Podcast: How a Jain merchant family navigated business, from Mughal India to modern Ahmedabad

Podcast: A Jain merchant family’s succession saga, from Mughal India to modern Ahmedabad

What can a Jain merchant family in Mughal Ahmedabad tell us about doing business in India, both in the past and the present?

Quite a lot, as Sudev Sheth explains in this episode of Past Imperfect. Sheth is the author of Bankrolling Empire, the captivating story of how one business family, the Jhaveris of Ahmedabad, navigated the highs and lows of commercial life under Mughal suzerainty.

Although firmly enmeshed in the worlds of 17th- and 18th-century India, the Jhaveris faced challenges that any modern Indian business family can relate to. They reaped enormous benefits from close ties to the government – but also suffered when they got on the wrong side of certain officials. They were drawn into factional political disputes – but, as the 18th century wore on, realised that their wealth could influence the fortunes of satraps and entire kingdoms. And Jhaveri patriarchs, like so many Indian tycoons today, were kept awake at night by that thorny question: how to manage succession within the family?

A Jain family originally from Osian in Rajasthan, the Jhaveris migrated to Ahmedabad in the late 16th century, when the city was...

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