How a Khoja Family Helped Wire the Empire: The Chinoys and the Making of Cosmopolitan Capitalism

by DANISH KHAN

Bombay’s Chinoy family pioneered India’s international wireless communication and shaped cosmopolitan capitalism in the colonial era.

In the crowded economic history of colonial India, the spotlight is often trained on a familiar cast: the Parsis of Bombay – Tatas, Wadias, Godrejs; the Marwari financial giants of Calcutta like the Birlas; and Hindu industrial houses. These communities unquestionably shaped the contours of Indian capitalism. Yet this focus obscures the contributions of other groups who played pivotal roles in connecting India to global circuits of technology, finance and communication.

One such story is that of the Chinoys, a Khoja Ismaili Muslim business family from Bombay. Their rise from the China trade to the helm of India’s international wireless communication network illuminates a distinctive moment in India’s economic history – one in which indigenous capital, imperial technological ambition and flexible, cross-community partnerships came together to produce what we may call cosmopolitan capitalism.

This story not only unsettles the notion that Gujarati Muslim traders were confined to Indian Ocean commerce; it shows how local entrepreneurial families could position themselves at the centre of the empire’s most advanced technological systems.

The Chinoys: a family emerges

Like many Bombay merchant families, the Chinoys began in maritime trade. Their patriarch, Meherally Chinoy, started in the mid-nineteenth century as an apprentice to the Khoja merchant prince Jairazbhoy Peerbhoy. Through repeated voyages to China and Japan, he built a reputation for commercial acumen and established both capital and credibility. His sons consolidated and expanded this base.

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

by DANISH KHAN

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.

Introduction

In colonial India, Bombay was an important centre of trade and finance. Unlike the other two Presidency towns of Calcutta and Madras, where Europeans dominated, members of various Indian trading communities occupied a crucial position in Bombay’s commercial world. Foremost among these groups were the Parsis, who were considered pioneers of the cotton industry and enjoyed good relations with the British. The other communities who were present in Bombay and were active in various lines of trade were the Arabs, Banias, Bhatias, Bohras, Khojas, Jains and Memons.¹ While the majority of the members of these communities were small traders, the involvement in the China trade had enabled the transformation of some of them to big capitalists.By the mid-nineteenth century, these capitalists started investing in cotton mills, facilitating the development of a vibrant cotton industry in Bombay. Several of them had also prospered due to obtaining military and government contracts, which allowed them to move to different sectors. The existing scholarship on business communities such as Parsis and Marwaris and business groups such as the Tatas, Wadias, Birlas, Bajajes and Godrejes identifies them closely with the internal economy of colonial India. On the other hand, the Gujarati Muslim business communities of Khojas, Bohras and Memons, along with Sindhis and Chettiars, have been examined as migrant groups involved heavily in external trade.²The article begins with a discussion of the Chinoy family and provides the background to their rise and importance. I use archival records and family history to narrate how beam wireless service came to India and started operations in order to demonstrate that a Khoja family firm became a source not only for introducing new technology but also for facilitating a joint venture cutting across communities. This article thus advocates an approach which goes beyond Parsi and Hindu trading groups in narrating the development and growth of capitalism in colonial India.As far as family firms are concerned, the general trend has been that Muslim groups find a place in works pertaining to Indian Ocean trade, but in the context of inland trade and industry, the focus has remained on Hindu groups.³ This article studies the introduction of the beam wireless service in India to illuminate the dynamics of a successful Khoja Ismaili family firm of the Chinoys.⁴ Operating the beam wireless service in India was a prestigious and crucial project and showed the confidence and reliance the government placed upon this family. A factor behind the success of this endeavour was the involvement of other prominent capitalists engineered by the Chinoys. However, they could not replicate the success of beam wireless service in their other venture, radio broadcast, which required bigger investment and a larger setup.The scholarship on radio communication and the British Empire has revolved around the role of the pioneer Guglielmo Marconi and his company, the various twists and turns in the development of the Imperial Wireless Chain,⁵ technological improvements and the competition for dominance among the European colonial powers.⁶ Much less is known of the companies that were established to construct and manage stations in the colonies and dominions to establish wireless radio communication with London. Reciprocal stations were required to complete the Imperial Wireless Chain. In the case of India, as this article recounts, a private enterprise was the most favoured option to establish and manage the wireless stations.⁷The credit for the introduction of the beam wireless service in India goes to two brothers, Sir Rahimtoola Chinoy (1882–1957) and Sir Sultan Chinoy (1885–1968). Their father, Meherally Chinoy (1829–1907), had started as an apprentice in the firm of Jairazbhoy Peerbhoy, a famous Khoja merchant prince, in the mid-nineteenth century. Meherally Chinoy made several trips to China and Japan, making substantial money for his employer and for himself as commission.⁸ He rose to become a partner in the firm and, in time, married his employer’s cousin. Though not involved in local politics, Meherally Chinoy had become a well-known name in Bombay’s trading world by the time of his death in 1907.⁹

