In a market town in western India, nearly all the wholesale cloth shops belong to families of one trading caste. A newcomer from another community finds it hard to open a shop there: credit is given mostly to relatives and caste fellows, and quarrels over payment are settled by caste elders rather than in court. Marriages between trading families also bring new business partnerships, and the caste association runs a hostel for the children of its members.
Sociologists illustrate the idea this case shows with two examples. One is a traditional business community and its trading networks in colonial India. What is the other?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → A weekly haat in a tribal area
Option (1) A labour market on colonial plantations — Incorrect. A market for tribal labour grew in colonial times when tribals were hired for plantations and mines. It belongs to the account of how colonial rule changed tribal areas.
Option (2) A cattle market in rural India — Incorrect. Cattle markets are specialised periodic markets held at long gaps in rural India. They are one kind of periodic market that links village economies to wider markets.
Option (3) A wholesale market in a metropolitan centre — Incorrect. Wholesale markets and metropolitan centres come up in the discussion of what a market means and of how periodic markets link to towns. Neither is one of the two examples.
Option (4) A weekly haat in a tribal area — Correct. The weekly tribal haat is the other example. It is a market where adivasis sell produce and buy goods, and also meet kin and arrange marriages, so trade and social life go together.
NCERT (2026-27): “4.1 Sociological Perspectives on Markets and the Economy … “The weekly haat is a common sight in rural and even urban India. In hilly and forested areas (especially those inhabited by adivasis), where settlements are far-flung, roads and communications poor, and the economy relatively undeveloped, the weekly market is the major institution for the exchange of goods as well as for social intercourse. …” |