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ucp-150-m-15-978-0-520-39006-5030115978-0-520-39006-50610.1525/luminos.13901internal-reference15000EBE10710Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs (CC-BY-NC-ND)02http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/0101Merchants of VirtueHindus, Muslims, and Untouchables in Eighteenth-Century South Asia1A01Divya CherianDivyaCherianDepartment of History Princeton UniversityDIVYA CHERIAN is Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Princeton University.01eng002730301010300Merchants of Virtue explores the question of what it meant to be Hindu in precolonial South Asia. Divya Cherian presents a fine-grained study of everyday life and local politics in the kingdom of Marwar in eighteenth-century western India to uncover how merchants enforced their caste ideals of vegetarianism and bodily austerity as universal markers of Hindu identity. Using legal strategies and alliances with elites, these merchants successfully remade the category of “Hindu,” setting it in contrast to “Untouchable” in a process that reconfigured Hinduism in caste terms. In a history pertinent to understanding India today, Cherian establishes the centrality of caste to the early-modern Hindu self and to its imagination of inadmissible others.“A refreshingly different perspective on the history of caste and untouchability in India, enlarging the field of scholarship from its focus on the colonial era by telling us how precolonial configurations of power in the locality shaped the everyday experience of caste.” — GOPAL GURU, coauthor of The Cracked Mirror and Experience, Caste, and the Everyday Social“This provocative and empirically rich study offers a plenitude of fascinating insights into aspects of western Indian history ca. 1800, from kingship and caste hierarchy to abortion and alcohol consumption. Particularly innovative is its focus on the critical role played by merchants in articulating social identities that became widespread in modern times.” — CYNTHIA TALBOT, author of The Last Hindu Emperor“A pathbreaking book that explodes essentialist views of the construction of Hindu and Muslim identities in precolonial India. Divya Cherian provocatively argues that the category of ‘Hindu’ was the primary locus for a system of radical othering that excluded Untouchables (and Muslims as Untouchables) through mechanisms of state, law, and everyday life.” — CHRISTIAN LEE NOVETZKE, Professor of South Asian and Religious Studies, University of WashingtonDIVYA CHERIAN is Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Princeton University.0200Merchants of Virtue explores the question of what it meant to be Hindu in precolonial South Asia. Divya Cherian presents a fine-grained study of everyday life and local politics in the kingdom of Marwar in eighteenth-century western India to uncover how merchants enforced their caste ideals of vegetarianism and bodily austerity as universal markers of Hindu identity. Using legal strategies and alliances with elites, these merchants successfully remade the category of “Hindu,” setting it in contrast to “Untouchable” in a process that reconfigured Hinduism in caste terms. In a history pertinent to understanding India today, Cherian establishes the centrality of caste to the early-modern Hindu self and to its imagination of inadmissible others.“A refreshingly different perspective on the history of caste and untouchability in India, enlarging the field of scholarship from its focus on the colonial era by telling us how precolonial configurations of power in the locality shaped the everyday experience of caste.” — GOPAL GURU, coauthor of The Cracked Mirror and Experience, Caste, and the Everyday Social“This provocative and empirically rich study offers a plenitude of fascinating insights into aspects of western Indian history ca. 1800, from kingship and caste hierarchy to abortion and alcohol consumption. Particularly innovative is its focus on the critical role played by merchants in articulating social identities that became widespread in modern times.” — CYNTHIA TALBOT, author of The Last Hindu Emperor“A pathbreaking book that explodes essentialist views of the construction of Hindu and Muslim identities in precolonial India. Divya Cherian provocatively argues that the category of ‘Hindu’ was the primary locus for a system of radical othering that excluded Untouchables (and Muslims as Untouchables) through mechanisms of state, law, and everyday life.” — CHRISTIAN LEE NOVETZKE, Professor of South Asian and Religious Studies, University of WashingtonDIVYA CHERIAN is Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Princeton University.0400Introduction Power Purity Hierarchy