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Boxwallah is a term which can have two vastly contrasting meanings: one denoting a street pedlar (originating apparently in British India) and the other denoting an elite corporate executive, chiefly in the city of Calcutta (now Kolkata) (originating apparently into postcolonial India).

Boxwallah as a street peddler

The Collins English Dictionary defines a boxwallah as a derogatory term referring to "an itinerant pedlar or salesman in India".^[1] In various 19th and early 20th century writings, the term was used in this sense.^[2]^[3]^[4] An edition of Hobson-Jobson from this period similarly defined a boxwallah as "a native itinerant peddler" who "sells cutlery, cheap nick-nacks, and small wares of all kinds, chiefly European",^[5] as did another dictionary of slang.^[6] The word was a combination of "box" and "wallah".^[5] According to author Ronald Vivian Smith, such boxwallahs started disappearing from the late 1940s onwards.^[7]

Boxwallah as an elite corporate executive

The term boxwallah assumed a vastly different meaning in postcolonial India. The term became associated with anglicised Indian professionals working in elite British mercantile firms in Calcutta. Notably, V.S. Naipaul described boxwallahs as a "select and envied group"^[9] and part of the "the new Indian elite",^[8] and observed: "The box-wallah culture of Calcutta is of a peculiar richness... This culture, though of Calcutta, is not necessarily Bengali. ...No one who works for the Marwaris can therefore properly be considered a box-wallah -- your true box-wallah works only for the best British firms."^[8] Naipaul further observed: "The Calcutta box-wallah comes of a good family, ICS, Army or big business; he might even have princely connections. He has been educated at an Indian or English public school and at one of the two English universities, whose accent, through all the encircling hazards of Indian intonation, he rigidly maintains."^[8] Naipaul mentioned film personality Chidananda Dasgupta, who had worked with Imperial Tobacco in Calcutta, as someone who was a boxwallah.^[9] Similarly, the autobiography of Raj Chatterjee, also a former executive at Imperial Tobacco in Calcutta, is titled "The Boxwallah and the Middleman".^[10] Similarly, corporate executive R. Gopalakrishnan has used the expression while referring to old British companies in Calcutta, such as Andrew Yule, Balmer Lawrie and Martin Burn: "names that have now virtually vanished."^[11] Other authors to use the term boxwallah in the second sense include Amit Chaudhuri^[12] and Pavan Verma.^[13]

With the liberalisation of the Indian economy, the term "boxwallah" has become less common with changes in management culture. In the 1980s, Arabinda Ray, then Executive Director of General Electric in India spoke of the need for industry to "transition from the image of a 'boxwllah'... to the modern professional manager", advocating the hiring of talent from the Indian Institutes of Management and the Indian Institutes of Technology.^[14] Chatterjee, in a chapter his autobiography titled "Requiem for a Boxwallah" describes how executives like him were eventually succeeded by "Brash young men with degrees in business administration who thought that our ideas were outdated, our pace too slow."^[10] Anup Sinha, then professor at the Indian Insitute of Management Calcutta, has explained the shift as follows: "The British colonial model of running businesses was on the way out as were the companies themselves. The age of the “box-wallah” was over and the managerial characteristics of having a liberal arts education with a good family background and communication skills became redundant. There was a shift of focus in managerial skills towards production and operations and away from sales and marketing. The old British model was found wanting, and India turned to the U.S. model with its emphasis on technical competence and rigorous training in the science of management."^[15]

Boxwallah English

File:Hugo Ernst Mario Schuchardt.jpg

Hugo Schuchardt

Various sources from colonial India make references to a dialect of English known as Boxwallah English. In 1891, the linguist Hugo Schuchardt identified Boxwallah English as one of five types of pidgin English spoken in India, association the dialect with street pedlars in "Upper India".^[16] In postcolonial India, Braj Bihari Kachru similarly identified Boxwallah English as a distinct form of English. Some examples of expressions in Boxwallah English given by Kachru are "I come go", "This good, fresh ten rupee", "He thief me" and "price good".^[17]

Boxwallah in literature

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.^[18] In "The Sending of Dana Da", the title character makes a deathbed reference to his former life as a boxwallah.^[19] Most famously, Kipling used 'Boxwallah' as a pen name for his skewer on British Indian life in "An Eastern Backwater".^[20] Evelyn Waugh also mentions a 'wallah' at the end of his short story, "Incident in Azania."^[21]

