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BSE began under a banyan tree with five traders. Now it runs Dalal Street
The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), one of the world's oldest and Asia's first stock exchanges, quietly turned 150 this year. A towering presence on Dalal Street today, BSE began not in marble halls or digital terminals, but under the thick shade of a banyan tree in the 1850s became the meeting place for four Gujaratis and one Parsi broker who would meet daily under it near Bombay's Town were no buildings, terminals, or indices at that time, just men trading shares with chalk and their voices.
Over time, more joined, and by 1875, this informal circle of brokers gave itself a name: The Native Share & Stock Brokers' Association. It was the foundation of what the world would come to know as historian Sucheta Dalal once wrote, 'India's earliest brokers weren't just stock traders, they were storytellers of risk.'That storytelling spirit -- of taking calculated risks and building from nothing, has defined the BSE's rise from colonial Bombay to modern DALAL STREET GAINED THE TRUSTDecades before the Dow Jones Index in America was born, Bombay had a buzzing trade in cotton, jute, and railways, fuelled by imperial commerce and speculation. Business people used to come to Bombay for trade from across the the British industrial capital flowed through Indian ports, native brokers found their own early 1900s saw BSE move to its iconic home on Dalal Street, and by the time the world faced the Great Depression of 1929, the markets were already deeply linked to global crash sent textile, shipping, and plantation stocks spiralling. The colonial state, as historian Dwijendra Tripathi notes, "remained distant, letting the native market fend for itself."
Premchand Roychand, often regarded as India's original share king, was also famously known as the
World War II brought fresh shocks, blackouts, rationing, and Japanese threat over Bombay disrupted trade, but also sparked speculation in steel and textiles supporting the war 1942, the Quit India Movement shut down the exchange temporarily, as nationalist protests spilled into the city's financial NEW STARTAfter 1947, India's newly adopted economic model leaned heavily on various sectors for growth. At that time, BSE became the main channel to raise 1957, it was formally recognised under the Securities Contracts (Regulation) Act, but the culture remained insular -- dominated by old broker families and manual would change with the economic reforms of 1991. The arrival of liberalisation opened the gates for foreign investment, and exposed flaws in the 1992, Harshad Mehta's securities scam shook the country.A single broker manipulating the banking system had sent stock prices soaring. When the fraud unravelled, so did investor market observer Gita Piramal notes in her book Business Maharajas, 'The Harshad Mehta scandal was not just a scam, it was a mirror. It showed how unprepared the system was for modern finance.'Post-2000, BSE began reinventing itself. It demutualised in 2007, separating ownership from players like Deutsche Brse and Singapore Exchange took stakes. BSE diversified into derivatives, mutual funds, debt markets, and even platforms for startups and 2017, the BSE made history by listing itself on its own exchange. The IPO was oversubscribed 51 BSE operates from the 29-storey Phiroze Jeejeebhoy Towers, but its reach extends far beyond platforms like BSE StAR MF and India INX in GIFT City, the exchange now connects investors across India and the words of Charles Dow, founder of the Dow Jones Index, 'The market is never wrong, only opinions are.'If the Indian market has a voice, BSE has been its longest echo. From banyan roots to blockchain rails, BSE's 150-year journey isn't just financial history, it's a reflection of how India thinks, invests, and evolves.- Ends
