It is observed that India has, over a considerable period, produced forms of enterprise marked by continuity, adaptation, and scale.

Such enterprise has been conducted through a range of institutions, including trading houses, family firms, industrial concerns, and commercial establishments, many of which have persisted across phases of disruption and change.

These include periods of national reorganisation, regulatory constraint, economic reform, and subsequent expansion.

It is further observed that the histories of these enterprises are not, in most cases, set out in full, but remain distributed across partial accounts, informal recollection, and limited documentation.

Accordingly, it is considered necessary that such histories be assembled and presented in a more complete form.

Dhanda is established to undertake this work.

Its scope is limited to the detailed and continuous narration of Indian business history, addressed one enterprise at a time.

The intention is neither commentary nor summary, but record — with sufficient depth, order, and care.

The purpose of the same is to retain, in accessible form, the commercial history of the country as it has been lived and built.