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.^[22]

Boxwallah in cinema

File:Hindusthan Peters.png

Signboard of Hindusthan Peters, the fictitious Boxwallah company in Satyajit Ray's Seemabaddha

Satyajit Ray's film Seemabaddha ("Company limited") is regarded as a portrayal of a boxwallah in the elite, postcolonial sense of the term, i.e a westernised corporate executive in Calcutta.^[23]^[24]^[25] The protagonist in the film works with a fictitious British fan manufacturing company called Hindusthan Peters.^[26] Ray himself described the film as "a definitive film about the boxwallahs".^[27]

References

^ "Boxwallah definition and meaning | Collins English Dictionary". www.collinsdictionary.com. Retrieved 13 November 2021.
^ Belgravia. Willmer & Rogers. 1876.
^ Katherine, Sister (1900). Towards the Land of the Rising Sun: Or Four Years in Burma. Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.
^ Macdonald, Frederika (1887). Puck and Pearl, the wanderings and wonderings of two English children in India. Chapman and Hall Limited.
^ ^a ^b Yule, Sir Henry; Burnell, Arthur Coke (1996). Hobson-Jobson: The Anglo-Indian Dictionary. Wordsworth Editions. ISBN 978-1-85326-363-7.
^ Barrère, Albert; Leland, Charles Godfrey (1889). A Dictionary of Slang, Jargon & Cant: Embracing English, American, and Anglo-Indian Slang, Pidgin English, Tinker's Jargon and Other Irregular Phraseology. Ballantyne Press.
^ Smith, Ronald Vivian (2008). Capital Vignettes: A Peep Into Delhi's Ethos. Rupa & Company. ISBN 978-81-291-1317-7.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Naipaul, V. S. (1 September 2002). "'The Writer and the World'". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 11 November 2021.
^ ^a ^b Naipaul, V. S. (17 November 2016). The Indian Trilogy. Pan Macmillan. ISBN 978-1-5098-5238-3.
^ ^a ^b Chatterjee, Raj (2008). The Boxwallah and the Middleman. Penguin Books India. p. 31. ISBN 978-0-14-306316-2.
^ Gopalakrishnan, R. (27 September 2016). When the Penny Drops: Learning What's Not Taught. Penguin UK. ISBN 978-81-8475-398-1.
^ Chaudhuri, Amit (14 February 2013). Calcutta: Two Years in the City. Aurum Press. ISBN 978-1-908526-31-1.
^ Varma, Pavan K. (2005). Being Indian: The Truth about why the Twenty-first Century Will be India's. Penguin Books India. ISBN 978-0-14-303342-4.
^ "After the First Generation - ProQuest". www.proquest.com. Retrieved 19 November 2021.
^ Sinha, Anup (2017), Thakur, Manish; Babu, R. Rajesh (eds.), "From Management Institutes to Business Schools: An Indian Journey", Management Education in India: Perspectives and Practices, Singapore: Springer, pp. 43–53, doi:10.1007/978-981-10-1696-7_3, ISBN 978-981-10-1696-7, retrieved 19 November 2021
^ Schuchardt, Hugo (1980) [1891]. Gilbert, Glenn (ed.). "Indo-English" (PDF). Cambridge University Press. p. 38.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
^ Kachru, Braj B. (1 February 2005). Asian Englishes: Beyond the Canon. Hong Kong University Press. p. 42. ISBN 978-962-209-665-3.
^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 8 April 2014. Retrieved 2008-09-05.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 8 April 2014. Retrieved 2008-09-05.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
^ An Eastern Backwater by Boxwallah, Andrew Melrose, London, 1912(?)
^ The Complete Stories, Evelyn Waugh, Hachette Book Group, 2011
^ "ITV Playhouse" The Boxwallah (1982)
^ Sanyal, Devapriya (10 December 2021). Gendered Modernity and Indian Cinema: The Women in Satyajit Ray's Films. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-000-50919-9.
^ Simpson, Paul (26 May 2011). Movie Lists: 397 Ways to Pick a DVD. Profile Books. ISBN 978-1-84765-355-0.
^ Pioneer, The. "A few snapshots from Calcutta. Circa 1960". The Pioneer. Retrieved 11 November 2021.
^ Sanyal, Devapriya. "Camera and action: The Soumendu Roy-Satyajit Ray teamwork that produced some of our greatest films". Scroll.in. Retrieved 11 November 2021.
^ Robinson, Andrew (23 September 2021). Satyajit Ray: The Inner Eye: The Biography of a Master Film-Maker. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-1-350-25852-5.

