2020). The Humble Cosmopolitan: Rights, Diversity, and Trans-state Democracy. Oxford University Press. p. 27. ISBN 978-0-19-086950-2. Baniya, also written as bania, is a merchant caste or community within the Vaishya occupational varna.
    • Clara Neary (2023). Gandhi's Autobiographical Construction of Selfhood: The Story of His Experiments with Truth. Springer International Publishing. p. 87. ISBN 9783031227868. The Bania is a sub-caste (or jati) of the Vaishya caste (or varna). Vaishyas are tradition-ally the merchant class and are placed third in the hierarchical ordering of the four varnas of traditional Hinduism.
    • Census of India, 1961 Volume 19, Issue 6, Part 6. Office of the Registrar General, India. 1964. p. 9. Baniya The Baniyas who belong to Vaishya Varna carry on trade in the village . They also do money - lending business . In fact it is the only community in the village which is following its traditional occupation.
21. Sheikh, Samira (2010). Forging a Region: Sultans, Traders, and Pilgrims in Gujarat, 1200–1500. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-908879-9.
22. Sheth 2024, p. 6.
23. Sheth, Sudev (2024). Bankrolling Empire: Family Fortunes and Political Transformation in Mughal India. Cambridge University Press. pp. 6, 296. ISBN 9781009330268.
24. Ray, Aniruddha (2017). Towns and Cities of Medieval India. Routledge. p. 508.
25. Roy, Tirthankar (2018). A Business History of India: Enterprise and the Emergence of Capitalism from 1700. Cambridge University Press. p. 48.
26. Sāṭhe, Gajānana Narasiṁha; Bhaṭṭa, Dīneśa Harilāla. गिरधर-कृत रामायण Giradhara-Kr̥ta Rāmāyaṇa (in Hindi). Vāṇī Presa. pp. 17–18.
27. Guha, Ramachandra (15 October 2014). Gandhi before India. Penguin Books Limited. p. 42. ISBN 978-93-5118-322-8. The subcaste the Gandhis belonged to was known as Modh Bania, the prefix apparently referring to the town of Modhera, in Southern Gujarat
28. Roberts, Elizabeth Mauchline (2019). Gandhi, Nehru and Modern India. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-000-63959-9.
29. Guha, Ramachandra (2014). Gandhi Before India. Alfred A. Knopf. p. 42. ISBN 978-0-385-53229-7.
30. Subramanian, Lakshmi (15 January 2016). Three Merchants of Bombay. Penguin Books Limited. ISBN 9788184757217.
31. Prasad, Bibeshwar (1968). Ideas in history; proceedings. Asia Publishing House. p. 124. ISBN 9780210268643.
32. Yagnik, Achyut; Sheth, Suchitra (2005). The Shaping of Modern Gujarat: Plurality, Hindutva, and Beyond. Penguin Books. p. 79.
33. Saha, Shandip (2004). Creating a Community of Grace: A History of the Puṣṭi Mārga in Northern and Western India (1493-1905) (Thesis). University of Ottawa. p. 274.
34. Desai, Neera (1978). Social Change in Gujarat: A Study of Nineteenth Century Gujarati Society. Vora & Co. p. 442.
35. Dwijendra Tripathi; Jyoti Jumani (2007). The concise Oxford history of Indian business. Oxford University Press. p. 88. ISBN 978-0-19-568429-2. One of them was Ghanshyamdas Birla, whose family symbolized more than any other Marwari, the transition of the community from trade to industry . Maheshwari Bania by caste, the Birlas originated from Pilani in the Shekhavati region of Rajasthan, which had been the original homeland of Marwari migrants.
36. Weinberger-Thomas, Catherine (1999) [1996]. Ashes of Immortality: Widow-Burning in India (Translated ed.). University of Chicago Press. p. 177. ISBN 978-0-22688-568-1.
37. Ahmad, Dohra (2 March 2009). Landscapes of Hope: Anti-Colonial Utopianism in America. Oxford University Press. p. 221. ISBN 978-0-19-971569-5.
38. Burra, Neera (15 February 2018). A Memoir of Pre-Partition Punjab: Ruchi Ram Sahni, 1863–1948. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-909130-0.
39. Bhargar, Vanya Vaidehi (2024). Being Hindu, Being Indian: Lala Lajpat Rai's Ideas of Nationhood. Penguin Books.
40. Desai 1978, p. 446.
41. Markovits, Claude (1985). Indian Business and Nationalist Politics 1931-1939: The indigenous capitalist class and the rise of the Congress Party. Cambridge University Press. p. 32.
42. Schrader, Heiko (1997). Changing Financial Landscapes in India and Indonesia. Lit. p. 130.
43. Damodaran, Harish (2018). India's New Capitalists: Caste, Business, and Industry in a Modern Nation. Hachette. ISBN 978-93-5195-280-0.
44. Sunītā, Ela (1984). Maithilīśaraṇa Gupta kā kāvya: Saṃskr̥ta srota ke sandarbha meṃ (in Hindi). Hindī Vibhāga, Kocina Viśvavidyālaya. p. 20.
45. Entrepreneurship and Industry in India, 1800-1947. Oxford University Press. 1992. p. 44. ISBN 978-0-19-562806-7. The Sarabhais and the Lalbhais, the town's two most prominent entrepreneurial families, were Jain Banias prominent as shroffs.
46. Shah, Amrita. Vikram Sarabhai: A Life. Penguin Limited. p. 4.
47. Somanaboina, Simhadri; Ramagoud, Akhileshwari (15 November 2021). The Routledge Handbook of the Other Backward Classes in India: Thought, Movements and Development. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-000-46280-7.
48. Jones, Stephanie (1992). Merchants of the Raj: British Managing Agency Houses in Calcutta Yesterday and Today. Macmillan Press. p. 411.
49. Rowley, Chris; Rama, Marie dela (3 May 2017). The Changing Face of Corruption in the Asia Pacific: Current Perspectives and Future Challenges. Elsevier. p. 210. ISBN 978-0-08-101230-7.
50. Rathore, Aakash Singh; Nandy, Ashis (18 December 2019). Vision for a Nation: Paths and Perspectives. Penguin Random House India Private Limited. ISBN 978-93-5305-722-0.
51. Venugopal, Vasudha; Nag, Jayatri (22 March 2021). "West Bengal polls: BJP manifesto promises women safety, jobs, free transport, health care". The Economic Times. ISSN 0013-0389. Retrieved 23 July 2023.
52. "Kejriwal makes common cause with traders: I'm Baniya too". The Indian Express. 29 March 2014. Retrieved 15 June 2023. I come from a Baniya family. Most of my relatives are businessmen. I know that it is not easy to do business in this country.
53. Gupta, Smita; PTI (15 October 2007). "Pinned Lynch". Outlook. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 27 May 2022.

Further reading

• Cheesman, David (1982). "'The Omnipresent Bania:' Rural Moneylenders in Nineteenth-Century Sind". Modern Asian Studies. 16 (3): 445–462. doi:10.1017/S0026749X00015262. ISSN 0026-749X. JSTOR 312116. S2CID 145722413.
• Metcalf, Thomas R. (December 1962). "The British and the Moneylender in Nineteenth-Century India". The Journal of Modern History. 34 (4): 390–397. doi:10.1086/239182. JSTOR 1880056. S2CID 145246030.