Parching the Land?: The Chettiars in Burma

Abstract

In the history of Burma's economy, few groups have been as vilified as the Chettiars. A community of Indian moneylenders, the Chettiars were crucial agents in transforming Burma into the rice bowl of Asia. Following the global depression of the 1930s, Burmese agriculture became severely distressed and wide-scale loan default saw the transfer of much of Burma's cultivatable land to the Chettiars, who were demonised and made scapegoats for the vices of colonialism. The paper draws on the 'information-theoretic revolution' in economics to reappraise the role of the Chettiars in Burma. We conclude the Chettiars merit history's better judgement.JEL categories: Q14, O16, O17, N25

Climate Change Reduces the Effectiveness of Myanmar’s Protected Area Network

“…The United Nations Development Program's Community Development for Remote Townships (CDRT) project has mainly focused on Waimaw Township in Kachin State, Maungtaw Township in Kayah State, and Phalan Township in Chin State, gradually expanding its scope [76]. The project aims to increase the income of protected area residents through animal husbandry and loans [78]. These projects will need to be tailored to local conditions and gain the support of the local public [79] to facilitate adaptive management [80].…”

Rethinking rural development in Myanmar's Ayeyarwady Delta through a historical food regimes frame

“…It was the integral role of the Chettiar moneylending caste, however, that had major implications for the evolution of the agrarian structure in the Delta. Their experience in credit provision, their extensive contacts with European banks, and the proximity of Madras (now Chennai) to the Delta meant that Chettiar moneylenders were 'well prepared to assume the middleman's role in the Delta economy' (Adas, 1974a: 113; see also Turnell & Vicary, 2008). Adas (1974a: 114) argues that 'the nature of the pre-British economy in Burma proved a serious handicap for Burmese who became involved in marketing of credit provision after 1852', including a largely subsistence economy with little role for merchants, a lack of a developed monetary system, fleeting contact with foreigners and little knowledge of European business techniques, and an overall lack of impetus to accumulate capital to invest in productive enterprises.…”

“…In the last decades of the 1800’s, Burmese moneylenders dominated the credit market. Towards the end of this early phase, however, Indian Chettiar moneylenders, who had migrated first to Yangon from Bengal after 1852, began to play an expanding role in supplying credit to cultivators in the Delta, often on a larger scale and at cheaper interest rates, while also acting as a source of capital for Burmese moneylenders (Adas, 1974b; Turnell & Vicary, 2008). This period was the start of an influx of immigration by Indians into the Delta, who by 1901 made up 7 per cent of the population.…”

Indians in Myanmar/Burma, assimilation and integration

“…The Chettiars, a South Indian trading caste who had been overseas merchants and traders since at least the time of the imperial Colas (9th to 14th century) were particularly visible and therefore long vilified by Burmese nationalists and even Europeans, as rapacious and usurious moneylenders. As Schrader (1996), Turnell (2005), and Turnell and Vicary (2008) have shown, they played, on the contrary, a vital role as bankers and financiers for the rice trade and helped develop the delta for rice cultivation by Indian settlers after Pegu (Bago) was secured in 1852 (Thet 2008: 487). They formed the intermediate stratum between the English banks and the local moneylenders and were considered scrupulously honest and trustworthy, even though the interest rates they charged were thought to be too high, an assumption Turnell (2005: 27-28) thinks is distorted.…”

“…Kesavapany et al (2008) have a short informative article about the community (Thet 2008), and there are some enlightening articles on the Chettiars and their role in Burma's finance by Sean Turnell (2005;Turnell & Vicary 2008). Most of the newer studies rely for factual information on the Singhvi Committee Report (HLC 2004: 253), which estimates the total Indian populations in Burma at "possibly 2.9 mill" out of 55 million (≈5 percent of the total), consisting of 2.5 million Indians, 2,000 Indian citizens, and 400,000 stateless.…”