Shweta Banerjee on Decentralized Currency and the East India Company

This episode is the seventh installment of a series in which Shruti speaks with doctoral candidates and postdoctoral scholars about their research as they enter the job market and the world of academia. In this episode, Shruti talks with Shweta Banerjee about Indian currency before the arrival of the East India Company, how the company changed India's monetary system, demonetization, free banking and more. Banerjee is a Vanier Doctoral Scholar at the University of Toronto. Her dissertation provides a historical view of financial infrastructure in India from 1750 to 1947. She is interested in exploring finance as a site of contestation between early modern and modern states and financiers or bankers. Before entering her Ph.D. program, she spent several years at the World Bank working on financial inclusion, digitization and rural livelihood programs in South Asia. Recorded September 22nd, 2022 Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Check out our new Ideas of India merch here, and use the promo code INDIA for 10% off! Follow us on Twitter Follow Shruti on Twitter Follow Shweta on Twitter Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.