A sweeping account of three Gujarati Muslim trading communities, whose commercial success over nearly two centuries sheds new light on the history of capitalism, Islam, and empire in South Asia.
During the nineteenth century, three Gujarati Muslim commercial castes—the Bohras, Khojas, and Memons—came to dominate Muslim business in South Asia. Although these communities constitute less than 1 percent of South Asia’s Muslim population, they are still disproportionately represented among the region’s leading Muslim-owned firms today. In No Birds of Passage, Michael O’Sullivan argues that the conditions enabling their success have never been understood, thanks to stereotypes—embraced equally by colonial administrators and Muslim commentators—that estrange them from their religious identity. Yet while long viewed as Hindus in all but name, or as “Westernized” Muslims who embraced colonial institutions, these groups in fact entwined economic prerogatives and religious belief in a distinctive form of Muslim capitalism.
Following entrepreneurial firms from Gujarat to the Hijaz, Hong Kong, Mombasa, Rangoon, and beyond, O’Sullivan reveals the importance of kinship networks, private property, and religious obligation to their business endeavors. This paradigm of Muslim capitalism found its highest expression in the jamaats, the central caste institutions of each community, which combined South Asian, Islamicate, and European traditions of corporate life. The jamaats also played an essential role in negotiating the position of all three groups in relation to British authorities and Indian Muslim nationalists, as well as the often-sharp divisions within the castes themselves.
O’Sullivan’s account sheds light on Gujarati Muslim economic life from the dawn of colonial hegemony in India to the crisis of the postcolonial state, and provides fascinating insights into the broader effects of capitalist enterprise on Muslim experience in modern South Asia.
"An important contribution to a growing body of scholarship on the internal, social, economic, and religious structures of South Asian mercantile, moneylending, and corporate communities …a masterful argument for studying economic and business history through the lens of Muslim religious authority, legal practice, and identity." - Developing Economies
"This is an audacious scholarly conversation between received categories of classical political economy and South Asian Islam that is likely to provoke debate among specialists in the field. For the general student of history however, it is a book that demands close attention for its outstanding contributions to the craft, both in its expansive approach toward the archive as in its deft interweaving of religion, culture and politics within the complex terrain of capitalist enterprise and law. The structure, prose and narrative richness of the book are likely to ensure a life for it outside the scholarly niche of economic history." - Telegraph India
"A rich historical account of Gujarati Muslim business communities, emphasising their diverse experiences, achievements, and challenges throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries…the concept of ‘corporate Islam’ is a much needed contribution to understand the emergence of global Capitalism especially from the perspective of the global South." - Business History
"Challenges the colonial image of these three groups as rapacious migratory birds who replicated the voracious capitalism of the East India Company, and later European colonizers, to show that they instead planted deep roots wherever they migrated…makes a significant contribution to the modern history of these communities." - Reading Religion
Формат: Скан PDf
During the nineteenth century, three Gujarati Muslim commercial castes—the Bohras, Khojas, and Memons—came to dominate Muslim business in South Asia. Although these communities constitute less than 1 percent of South Asia’s Muslim population, they are still disproportionately represented among the region’s leading Muslim-owned firms today. In No Birds of Passage, Michael O’Sullivan argues that the conditions enabling their success have never been understood, thanks to stereotypes—embraced equally by colonial administrators and Muslim commentators—that estrange them from their religious identity. Yet while long viewed as Hindus in all but name, or as “Westernized” Muslims who embraced colonial institutions, these groups in fact entwined economic prerogatives and religious belief in a distinctive form of Muslim capitalism.
Following entrepreneurial firms from Gujarat to the Hijaz, Hong Kong, Mombasa, Rangoon, and beyond, O’Sullivan reveals the importance of kinship networks, private property, and religious obligation to their business endeavors. This paradigm of Muslim capitalism found its highest expression in the jamaats, the central caste institutions of each community, which combined South Asian, Islamicate, and European traditions of corporate life. The jamaats also played an essential role in negotiating the position of all three groups in relation to British authorities and Indian Muslim nationalists, as well as the often-sharp divisions within the castes themselves.
O’Sullivan’s account sheds light on Gujarati Muslim economic life from the dawn of colonial hegemony in India to the crisis of the postcolonial state, and provides fascinating insights into the broader effects of capitalist enterprise on Muslim experience in modern South Asia.
"An important contribution to a growing body of scholarship on the internal, social, economic, and religious structures of South Asian mercantile, moneylending, and corporate communities …a masterful argument for studying economic and business history through the lens of Muslim religious authority, legal practice, and identity." - Developing Economies
"This is an audacious scholarly conversation between received categories of classical political economy and South Asian Islam that is likely to provoke debate among specialists in the field. For the general student of history however, it is a book that demands close attention for its outstanding contributions to the craft, both in its expansive approach toward the archive as in its deft interweaving of religion, culture and politics within the complex terrain of capitalist enterprise and law. The structure, prose and narrative richness of the book are likely to ensure a life for it outside the scholarly niche of economic history." - Telegraph India
"A rich historical account of Gujarati Muslim business communities, emphasising their diverse experiences, achievements, and challenges throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries…the concept of ‘corporate Islam’ is a much needed contribution to understand the emergence of global Capitalism especially from the perspective of the global South." - Business History
"Challenges the colonial image of these three groups as rapacious migratory birds who replicated the voracious capitalism of the East India Company, and later European colonizers, to show that they instead planted deep roots wherever they migrated…makes a significant contribution to the modern history of these communities." - Reading Religion
Формат: Скан PDf
https://www.yakaboo.ua/ua/no-birds-of-passage-a-history-of-gujarati-muslim-business-communities-1800-1975.html