Discipline Nonharm Austerity Chastity Epilogue3000Merchants of Virtue explores the question of what it meant to be Hindu in precolonial South Asia. Divya Cherian presents a fine-grained study of everyday life and local politics in the kingdom of Marwar in eighteenth-century western India to uncover how merchants enforced their caste ideals of vegetarianism and bodily austerity as universal markers of Hindu identity. Using legal strategies and alliances with elites, these merchants successfully remade the category of “Hindu,” setting it in contrast to “Untouchable” in a process that reconfigured Hinduism in caste terms. In a history pertinent to understanding India today, Cherian establishes the centrality of caste to the early-modern Hindu self and to its imagination of inadmissible others.“A refreshingly different perspective on the history of caste and untouchability in India, enlarging the field of scholarship from its focus on the colonial era by telling us how precolonial configurations of power in the locality shaped the everyday experience of caste.” — GOPAL GURU, coauthor of The Cracked Mirror and Experience, Caste, and the Everyday Social“This provocative and empirically rich study offers a plenitude of fascinating insights into aspects of western Indian history ca. 1800, from kingship and caste hierarchy to abortion and alcohol consumption. Particularly innovative is its focus on the critical role played by merchants in articulating social identities that became widespread in modern times.” — CYNTHIA TALBOT, author of The Last Hindu Emperor“A pathbreaking book that explodes essentialist views of the construction of Hindu and Muslim identities in precolonial India. Divya Cherian provocatively argues that the category of ‘Hindu’ was the primary locus for a system of radical othering that excluded Untouchables (and Muslims as Untouchables) through mechanisms of state, law, and everyday life.” — CHRISTIAN LEE NOVETZKE, Professor of South Asian and Religious Studies, University of WashingtonDIVYA CHERIAN is Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Princeton University.2000Open Access01000302https://storage.googleapis.com/rua-ucp/files/media/cover_images/84ec896d-793c-4b44-b23f-a763b4e196eb.png1030610.1525/luminos.139.aChapter0101Introduction1A01Divya CherianDivyaCherianDepartment of History Princeton UniversityDIVYA CHERIAN is Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Princeton University.01eng2000Open Access2030610.1525/luminos.139.bChapter0101Power1A01Divya CherianDivyaCherianDepartment of History Princeton UniversityDIVYA CHERIAN is Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Princeton University.01eng2000Open Access3030610.1525/luminos.139.cChapter0101Purity1A01Divya CherianDivyaCherianDepartment of History Princeton UniversityDIVYA CHERIAN is Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Princeton University.01eng2000Open Access4030610.1525/luminos.139.dChapter0101Hierarchy1A01Divya CherianDivyaCherianDepartment of History Princeton UniversityDIVYA CHERIAN is Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Princeton University.01eng2000Open Access5030610.1525/luminos.139.eChapter0101Discipline1A01Divya CherianDivyaCherianDepartment of History Princeton UniversityDIVYA CHERIAN is Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Princeton University.01eng2000Open Access6030610.1525/luminos.139.fChapter0101Nonharm1A01Divya CherianDivyaCherianDepartment of History Princeton UniversityDIVYA CHERIAN is Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Princeton University.01eng2000Open Access7030610.1525/luminos.139.gChapter0101Austerity1A01Divya CherianDivyaCherianDepartment of History Princeton UniversityDIVYA CHERIAN is Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Princeton University.01eng2000Open Access8030610.1525/luminos.139.hChapter0101Chastity1A01Divya CherianDivyaCherianDepartment of History Princeton UniversityDIVYA CHERIAN is Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Princeton University.01eng2000Open Access9030610.1525/luminos.139.iChapter0101Epilogue1A01Divya CherianDivyaCherianDepartment of History Princeton UniversityDIVYA CHERIAN is Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Princeton University.01eng2000Open Access01URLhttps://www.luminosoa.orgUniversity of California Press01University of California Press01Publisher’s corporate websitehttps://www.luminosoa.org02Publisher’s website for a specified workhttps://www.luminosoa.org/books/m/10.1525/luminos.139California040120221223The Author(s)02WORLD0615978-0-520-39005-8WORLD11Unknown36Supplier’s website for a specified workhttps://www.luminosoa.org29Supplier’s website: download the