Running behind Lakshmi by Adil Rustomjee

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From banyan trees to electronic screens – the authoritative account of India's stock market over two centuries.

For millions of people, the stock market is the canvas on which are sketched fantasies of riches, of lives transformed. Yet, the history and methods of one of modern India's most transformative forces remain underexplored till now.

Starting from the early nineteenth century, when a few banias traded shares under banyan trees, to the Cotton and Share Mania occasioned by the American Civil War, to the decades of marking time during the Nehruvian Era, to 1991's great unshackling that made the market accessible to the public, all the way to the market cycles of the new millennium, Running behind Lakshmi brings India's stock market into focus.

By combining archival sources with observations and expertise forged through immersion in the markets, Adil Rustomjee provides a wide-ranging account that is equal parts analytical history, financial practice, and market lore. Brimming with pioneers and adventurers, grand rivalries and petty jealousies, scams and scandals, this is the story of a nation and a people told through a lens that's never been used, but is more relevant than ever.