This detailed ethnographic and historial analysis of a southern Indian merchant-banking caste provides an analysis of the links between Indian business practice and social and religious issues. It explores non-capitalist economic formations and the impact of colonial rule on indigenous commercial systems, and argues that caste and commerce are inextricably linked to the formation and distribution of capital. The author challenges the assumptions that all castes are organized either by marriage alliances or status hierarchy, and that caste structures are incompatible with the conduct of business.
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Kling et al. (1996) studied this question.