titlehttps://www.luminosoa.org/books/150/files/9a560e84-77e2-4b51-b4b0-498463475ac1.pdf20082022122301ucp-150-m-15-978-0-520-39006-5030115978-0-520-39006-50610.1525/luminos.13901internal-reference15000EDE12110Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs (CC-BY-NC-ND)02http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/0101Merchants of VirtueHindus, Muslims, and Untouchables in Eighteenth-Century South Asia1A01Divya CherianDivyaCherianDepartment of History Princeton UniversityDIVYA CHERIAN is Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Princeton University.01eng002730301010300Merchants of Virtue explores the question of what it meant to be Hindu in precolonial South Asia. Divya Cherian presents a fine-grained study of everyday life and local politics in the kingdom of Marwar in eighteenth-century western India to uncover how merchants enforced their caste ideals of vegetarianism and bodily austerity as universal markers of Hindu identity. Using legal strategies and alliances with elites, these merchants successfully remade the category of “Hindu,” setting it in contrast to “Untouchable” in a process that reconfigured Hinduism in caste terms. In a history pertinent to understanding India today, Cherian establishes the centrality of caste to the early-modern Hindu self and to its imagination of inadmissible others.“A refreshingly different perspective on the history of caste and untouchability in India, enlarging the field of scholarship from its focus on the colonial era by telling us how precolonial configurations of power in the locality shaped the everyday experience of caste.” — GOPAL GURU, coauthor of The Cracked Mirror and Experience, Caste, and the Everyday Social“This provocative and empirically rich study offers a plenitude of fascinating insights into aspects of western Indian history ca. 1800, from kingship and caste hierarchy to abortion and alcohol consumption. Particularly innovative is its focus on the critical role played by merchants in articulating social identities that became widespread in modern times.” — CYNTHIA TALBOT, author of The Last Hindu Emperor“A pathbreaking book that explodes essentialist views of the construction of Hindu and Muslim identities in precolonial India. Divya Cherian provocatively argues that the category of ‘Hindu’ was the primary locus for a system of radical othering that excluded Untouchables (and Muslims as Untouchables) through mechanisms of state, law, and everyday life.” — CHRISTIAN LEE NOVETZKE, Professor of South Asian and Religious Studies, University of WashingtonDIVYA CHERIAN is Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Princeton University.0200Merchants of Virtue explores the question of what it meant to be Hindu in precolonial South Asia. Divya Cherian presents a fine-grained study of everyday life and local politics in the kingdom of Marwar in eighteenth-century western India to uncover how merchants enforced their caste ideals of vegetarianism and bodily austerity as universal markers of Hindu identity. Using legal strategies and alliances with elites, these merchants successfully remade the category of “Hindu,” setting it in contrast to “Untouchable” in a process that reconfigured Hinduism in caste terms. In a history pertinent to understanding India today, Cherian establishes the centrality of caste to the early-modern Hindu self and to its imagination of inadmissible others.“A refreshingly different perspective on the history of caste and untouchability in India, enlarging the field of scholarship from its focus on the colonial era by telling us how precolonial configurations of power in the locality shaped the everyday experience of caste.” — GOPAL GURU, coauthor of The Cracked Mirror and Experience, Caste, and the Everyday Social“This provocative and empirically rich study offers a plenitude of fascinating insights into aspects of western Indian history ca. 1800, from kingship and caste hierarchy to abortion and alcohol consumption. Particularly innovative is its focus on the critical role played by merchants in articulating social identities that became widespread in modern times.” — CYNTHIA TALBOT, author of The Last Hindu Emperor“A pathbreaking book that explodes essentialist views of the construction of Hindu and Muslim identities in precolonial India. Divya Cherian provocatively argues that the category of ‘Hindu’ was the primary locus for a system of radical othering that excluded Untouchables (and Muslims as Untouchables) through mechanisms of state, law, and everyday life.” — CHRISTIAN LEE NOVETZKE, Professor of South Asian and Religious Studies, University of WashingtonDIVYA CHERIAN is Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Princeton University.0400Introduction Power