Muslim Capitalism

This book offers a history of Muslim capitalism in colonial India by examining Gujarati Muslim trading communities within the political economy of Bombay. Challenging a historiography dominated by global and transnational approaches, it shows how Muslim merchants were embedded in local institutions, legal regimes, and commercial networks of business. Through court records, legislative debates, commercial disputes, and family archives, it introduces the concept of the Muslim Divided Family as an alternative framework for understanding Muslim mercantile organization alongside the Hindu Undivided Family, and how colonial law transformed family property, waqf administration, inheritance, and religious authority, while revealing the uneven ways in which colonial governance accommodated different commercial communities. By placing Muslim merchants at the centre of debates on capitalism, law, and community, it offers a fresh interpretation of economic life in colonial South Asia and contributes to wider discussions on legal pluralism, corporate personality, and the relationship between religion and commerce.