ABSTRACT
This essay looks at the last five centuries of “Indian things”—commodities that have moved from the Indian subcontinent to people and markets far away, often remaking those far-away peoples’ lives, livelihoods, and ways of thinking about and doing commerce. In the process, it also examines the ways in which growing and shrinking demands for Indian things have altered lives and livelihoods on the Indian subcontinent in obvious and somewhat less obvious ways. It examines premodern commodities like cloth and saltpeter and the rise of booming colonial exports like indigo and jute before comparing these with independent Indian exports like tea, tobacco, and rare earth minerals, all posited as national commodities with the promise of enriching a new independent economic space. The final section of this essay looks at the “hidden” Indian commodities of the twenty-first century like beef, guar beans, diamonds, and active pharmaceutical ingredients, all industries which run parallel to a twenty-first-century story of India as a brand. Ultimately, this essay hopes to show the ways in which Indian commodities have been woven into a story of global markets and national aspirations, embedded in India’s international linkages from the early modern world to the present day.
