This thesis examines the cultural and structural aspects
of a North Indian wholesale market (wandi) at which
agriculturalists sell their products, the marketing
process, and the relationships between the buyer and
sellers who use that market. The thesis is divided into
seven chapters.
Chapter 1 describes the aim of the thesis, and
relevant theoretical perspectives, and suggests that
comprehending Indian society requires the use of a
context-specific approach. Chapter 2 presents a general
picture of Muzaffarnagar District, with brief reference
to its topology, history, and communication networks.
Special attention is paid to economic and socio-cultural
structures relevant to activities in the wandi, and the
factors that made Baniyas (a Hindu trading caste) the
most wealthy and influential caste group, and the larg¬
est landholders during the colonial period, at the
expense of traditional landholders who consequently
became their tenants and debtors. I also describe how,
after Independence, traditional cultivating castes
regained much of the land they had lost, and the influential status of Baniyas declined.
Chapter 3 describes the ritual meanings of land,
crop production and different models of exchange from
the point of view of agriculturalists who today sell
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their crops in the market. Chapter 4 presents a general
picture of the market organization of Muzaffarnagar
District,a description of the mandi, the relationship
between state and the mandi, and discusses the rela- «
tionships and backgroundr of three groups--traders,
business clerks, and labourers --who work in the mandi.
Chapter 5 is concerned with the ritual dimension of
traders' commercial activities. I describe four main
analytically distinct sets of beliefs and rituals which
are concerned with the moral justifications of commer¬
cial activities, ensure success and profit, the predic¬
tion of profit and loss and the conversion of inauspi¬
cious profit into auspicious profit. The distinctive
beliefs and ritual practices and distinctive moral
perspectives of the traders clarify the importance of
incorporating an awareness of contextually and multiple
value systems within a culture in sociological analysis.
Chapter 6 deals with the marketing process in the mandi,
the manner in which traders initiate and maintain longterm
relationships with their c1 i ents,their images of
each other and their differing perspectives regarding
market exchange, profit, wealth, prestige, and so on. 1
also demonstrate that exchange in the mandi is signifi¬
cantly influenced by local cultural meanings that are
not comprehensible in terms of a formalist model of
economic behaviour.
In the final chapter, the conclusion is drawn that
actors in India not only adopt varying strategies and moral perspectives to adjust to many different types of
situations, but also that these strategies are context
specific. 1 argue that there are multiple interpretive
codes and values available for use within a single
situation in Indian society, and'I describe how Baniya
traders follow their own distinctive model of behaviour,
a model different from both the kingly and priestly
models, in order to gain profit and wealth. I have also
argued that it is impossible to separate the "religious"
clearly from the "economic" in Indian society, and that
traditional jajmani relationships within a village can
no longer be discussed in isolation from wider political
and economic contexts.
Finally, I have argued that the particular form
that South Asian market relationships assume cannot be
understood apart from the broad cultural milieu. In
general, it is argued that Indian society cannot be
understood in terms derived from European social and
religious categories. Indian society can only be finally
interpreted in terms of indigenous categories and mean¬
ings, and the multiplicity of social values found In
this transactionally complex society.
