Hundi: India's traditional traveller's cheque - Revision history

Pdewan: Pdewan moved page Hundi: the traditional Indian traveller's cheque to Hundi: India's traditional traveller's cheque

2014-01-11T15:50:04Z

Pdewan moved page Hundi: the traditional Indian traveller's cheque to Hundi: India's traditional traveller's cheque

Pdewan at 15:49, 11 January 2014

2014-01-11T15:49:09Z

Pdewan at 15:46, 11 January 2014

2014-01-11T15:46:59Z

Pdewan: Created page with "Hundi: the traditional Indian traveller's cheque ''' Gujarat businessmen invented traveller’s cheques ''' Ashleshaa Khurana,TNN | Jan 11, 2014 [http://timesofindia.indiat..."

2014-01-11T15:44:38Z

Created page with "Hundi: the traditional Indian traveller's cheque ''' Gujarat businessmen invented traveller’s cheques ''' Ashleshaa Khurana,TNN | Jan 11, 2014 [http://timesofindia.indiat..."

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Hundi: the traditional Indian traveller's cheque
''' Gujarat businessmen invented traveller’s cheques '''

Ashleshaa Khurana,TNN | Jan 11, 2014

[http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/ahmedabad/Gujarat-businessmen-invented-travellers-cheques/articleshow/28657016.cms The Times of India]

AHMEDABAD: Lured by trading opportunities, enterprising Gujarati businessmen have travelled the world since centuries. It is no surprise that driven by the need to ensure a safe money-transfer system, these merchants invented the hundi — adapted in modern times as traveller's cheques.

In his book 'Eighteenth Century Gujarat: The Dynamics Of Its Political Economy', Ghulam A Nadri writes, "At Surat, merchants issued hundi on their correspondents in other cities. The issuer received the accounts plus a commission."

Historian Achyut Yagnik points out that even before the British era, Gujaratis were sarraffs or sahukars — money changers or lenders. "Since Cambay was an important port, the merchants willingly accepted the network of hundi transactions for it was safe. From the Solanki to Chalukya dynasties, to the Mughal rule and British Raj, hundis were prevalent. Everyone from Ahmedabad's Shantidas Sheth to Emperor Shah Jahan issued hundis.

Their use was widespread within the country as Gujarat dealt with Kolkata, Kashi, Delhi, Madras and other regions," says Yagnik.

It was the Gujaratis who introduced the British to hundis. The latter morphed it into the traveller's cheque, with the first issued on January 1, 1772 by the London Credit Exchange Company.

Various types of hundis have Gujarati names; consider jokhami, shayog, and muddati, testament to their area of origin. In her thesis, 'An Economic History of Hundi — 1858-1978' for The London School of Economics, Marina Bernadette Victoria Martin states how hundis were a "centuries-old artery for Indian merchants' networks".

However, in Gujarat, the existence of the hundi lives on in the legend of Narsinh Mehta. The song Narsinh Mehta ni hundi describes how Krishna paid Mehta's debt via a hundi and proves the prevalence of the system in Gujarat.

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		+	=Hundi: the traditional Indian traveller's cheque=
	''' Gujarat businessmen invented traveller’s cheques '''		''' Gujarat businessmen invented traveller’s cheques '''