’Smuggling is a process of illegally taking away goods and commodities or wealth out of a nation’s borders. Social smuggling, as I define it, draws wealth, grain, goods and commodities from all the productive (agrarian and artisanal) lower castes, into the boundaries of the bania caste.
The bania business often involves deceptive mechanisms while buying and selling, which is called
dandekottuta in Telugu. The lower the caste, the higher the level of exploitation by the shahukars at the village level.
At higher levels, non-banias are either not allowed to enter business, or not allowed to survive in it. Bania social relations with others were/are very negative, without any element of “moral sentiments”, as Adam Smith would describe it. This is what leads to massive poverty among the lower castes and massive wealth in the hands of bania business and industry.’
— Kancha Ilaiah on
Social Smugglers