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by DAMILARE DOSUNMU & TESSIE WAITHIRA

An unemployment crisis has created fertile ground for companies to step in with opaque systems built on WhatsApp groups, middlemen, and bargain-basement wages.

• Chinese AI companies are quietly tapping into Kenya’s young workforce, hiring students and recent graduates to label thousands of videos a day.
• The work is done through opaque networks of middlemen and WhatsApp groups that operate like digital factory floors.
• Kenya’s weak labor protections and soaring youth unemployment have made it a hot spot for cheap AI labor, prompting officials and unions to warn of a new form of digital colonialism as the government rushes to draft regulations.

It’s 3 a.m. in Nairobi, and Ken’s laptop and phone glow in the dark. On one screen, waves crash against a beach in a video, and on the other, a woman stretches into a yoga pose. He has watched each clip several times, trying to decide whether or not it’s in slow motion.

His phone buzzes. In a WhatsApp message, a teammate informs him that she has already labelled 2,200 video clips that day, 200 short of her daily goal. “Are you close to the target? I am so sleepy, I think I will continue tomorrow,” she says.

Ken, who asked to be identified by a pseudonym, fearing loss of work, is among the young Kenyans quietly fueling China’s artificial intelligence ambitions from Nairobi. For as little as 700 Kenyan shillings ($5.42), the workers — mostly university students and recent graduates — spend around 12 hours a day labeling thousands of short videos for China-based companies.

Kenya has long been a data labor hub for U.S. tech giants like Meta and OpenAI. Rest of World’s reporting shows that in recent months, Chinese AI firms have been moving in, but with less transparency.

“Chinese AI firms have quietly become some of the world’s largest buyers of human-labeled data. What distinguishes their expansion isn’t just scale, but opacity — a low-visibility supply chain stitched across East Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East,” Payal Arora, professor of inclusive AI culture, media, and culture studies at Utrecht University in the Netherlands, told Rest of World. “Unlike the U.S. firms that are increasingly scrutinized, the Chinese operations often operate through layers of subcontractors, making accountability far harder to trace. … The lack of transparency means we know far less about labor conditions, wage structures, or worker protections than we should.”

Rest of World reached out to some of China’s largest AI companies to inquire if they outsource data labeling work to Kenya and how they connect with workers in the country, but did not receive responses.

Over the past decade, U.S. tech companies have relied on Kenyan workers for back-end tech work such as data labeling. Companies including Meta, Google, and OpenAI work with outsourcing firms like Sama, CloudFactory, and Turing in Kenya. These arrangements have led to a series of complaints about low pay, toxic office culture, and the traumatic nature of work without mental health support. In recent years, companies have faced public protests and several court cases in Kenya as local workers challenge how Silicon Valley employers treat them.

China, which is challenging the U.S.’ dominance in global AI, is tapping Kenyan workers for similar assignments. Unlike American companies, however, Chinese firms tend to outsource work more informally.