Purity Hierarchy Discipline Nonharm Austerity Chastity Epilogue3000Merchants of Virtue explores the question of what it meant to be Hindu in precolonial South Asia. Divya Cherian presents a fine-grained study of everyday life and local politics in the kingdom of Marwar in eighteenth-century western India to uncover how merchants enforced their caste ideals of vegetarianism and bodily austerity as universal markers of Hindu identity. Using legal strategies and alliances with elites, these merchants successfully remade the category of “Hindu,” setting it in contrast to “Untouchable” in a process that reconfigured Hinduism in caste terms. In a history pertinent to understanding India today, Cherian establishes the centrality of caste to the early-modern Hindu self and to its imagination of inadmissible others.“A refreshingly different perspective on the history of caste and untouchability in India, enlarging the field of scholarship from its focus on the colonial era by telling us how precolonial configurations of power in the locality shaped the everyday experience of caste.” — GOPAL GURU, coauthor of The Cracked Mirror and Experience, Caste, and the Everyday Social“This provocative and empirically rich study offers a plenitude of fascinating insights into aspects of western Indian history ca. 1800, from kingship and caste hierarchy to abortion and alcohol consumption. Particularly innovative is its focus on the critical role played by merchants in articulating social identities that became widespread in modern times.” — CYNTHIA TALBOT, author of The Last Hindu Emperor“A pathbreaking book that explodes essentialist views of the construction of Hindu and Muslim identities in precolonial India. Divya Cherian provocatively argues that the category of ‘Hindu’ was the primary locus for a system of radical othering that excluded Untouchables (and Muslims as Untouchables) through mechanisms of state, law, and everyday life.” — CHRISTIAN LEE NOVETZKE, Professor of South Asian and Religious Studies, University of WashingtonDIVYA CHERIAN is Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Princeton University.2000Open Access01000302https://storage.googleapis.com/rua-ucp/files/media/cover_images/84ec896d-793c-4b44-b23f-a763b4e196eb.png1030610.1525/luminos.139.aChapter0101Introduction1A01Divya CherianDivyaCherianDepartment of History Princeton UniversityDIVYA CHERIAN is Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Princeton University.01eng2000Open Access2030610.1525/luminos.139.bChapter0101Power1A01Divya CherianDivyaCherianDepartment of History Princeton UniversityDIVYA CHERIAN is Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Princeton University.01eng2000Open Access3030610.1525/luminos.139.cChapter0101Purity1A01Divya CherianDivyaCherianDepartment of History Princeton UniversityDIVYA CHERIAN is Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Princeton University.01eng2000Open Access4030610.1525/luminos.139.dChapter0101Hierarchy1A01Divya CherianDivyaCherianDepartment of History Princeton UniversityDIVYA CHERIAN is Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Princeton University.01eng2000Open Access5030610.1525/luminos.139.eChapter0101Discipline1A01Divya CherianDivyaCherianDepartment of History Princeton UniversityDIVYA CHERIAN is Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Princeton University.01eng2000Open Access6030610.1525/luminos.139.fChapter0101Nonharm1A01Divya CherianDivyaCherianDepartment of History Princeton UniversityDIVYA CHERIAN is Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Princeton University.01eng2000Open Access7030610.1525/luminos.139.gChapter0101Austerity1A01Divya CherianDivyaCherianDepartment of History Princeton UniversityDIVYA CHERIAN is Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Princeton University.01eng2000Open Access8030610.1525/luminos.139.hChapter0101Chastity1A01Divya CherianDivyaCherianDepartment of History Princeton UniversityDIVYA CHERIAN is Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Princeton University.01eng2000Open Access9030610.1525/luminos.139.iChapter0101Epilogue1A01Divya CherianDivyaCherianDepartment of History Princeton UniversityDIVYA CHERIAN is Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Princeton University.01eng2000Open Access01URLhttps://www.luminosoa.orgUniversity of California Press01University of California Press01Publisher’s corporate websitehttps://www.luminosoa.org02Publisher’s website for a specified workhttps://www.luminosoa.org/books/m/10.1525/luminos.139California040120221223The Author(s)02WORLD0615978-0-520-39005-8WORLD11Unknown36Supplier’s website for a specified workhttps://www.luminosoa.org29Supplier’s website: download the