¹ Marginal note by (?) (Sir) Antony MacDonnell to a minute claiming that the Congress was a preserve of lawyers and schoolteachers, Home Department Public (Unrecorded, Confidential) Proceedings, December 1889, 1–3, printed in Papers Connected with the ‘Report of the Councils Committee’, II, Minto Papers M 1050, National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh.

² Note by Sir Auckland Colvin on provincial councils, 11 June 1889, Home Public A August 1892, 237–52, National Archives of India, New Delhi [NAI].Google Scholar

³ E.g. Tribune, 10 December 1881, meeting at Rawalpindi in favour of English education; Tribune, 10 May 1884, report on a meeting of congratulation for Lord Ripon attended by ‘educated natives and independent traders’; Tribune, 21 March 1885, Lahore Indian Association, includes Lala Jia Ram, banker, treasurer of Bank of Bengal, Lahore, among other commercial people; Tribune, 12 September 1888, Congress meeting Peshawar attended by five local bankers; Tribune 17 August 1889, obituary of Rai Balak Ram, banker, Jullunder. Several of these men were active patrons and organizers of Punjabi political movements: they were not mere figureheads.Google Scholar

⁴ E.g. Sir Charles Crosthwaite, Actg. Lieutenant-Governor, NWP and Oudh, to Landsdowne, 18 September 1893, and enclosure 1, Lansdowne Papers, Mss Eur D 558/23, 31, India Office Library, London [IOL].Google Scholar

⁵ Based on Hill, J. L., ‘Congress and Representative Institutions in the United Provinces, 1886–1901’ (Duke University, Ph.D. thesis, 1967), p. 324, table 3, microfilm copy, Cambridge University.Google Scholar

⁶ Agrawal Jati ka Itihasa (Agarwal History Office, Bhanpura Indore State, 1938) II, 376–80. Bhagwan Das, member of the Shah family, father of Sri Prakasha. They were theosophists and nationalists.Google Scholar

⁷ A descendent of the great banker and government servant Raja Patni Mul, he was responsible for the revival of the family's commercial fortune. Interview with Rai Kishen Das, Benares Hindu University, May 1972.Google Scholar

⁸ Agrawal Jati, II, 167–8; Home Reforms B March 1921, 34–100, p. 499, NAI.Google Scholar

⁹ Advocate (Lucknow) 20 January 1907, United Provinces Native Newspaper Reports [UPNNR] for 1907.Google Scholar

¹⁰ Gordon, R. A., ‘The Hindu Mahasabha and the Indian National Congress, 1916–26’, unpublished Ms, South Asian Studies Centre, Cambridge University, p. 28, fn. 1.Google Scholar

¹¹ F. C. R. Robinson, below.Google Scholar

¹² 1891 Census, NWP & Oudh Report, XXVI, part I, 262.Google Scholar

¹³ Jain, L. C., Indigenous Banking in India (London, 1929),Google Scholar and Cooke, C. N., The Rise, Progress and Present Condition of Banking in India (Calcutta, 1863);Google Scholar a valuable discussion of late eighteenth-century banking practice is to be found in Mishra, K. P., ‘The Administration and Economy of the Banaras Region, 1738–1795’ (London University, Ph.D. thesis, 1970). The generalizations in the preliminary section of this essay derive from enquiries and extracts from bahi khatas (bankers' books) of the second half of the nineteenth century, made in Benares, Allahabad and Delhi, January to September 1972. A fuller discussion will appear elsewhere, but wherever possible I have acknowledged the help of the descendents of the mahajani families. The detailed work on Allahabad was completed during 1967–69.Google Scholar

¹⁴ See, e.g., Madhava Rau, N., Encyclopedia of North and Central India (Madras, 1933–1934), VII, 2–3.Google Scholar

¹⁵ Report of the United Provinces Provincial Banking Enquiry Committee, 1929–30 (Allahabad, 1930), II, Evidence, 58 (M. L. Shah).Google Scholar

¹⁶ Interview with Sri Radhe Mohan Hundiwallah, Suriya, Varanasi, August 1972.Google Scholar

¹⁷ In Benares, this had been the fate of the great banking houses associated with the Rajas of the city, notably the Khattri family of Lala Kashmiri Mul and the Oswal family of Lala Bachraj. By the mid-nineteenth century their descendents were little more than court pensioners. Other families made a successful leap into landholding, e.g., the Dubes of Jaunpur or the Chaddhas of Allahabad.Google Scholar