Rest of World spoke to 10 annotators who said they work for Chinese companies, based on the nature of the content they annotate. A few team leaders said they have met their Chinese managers over calls. None of the annotators knew the names of the companies behind the projects. They only knew the middlemen: third-party companies or agents.

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by SANDY ENGLISH

After officers of the New York Police Department (NYPD) arrested protesters who blocked ICE Gestapo forces from leaving a garage in New York City’s Chinatown late last month, Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) mayor-elect, took to social media (with a week’s delay) to comment on the incident. He advised immigrant workers of their rights—the need for a judicial warrant for ICE to enter private dwellings (that ICE routinely violates), the right to film ICE, etc.

But before the video clip is two-thirds done, Mamdani tells viewers not to “impede their investigation, resist arrest or run” and follows up with political pablum directed to his supporters, that he will as mayor “protect, support and celebrate our immigrant brothers and sisters.”

The essential political content of the video is, however, that the NYPD will arrest anyone who interferes with ICE operations. The intended audience of the video is the NYPD brass and the Trump administration. The video seeks to reassure them that a Mamdani government will uphold ICE operations in the city. It is worth noting that since Mamdani met with Trump in November, he has not posted a single item on social media criticizing Trump.

The pact between Trump and Mamdani has a concrete—and chilling—meaning: Mamdani will allow the work of the repressive apparatus of the state in the city, in this case primarily the NYPD, to continue unimpeded.

This is the significance of his reappointment of NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, the pioneer of one of the most sinister mechanisms of repression aimed at the working class, the NYPD’s mass surveillance tools.

Tisch is not only a scion of an ultra-wealthy family that has played a prominent though largely behind-the-scenes role in New York City politics for the last 50 years. She has also devoted her career to designing and implementing a pervasive spying infrastructure known as the Domain Awareness System (DAS).

According to the watchdog group Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (STOP), thanks to DAS, “formed through a public-private partnership with Microsoft, what was once the subject of dystopian imagination is now an everyday reality for New Yorkers. DAS uses cameras, license plate readers, and radiological sensors to create a real-time surveillance map of New York City. This system partners with privately-owned CCTV cameras throughout New York City and instantly compares data with multiple non-NYPD intelligence databases. DAS video files are stored for at least one month, and metadata and license plate data are stored for at least five years—possibly indefinitely.”

STOP has also noted that data from credit cards and their place and time of use on the OMNY system (the MTA’s fare payment system) in New York subways and buses could be harvested by the NYPD. The state agency that manages the subway system, the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA), allows the NYPD to collect this data without a warrant.

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by PRABHAT PATNAIK

According to a report in the Times of India (November 23), the United States has asked European countries to restrict immigration in order to preserve “Western Civilization”. Many in the Third World would find the term “Western Civilization” laughable, especially if it is used in the sense of denoting something precious and worth preserving. The atrocities committed by Western imperialist countries against people all over the world over the last several centuries have been so horrendous that using the term “civilization” to cover such behaviour appears grotesque. From British colonialism’s unleashing  famines in India that killed millions in its rapacious bid to raise revenue from hapless peasants, to Belgium’s king Leopold’s unspeakable brutality against the people of what used to be called the Congo, to German extermination camps in Namibia that wiped out whole tribes, it is a tale of horrible cruelty inflicted on innocent people for no reason other than sheer greed. It is not surprising in this context that Gandhiji, when asked by a journalist what he thought of “Western Civilization”, had wryly quipped: “that would be a very good idea”.

But let us ignore all this cruelty and focus only on the material advance achieved by the West. This material advance itself has been achieved on the basis of an exploitative relationship that the Western imperialist countries had developed vis-à-vis the Third World, a relationship that left the latter in such a state that its inhabitants today are desperate to escape it. Western prosperity is not a separate and independent state achieved through Western diligence alone; it has been achieved through a process of decimation of the economies of countries from which the immigrants are fleeing. What is even more striking is that Western imperialism not only wants to stop the inflow of immigrants; it wants to prevent, even through armed intervention, any change in the societal structure in the immigrants’ home countries that could usher in development that stops this inflow of immigrants.

