Work

Partners in Empire: Indigenous business, imperial technology, and the Indian Radio Telegraph Company

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: This article examines the introduction of the beam wireless system to India as part of the Imperial Wireless Chain, which enhanced communication links between Britain and India. It attributes the pioneering role in establishing the beam wireless service and laying the foundation for commercial radio broadcasting to a Bombay-based Ismaili Khoja family—the Chinoys—who secured necessary patents from Marconi and established the Indian Radio & Telegraph Company (IRTC). Departing from prevailing scholarship that frames Gujarati Muslim trading communities of Khojas, Bohras, Memons and groups such as Sindhis and Chettiars primarily as migrant transnational merchants (unlike Marwaris and Jains), this study foregrounds their role in a strategic, technology-driven infrastructure sector. It traces how the IRTC, born from colonial Bombay, created an unprecedented alliance of Parsi, Hindu and Muslim capital, exemplifying the city’s distinctive model of cosmopolitan capitalism.

Source: The Indian Economic & Social History Review

DOI: 10.1177/00194646251386192

Author: Danish Khan

Institution: University of Oxford

Language: English

Topic: Colonial History and Postcolonial Studies

Subfield: Sociology and Political Science

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Industry, innovation and infrastructure

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,650