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[1] "Boxwallah definition and meaning | Collins English Dictionary". www.collinsdictionary.com. Retrieved 13 November 2021.

[2] Belgravia. Willmer & Rogers. 1876.

[3] Katherine, Sister (1900). Towards the Land of the Rising Sun: Or Four Years in Burma. Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.

[4] Macdonald, Frederika (1887). Puck and Pearl, the wanderings and wonderings of two English children in India. Chapman and Hall Limited.

[:1-5] Yule, Sir Henry; Burnell, Arthur Coke (1996). Hobson-Jobson: The Anglo-Indian Dictionary. Wordsworth Editions. ISBN 978-1-85326-363-7.

[6] Barrère, Albert; Leland, Charles Godfrey (1889). A Dictionary of Slang, Jargon & Cant: Embracing English, American, and Anglo-Indian Slang, Pidgin English, Tinker's Jargon and Other Irregular Phraseology. Ballantyne Press.

[7] Smith, Ronald Vivian (2008). Capital Vignettes: A Peep Into Delhi's Ethos. Rupa & Company. ISBN 978-81-291-1317-7.

[:0-8] Naipaul, V. S. (1 September 2002). "'The Writer and the World'". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 11 November 2021.

[:2-9] Naipaul, V. S. (17 November 2016). The Indian Trilogy. Pan Macmillan. ISBN 978-1-5098-5238-3.

[:3-10] Chatterjee, Raj (2008). The Boxwallah and the Middleman. Penguin Books India. p. 31. ISBN 978-0-14-306316-2.

[11] Gopalakrishnan, R. (27 September 2016). When the Penny Drops: Learning What's Not Taught. Penguin UK. ISBN 978-81-8475-398-1.

[12] Chaudhuri, Amit (14 February 2013). Calcutta: Two Years in the City. Aurum Press. ISBN 978-1-908526-31-1.

[13] Varma, Pavan K. (2005). Being Indian: The Truth about why the Twenty-first Century Will be India's. Penguin Books India. ISBN 978-0-14-303342-4.

[14] "After the First Generation - ProQuest". www.proquest.com. Retrieved 19 November 2021.

[15] Sinha, Anup (2017), Thakur, Manish; Babu, R. Rajesh (eds.), "From Management Institutes to Business Schools: An Indian Journey", Management Education in India: Perspectives and Practices, Singapore: Springer, pp. 43–53, doi:10.1007/978-981-10-1696-7_3, ISBN 978-981-10-1696-7, retrieved 19 November 2021

[16] Schuchardt, Hugo (1980) [1891]. Gilbert, Glenn (ed.). "Indo-English" (PDF). Cambridge University Press. p. 38.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)

[17] Kachru, Braj B. (1 February 2005). Asian Englishes: Beyond the Canon. Hong Kong University Press. p. 42. ISBN 978-962-209-665-3.

[18] "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 8 April 2014. Retrieved 2008-09-05.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)

[19] "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 8 April 2014. Retrieved 2008-09-05.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)

[20] An Eastern Backwater by Boxwallah, Andrew Melrose, London, 1912(?)

[21] The Complete Stories, Evelyn Waugh, Hachette Book Group, 2011

[22] "ITV Playhouse" The Boxwallah (1982)

[23] Sanyal, Devapriya (10 December 2021). Gendered Modernity and Indian Cinema: The Women in Satyajit Ray's Films. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-000-50919-9.

[24] Simpson, Paul (26 May 2011). Movie Lists: 397 Ways to Pick a DVD. Profile Books. ISBN 978-1-84765-355-0.

[25] Pioneer, The. "A few snapshots from Calcutta. Circa 1960". The Pioneer. Retrieved 11 November 2021.

