6. Occupation.
The Bohras, Captain Forsyth remarks, though bigoted religionists, are certainly the most civilised and enterprising and perhaps also the most industrious class in the Nimār District. They deal generally in hardware, piece-goods and drugs, and are very keen traders. There is a proverb, “He who is sharper than a Bohra must be mad, and he who is fairer than a Khatri must be a leper.” Some of them are only pedlars and hawkers, and in past times their position seems to have been lower than at present. An old account says:[7] “The Bohras are an inferior set of travelling merchants. The inside of a Bohra’s box is like that of an English country shop; spelling-books, prayer-books, lavender-water, soap, tapes, scissors, knives, needles and thread make but a small part of the variety.” And again: “In Bombay the Bohras go about the town as the dirty Jews do in London early and late, carrying a bag and inviting by the same nasal tone servants and others to fill it with old clothes, empty bottles, scraps of iron, etc.”[8]