In the 17^th and 18^th centuries, the city of Surat was the most important harbour in the Arabian Sea and the main port of the Moghul empire. Surat at its peak in the first half of the 18th century, had a population of over 200,000. The neighbouring coastal region was fertile and the residents, comfortably off. 

The Surat district was in the southern end of the Moghul empire. The rival Maratha lurked at the edge, to procure the riches of Surat.

The Moghul princes established a bureaucracy in all regions. From well-respected large land-owning families selected were men to collect tax from the land cultivators, farmers, allegedly to provide protection from marauders. Such tax-collecting officials were called Desai (from desh). 

Historical records indicate that most of the Desai appointed in the Surat district came from the Bhathela community. As these dignitaries accrued wealth, they differentiated from the non-Desai Bhathela. 

The Anavil Brahmin gathered to live in five of the hundred plus villages they collected tax from. These five were the Sara Gam, i.e., Good Villages, where Desai families lived next to non-Desai families: Bhathela and cultivators from other communities like Kanbi, Koli and the artisan caste. From such centres, each Desai exacted taxes in cash or kind from cultivators in surrounding villages. 

The Desai villages like Palsana, Kharsad, Dihan, Untdi, Bhadeli, Puni, Gandevi, Chikhli, Vesma, Kaliawadi, Katargam and others became larger townships; the Desai preferred to live in places with better and varied facilities. 

With Maratha invasions and British expansion in the 18th century, Moghuls came under siege but the power of the Desai continued to increase, amassing wealth from the cultivators, Bathela, Kanbi, Koli and others.

Around 1815 the British established direct rule in some parts of Surat. Their collaborator against the Moghul, Gaikwar of Baroda, a Maratha prince, maintained power in other parts.

In the British-ruled areas, a Ryotwari system was instituted in ~1820s. The Ryot (cultivators), were regarded as owners of the land; taxes were directly collected by the government from them. The rates were high and required in cash only, with threat of eviction. Thus, blossomed moneylenders, while income and status of Desai middleman tax collectors dwindled. 

In ~1930 the British government began to provide compensation to those Desais who could prove direct descendance from the Moghul-established tax-collecting Desais. In Surat 900 “Desaigiri” claimed this right; 728 of those were from the Bhathela Desais.

This had a big impact:

1. Not all Desais were granted this right for compensation status, thereby differentiating between the Desai and the non-Desai official. This loss of status spread even to non-British Gaikwar-ruled regions.

2. The Desai in the British territories lost their main source of income and power while for decades more, the Desai in Gaikwar territories continued their middleman tax collection allowing them to maintain their plush lifestyle. It is not surprising that the wealthiest Desais, the Pedhhiwala, resided in Gandevi, Palsana and Mahuva towns in the state of Baroda.

3. The introduction of Bombay-Baroda Railway gave impetus to agriculture and trade and new occupational opportunities cropped up in the British colonial state.

The Bhathela, who were less hampered by status concerns than the Desai, readily took up new occupations in the less wealthy non-Desai villages. Desai and Bhathela Brahmins were also amongst the first to take advantage educational opportunities. They took up “nokri”, i.e., jobs and careers, with the railway, with the school as teachers, with the British government as clerks, and more. 

Status was expressed publicly, and further enhanced, by the arrangement and celebration of marriage.

Edited by Sandhya Trivedi