[26] Sanyal, Devapriya. "Camera and action: The Soumendu Roy-Satyajit Ray teamwork that produced some of our greatest films". Scroll.in. Retrieved 11 November 2021.

[27] Robinson, Andrew (23 September 2021). Satyajit Ray: The Inner Eye: The Biography of a Master Film-Maker. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-1-350-25852-5.

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@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2013}}
 {{More citations needed|date=June 2007}}
-'''Boxwallah''' is a term which can have two vastly contrasting meanings: one denoting a street peddler (originating apparently in British India) and the other denoting an elite corporate executive, chiefly in the city of Calcutta (now [[Kolkata]]) (originating apparently into postcolonial India).
+'''Boxwallah''' is a term which can have two vastly contrasting meanings: one denoting a street pedlar (originating apparently in British India) and the other denoting an elite corporate executive, chiefly in the city of Calcutta (now [[Kolkata]]) (originating apparently into postcolonial India).
 == Boxwallah as a street peddler ==
@@ Line 8: / Line 8: @@
 == Boxwallah as an elite corporate executive ==
 [[File:Dalhousie_square.jpg|thumb|284x284px|In  postcolonial India, [[V. S. Naipaul|V.S. Naipaul]] vividly described  the "box-wallah culture of Calcutta". Naipaul's imagery cited the [[B. B. D. Bagh|Dalhousie]] business district (pictured) and  British companies like [[ITC Limited|Imperial Tobacco]] and [[Novar plc|Metal Box]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|last=Naipaul|first=V. S.|date=2002-09-01|title='The Writer and the World'|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/01/books/chapters/the-writer-and-the-world.html|access-date=2021-11-11|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>]]
-The term boxwallah  assumed a vastly different meaning in postcolonial India. The term became associated with anglicised Indian professionals working in elite British mercantile firms in Calcutta. Notably, [[V. S. Naipaul|V.S. Naipaul]] described boxwallahs as a "select and envied group"<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|last=Naipaul|first=V. S.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W_BtDQAAQBAJ|title=The Indian Trilogy|date=2016-11-17|publisher=Pan Macmillan|isbn=978-1-5098-5238-3|language=en}}</ref> and part of the "the new Indian elite",<ref name=":0" /> and observed: "The box-wallah culture of Calcutta is of a peculiar richness... This culture, though of Calcutta, is not necessarily Bengali. ...No one who works for the [[Marwari people|Marwaris]] can therefore properly be considered a box-wallah -- your true box-wallah works only for the best British firms."<ref name=":0" /> Naipaul further observed: "The Calcutta box-wallah comes of a good family, [[Indian Civil Service|ICS]], Army or big business; he might even have princely connections. He has been educated at an Indian or English public school and at one of the two English universities, whose accent, through all the encircling hazards of Indian intonation, he rigidly maintains."<ref name=":0" /> Naipaul mentioned film personality [[Chidananda Dasgupta]], who had worked with [[ITC Limited|Imperial Tobacco]], as someone who was a boxwallah.<ref name=":2" />
+The term boxwallah  assumed a vastly different meaning in postcolonial India. The term became associated with anglicised Indian professionals working in elite British mercantile firms in Calcutta. Notably, [[V. S. Naipaul|V.S. Naipaul]] described boxwallahs as a "select and envied group"<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|last=Naipaul|first=V. S.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W_BtDQAAQBAJ|title=The Indian Trilogy|date=2016-11-17|publisher=Pan Macmillan|isbn=978-1-5098-5238-3|language=en}}</ref> and part of the "the new Indian elite",<ref name=":0" /> and observed: "The box-wallah culture of Calcutta is of a peculiar richness... This culture, though of Calcutta, is not necessarily Bengali. ...No one who works for the [[Marwari people|Marwaris]] can therefore properly be considered a box-wallah -- your true box-wallah works only for the best British firms."