¹⁸ A house such as that of Harrakh Chand-Gopal Chand of Benares, for instance, seems by the end of the nineteenth century, to have fallen into a pattern characterized by low turnover of capital, investment of large sums in ‘solid’ magnates (e.g. the Raja of Bettiah) and relatively low profits by comparison with a flourishing hundi business like that of the Benares Shahs or the Allahabad Tandons. Rokarh Khatas, St. 1943–45, 1961–62 (A.D. 1886–87 and 1904–05), by courtesy of Sri Kumud Chandra, Dr Giresh Chandra, Chaukambha.Google Scholar

¹⁹ Tandon Khatas (‘Manohar Das Kandheya-Lal’?) St. 1950–51 (1892–93), etc., by courtesy of Sri Beni Prasad Tandon, Harimohan Das Tandon and Lalji Tandon, Ranimandi.Google Scholar

²⁰ For the economic development of the west, see, Prasad, T., The Organisation of the Wheat Trade in the North-Western Region of the United Provinces (Allahabad, 1932), p. 6;Google ScholarChatterjee, A. C., Notes on the Industries of the United Provinces (Allahabad, 1908), p. 3. For its political results see F. C. R. Robinson, below.Google Scholar

²¹ E.g. the great firm of Chunna Mal Saligram. Interview with Sri Krishna Prasad, Chandni Chowk, August 1972.Google Scholar

²² I am indebted to Sri Satyapal, National Archives of India, for preliminary enquiries in Delhi; cf. interview with Sri Devi Narain, vakil, Varanasi, May 1972.Google Scholar

²³ Title deeds in possession of the Tandon family in Ranimandi Allahabad, show that many such properties were acquired as lapsed security or in sales for debt. The Chunna Mals acquired Muslim properties in Chandni Chowk, Delhi, especially after 1857.Google Scholar

²⁴ Nevill, H. R., District Gazetteers of the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh, XXIII, Allahabad (Allahabad, 1911), 59–61;Google ScholarAgrawal Jati, II, passim; the ritual differences between ‘Western’ and ‘Eastern’ Khattris are set out in a number of obscure publications, e.g. Khattri Jati ka Itihas (Khattri Mahasabha, Moradabad, c. 1957), but are well known to all old Khattri families.Google Scholar

²⁵ E.g. one of the main branches of the Shah family, the descendents of Manohar Das Shah, established themselves at Calcutta in the 1780sGoogle Scholar. Sah, J. P., Sah Vanshavali, (Varanasi, 1956), passim. For other non-Marwari Agarwal families in Calcutta, see Agrawal Jati, II, passim.Google Scholar

²⁶ ‘Jit Mul Kalu Mul’, indigo and sugar merchants, Allahabad, Tandon Rokarh, 1892–1893; ‘Abhaya Ram Chunni Lal’, grain merchants, Benares, ‘Bhartendu Rokarh’, 1904–1905. Other Marwari families had migrated earlier into the area, direct from Rajasthan, e.g. the Juggilal Kamlapat family. Northern India Patrika, UP Supplement 11 April, 1972.Google Scholar

²⁷ Banerjea, S., A Nation in Making (London, 1925), p. 41.Google Scholar

²⁸ Tribune, 24 March 1888, 31 October 1888.Google Scholar

²⁹ Notes of Commissioner, Meerut Division, Home Poll D August 1907, 4, NAI.Google Scholar

³⁰ E.g. my own article, Modern Asian Studies, 5, 4, 1971, 289–311Google Scholar, which set up an over-mechanical model; also Robinson, F. C. R.Google Scholar, ibid, 313–336; and the important work of Baker, C. and Washbrook, D., Cambridge University Ph.D. theses, 1972 and 1973.Google Scholar

³¹ Tribune (Lahore), 10 August 1889; extract from a (?) publication of Sir Edward Watkin (untraced); the commercial notable in question must have been either Ram Charan Das, banker, or Charu Chunder Mitter, contractor.Google Scholar

³² Report on the Working of the Income Tax Act II of 1886, in the North-Western Provinces and Oudh for the year ending 31 March 1887 (Allahabad, 1887), p. 12.Google Scholar

³³ Note the tendency of lecturers to compound material and religious grievances; one itinerant sadhu ‘solicited signatures to Congress petitions to parliament for the reform of the legislative councils under the pretext that the measures would lead to the stoppage of kine-killing and the abolition of the Income-Tax’. Note on cowprotection, Judicial and Public Papers, 367, No. 257, 1894, IOL.Google Scholar

³⁴ 99 Khattris from the NWP alone attended the Lahore session of the Congress; this massive leap in numbers was clearly a gesture of solidarity with their Punjabi brethren.Google Scholar

³⁵ E.g. Malaviya's speech to the local legislative council, Speeches and Writings of Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya (G. Natesan, Madras, 1919?), introduction, p. 4.Google Scholar

³⁶ It put brakes on the transfer of land from ‘agricultural’ to ‘non-agricultural’ castes. Allahabad and Benares bankers scaled down their operations in Bundelkhand. Banking Committee Report, II, 129 (L. C. Jain).Google Scholar

³⁷ F. C. R. Robinson, below.