titlehttps://www.luminosoa.org/books/150/files/5603421e-cfc9-4ed6-bd66-81452457c417.mobi20082022122301ucp-150-m-15-978-0-520-39006-5030115978-0-520-39006-50610.1525/luminos.13901internal-reference15000EBE10110Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs (CC-BY-NC-ND)02http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/0101Merchants of VirtueHindus, Muslims, and Untouchables in Eighteenth-Century South Asia1A01Divya CherianDivyaCherianDepartment of History Princeton UniversityDIVYA CHERIAN is Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Princeton University.01eng002730301010300Merchants of Virtue explores the question of what it meant to be Hindu in precolonial South Asia. Divya Cherian presents a fine-grained study of everyday life and local politics in the kingdom of Marwar in eighteenth-century western India to uncover how merchants enforced their caste ideals of vegetarianism and bodily austerity as universal markers of Hindu identity. Using legal strategies and alliances with elites, these merchants successfully remade the category of “Hindu,” setting it in contrast to “Untouchable” in a process that reconfigured Hinduism in caste terms. In a history pertinent to understanding India today, Cherian establishes the centrality of caste to the early-modern Hindu self and to its imagination of inadmissible others.“A refreshingly different perspective on the history of caste and untouchability in India, enlarging the field of scholarship from its focus on the colonial era by telling us how precolonial configurations of power in the locality shaped the everyday experience of caste.” — GOPAL GURU, coauthor of The Cracked Mirror and Experience, Caste, and the Everyday Social“This provocative and empirically rich study offers a plenitude of fascinating insights into aspects of western Indian history ca. 1800, from kingship and caste hierarchy to abortion and alcohol consumption. Particularly innovative is its focus on the critical role played by merchants in articulating social identities that became widespread in modern times.” — CYNTHIA TALBOT, author of The Last Hindu Emperor“A pathbreaking book that explodes essentialist views of the construction of Hindu and Muslim identities in precolonial India. Divya Cherian provocatively argues that the category of ‘Hindu’ was the primary locus for a system of radical othering that excluded Untouchables (and Muslims as Untouchables) through mechanisms of state, law, and everyday life.” — CHRISTIAN LEE NOVETZKE, Professor of South Asian and Religious Studies, University of WashingtonDIVYA CHERIAN is Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Princeton University.0200Merchants of Virtue explores the question of what it meant to be Hindu in precolonial South Asia. Divya Cherian presents a fine-grained study of everyday life and local politics in the kingdom of Marwar in eighteenth-century western India to uncover how merchants enforced their caste ideals of vegetarianism and bodily austerity as universal markers of Hindu identity. Using legal strategies and alliances with elites, these merchants successfully remade the category of “Hindu,” setting it in contrast to “Untouchable” in a process that reconfigured Hinduism in caste terms. In a history pertinent to understanding India today, Cherian establishes the centrality of caste to the early-modern Hindu self and to its imagination of inadmissible others.“A refreshingly different perspective on the history of caste and untouchability in India, enlarging the field of scholarship from its focus on the colonial era by telling us how precolonial configurations of power in the locality shaped the everyday experience of caste.” — GOPAL GURU, coauthor of The Cracked Mirror and Experience, Caste, and the Everyday Social“This provocative and empirically rich study offers a plenitude of fascinating insights into aspects of western Indian history ca. 1800, from kingship and caste hierarchy to abortion and alcohol consumption. Particularly innovative is its focus on the critical role played by merchants in articulating social identities that became widespread in modern times.” — CYNTHIA TALBOT, author of The Last Hindu Emperor“A pathbreaking book that explodes essentialist views of the construction of Hindu and Muslim identities in precolonial India. Divya Cherian provocatively argues that the category of ‘Hindu’ was the primary locus for a system of radical othering that excluded Untouchables (and Muslims as Untouchables) through mechanisms of state, law, and everyday life.” — CHRISTIAN LEE NOVETZKE, Professor of South Asian and Religious Studies, University of WashingtonDIVYA CHERIAN is Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Princeton University.0400Introduction