IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/indeco/v52y2015i4p409-437.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Towards financial inclusion: The post office of India as a financial institution, 1880–2010

Author

Listed:
  • Chinmay Tumbe

    (Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Hyderabad)

Abstract

The Post Office of India has evolved tremendously from an institution of ‘communication’ to an important ‘financial’ institution of the early twenty-first century. This article traces the evolution of two key mass financial services offered by the Post Office over the past 130 years—money orders that have primarily served as a mechanism for internal and international migrants’ remittances and the small savings system that has mobilised deposits from millions of rural and urban citizens. It assesses the contribution of the Post Office in enhancing ‘financial inclusion’ in the twentieth century and argues that the financial history of modern India remains incomplete without integrating the Post Office—currently the largest bank in India in terms of network, accounts and personal deposits—as a key institutional actor in the narrative.

Suggested Citation

  • Chinmay Tumbe, 2015. "Towards financial inclusion: The post office of India as a financial institution, 1880–2010," The Indian Economic & Social History Review, , vol. 52(4), pages 409-437, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:indeco:v:52:y:2015:i:4:p:409-437
    DOI: 10.1177/0019464615603889
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0019464615603889
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0019464615603889?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Roy, Tirthankar, 2011. "Economic History of India, 1857-1947," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, edition 3, number 9780198074175.
    2. Gary B. Magee & Andrew S. Thompson, 2006. "‘Lines of credit, debts of obligation’: migrant remittances to Britain, c.1875–19131," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 59(3), pages 539-577, August.
    3. Kate Bird & Priya Deshingkar, 2013. "Circular Migration in India," Working Papers id:5319, eSocialSciences.
    4. Esteves, Rui & Khoudour-Castéras, David, 2009. "A Fantastic Rain of Gold: European Migrants' Remittances and Balance of Payments Adjustment During the Gold Standard Period," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 69(4), pages 951-985, December.
    5. Chinmay, Tumbe, 2011. "Remittances in India: Facts and Issues," MPRA Paper 29983, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Arjan de Haan, 2002. "Migration and Livelihoods in Historical Perspective: A Case Study of Bihar, India," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(5), pages 115-142.
    7. Magee, Gary B. & Thompson, Andrew S., 2006. "The Global and Local: Explaining Migrant Remittance Flows in the English-Speaking World, 1880–1914," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 66(1), pages 177-202, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Timothy J. Hatton, 2010. "The Cliometrics Of International Migration: A Survey," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(5), pages 941-969, December.
    2. de Haan, A., 2011. "Inclusive growth?," ISS Working Papers - General Series 22201, International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam (ISS), The Hague.
    3. Majumder, Rajarshi, 2012. "Workers on the move: migrated labour in post-reform india," MPRA Paper 44765, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Rajarshi Majumder & Farhat Naaz, 2016. "Workers on the move: Migrated labour in India in early 21st century," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 59(3), pages 419-440, September.
    5. Sangwan Navjot & Tasciotti Luca, 2023. "Time to remit: the effect of remittances on household consumption and dietary diversity in India," IZA Journal of Development and Migration, Sciendo & Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 14(1), pages 1-20, January.
    6. Magee, Gary & Ishaq Bhatti, M. & Li, Alice Shuaishuai, 2015. "The economic modeling of migration and consumption patterns in the English-speaking world," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 322-330.
    7. Diane Coffey & Ashwini Deshpande & Jeffrey Hammer & Dean Spears, 2019. "Local Social Inequality, Economic Inequality, and Disparities in Child Height in India," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 56(4), pages 1427-1452, August.
    8. Studer, Roman, 2008. "India and the Great Divergence: Assessing the Efficiency of Grain Markets in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century India," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 68(2), pages 393-437, June.
    9. Andaleeb Rahman & Sumit Mishra, 2020. "Does Non-farm Income Affect Food Security? Evidence from India," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 56(6), pages 1190-1209, June.
    10. Chaudhary, Latika, 2010. "Taxation and educational development: Evidence from British India," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 47(3), pages 279-293, July.
    11. Anubhab Gupta & Heng Zhu & Miki Khanh Doan & Aleksandr Michuda & Binoy Majumder, 2021. "Economic Impacts of the COVID−19 Lockdown in a Remittance‐Dependent Region," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 103(2), pages 466-485, March.
    12. Tirthankar Roy, 2012. "Consumption Of Cotton Cloth In India, 1795–1940," Australian Economic History Review, Economic History Society of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 52(1), pages 61-84, March.
    13. Gadre, Animesh, 2021. "Deindustrialisation and the Drain Theory: The Contours of Economic Degradation in British India," MPRA Paper 108977, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Timothy J Hatton & Zachary Ward, 2018. "International Migration in the Atlantic Economy 1850 - 1940," CEH Discussion Papers 02, Centre for Economic History, Research School of Economics, Australian National University.
    15. Blankenship, Brian & Aklin, Michaël & Urpelainen, Johannes & Nandan, Vagisha, 2022. "Jobs for a just transition: Evidence on coal job preferences from India," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 165(C).
    16. Karuna Dietrich Wielenga, 2015. "The geography of weaving in early nineteenth-century south India," The Indian Economic & Social History Review, , vol. 52(2), pages 147-184, April.
    17. Amelie F. Constant & Olga Nottmeyer & Klaus F. Zimmermann, 2013. "The economics of circular migration," Chapters, in: Amelie F. Constant & Klaus F. Zimmermann (ed.), International Handbook on the Economics of Migration, chapter 3, pages 55-74, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    18. Hua, Yue, 2014. "Migration Decision and Rural Income Inequality in Northwestern China," MPRA Paper 61604, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 20 Nov 2015.
    19. Morys, Matthias, 2013. "Discount rate policy under the Classical Gold Standard: Core versus periphery (1870s–1914)," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 50(2), pages 205-226.
    20. Leandro Prados de la Escosura, 2015. "World Human Development: 1870–2007," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 61(2), pages 220-247, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:indeco:v:52:y:2015:i:4:p:409-437. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.