³⁸ Basta 36 of 1861, Judicial collection, rewards and confiscations 1858, Records of the Commissioner of Allahabad [CA]; and Rebellion in the eastern districts, rewards and punishments, 225 of 1858 Judicial, Benares Commissioners Records, Uttar Pradesh State Archives, Allahabad [UPSA]; also District Gazetteers.Google Scholar

³⁹ For one such dispute, see, e.g., answer to petition of the ‘shroffs’ of Benares regarding regulation XVI of 1824 concerning rates on stamp paper etc., Sec. to Governor-General in Council, to Agent to G-G., Benares, 3 November 1824, Benares Collectorate Records Vol. 17, 473–92, UPSA.Google Scholar

⁴⁰ North-Western Provinces Zilla Court Decisions (monthly, Agra and Allahabad 1848–1863). Commercial cases requiring scrutiny of books were referred to a panchayat of three respectable mercantile men, named by the parties themselves, under provisions of Clause 2, Section 3, Regulation VI of 1832.Google Scholar

⁴¹ F. C. R. Robinson, below.

⁴² Interview with Sri Krishna Prasad, Chandni Chowk, August 1972.

⁴³ List of municipal commissioners, Benares, 1879, President, Municipal Committee, Benares, to Commissioner, Benares, 9 July 1881, 112 Judicial of 1881, Benares Commissioners Records, UPSA.Google Scholar

⁴⁴ District Gazetteer [DG] Allahabad, p. 60.Google Scholar

⁴⁵ Family History of Cawnpore and Allahabad branches of the family, and family tree in possession of Sri Beni Prasad Tandon, Allahabad; cf. DG Allahabad, pp. 59–60, and Benares Commissioners Records, 49 Revenue of 1879, ‘pay of the Treasurer of Mirzapur collectorate’, recommendations of Sheo Prasad, son of Tunti Mul, UPSA.Google Scholar

⁴⁶ Petition of Sheo Prasad and Tulsi Ram, ibid; They attempted to gain control of the office themselves by claiming that the ex-gomashta had insufficient security.

⁴⁷ Estimated income of ‘bankers’ and ‘bankers and landowners’ in Allahabad and Cawnpore Durbar Lists, 1892, Records of Commissioner, Allahabad Division, basta 10, 57 General Administration Department [GAD] of 1892, CA; cf. ‘honorary magistrates, Jaunpur’, 164 GAD of 1883, Benares Commissioners Records, UPSA, estimates income of district's largest banker at Rs 30,000 p.a.; cf. NWP Income Tax Report, 1886–87, Appendix A.Google Scholar

⁴⁸ Until about 1870 Manohar Das, under whom the firm ‘Gappoo Mal Kandheya Lal’ made its greatest growth, lived with his whole family in a tiled kacha house on the South side of Ranimandi; they then moved into a larger one, which is still in use, but by no means opulent; Ram Charan Das built a large ‘nawabi’ style mansion at Ram Bagh in the early 1890s; a relative, Bisheshwar Das, built a large town house in Ranimandi after 1900. But this was long after the family acquired wealth and local status; within the main branch of the family, the emphasis on austerity continued. Interview with members of the Tandon family, 6 April 1972.