Power Purity Hierarchy Discipline Nonharm Austerity Chastity Epilogue3000Merchants of Virtue explores the question of what it meant to be Hindu in precolonial South Asia. Divya Cherian presents a fine-grained study of everyday life and local politics in the kingdom of Marwar in eighteenth-century western India to uncover how merchants enforced their caste ideals of vegetarianism and bodily austerity as universal markers of Hindu identity. Using legal strategies and alliances with elites, these merchants successfully remade the category of “Hindu,” setting it in contrast to “Untouchable” in a process that reconfigured Hinduism in caste terms. In a history pertinent to understanding India today, Cherian establishes the centrality of caste to the early-modern Hindu self and to its imagination of inadmissible others.“A refreshingly different perspective on the history of caste and untouchability in India, enlarging the field of scholarship from its focus on the colonial era by telling us how precolonial configurations of power in the locality shaped the everyday experience of caste.” — GOPAL GURU, coauthor of The Cracked Mirror and Experience, Caste, and the Everyday Social“This provocative and empirically rich study offers a plenitude of fascinating insights into aspects of western Indian history ca. 1800, from kingship and caste hierarchy to abortion and alcohol consumption. Particularly innovative is its focus on the critical role played by merchants in articulating social identities that became widespread in modern times.” — CYNTHIA TALBOT, author of The Last Hindu Emperor“A pathbreaking book that explodes essentialist views of the construction of Hindu and Muslim identities in precolonial India. Divya Cherian provocatively argues that the category of ‘Hindu’ was the primary locus for a system of radical othering that excluded Untouchables (and Muslims as Untouchables) through mechanisms of state, law, and everyday life.” — CHRISTIAN LEE NOVETZKE, Professor of South Asian and Religious Studies, University of WashingtonDIVYA CHERIAN is Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Princeton University.2000Open Access01000302https://storage.googleapis.com/rua-ucp/files/media/cover_images/84ec896d-793c-4b44-b23f-a763b4e196eb.png1030610.1525/luminos.139.aChapter0101Introduction1A01Divya CherianDivyaCherianDepartment of History Princeton UniversityDIVYA CHERIAN is Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Princeton University.01eng2000Open Access2030610.1525/luminos.139.bChapter0101Power1A01Divya CherianDivyaCherianDepartment of History Princeton UniversityDIVYA CHERIAN is Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Princeton University.01eng2000Open Access3030610.1525/luminos.139.cChapter0101Purity1A01Divya CherianDivyaCherianDepartment of History Princeton UniversityDIVYA CHERIAN is Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Princeton University.01eng2000Open Access4030610.1525/luminos.139.dChapter0101Hierarchy1A01Divya CherianDivyaCherianDepartment of History Princeton UniversityDIVYA CHERIAN is Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Princeton University.01eng2000Open Access5030610.1525/luminos.139.eChapter0101Discipline1A01Divya CherianDivyaCherianDepartment of History Princeton UniversityDIVYA CHERIAN is Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Princeton University.01eng2000Open Access6030610.1525/luminos.139.fChapter0101Nonharm1A01Divya CherianDivyaCherianDepartment of History Princeton UniversityDIVYA CHERIAN is Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Princeton University.01eng2000Open Access7030610.1525/luminos.139.gChapter0101Austerity1A01Divya CherianDivyaCherianDepartment of History Princeton UniversityDIVYA CHERIAN is Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Princeton University.01eng2000Open Access8030610.1525/luminos.139.hChapter0101Chastity1A01Divya CherianDivyaCherianDepartment of History Princeton UniversityDIVYA CHERIAN is Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Princeton University.01eng2000Open Access9030610.1525/luminos.139.iChapter0101Epilogue1A01Divya CherianDivyaCherianDepartment of History Princeton UniversityDIVYA CHERIAN is Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Princeton University.01eng2000Open Access01URLhttps://www.luminosoa.orgUniversity of California Press01University of California Press01Publisher’s corporate websitehttps://www.luminosoa.org02Publisher’s website for a specified workhttps://www.luminosoa.org/books/m/10.1525/luminos.139California040120221223The Author(s)02WORLD0615978-0-520-39005-8WORLD11Unknown36Supplier’s website for a specified workhttps://www.luminosoa.org29Supplier’s website: download the