My argument might of course would be dismissed as hyperbole. After all, Western economies have been characterized by the introduction of remarkable innovations that have dramatically raised labour productivity which in turn has made possible an increase in real wages and the real incomes of Western populations. It is this innovativeness that distinguishes the West and that is lacking in the Third World; it constitutes the differentia specifica between the two parts of the world, the root cause of their divergent economic performances owing to which migrants are seeking to move from one part to another.

Two things about innovations however must be noted. First, innovations are typically introduced when the market for the commodity that would come out of the innovation is expected to expand, which is why innovations do not get introduced during Depressions. Second, innovations do not on their own raise real wages; they do so only when there is a tightness in the labour market that arises for independent reasons. For a very long period in history, the expectation about market expansion for Western products was generated by the seizure of Third World markets. The Industrial Revolution in Britain which started the era of industrial capitalism could not have been sustained if colonial markets had not been available where local craft production could be replaced by the new machine-made goods. The other side of Western innovativeness therefore was deindustrialization of colonial economies that created massive labour reserves there.

Even in countries where innovations were introduced, labour reserves were also created because of technological progress, but these reserves got reduced owing to large scale migration of labour to the temperate regions of settlement abroad such as Canada, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa, where they massacred and displaced the local tribes from the land they had occupied and cultivated this land.  Within the innovating countries therefore tightness was introduced into the labour market through such large scale emigration, because of which real wages could increase alongside innovations that raised labour-productivity.

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by PATRICK BOND

The U.S. now assumes leadership of the G20 until the Miami summit ends on December 15, 2026 – but not without having lost some crucial soft power. In the wake of Donald Trump’s farcical attacks on the host of last week’s G20 summit in Johannesburg, might the Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa (plus Egypt-Ethiopia-Indonesia-Iran-United Arab Emirates) BRICS bloc – maybe alongside some annoyed Europeans – finally stand up straight, and boycott the Florida meeting? 

After all, a process of shifting power relations – symbolic and real – is supposedly underway. At the University of South Africa in Pretoria on November 20, two days before G20 leaders met, Columbia University economist Jeffrey Sachs gave a viral speech in which he castigated Trump – as the equivalent of a four-year old throwing tantrums – and proclaimed that U.S. power

“is fading. It’s fading in part because of the BRICS. Because the BRICS are saying we don’t need to be under the thumb of a US empire. That’s what President Lula said when he was hosting the BRICS this summer. And Trump put on a tariff on Brazil because he didn’t like a court proceeding against the preceding president who had tried to make a coup. And so he put on a penalty tariff and President Lula said, ‘We don’t need an emperor and we’re not going to succumb to this kind of pressure.’ So the BRICS, of which you are an esteemed member … have 46% of the world population. Thank you. And 41% of the world GDP. And they can look at the G7 and say, ‘Who are you?’ And that’s what they’re doing. So this is the new phase of geopolitics.”

Sachs’ rhetoric is certainly pleasing, but in a manner reminiscent of a too-brief sugar high. Looking more closely over the past six months, the (aspiring) multi-polar world has provided many examples of the opposite process, suggesting the BRICS’ threat to U.S. imperialism is in fact, fading. Read on if you are worried that Sachs vastly hypes the BRICS, by not digging deeply enough, dialectically, into the devils in the details. Read on if you are worried that the BRICS’ ruling elites can and do behave in neoliberal subimperialist – not anti-imperialist – ways.  

“We collapsed the ambitious agenda we had about revitalizing the Global South” 

In the most obvious two examples of Trump appeasement syndrome evident in late November, first, there was no punishment whatsoever – e.g. climate taxes (such as a ‘carbon border adjustment mechanism’ on U.S. exports) – announced against his withdrawal from United Nations climate talks, which were hosted from November 10-22 by Brazilian President Lula da Silva in Belém. 

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by EITAY MACK

The last thing the Bolivian people need is for the previous “good relations” to be restored, with Israel once again becoming involved in the country’s internal repression.

