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'''Boxwallahs''' were small-scale travelling merchant peddlers in India. They were known as boxwallahs because of the large boxes in which they carried their merchandise (usually clothes and costume jewelry), though the term has been known to be applied to any travelling peddler and also to people involved in business and commercial activities (as opposed to "babus" or civil servants).{{Citation needed|date=May 2008}} Boxwallahs, the peddlers with boxes, were a common sight in the streets of Delhi and other north Indian cities from about 1865 to 1948.<ref name=autogenerated1>[https://web.archive.org/web/20050113080848/http://www.hindu.com/mp/2004/02/23/stories/2004022300390200.htm The Hindu : Delhi's good old Boxwallah<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> [[Regional differences and dialects in Indian English#Boxwallah English|Boxwallah English]] was the commercial and trade English that Englishmen used when interacting with Indians (traders) during the British Raj.<ref>[http://www.hinduonnet.com/lr/2002/11/03/stories/2002110300310600.htm The Hindu : Linguistic incursions<!-- Bot generated title -->]{{Dead link|date=October 2019 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref><br />
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The Boxwallah is also the title of an [[ITV Playhouse]] TV film that aired on 31 July 1982 and starred [[Leo McKern]] and [[Rachel Kempson]].<ref>[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0975271/ "ITV Playhouse" The Boxwallah (1982)<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref><br />
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==Boxwallah in fiction==<br />
[[Rudyard Kipling]] was particularly attracted by the idea of a boxwallah and the idea of a boxwallah is present in several of his short stories. In "From Sea to Sea", Kipling talks of a mistreated Burmese girl as if she were a ''Delhi Boxwallah'', presumably because the protagonist bargained too hard with her.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://ghostwolf.dyndns.org/words/authors/K/KiplingRudyard/prose/FromSeaToSea/seatosea_III.html |title=Archived copy |accessdate=2008-09-05 |url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140408220848/http://ghostwolf.dyndns.org/words/authors/K/KiplingRudyard/prose/FromSeaToSea/seatosea_III.html |archivedate=8 April 2014 |df=dmy }}</ref> In "The Sending of Dana Da", the title character makes a deathbed reference to his former life as a boxwallah.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://ghostwolf.dyndns.org/words/authors/K/KiplingRudyard/prose/BlackWhite/danada.html |title=Archived copy |accessdate=2008-09-05 |url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140408212650/http://ghostwolf.dyndns.org/words/authors/K/KiplingRudyard/prose/BlackWhite/danada.html |archivedate=8 April 2014 |df=dmy }}</ref> Most famously, Kipling used 'Boxwallah' as a pen name for his skewer on British Indian life in "An Eastern Backwater".<ref>An Eastern Backwater by Boxwallah, Andrew Melrose, London, 1912(?)</ref> [[Evelyn Waugh]] also mentions a 'wallah' at the end of his short story, "Incident in Azania."<ref>The Complete Stories, Evelyn Waugh, Hachette Book Group, 2011</ref><br />
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==References==<br />
{{Reflist}}<br />
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[[Category:Economic history of India]]<br />
[[Category:Sales occupations]]<br />
[[Category:Retailing in India]]<br />
[[Category:Indian merchants]]<br />
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