<ref name=":0" /> Naipaul further observed: "The Calcutta box-wallah comes of a good family, [[Indian Civil Service|ICS]], Army or big business; he might even have princely connections. He has been educated at an Indian or English public school and at one of the two English universities, whose accent, through all the encircling hazards of Indian intonation, he rigidly maintains."<ref name=":0" /> Naipaul mentioned film personality [[Chidananda Dasgupta]], who had worked with [[ITC Limited|Imperial Tobacco]] in Calcutta, as someone who was a boxwallah.<ref name=":2" /> Similarly, the autobiography of Raj Chatterjee, also a former executive at Imperial Tobacco in Calcutta, is titled "The Boxwallah and the Middleman".<ref name=":3">{{Cite book|last=Chatterjee|first=Raj|url=https://books.google.co.in/books?hl=en&lr=&id=gO0pjzBy65AC&oi=fnd&pg=PR11#v=onepage&q&f=false|title=The Boxwallah and the Middleman|date=2008|publisher=Penguin Books India|isbn=978-0-14-306316-2|pages=31|language=en}}</ref> Similarly, corporate executive [[R. Gopalakrishnan]] has used the expression while referring to old British companies in Calcutta, such as [[Andrew Yule and Company|Andrew Yule]], [[Balmer Lawrie]] and [[Martin Burn]]: "names that have now virtually vanished."<ref>{{Cite book|last=Gopalakrishnan|first=R.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F7smR-lml6sC&dq=boxwallah+%22andrew+yule%22&pg=PT54|title=When the Penny Drops: Learning What's Not Taught|date=2016-09-27|publisher=Penguin UK|isbn=978-81-8475-398-1|language=en}}</ref>  Other authors to use the term boxwallah in the second sense include [[Amit Chaudhuri]]<ref>{{Cite book|last=Chaudhuri|first=Amit|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OdnYAgAAQBAJ&dq=corporate+boxwallah&pg=PT15|title=Calcutta: Two Years in the City|date=2013-02-14|publisher=Aurum Press|isbn=978-1-908526-31-1|language=en}}</ref> and [[Pavan Varma|Pavan Verma]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Varma|first=Pavan K.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QJpjhC6BuM4C&dq=corporate+boxwallah&pg=PA85|title=Being Indian: The Truth about why the Twenty-first Century Will be India's|date=2005|publisher=Penguin Books India|isbn=978-0-14-303342-4|language=en}}</ref>
+[[File:IIM Calcutta Gate.jpg|thumb|The advent of the [[Indian Institutes of Management]] are thought to have led to elite boxwallah executives from liberal arts backgrounds becoming redundant. ]]
+With the liberalisation of the Indian economy, the term "boxwallah" has become less common with changes in management culture. In the 1980s, Arabinda Ray, then Executive Director of [[General Electric]] in India spoke of the need for industry  to "transition from the image of a 'boxwllah'... to the modern professional manager", advocating the hiring of talent from the [[Indian Institutes of Management]] and the [[Indian Institutes of Technology]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=After the First Generation - ProQuest|url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/1297775104?fromopenview=true&imgSeq=1&pq-origsite=gscholar|access-date=2021-11-19|website=www.proquest.com|language=en}}</ref> Chatterjee, in a chapter his autobiography titled "Requiem for a Boxwallah" describes how executives like him were eventually succeeded by "Brash young men with degrees in business administration who thought that our ideas were outdated, our pace too slow."<ref name=":3" /> Anup Sinha, then professor at the [[Indian Institute of Management Calcutta|Indian Insitute of Management Calcutta]], has explained the shift as follows: "The British colonial model of running businesses was on the way out as were the companies themselves. The age of the “box-wallah” was over and the managerial characteristics of having a liberal arts education with a good family background and communication skills became redundant. There was a shift of focus in managerial skills towards production and operations and away from sales and marketing. The old British model was found wanting, and India turned to the U.S. model with its emphasis on technical competence and rigorous training in the science of management."<ref>{{Citation|last=Sinha|first=Anup|title=From Management Institutes to Business Schools: An Indian Journey|date=2017|url=https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-1696-7_3|work=Management Education in India: Perspectives and Practices|pages=43–53|editor-last=Thakur|editor-first=Manish|place=Singapore|publisher=Springer|language=en|doi=10.1007/978-981-10-1696-7_3|isbn=978-981-10-1696-7|access-date=2021-11-19|editor2-last=Babu|editor2-first=R. Rajesh}}</ref>