On October 20, Israel’s foreign minister Gideon Sa’ar announced on X that he had spoken with Bolivia’s president-elect Rodrigo Paz, congratulating him on his “impressive victory” in the elections. Sa’ar highlighted “the history of relations between Israel and the Jewish people with Bolivia” and added, “Now, after two decades of strained relations, it is time to restore our friendship and put the ties back on track.”

In his post, Sa’ar joined previous foreign ministers who had been responsible for glossing over the darker chapters of Israel’s relations with Bolivia, particularly during the years marked by a series of military coups and dictatorships from November 1964 to 1982.

Like a game of musical chairs, members of the juntas and heads of the security apparatus rotated among themselves, but Israel maintained friendly relations and conducted security business with all of them. Some were even trained in Israel or by Israelis in Bolivia before assuming their positions in the new junta. For example, on November 24, 1978, a military coup brought Raul Lopez Leyton to the head of the interior ministry – he had parachuting wings from Israel.

Documents in archives in Israel, the United States (from the CIA and the State Department), and Bolivia indicate that the military regimes purchased aircraft from Israel and regularly acquired communications equipment, mortars and shells, Uzi submachine guns, and ammunition.

According to the documents, neither Israel nor its representatives were concerned that Nazis and neo-Nazis were active within the security forces and militias, that the regimes murdered, tortured, and disappeared opposition leaders and workers, or that they “broke strikes” in mines using machine guns, mortars, tanks, planes, and helicopters against striking workers.

Bolivia was a poor country, and its defence procurement budget from Israel was limited compared with its neighbours Argentina and Chile. However, its importance to Israel was significant, as Bolivia remained one of its loyal allies at the UN and in other international forums, and even maintained an embassy in Jerusalem during some years.

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by AJAY KAMALAKARAN

Lured by glowing promises of work and land, hundreds of Sikhs reached Argentina in the 1910s, only to confront discrimination, destitution and broken promises.

In the early 1900s, Argentina was among the wealthiest countries in the western hemisphere. Its economy was booming and, fuelled by foreign investment, its vast, fertile lands had made it a major exporter of livestock and agricultural produce. New industries sprang up, creating a demand for labour that European migrants alone could not meet.

Noticing how Indian workers were employed across the Caribbean, the authorities in Buenos Aires approached their representative in India to explore the possibility of encouraging migration from the subcontinent.

In a letter dated February 13, 1911, the Argentine consul in Calcutta wrote to Foreign Secretary Henry McMahon, requesting that Argentina be added to the list of countries Indians were permitted to emigrate to.

Promoting his country as a promising destination, the consul wrote, “It is because, with the aid of a kindly climate, and a fertile soil, the seed sown in our fields by the labourer gives a return of a thousand to one, and because domestic happiness and prosperity flourish under the aegis of an honest, wise and progressive government, which requires from its immigrants nothing except honesty and diligence.”

With the letter, the consul enclosed a pamphlet outlining the “laws and decrees” applicable to immigrants and investors.

The response in Calcutta was one of surprise. An internal memo noted that under the Indian Emigration Act of 1908 – the very law cited by the diplomat – a colonial committee was needed to assess a destination’s annual labour demand and the facilities it offered.

“But the Committee considered the case of British colonies only,” the memo observed, adding that “it might be questioned by some whether the settlement of Indians in a foreign country is equally desirable.” To deal with this unusual case, the memo said, approval from the Secretary of State in London would also be necessary.

The memo went further: “It may be added that the Government of India do not regard with favour any proposals for the extension of emigration to foreign countries. The objection is not so much on the score of obtaining good laws as of getting them well administered in the interests of the Indian immigrant.” Suriname, where “coolies” were said to be treated well, was listed as the only “foreign” country suitable for Indian migration.

Calcutta informed the consul that the matter would have to be taken up between the British and Argentine governments, though this was hardly the end of the issue.

