Word: marwaris
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...What humanizes the characters is Chowdhury's reimagining of the Lohias' beginnings as Marwari traders. Once little more than personal bankers to the nobles of Rajputana, the Lohias are constantly reminded of their mere mercantile status and escape that humiliation by migrating all over India to seek their fortunes...
...difference, at least in this remote Shekhawati region of Rajasthan where Mandawa sits, a scorching five-and-half-hour drive through the desert from New Delhi. But rather than reminisce about the martial adventures of his forefathers, Kesri Singh is preoccupied these days with his former subjects, the "Marwari" merchants who were once moneylenders and traders in the dusty camel-filled town that sprawls around the ramparts of his castle. "We gave them military protection," he says wistfully of the Marwaris who served his forefathers. "We gave them the rule of law. We gave them everything...
These days, however, the Marwaris have it all. Lakshmi Mittal, one of the world's richest men, was born in 1950 in a village 20 minutes drive north of Mandawa. And travel a similar distance to the east, to the village of Pilani, and you will find yourself in the hometown of the Birlas, one of India's most legendary business families. The Birlas and the Mittals, as well as countless other Marwari clans, share a common history. From the 19th century onwards, when the ancient Silk Road that crisscrossed Mandawa began to be eclipsed by the steamship...
...prosperity lies outside his parched kingdom, making more frequent trips to Calcutta (now renamed Kolkata) to raise capital for his expanding operations. "He never used to go before," observes Arvind Sharma, one of Singh's former employees, now a rival hotelier in Mandawa. But how will the wealthy Marwaris of Kolkata treat the scion of their erstwhile liege? Will they remember the bad old days when their families clung to the walls of his castle, treated with scorn as grubby moneylenders? "No, no, we treat all maharajahs with great respect," says Rajesh Khaitan, a prominent Marwari lawyer and ex-politician...
...Mittals quickly moved on - and up. They belong to the Marwari caste, well-known in India for being traders and moneylenders who figure prominently in the leading business houses of India. The family left for Calcutta, a center of Marwari activity, where father Mohan Mittal became a partner in a steel company. Lakshmi graduated with a business degree from the élite St. Xavier's College in 1969 and joined his father's firm before branching out on his own. "He was very strong in numbers," recalls Sisir Bajoria, a fellow Xavier's student. Mittal split from his father...