-Similarly, corporate executive [[R. Gopalakrishnan]] has used the expression while referring to old British companies in Calcutta, such as [[Andrew Yule and Company|Andrew Yule]], [[Balmer Lawrie]] and [[Martin Burn]]: "names that have now virtually vanished."<ref>{{Cite book|last=Gopalakrishnan|first=R.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F7smR-lml6sC&dq=boxwallah+%22andrew+yule%22&pg=PT54|title=When the Penny Drops: Learning What's Not Taught|date=2016-09-27|publisher=Penguin UK|isbn=978-81-8475-398-1|language=en}}</ref>  Other authors to use the term boxwallah in the second sense include [[Amit Chaudhuri]]<ref>{{Cite book|last=Chaudhuri|first=Amit|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OdnYAgAAQBAJ&dq=corporate+boxwallah&pg=PT15|title=Calcutta: Two Years in the City|date=2013-02-14|publisher=Aurum Press|isbn=978-1-908526-31-1|language=en}}</ref> and [[Pavan Varma|Pavan Verma]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Varma|first=Pavan K.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QJpjhC6BuM4C&dq=corporate+boxwallah&pg=PA85|title=Being Indian: The Truth about why the Twenty-first Century Will be India's|date=2005|publisher=Penguin Books India|isbn=978-0-14-303342-4|language=en}}</ref>
 == Boxwallah English ==
@@ Line 17: / Line 17: @@
 == Boxwallah in literature ==
+[[File:Rudyard Kipling (portrait).jpg|left|thumb|106x106px|[[Rudyard Kipling]]]]
 [[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|title=Archived copy|url=http://ghostwolf.dyndns.org/words/authors/K/KiplingRudyard/prose/FromSeaToSea/seatosea_III.html|url-status=dead|accessdate=2008-09-05|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|title=Archived copy|url=http://ghostwolf.dyndns.org/words/authors/K/KiplingRudyard/prose/BlackWhite/danada.html|url-status=dead|accessdate=2008-09-05|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>
 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>[[imdbtitle:0975271|"ITV Playhouse" The Boxwallah (1982)<!-- Bot generated title -->]]</ref>
 == Boxwallah in cinema ==
-[[File:Hindusthan Peters.png|thumb|Signboard of Hindusthan Peters, the fictitious Boxwallah company in ''[[Seemabaddha]]'']]
+[[File:Hindusthan Peters.png|thumb|Signboard of Hindusthan Peters, the fictitious Boxwallah company in Satyajit Ray's ''[[Seemabaddha]]'']]
 [[Satyajit Ray]]'s film ''[[Seemabaddha]]'' ("Company limited") is regarded as a portrayal of a boxwallah in the elite, postcolonial sense of the term, i.e a westernised corporate executive in Calcutta.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Sanyal|first=Devapriya|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HNpGEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT97|title=Gendered Modernity and Indian Cinema: The Women in Satyajit Ray's Films|date=2021-12-10|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-000-50919-9|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Simpson|first=Paul|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YnUfSocAlpYC&dq=seemabaddha+boxwallah&pg=PA293|title=Movie Lists: 397 Ways to Pick a DVD|date=2011-05-26|publisher=Profile Books|isbn=978-1-84765-355-0|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Pioneer|first=The|title=A few snapshots from Calcutta. Circa 1960|url=https://www.dailypioneer.com/2013/columnists/a-few-snapshots-from-calcutta-circa-1960.html|access-date=2021-11-11|website=The Pioneer|language=en}}</ref> The protagonist in the film works with a fictitious British fan manufacturing company called Hindusthan Peters.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Sanyal|first=Devapriya|title=Camera and action: The Soumendu Roy-Satyajit Ray teamwork that produced some of our greatest films|url=https://scroll.in/reel/852490/camera-and-action-the-soumendu-roy-satyajit-ray-teamwork-that-produced-some-of-our-greatest-films|access-date=2021-11-11|website=Scroll.in|language=en-US}}</ref> Ray himself described the film as "a definitive film about the boxwallahs".<ref>{{Cite book|last=Robinson|first=Andrew|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9rQ8EAAAQBAJ&pg=PA200|title=Satyajit Ray: The Inner Eye: The Biography of a Master Film-Maker|date=2021-09-23|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|isbn=978-1-350-25852-5|language=en}}</ref>