What comes to mind when I say “Indian Ocean World?” Ancient Roman fleets, perhaps, or the medieval tantric kingdoms of Bengal and Indonesia’s Java? There’s a whole other side to the ocean that we don’t often talk about: Africa, and how its goods helped Indians become rich. Indeed, at one point in the 17th and 18th centuries, it was African ivory and gold that helped Gujarati Banias dominate the Indian Ocean world. Let’s dive in.
The rise of the Gujarati merchant
India-Africa exchanges, as noted in an earlier edition of Thinking Medieval, were an important dynamic in the Indian Ocean, leading to the exchange of textiles and foods—including betel, rice and mangoes. By the 14th century, these exchanges had grown deep indeed, with the appearance of Ethiopian and Abyssinian military slaves, known as habshis, far in the interior—even as far as Bengal, where they briefly set up a Sultanate. In 1392, the establishment of the Gujarat Sultanate heralded a new era in Afro-Eurasian commerce. Gujarati merchants, already major regional players, quickly became the dominant players in the entire Indian Ocean.
By 1498, writes Indian Ocean historian Michael N. Pearson in Port Cities and Intruders: The Swahili Coast, India, and Portugal in the Early Modern Period, Jains could be found in Malindi, and in 1507, Brahmin traders were there as well. They were there primarily to trade cloth for gold and ivory. Ahmedabad’s cotton and indigo industries were perhaps the greatest in the Indian Ocean at the time, dominating the trade of Arabia, Africa, and Indonesia. Meanwhile, African gold and ivory, obtained at favourable rates, were used by Gujarati craftspeople to make highly valuable goods for elite consumption.
In Gujarat and the Trade of East Africa, c. 1500–1800, historian Edward A. Alpers traces the rise and fall of the Gujarati merchant. By 1520, Diu was one of the most important ports of the Gujarat Sultanate, home to Arab, Turk, Persian and Egyptian diasporas. However, its trade was almost completely in the hands of Gujarati merchants, encouraged by the Sultanate. Diu’s importance made it a target for Portuguese predation, as they sought to establish a stranglehold on the Indian Ocean trade by attacking emporia in the 16th century. Despite strong resistance by Gujaratis in alliances with Egyptians and Turks, it was finally conquered in 1550.
According to Alpers, however, this actually worked out well for Diu’s merchants. Guided by the rather absurd ideas of the Iberian Reconquista, the Portuguese in the 16th century sought to suppress Muslim-owned shipping at all costs—a commercial opportunity that Gujarati Banias were only too pleased to fill. By this time, Banias had also developed collective institutions such as Mahajan councils at various ports, bringing together multiple caste groups to set prices on goods and coordinate relationships with rulers. And Diu’s commercial taxes were second only to Goa in the Estado da India. Both would prove powerful bargaining chips as the Portuguese settled into the region in subsequent centuries.
Also read: Raising taxes was Palas’ biggest mistake—it killed 2 kings, ended their 300-yr-rule in Bengal
Travails and success under the Portuguese
Unlike other Indian Ocean powers primarily focused on land, the Portuguese seaborne empire’s existence depended on trade. Despite this, they frequently tried to monopolise trade for short-term profits, leading to considerable volatility and harming local industries. Through the 16th century, they tried to concentrate all East African trade to their forts at Malindi in Mozambique, decimating local textile manufacturers. However, the African demand for Gujarati textiles stayed high.
Then, recognising the fortunes being made by Bania traders, the Portuguese, in 1595, banned Hindus from acting as agents for Portuguese officials and the State. However, this policy was dead on arrival: Gujarati Banias were simply too crucial to trade not only in Diu, but also in Malacca, one of Asia’s greatest entrepôts and crucial to Portuguese wealth. Portuguese naval power had secured for the governor of Diu a monopoly over African ivory. However, he still found it profitable to collude with the leader of Diu’s merchant Mahajans, defying the ban. The Portuguese State, constantly operating with European blinkers on, could rarely respond to the dynamism and commercial potential of the Indian Ocean world. The Banias of Diu continued to flourish: there were over 30,000 of them there in 1646, according to a contemporary Portuguese letter studied by Pearson in Wealth and Power: Indian Groups in the Portuguese Indian Economy.
Soon after, Omani Arabs began to strike back against the Portuguese in East Africa, raiding their citadels. Frightened, in 1686, the Estado da India granted the monopoly of Mozambique–Diu trade to a certain “Company of Mazanes”—Mahajans, the senior merchant collectives of Diu (Alpers, Gujarat and the Trade of East Africa, based on Portuguese documents). Surprisingly, the Company of Mazanes shared agents with the Jesuit order, as recorded in Arquivo Portugues Oriental, Volume 4. Indeed, though Jesuits had been responsible for religious persecution in Goa in the 16th century, by the 17th and 18th centuries, they were friendly indeed with Banias, who patronised them generously in return for access to their extensive networks. (This point—of India’s relationships with Portugal changing over time through different actors—is missed by much online history discourse in our country). Meanwhile, other communities of Gujarati merchants also profited from Indian Ocean struggles. A Gujarati diaspora in Muscat lent ships to the Omanis to plunder Portuguese Africa in 1720, even as Diu Gujaratis grew more important in the region (Alpers, Gujarat).
The rather complex relationship of the Portuguese and the Banias is exemplified by a flamboyant merchant called ‘Ponja Velgi’, the leader of the Diu merchants in Mozambique in the 1760s. Portuguese historian Antonio Alberto de Andrade, in his Relações de Moçambique Setentista, records that Ponja Velgi had paid more dues on his imports than the total income of the Portuguese state on the island and requested the right to ride a palanquin and wear a hat in public. The fact that he was not already allowed to do so is silly—especially compared to the exalted status of Gujarati merchants and bankers in the rest of South Asia. Apparently, Bania traders were sufficiently pragmatic to accept such a status due to the profits it afforded, something they would continue to do in East Africa under the British Empire in subsequent centuries.
All this is not exactly a feel-good story, but such was history in the early modern Indian Ocean. The India-Portuguese world was full of winners, losers, those who were both, and those who were somewhere in between. However, Gujarati merchants were up to much grander adventures through the early modern globe, a topic we’ll return to in future editions of Thinking Medieval.
Anirudh Kanisetti is a public historian. He is the author of Lords of the Deccan, a new history of medieval South India, and hosts the Echoes of India and Yuddha podcasts. He tweets @AKanisetti.
This article is a part of the ‘Thinking Medieval‘ series that takes a deep dive into India’s medieval culture, politics, and history.
(Edited by Zoya Bhatti)