Career Lecture Series No. 1. Bengalees in Commerce and Industry 9th January 1939

In order to appreciate the position which the people of the province at present occupy in its commercial and industrial activities I would like to give at first an idea of the position which the Bengalis occupied at the time of early settlement of the East India Company in Bengal. [...] It may not be known to many of you that when Calcutta with two of its adjoining villages was selected as a place of settlement by the English merchants they took up the task of developing it with the help of the people of the province. [...] And while the Bengali showed his apathy and aversion towards a business career this field was being captured by the sturdy sons of other provinces with the conse- quence that although we call this city of Calcutta as the city of palaces but the palaces are occupied by the Marwaris and the gates are guarded by Rajputs. [...] The import trade of Bengal is also, to a large extent, in the hand of Marwaris ; not only are they banians of the importing European houses, but between these and actual consumers there is an interminable series of dealers and middlemen most of whom are not people of the province. [...] The rapid means of communication has brought him in touch not only with the European but also with the Japanese and Chinaman, as also with the non-Bengali—the Marwari, the Gujrati, the Borah or Nakhoda, the Parsi, the Behari or the"11 U. P. man, the Punjabi, the Oriya, the Cutchi and the Sindhi.