⁴⁹ Offg. Magistrate, Benares, to Commissioner, Benares, 5 December 1859, 25 Judicial of 1866, Benares Commissioners Records, UPSA.Google Scholar

⁵⁰ ‘Introduction of Act 20 of 1856 into Benares’, Offg. Magistrate, Benares, to Commissioner, Benares, 9 May 1860, 25 Judicial of 1856, Benares Commissioners Records, UPSA.Google Scholar

⁵¹ Interviews, May 1972, with Sri Ram Krishna, Shivala Varanasi and Sri Beni Prasad Tandon, Ranimandi, Allahabad, February-August, 1972.Google Scholar

⁵² This was the joint family represented in the 1870s and 80s by Babus Bisheshwar Prasad, Raghunath Prasad, Baijnath Prasad and Hanuman Das. Sah Vanshavali, appendix (family tree); I am very grateful to its present representative, Sri Shiva Prasad Shah, for allowing me the use of bahis in his possession.Google Scholar

⁵³ Kharach Bahi, Bysak Sudi 12, St. 1930-Cheyt Budi 15, 1937, (1870–1877). Not all items of expenditure were specified, which makes quantification difficult. But some comparisons (from the first nine months of the bahi) are instructive, as these highlight the relatively high rate of religious and ritual expenditure by comparison with the cost of running the joint family. Household servants' wages (Charkri Khata) were Rs. 4 per month; one month's puja at one of the several temples was Rs 31½ as., at another Rs 4; milk for 28 days for the family, Rs 21½ as.; puja to Ganesh, apparently a household deity, for the same period, was Rs 32 pie. Rs 4 was spent on a tilak ceremony for a connection; Rs 8 was the cost of two dhotis; sums of 2 as. were regularly spent on Ganges bathing, given to sadhus or in charity to Brahmins; the labour for constructing a bed was 1 a., flour for chappatis for a week (?) was also 1 a. Much larger sums were expended during the many religious festivals. The only substantial outgoings from the expense book were generally connected with the purchase of jewellery, a form of investment rather than a luxury. Most significant perhaps, the accounts suggest the relatively large volume of social contact afforded by acts of religious charity, compared with the circumscribed life otherwise led by a mahajani family, (Sri Matthura Das read the mahajani).Google Scholar

⁵⁴ The decline of the power of Muslim landed-groups in the cities of the Benares province, and their environs, can be traced to the patronage exercised by the Hindu rulers of Benares after they replaced the erstwhile Muslim subadars. While this was essentially family rather than ‘communal’ patronage, it is significant that Sheo Lal Dube, the archetypal new Hindu magnate, instigated the first recorded move to have Muslim cow-slaughter banned in the city limits. Proceedings of Resident of Benares 33, II, 23 July, 19 August, 1790, UPSA.Google Scholar

⁵⁵ E.g. Agent to the Governor-General, Benares, to acting secretary to government, 23 October 1809, Agent to G-G., outgoing correspondence, UPSA. There were several other instances of clashes over the Gyanbaffee mosque before 1857.Google Scholar

⁵⁶ Magistrate, Allahabad, to Commissioner, Allahabad Division, 28 October 1885, basta 208, 351 Judicial of 1885, CA.Google Scholar

⁵⁷ Pandey, Ram Gopal, Jai Janma Bhumi, Shri Ram Janma Bhumi (Ajodhia, 1970); a popular pamphlet tracing attempts by Hindus to recapture sacred lands in the area.Google Scholar

⁵⁸ Khattri Itihas (Lahore, ?, n.d.),Google Scholar and Khattri Jati ka Itihas (Moradabad, c. 1957). The Khattri and Arora communities in several UP towns claim knowledge of sanghats dating from before 1850; evidence of the organization of Khattri ‘Sikhs’ in Benares before 1800 is to be found in Proceedings of the Resident, Benares, Vol 52, 6 January 1792, case of Bedamo v. Bhowanny Singh, UPSA.Google Scholar

⁵⁹ The results were sometimes political. Upper India ‘Jains and Marwaris’ were thought to have given financial support to the extremist boycott of British goods in 1910–11 because politicians agreed to include cow-protection in their platform. UP police report, 10 January 1911, Home Poll B February 1911, 1–5, NAI.Google Scholar

⁶⁰ E.g. the support of members of the Dulhinji mahajan family for the religious sect Pustimarg Sampraday, Agrawal Jati, II, 293, 94. Another early revivalist movement closely connected with urban mercantile circles was the Radha Swami Sect, whose first guru was Tulsi Ram, an Agra banker. Farquhar, J. N., Modern Religious Movements in India (first Indian edition, 1967), p. 163. Swami Dayananda's father also seems to have been a banker.Google Scholar

⁶¹ Grierson, G. A., The Modern Vernacular Literature of Hindustan (Calcutta, 1889), p. 99.Google Scholar

⁶² Agrawal Jati, II, 29–31;Google Scholar brief family history of the Bhartendu Family in possession of Sri Kumud Chandra, Chaukambha, Varanasi; Grierson, op. cit., pp. 124–6.Google Scholar