titlehttps://www.luminosoa.org/books/150/files/4870e9df-450f-4323-94df-0e6a32330548.epub20082022122301ucp-150-m-15-978-0-520-39005-8030115978-0-520-39005-80610.1525/luminos.13901internal-reference15000BCB20210026in030.64in081.00089866948lb019inCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs (CC-BY-NC-ND)02http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/0101Merchants of VirtueHindus, Muslims, and Untouchables in Eighteenth-Century South Asia1A01Divya CherianDivyaCherianDepartment of History Princeton UniversityDIVYA CHERIAN is Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Princeton University.01eng002730301010300Merchants of Virtue explores the question of what it meant to be Hindu in precolonial South Asia. Divya Cherian presents a fine-grained study of everyday life and local politics in the kingdom of Marwar in eighteenth-century western India to uncover how merchants enforced their caste ideals of vegetarianism and bodily austerity as universal markers of Hindu identity. Using legal strategies and alliances with elites, these merchants successfully remade the category of “Hindu,” setting it in contrast to “Untouchable” in a process that reconfigured Hinduism in caste terms. In a history pertinent to understanding India today, Cherian establishes the centrality of caste to the early-modern Hindu self and to its imagination of inadmissible others.“A refreshingly different perspective on the history of caste and untouchability in India, enlarging the field of scholarship from its focus on the colonial era by telling us how precolonial configurations of power in the locality shaped the everyday experience of caste.” — GOPAL GURU, coauthor of The Cracked Mirror and Experience, Caste, and the Everyday Social“This provocative and empirically rich study offers a plenitude of fascinating insights into aspects of western Indian history ca. 1800, from kingship and caste hierarchy to abortion and alcohol consumption. Particularly innovative is its focus on the critical role played by merchants in articulating social identities that became widespread in modern times.” — CYNTHIA TALBOT, author of The Last Hindu Emperor“A pathbreaking book that explodes essentialist views of the construction of Hindu and Muslim identities in precolonial India. Divya Cherian provocatively argues that the category of ‘Hindu’ was the primary locus for a system of radical othering that excluded Untouchables (and Muslims as Untouchables) through mechanisms of state, law, and everyday life.” — CHRISTIAN LEE NOVETZKE, Professor of South Asian and Religious Studies, University of WashingtonDIVYA CHERIAN is Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Princeton University.0200Merchants of Virtue explores the question of what it meant to be Hindu in precolonial South Asia. Divya Cherian presents a fine-grained study of everyday life and local politics in the kingdom of Marwar in eighteenth-century western India to uncover how merchants enforced their caste ideals of vegetarianism and bodily austerity as universal markers of Hindu identity. Using legal strategies and alliances with elites, these merchants successfully remade the category of “Hindu,” setting it in contrast to “Untouchable” in a process that reconfigured Hinduism in caste terms. In a history pertinent to understanding India today, Cherian establishes the centrality of caste to the early-modern Hindu self and to its imagination of inadmissible others.“A refreshingly different perspective on the history of caste and untouchability in India, enlarging the field of scholarship from its focus on the colonial era by telling us how precolonial configurations of power in the locality shaped the everyday experience of caste.” — GOPAL GURU, coauthor of The Cracked Mirror and Experience, Caste, and the Everyday Social“This provocative and empirically rich study offers a plenitude of fascinating insights into aspects of western Indian history ca. 1800, from kingship and caste hierarchy to abortion and alcohol consumption. Particularly innovative is its focus on the critical role played by merchants in articulating social identities that became widespread in modern times.” — CYNTHIA TALBOT, author of The Last Hindu Emperor“A pathbreaking book that explodes essentialist views of the construction of Hindu and Muslim identities in precolonial India. Divya Cherian provocatively argues that the category of ‘Hindu’ was the primary locus for a system of radical othering that excluded Untouchables (and Muslims as Untouchables) through mechanisms of state, law, and everyday life.” — CHRISTIAN LEE NOVETZKE, Professor of South Asian and Religious Studies, University of WashingtonDIVYA CHERIAN is Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Princeton