Dashed dreams

Despite official discouragement, word spread in Punjab of the abundant opportunities supposedly awaiting agricultural and industrial labourers in Argentina. Much like in the 21st century, families sold land and pooled resources to send young men on the long journey to South America.

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CHANNEL AFRICA

It’s Independence Day in Tanzania but instead of the usual festive crowds, the streets are lined with police and army units. The government has deployed a heavy security presence across major cities to deter planned protests, after activist groups called for nationwide demonstrations over economic pressures and governance concerns. It further says the planned protests would be unlawful and amount to an attempted coup. We spoke to political analyst, Sebatho Nyamsenda about the mood of in the country on #AfricaWorldHour

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by IMTIAZ GUL

You may make progress in an island but development beyond that level is difficult if surroundings are backward

As Pakistan remains embroiled in internal power struggles, its external friends and foes wonder where the country is politically and economically headed. The circumstances post 26th Amendment offer enough evidence to forecast the political direction Pakistan has taken. The economic distress is writ large too.

The decision of Qatar’s Al Thani Group to withdraw its $2.09 billion investment from Pakistan’s Port Qasim Power Project underscores Pakistan’s growing reputation for broken contracts and unpaid obligations. No surprise foreign direct investment plummeted to a mere $26 million by September this year — compared to India which boasts more than $81 billion in the same period. The Qatari group’s pullout — preceded by the exit of global firms like Shell, TotalEnergies, Pfizer, Sanofi, Telenor, Uber, IGI and Microsoft inter alia and partial or full closure of even domestic prime producers such as Gul Ahmed Textiles — epitomises a fractured system that is asphyxiating under the acute indifference and incompetence of a power-centric elite that loathes real reform.

The China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) — often touted by Minister Ahsan Iqbal as a game-changer, a phrase our Chinese friends never favoured — suffers from the same malaise: lofty, irrational talk, little walk. Over a decade into CPEC, a number of Chinese academics, intellectuals and officials, who had dreamed of an economically viable, self-sustaining Pakistan with the help of CPEC, today sound disillusioned — wondering if Pakistan’s rulers are concerned at all about the economic viability and development of the country.

Some points from conversations with Chinese friends are worth pondering:

• China came in to improve infrastructure and help the people of Pakistan and not to please a particular political priority.

• CPEC was intrinsically designed to focus on areas that needed development, regardless of who was proposing what.

• Ten years on, big investment ($25.4 billion) has not helped the approaches to governance — decision-making and implementation — nor has the security improved.

• Holding high-profile events with the PM and COAS at closely guarded venues swarming with intelligence and security officials are optically bad for foreign investors, who always look for comfortable zones to invest their money.

• Pakistan’s policymakers keep telling us: “We are doing our best to protect you.” Little do they realise that the issue at stake is not about protecting individual Chinese nationals but about protecting the long-term Pakistan-China relationship.

• In security conversations, Pakistanis often lecture us on geopolitics as the reason of insecurity. Do they take us for fools? We know what is happening around but such challenges and risks need to be managed — the way China gradually defied and eventually blunted the entire Western opposition to it. The talk needs to be followed up with calculated walk.

• When even your own people are not investing, why would then outsiders risk their money, particularly when the energy sector continues to reel from the crippling circular debt?

• They also succinctly point to the minister for planning Ahsan Iqbal’s long speeches as an example. If a minister in this era doesn’t value the time and takes his audience for students then something serious is certainly missing. This age dictates precision, focus and execution and not lofty, lengthy rhetoric.

• China developed because it took underdeveloped regions along but Pakistan’s peripheral regions — Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Gilgit-Baltistan and Balochistan — remain excluded, conflict-scarred and badly managed. How can the country progress if these regions are step-motherly treated?

This reminds me of the ancient Chinese philosophy of development: you may make progress in an island but development beyond that level is difficult if the surroundings are backward and turbulent. They keep emphasising a cross-party consensus for national development and not just CPEC.

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Trump’s new Monroe doctrine is MAGA imperialism. Feat John Bellamy Foster

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