⁶³ Bharti Bhawan Pustakalya ka Satara Varshiya Jayanti Granth (Allahabad, 1956), pp. 77–9.Google Scholar

⁶⁴ See, e.g., Hindi Pradip, 1 April 1878 (banker not specified); DG Allahabad, p. 60.Google Scholar

⁶⁵ Lala Srinivasa Das, gomashta of the firm of Lakshman Das in Delhi was author of one of the earliest Hindi novels, Pariksha Guru. I am indebted to Mr A. S. Kalsi of the Oriental Faculty, Cambridge University, for this information.Google Scholar

⁶⁶ E.g. Tribune (Lahore), 21 October 1891, refers to the publication of religious tracts with Nagri translations by Rai Nihal Chand.Google Scholar

⁶⁷ The Allahabad Hindi Sahitya Samellan was founded about 1911, but many of its prominent members, including Balkrishna Bhatt, Mahabir Prasad Dwivedi and Madan Mohan Malaviya had been connected with the Bharti Bhawan Library since the 1880s.Google Scholar

⁶⁸ E.g. Shyam Sunder Das, founder of the Sabha, and several associated writers were Khattris; prominent city bankers supported the organization. I am indebted for this information to Mr C. King of the University of Wisconsin.Google Scholar

⁶⁹ Tribune, 20 October 1888; annual report of the Meerut Association, 1882–83.Google Scholar

⁷⁰ Address of the Kashi Sujan Sabha, GAD 1917, 553, Uttar Pradesh Secretariat Records, Lucknow.Google Scholar

⁷¹ Leader, 6 May 1910.Google Scholar

⁷² Ibid., 24 June 1917.

⁷³ Hindustan (Kalakankar, Partabgarh, Hindi-English), 11 December 1888, UPNNR 1888.Google Scholar

⁷⁴ Report of the Indian National Congress[INC] 1888 (Calcutta, 1889), p. 129.Google Scholar

⁷⁵ INC 1888, pp. 119–20.Google Scholar

⁷⁶ Note on the organization of the gauraksha [sic] sabha, Judicial and Public Papers, 1894, Vol. 367, 257, IOL. The Jains and Marwaris of Cawnpore were prominent in later outbreaks of the movement, ‘Note on the Anti-Cow-Killing Agitation in the U.P., 1913–16’, Home Poll D November 1916, NAI.Google Scholar

⁷⁷ The cry of ‘religion in danger’ was raised regarding eating facilities in the Benares jail. The bankers, appealed to by the populace, said that ‘it was a matter of religion and that they would not be backward’. Gubbins, F. B., Magistrate of Benares, to E. A. Reade, Superintendant of Police, 7 August 1852, in UP State Records Series, Selections from the English Records, Banaras Affairs (1811–1858), II, 168–9, 174.Google Scholar

⁷⁸ Leader (Allahabad), 11 August 1917.Google Scholar

⁷⁹ Advocate (Lucknow), 20 January 1907, UPNNR 1907.Google Scholar

⁸⁰ Indian People (Allahabad), 15 November 1906. The drive to found a hall of residence for Hindu students at Allahabad University was suggested by Malaviya as early as 1889. It received support from Sir Antony MacDonnell (Lieutenant-Governor 1896–1902) after whom it was named.

⁸¹ Allahabad Hindu University Society Progress Report, 1914 (Allahabad, 1914), p. 49.Google Scholar

⁸² Prominent Hindu revivalist of the 1880s; class fellow of Madan Mohan Malaviya and coadjutor of his in the Sanatan Dharma Sabha (orthodox religious association).

⁸³ Circular from Malaviya and Sri Krishna Joshi, Pioneer (Allahabad), 24 September 1905. The Mahasamellan was essentially an attempt to capture the educated but orthodox Hindu revivalists alienated by the more reactionary Bharat Dharm Mahamandal (All-India Central Religious Association).

⁸⁴ The Board of the Leader included most of Allahabad's lawyer politicians such as Motilal Nehru, Tej Bahadur Sapru and Satish Chandra Bannerjee, but also Ram Charan Das, his relation, Lala Shimbhu Nath and an Agarwala banker.Google Scholar

⁸⁵ Leader ‘Jubilee Number’, 1935, p. 12.Google Scholar

⁸⁶ UP Gazette, 6 February 1909, part V, p. 23.Google Scholar

⁸⁷ Darbaris for Allahabad District, Records of the Commissioner, Allahabad Division, Post-Mutiny Records basta 10, file 57 of 1892. See Appendix.

