Articles by Manali Chakrabarti

Economic historians have tended to recognise an almost unfractured racial solidarity that prevailed among the European business class in colonial India, not only locally within the country but also with the "white" colonial government and the manufacturers in Britain. This almost unexceptional race-based harmony was attributed to the complementarity of business interests including an attempt to keep off native competition. It has been generally agreed that the larger interests of race took precedence over economic interests of individual members of the European business community in India. This paper presents data on a section of the European business community, that reveals behaviour contradictory to this general understanding. Based on an analysis of business behaviour of the European business community in Kanpur between 1900 and 1939 it is argued that the business conduct of the European commercial community in colonial India was primarily influenced by economic interests and not by any reasons of racial solidarity.