LECTURE 5: TUESDAY MARCH 29TH: ECONOMIC HISTORY OF THE STATES OF GUJARAT

1. Cambay port and the ports of Kutch
There have been international ports in Gujarat for thousands of years. Over the centuries, there have many different ports in Kutch. Cambay was once one of the world’s greatest ports.
Speaker: Kenneth X. Robbins
Kenneth X. Robbins is collector-archivist, who has curated many exhibits, edited multiple books, and published more than 120 articles dealing with the Indian states and Indian minority groups like Jews and Africans.

2. Dispute over Princely Seaports in Gujarat, 1890-1947
There were bitter disagreements between the British and those states with seaports over control of port administration, smuggling, customs duty, and a customs cordon around the maritime states.
Speaker: John McLeod
Professor McLeod is the author of Sovereignty, Power, Control: Politics in the States of Western India 1916-1947, the standard history on the subject and The History of India as well as the co-editor of African Elites in India: Habshi Amarat.

3. Women in the Family Firms Financing the State of Baroda
The women of these family firms bargained with local rulers, elites, and the East India Company. Almost all of them had faced pressures within the family as well as from the outside forces. Yet they braved them with enough vigor to turn the situation in their favor.
Speaker: Maitree Vaidya Sabnis
Maitree Vaidya Sabnis is an associate professor of history at the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda. Her research specializes in the history of Princely States, Baroda State, women’s history, land revenue, and business history.