⁸⁸ Indian People (Allahabad), 8 11 1906.Google Scholar

⁸⁹ Tandon family tradition has it that Malaviya used to ‘sit with’ or pay court to Ram Charan Das while he was still attending his religious seminary. Interview with Sri Hari Mohan Das Tandon, April 1972.

⁹⁰ Leader, 17 10 1910.

⁹¹ Hindi Pradip (Allahabad, Hindi), 17 09 1888, UPPNR 1888.

⁹² They were treasurers for all branches of the Allahabad Bank.

⁹³ DG Allahabad, p. 59.

⁹⁴ The partition entry is to be found in the rokarh book of the firm ‘Manohar Das Kandheya Lal’ (perhaps a firm created solely for the partition year), for Sambat 1950–51 (A.D. 1892–93) under the date Magh Sudi 11 (c. 2 January 1893). Rs 7,80,286 were divided among three branches and Rs 2,00,000 were put aside for clearance of liabilities. The branches further received more than Rs 1,00,000 each in government notes. Manohar Das also created religious and family trusts to the tune of about five lakhs of rupees (for this see an Ms. family history written by Sri Manmohan Das Tandon about 1935 at Ranimandi). For another estimate of some of the assets before partition (Rs 11,60,096), see Leader, 23 March 1911, Allahabad Civil Suit, 268 of 1910.

⁹⁵ Wise investment, for instance, had increased Manohar Das' bequest (for charity) by 33 per cent between 1894 and 1908. Indian People, 8 November 1906.

⁹⁶ DG Allahabad, pp. 218–9.

⁹⁷ Tandon Family Tree, Ranimandi.

⁹⁸ Home Reforms B March 1921, 34–99, p. 499, NAI.

⁹⁹ Crooke, W., Tribes and Castes of the North-Western Provinces and Oudh (Calcutta, 1896), III, 274.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁰ Indian People, 13 February 1908. Ram Charan Das was personally responsible for the phenomenal growth of the Allahabad Bank, the most successful in upper India. By 1908 it had a working capital of 4½ crores and a dividend of 18 per cent; on the board he was associated at first with Congress activists such as Rampal Singh.

¹⁰¹ Chaturvedi, S. R., Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya (Benares, 1936), p. 7.Google Scholar

¹⁰² Crooke, op. cit., III, 452.

¹⁰³ Chaturvedi, op. cit., p. 11.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁴ Ibid, p. 35; Leader, 14 May 1913. The secretary of the library in the 1910s was Bihari Lal and Manmohan Das was responsible for upkeep and repairs.

¹⁰⁵ Bharti Bhawan Jayanti Granth, p. 79.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁶ Lakshmi Narayan Vyasa. Educated Sanskrit Pathshala Allahabad, Benares College 1846–47. Later deputy Inspector of Schools NWP, President of Samaj until his death about 1894.

¹⁰⁷ Balkrishna Bhatta ‘is not regarded as a man of great status, but is known to be a Sanskrit scholar and is respected as such’. Editor of Hindi Pradip, later Professor of Sanskrit at the Kayastha Pathshala where he became involved in the revolutionary movements of the 1900s associated with the journal Swarajya. Educated Sanskrit Pathshala and High School, Allahabad, but failed university entrance. Report on the Vernacular Press of Upper India, 1890, Home Public B September 1891, 129–35 NAI; Leader, 23 July 1914, etc.

¹⁰⁸ Bhowani Prasad Bhalla, another Khattri banker prominent in caste associations, also appeared regularly at Congress meetings and in political connections.

¹⁰⁹ Pioneer, 20 October 1884, registered voters in the old city; Ward III, European, 39; Hindu, 507; Muslim, 250; Bengali, 94. Ward IV, European, 4; Hindu, 504; Muslim, 208; Bengali, 43.

¹¹⁰ Leader, 20 October and 25 December 1924, evidence of Brij Mohan Vyasa (executive officer of the Malavi Sabha) in a caste libel case.

¹¹¹ Source: returns to Allahabad Municipal Board in UP (NWP & O) Gazette, annually, part III.

¹¹² See, for instance, notes on octroi taxation, NWP Municipalities A December 1885, 1, IOL; and ‘Report of Select Committee on Octroi’, UP Gazette, 14 August 1909, part VIII.

