FDF 001.18Rabbit hole
Jagat Seth family
22 November 2021
Thanks to Sandeep, I recently got to meet the amazing Sashi Sivramkrishna, the economist and filmmaker, best known for his work on Francis Buchanan and for all his writing and videos on money, in particular modern monetary theory, or MMT. We got talking, and he mentioned the Jagat Seths. The Jagat Seths are to Indians what the Rothschilds are to Europeans, and they loom large in our history. This was a family that financed much of what happened in eighteenth-century India, and collaborated with the British. I made a mental note to learn more, and while reading the Wikipedia page on them, this passage stood out. Coincidentally, I've been digitising Buchanan's travelogue, one of those public-domain books on the Internet Archive, along with a whole bunch of others, including one on the economic history of Mughal India. They should all be on akshara.ink pretty soon. B.
The machine notes: The battle on 23 June 1757 was won largely through the betrayal of Mir Jafar, the Nawab's commander in chief, one of the conspirators named here. Wikipedia: Battle of Plassey
The machine notes: In the 1750s the family's wealth was put at 140 million rupees. The East India Company's official historian called Jagat Seth the greatest banker and money changer in the world at the time, and the family held the monopoly on minting coins in Bengal. Wikipedia, the piece itself
The machine notes: The Nawabs of Bengal, Murshid Quli Khan among them, paid their annual tribute to the Mughal emperors in Delhi through the Jagat Seths' credit networks, and Alivardi Khan came to the throne of Bengal in a military coup the family financed and planned. Wikipedia, the piece itself
The machine notes: Siraj ud-Daulah demanded a tribute of 30 million rupees from Jagat Seth Mehtab Chand, and struck him when he refused. The banker then joined Robert Clive's conspiracy against the Nawab, alongside Mir Jafar and others, and the bankers funded the British. Wikipedia, the piece itself
The machine notes: Mir Qasim was not the first Nawab after Plassey. The Company first backed Mir Jafar, who had helped win the battle for the British, then replaced him in 1760 with Mir Qasim, his son-in-law. Qasim too fell out with the British and fought them at Buxar. Wikipedia: Mir Qasim
The machine notes: The fall was slow. Once the British moved the treasury and the mint to Calcutta, a private banker in Murshidabad was much less needed. The last member of the family died in 1912, living on a pension from the British. Wikipedia, the piece itself
Though not at the same scale, but the influence exercised by this family in the finances of the Mughal Empire during the 17th and 18th century would be akin to that exercised by the Rothschild family in Europe.
The historian Ghulam Hussain Khan believed that "their wealth was such that there is no mentioning it without seeming to exaggerate and to deal in extravagant fables".
According to William Dalrymple, they could "make or break anyone in Bengal, including the ruler, and their political instincts were sharp as their financial ones".
He organised the killing of several members of the family including Jagat Seth Mehtab Chand and his cousin Swarup Chand, in 1763, and threw their bodies off the ramparts of Munger Fort.
See also
- WikipediaMir Qasim (Wikipedia, opens in a new tab)Mir Qasim was the Nawab of Bengal from 1760 to 1763.