Networks, space and belonging: the Marwaris in Manipur

ABSTRACT

This article aims to supplement existing economic analyses of the Marwari mercantile network by exploring how the network is both grounded spatially and reproduced culturally in Manipur. It discusses some of the economic and socio-cultural practices adopted by the Marwari merchants in Manipur including their business activities, marriage patterns and temple construction. In so doing, it highlights the nature of relationships between these practices and how they are connected to their mercantile network at large. The article also illustrates how merchant communities such as the Marwaris carve out their own space through cultural processes of place-making in a contested place like Manipur. Elucidating how the Marwari mercantile network gets reproduced culturally, it reveals the ways in which networks of capital relate to distinct spatial configurations – in this case, borderland. In turn, the above process also delineates how the idea of belonging for the Marwari merchants is emplaced and shaped at the same time by their mercantile network. Based primarily on interviews, observation and some documents, the materials used in this article stem mainly from Imphal and some from Churachandpur.

KEYWORDS:

• Mercantile networks
• Marwari
• Manipur
• place-making
• borderland

Acknowledgements

I thank the editor and the two anonymous reviewers for their critical feedback and insightful suggestions. I acknowledge King’s India Institute for the opportunity to present my paper at King’s India Institute Graduate Conference 2021 – Understanding Contemporary South Asia: Belonging, Functioning, Renegotiating. I extend my sincere gratitude to Dr Manjeet Baruah for his supervision.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 To develop this approach, I draw upon two similar concepts, namely, ‘mercantile capitalism’ by Dwijendra Tripathi (2004) and ‘vernacular capitalism’ by Ritu Birla (2009).

2 In this article, the term ‘tribal’ refers to the hill people who are commonly known as the hill tribes of Manipur or North East India at large, and are scheduled as ‘tribes’ under the Constitution of India. As such, those who are not included under this working framework are considered as ‘non-tribal’.

3 Geschiere (2009) analyses the discourse of belonging and identity assertion that emerged as a global problem in the 1990s. Suan (2009) also notes that all socio-economic, cultural and political development or non-development trajectories in Manipur are seen through the prism of the hills-valley divide (2009, 264).

4 In this regard, Akoijam (2001) also analyses the politics of mobilising identity, or ethnic movements in Manipur vis-à-vis the Indian state.

5 There was a recent incident where a Commandant of the 44 Assam Rifles was accused of killing a daily wager, see Sitlhou and Kipgen (2021). For more on state violence in Manipur, see Haksar and Hongray (2011); Sitlhou (2022).

6 Kipgen (2011) also discusses how political claims and demands being made by ethnic groups have unfolded in Manipur (2011, 1054).

7 The British Reserve covers the area that came under the direct administration of the Political Agent after the British conquest of Manipur in 1891 (Kamei, 2015, 195).

8 According to the Secretary of a society for Jain Marwaris in Imphal called Sree Digamber Jain Samaj (SDJS), the process for selecting commodities of trade is motivated by the philosophy of ahimsa (non-violence), animal protection and vegetarianism that are engrained in the religious tenets and principles of Jainism (Interview conducted on 23 Nov. 2019).

9 Owing to their professional skills in financial speculation, Timberg (2014) euphemistically refers to the Marwaris as ‘risk managers’ (2014, 61).

10 In the context of Assam, Sharma (2011) discusses how the Marwaris have contributed magnanimously to promoting Assamese culture, particularly in the field of art and cinema (2011, 91).

11 Timberg (2014) discusses the significance of apprenticeship among merchant communities.

12 Hardgrove (1999) suggests that the Hindu and Jain Marwaris are sociologically more integrated than we might perceive them at first glance. She argues that the distinctions between the two have become increasingly sharpened due to British colonial rule (1999, 11–12).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

S. Seigoulien Haokip

S. Seigoulien Haokip holds an MA in Sociology and Social Anthropology from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Guwahati Campus. He completed his MPhil degree in North East India Studies from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Currently, he is a PhD candidate at the Department of Anthropology and Sociology at SOAS, University of London.