University.0400Introduction Power Purity Hierarchy Discipline Nonharm Austerity Chastity Epilogue3000Merchants of Virtue explores the question of what it meant to be Hindu in precolonial South Asia. Divya Cherian presents a fine-grained study of everyday life and local politics in the kingdom of Marwar in eighteenth-century western India to uncover how merchants enforced their caste ideals of vegetarianism and bodily austerity as universal markers of Hindu identity. Using legal strategies and alliances with elites, these merchants successfully remade the category of “Hindu,” setting it in contrast to “Untouchable” in a process that reconfigured Hinduism in caste terms. In a history pertinent to understanding India today, Cherian establishes the centrality of caste to the early-modern Hindu self and to its imagination of inadmissible others.“A refreshingly different perspective on the history of caste and untouchability in India, enlarging the field of scholarship from its focus on the colonial era by telling us how precolonial configurations of power in the locality shaped the everyday experience of caste.” — GOPAL GURU, coauthor of The Cracked Mirror and Experience, Caste, and the Everyday Social“This provocative and empirically rich study offers a plenitude of fascinating insights into aspects of western Indian history ca. 1800, from kingship and caste hierarchy to abortion and alcohol consumption. Particularly innovative is its focus on the critical role played by merchants in articulating social identities that became widespread in modern times.” — CYNTHIA TALBOT, author of The Last Hindu Emperor“A pathbreaking book that explodes essentialist views of the construction of Hindu and Muslim identities in precolonial India. Divya Cherian provocatively argues that the category of ‘Hindu’ was the primary locus for a system of radical othering that excluded Untouchables (and Muslims as Untouchables) through mechanisms of state, law, and everyday life.” — CHRISTIAN LEE NOVETZKE, Professor of South Asian and Religious Studies, University of WashingtonDIVYA CHERIAN is Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Princeton University.2000Open Access01000302https://storage.googleapis.com/rua-ucp/files/media/cover_images/84ec896d-793c-4b44-b23f-a763b4e196eb.png1030610.1525/luminos.139.aChapter0101Introduction1A01Divya CherianDivyaCherianDepartment of History Princeton UniversityDIVYA CHERIAN is Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Princeton University.01eng2000Open Access2030610.1525/luminos.139.bChapter0101Power1A01Divya CherianDivyaCherianDepartment of History Princeton UniversityDIVYA CHERIAN is Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Princeton University.01eng2000Open Access3030610.1525/luminos.139.cChapter0101Purity1A01Divya CherianDivyaCherianDepartment of History Princeton UniversityDIVYA CHERIAN is Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Princeton University.01eng2000Open Access4030610.1525/luminos.139.dChapter0101Hierarchy1A01Divya CherianDivyaCherianDepartment of History Princeton UniversityDIVYA CHERIAN is Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Princeton University.01eng2000Open Access5030610.1525/luminos.139.eChapter0101Discipline1A01Divya CherianDivyaCherianDepartment of History Princeton UniversityDIVYA CHERIAN is Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Princeton University.01eng2000Open Access6030610.1525/luminos.139.fChapter0101Nonharm1A01Divya CherianDivyaCherianDepartment of History Princeton UniversityDIVYA CHERIAN is Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Princeton University.01eng2000Open Access7030610.1525/luminos.139.gChapter0101Austerity1A01Divya CherianDivyaCherianDepartment of History Princeton UniversityDIVYA CHERIAN is Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Princeton University.01eng2000Open Access8030610.1525/luminos.139.hChapter0101Chastity1A01Divya CherianDivyaCherianDepartment of History Princeton UniversityDIVYA CHERIAN is Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Princeton University.01eng2000Open Access9030610.1525/luminos.139.iChapter0101Epilogue1A01Divya CherianDivyaCherianDepartment of History Princeton UniversityDIVYA CHERIAN is Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Princeton University.01eng2000Open Access01URLhttps://www.luminosoa.orgUniversity of California Press01University of California Press01Publisher’s corporate websitehttps://www.luminosoa.org02Publisher’s website for a specified workhttps://www.luminosoa.org/books/m/10.1525/luminos.139California040120221223The Author(s)02WORLD0615978-0-520-39006-50615978-0-520-39006-50615978-0-520-39006-5WORLD11Unknown20082022122308