Book review: Divya Cherian, Merchants of Virtue: Hindus, Muslims, and Untouchables in Eighteenth-Century South Asia

book Merchants of Virtue is a micro study of the precolonial state of Marwar in western Rajasthan.Through a detailed study of the legal archives, Cherian examines how law and state power were deployed to shape the category of 'Hindu', a process that was inextricably linked to the shaping of the 'Other', that is, groups labelled as untouchable.The book challenges the notion that the labels 'Hindu', 'Muslim' and 'Untouchable' were products of colonial modernity and makes the compelling argument that these categories can only be understood by investigating how caste shaped them.The book's strength lies in the rich eighteenth-century legal archives that it uses, which effectively display the fraught, everyday disputes and experiences that created the boundary between 'Hindu' and others.Cherian argues, in line with current scholarship on western India, that caste practices were repeatedly negotiated and altered using law.The book demonstrates the juridical jockeying by elite communities-Vaishnavs, Jains and Brahmans, in particular-to alter customary practices and reshape social and ethical norms.The author repeatedly asserts that mercantile groups leveraged their economic and political clout to achieve their objectives.They had a willing partner in this in the ruler Vijai Singh (r.1752-93).The latter took initiation into the Vallabh sampradaya in 1765, which, according to Cherian, brought him into the 'same spiritual and moral community as many merchants of Marwar' (p.27).However, the author acknowledges that the pursuit of a new ethical orientation witnessed in this period may be an exception.This requires further study, especially since later rulers shifted their patronage away from Vaishnavism.