The continuity of Indian civilisation

 Here are the characteristics of a period in Indian history. Can you guess the period that is being described?

1. The civilisation was, at its core, a mercantile civilisation, where money was the prime objective of existence, and other things, like house in a good location, access to good civic facilities, the derivatives of that core objective.
2. There was a mature political and civic structure. This was a civilisation that was not given to petty internecine wars. They had the maturity to design and build political systems for scale.
3. Environment was not high on the political agenda. Nor were farmers given importance in the political establishment or the decision table.
4. The mature political structure ensured that small and large kingdoms lived in relative peace, with very little need for wars. Much of the state's budget went towards civic work and administration. Wars were rare and when they happened, decisive.
5. Education was a priority. This ensured the continuity of traditions and knowledge across many centuries - largely unchanged. But the knowledge imparted in this educational system had the best lessons of the past and encouraged readers to develop those ideas before sharing them with a larger world.
6. Cities, esp capital cities, were well planned.

The answer is: Every single Indian civilisation, dating back to the earliest known - the Saraswati Valley, has displayed these characteristics. India is not a successful democracy just bcs of the founding fathers of our constitution. India is a successful democracy because our political journey started with democracy - Janapadas and evolved into monarchy. 

Wealth Generation in everyday life

One of the questions that I often asked myself is: How did Indian households accumulate wealth through literally centuries of Muslim rule. During this rule, Hindus were taxed at insane rates, and at many more instances than the non Hindus. The historical texts I read recently had stories of how the rulers prided themselves on systematically stripping the Hindus of all wealth, forcing them into penury and then incentivising conversion to Islam by giving monetary benefits.

Important Disclaimers
1. Please do not judge these rulers by the standards of today. Secularism, which is a given today in most modern civilisations, was a luxury in almost every part of the world until just 200 years ago. Remember the Protestant British crown and the impact on the Catholic church? These rulers were not being barbaric. The instruction of the time started by dehumanising all non-followers of a religion. In their minds, the missionaries of Christianity and the Muslim rulers were both converting these people back to humans. We have no right,  therefore, to judge them by our standards. Please refrain. All hate content will summarily deleted. My focus is on understanding financial and trade practices of India. We will stick to that mandate, using these conditions as the context within which these practices were used and how they managed to do some very important wealth generation and preservation.

2. This piece is a result of my research. Most of my sources are family practices, folk lore, and things head from practitioners. Indians have not, to my knowledge, documented their wealth generation and preservation practices. But, thankfully, they have kept their family traditions alive over hundreds of years. The belief system is still very well preserved. I observe and learn from that.

3. Every system has its pluses and minuses - if we judge. If we learn, they are just actions and consequences. My submission is - learn. Do not judge. How you apply these lessons, or whether they  can be made relevant today, is something we can decide for ourselves.


After much searching, am sharing some findings here:

• The family as one unit. 

The unity of the family is so inherent in the culture that even in Independent India, the Karta system is recognised as a type of economic entity - the wealth of the entire family is grouped together, and the expenses are done from the same core. As everyone lives together, expenses are pooled. Clothes are passed from one child to another. Ditto for toys. Skills are distributed, minimising people's dependence on external factors.

• Order of investment

In most Indian families, the first asset that is acquired, if not inherited, is land and real estate. A house, farming land, a shop - the type of real estate depends on the lifestyle and varna of the family. But the uniformity of the preference for this asset type is remarkable. After this, one invests in gold and keeps enough for impending weddings of the next generation. Then, other assets are acquired, if any. 

Do you know why that is important? The rate of inflation on these 2 assets is the highest. If they are secured, they give the highest returns, and one is able to invest at lower values. 

• Consistent small value purchases

At all festivals, a little gold or silver is bought according to the means of the family. Even if a family is very poor, at least once a year, they have to invest in metal as a form of religious ceremony. These small value but consistent purchases slowly build up the corpus of the family. In many trading families, there is a custom of adding one gold coin every Diwali. Imagine the value of that gold within 3 generations - 50 years. 

• The Hundi system and trade practices of pooling 

The Hundi system is well known. This system entails everyone contributing a small sum of money every month. The entire pool is handed over to one member of the group every month by turns. This way, everyone invests a small amount every month but gets a lumpsum perhaps once a year. This was not the only practice of pooling. Several trading communities, in particular, have a parallel system of pooling in parts and harvesting in bulk. 

• Temples as the custodians of wealth 

Almost all religions have the practice of making a small offering to God when we go to a religious place. This makes our religious places incredibly rich. In some South Indian states, the king, through assumed divine birth, is also the owner of the temple treasury. 

This serves many objectives: 

One, in the absence of state sponsorship , the temples could run religious events and ensure cultural continuity. 

Two, temples cannot be raided and looted as easily by rulers as individual homes. A single seth becoming too rich can be forced to part with his wealth by the ruler. But not a temple. 

 

If there are any other lessons, please do share. This is a very important area for us to learn from. 

The First Post - The Historical Perspective, and the current Imperative

Even though the first known treatise on wealth management and public administration - The Arthashastra, was created in India, our track record of documenting our wealth management practices has been marred much by the subsequent actions focused on burning the libraries and then the noble efforts of Macaulay.

I don't think that, as is normally claimed, Indians are inherently bad at documentation and record keeping. Rajatarangini, Ashtadhyaya, Mahabharata, Ramayana, and Arthashastra, among others, prove our ability to document and record both our history and our body of knowledge.

But Indian history has had a long period where such records were meticulously and systematically destroyed. And therefore, we have what is left to us in the form of:
A. Proverbs
B. Folk Songs
C. Folk Tales
D. Whatever is left of our manuscripts.

The Buddhists, on the other hand, have done exceptionally well when it comes to both conservation of wealth and preservation of manuscripts.
A separate chapter on that. Perhaps. Some day.

For now, welcome to this blog. It is just a hobby today. Who knows what it might blossom into.
Wishing us all luck.