¹¹³ Prayag Samachar, 15 March 1901, UPNNR 1901.Google Scholar

¹¹⁴ The ‘Prem Bhawan’ library for instance. Malaviya and Someshwar Das also co-operated to found a Hindu orphanage. Prayag Samachar, 19 November 1896, UPNNR 1896.Google Scholar

¹¹⁵ Note the importance for educated Hindus in keeping control of the board's charitable donations. This was emphasized in 1916 when a temporary Muslim majority terminated grants to some Hindi libraries, etc., and devoted funds to an Islamia School. Abhyudaya (Allahabad), 27 04 1917.Google Scholar

¹¹⁶ See miscellaneous circulars, notes of meetings etc. in Sunder Lal correspondence, 1884 bundle (in the possession of Mr R. Dave, Allahabad).

¹¹⁷ Proceedings of the Working Committee,Allahabad Municipal Board,25 May 1885.Google Scholar The association was also allowed to maintain observers during municipal elections. Proceedings Working Committee,17 March 1886.Google Scholar

¹¹⁸ ‘Cow-slaughter’, basta 269, file 123 GAD of 1887, CA.

¹¹⁹ INC 1888, p. 126, delegate no. 627.

¹²⁰ Circular for meeting, 29 March, 1885, Dave Collection, 1885 bundle.

¹²¹ Leader, 23 December 1909.Google Scholar

¹²² Ibid., 23 December 1909.

¹²³ DG Allahabad, p. 61.Google Scholar

¹²⁴ Porter, F. W., Final Settlement Report of the Allahabad District (Allahabad, 1878), p. 54; and Darbar list, 1892.Google Scholar

¹²⁵ Allahabad District revenue administration report, 1889 (original), basta 132, file 252 of 1889, CA.

¹²⁶ Report on the Administration of Allahabad Municipality for the year 1887–88 (Allahabad, 1888), p. 2.Google Scholar

¹²⁷ Darbar List, 1892.

¹²⁸ Prayag Samachar, 15 March 1901, UPNNR 1901.

¹²⁹ Collector to Commissioner, 19 September 1890, report on district board, Allahabad, 1889–90 (original), basta 128, file 239 Judicial of 1890, CA.

¹³⁰ Proceedings of Working Committee,Allahabad Municipal Board, 1911–13, house assessment lists.Google Scholar

¹³¹ Leader, 29 May 1911, election petition case.Google Scholar

¹³² Ram Charan Das was supported by the Natya Patra, UPNNR 1898–1902.

¹³³ Note on Prayag Mittra, memorandum on vernacular press of Upper India for 1885, Home Public B March 1886, 122–4, NAI.

¹³⁵ Interview with Sri Hari Mohan Das Tandon, May 1972.

¹³⁶ Jagat Narayan was said to have introduced several new kinds of rice seed, obtained at his own expense from Bareilly, into his estates. Collector's remarks appended to revenue administration report, 1888–89, basta 132, 252 Revenue of 1889, CA. Jageshwari Narayan Chaddha (this was probably Jagat Narayan's eldest son) stood in the landlord interest for the legislative council in 1920.

¹³⁷ Natya Patra, 15 March 1901, UPNNR 1901.Google Scholar

¹³⁸ Abhyudaya, 9 December 1916; Leader, 30 July 1916; and board debates 1916–17.Google Scholar

¹³⁹ E.g. Natya Patra for July 1898; UPNNR 1898. Muslims were frequently coupled with Jagat Narayan for abuse. On the board nominated Muslims and Europeans tended to vote with him.

¹⁴⁰ Abhyudaya, 14 March 1912; Leader, 29 May 1911.Google Scholar

¹⁴¹ Report on the Administration of the Allahabad Municipal Board, 1900–01 (Allahabad, 1901), p. 35.Google Scholar

¹⁴² Report on the Administration of the Allahabad Municipal Board, 1901–02 (Allahabad, 1902), p. 8.Google Scholar Jagat Narayan ‘was bent on creating a record in octroi receipts if by any additional work and supervision that result could be obtained …’; Proceedings of the Working Committee, no. 3 of 1900–01, dated nil, petition dated 1 April 1900.Google Scholar

¹⁴³ A feature of the upper mercantile communities was the absence of regular panchayats. Caste discipline was enforced by what Blunt calls ‘public opinion’, often working through caste sabhas or samajes. Blunt, E. A. H., The Caste System of Northern India (reprinted Delhi, 1969), Chapter VI.Google Scholar

¹⁴⁴ Leader, 15 October 1917.Google Scholar

¹⁴⁵ Abhyudaya, 28 February 1914, fourth annual conference of the Allahabad Khattri Sabha.

¹⁴⁶ He attended the Congress of 1892.

¹⁴⁷ DG Allahabad, p. 61.Google Scholar

¹⁴⁸ Leader, 26 August 1910, election petition case.Google Scholar

¹⁴⁹ Ibid., 29 July, 1911, election petition case.

¹⁵⁰ E.g. the meeting against the imposition of Regulation 9 of 1818, Indian People, 2 June 1907; proposal of motion on Executive Council for UP (Indian People, 28 March 1909).

¹⁵¹ Crooke, op. cit., III, 113.Google Scholar

¹⁵² Ibid., III, 107: also Nesfield, J., A Brief View of the Caste System of the North-Western Provinces and Oudh (Allahabad, 1885), p. 54.Google Scholar

¹⁵³ SR Allahabad, 1878, p. 54.Google Scholar

¹⁵⁴ Government progressively whittled away the old system of farming out contracts to Kalwars and Pasis as it became less profitable. In 1870, for instance, the Government of India directed that each retail shop should pay a fee equal to its profitability, and sparked off a Kalwar agitation. Report on the Excise Administration of the NWP for 1870–71 (Allahabad, 1871), p. 8. By 1892 the outstill system, enforced in backward areas, was the only form of excise administration directly to Kalwars' advantage. The dwindling prosperity of their hereditary occupation may well have been a stimulus to richer Kalwars moving into banking and commerce. Cf., Nesfield, op. cit., pp. 54–5.Google Scholar

¹⁵⁵ Allahabad University entrants for 1905–07 from Allahabad Schools included at least three (Jaiswal) Kalwars, UP Gazetteers 1905–07, pt. IV (May) Entrance Lists.

¹⁵⁶ Speech of Gauri Shanker Misra at the Allahabad Kalwar Conference,02 1921,Google ScholarKalwar Kshatriya Mitra (Hindi, Allahabad), February 1921, p. nil.Google Scholar

¹⁵⁷ Crooke, op. cit., III, 107.

¹⁵⁸ Census of India 1901, UP XVI, 248.

¹⁵⁹ UP Intelligence Report, 26 January 1909, Home Poll D June 1909, 100–7, NAI.

¹⁶⁰ UP Excise Administration Report for year 1916–17 (Allahabad, 1917), p. 12.Google Scholar

¹⁶¹ Kalwar Kshatriya Mitra, March 1918.

¹⁶² Blunt, op. cit., p. 227, makes no mention of the Kshatriya claim, merely of that to the status of ‘Batham Vaisya’.

¹⁶³ Kalwar Kshatriya Mitra, February 1924.

¹⁶⁴ Crooke, op. cit., III, 108. ‘Each subcaste holds a meeting of the adult males to decide caste matters, and the penalty is a feast (bhoj) to the brethren’; Nesfield, op. cit., p. 54; Kalwar Kshatriya Mitra, February 1919, pp. 22–3, enumerated the following sub-divisions: Jaiswal, Sivhari, Rai Chauska, Malvi, Kharida and Jain.Google Scholar

¹⁶⁵ Kalwar Kshatriya Mitra, February 1921, pp. 24 ff., speech of Babu Masuriuddin at the ‘Nineteenth’ annual Kalwar Conference.The foundation of the sabha was probably connected with the Census operations, 1901.Google Scholar

¹⁶⁶ In the 1901 Census the Commissioner had placed Kalwars in Group VI, ‘Sudras claiming a higher status or Vaishyas depressed’. Census of India 1901, Vol. XVI, 221.Google Scholar

¹⁶⁷ Kalwar Kshatriya Mitra, February 1921.Google Scholar

¹⁶⁸ Ibid., February 1919.

¹⁶⁹ UP Banking Committee, II, 51; and report on village ‘Pandilla’, Soraon, Allahabad District, Ibid, 317–25.

¹⁷⁰ Kalwar Kshatriya Mitra, December 1918, and following issues.Google Scholar

¹⁷¹ Mahabir Prasad styled himself ‘non-cooperator’ under ‘profession’ in a Kalwar Conference Report of 1924; Salig Ram Jaiswal and other Kalwars became active in early Allahabad socialist parties.

¹⁷² Gauri Shankar Misra, Advocate, Allahabad; ex-editor of Abhyudaya, vicepresident of Malaviya's Allahabad Kisan Sabha (Peasants' Association); later, secretary of the Congress.

¹⁷³ Independent, 16 February 1921.Google Scholar

¹⁷⁴ Report on the Excise Administration of UP for 1921–2 (Allahabad, 1922), pp. 14–15.Google Scholar