After the war, the decline of the Chettiar moneylending business continued. This was on account of a combination of various components, including stricter authorities policies regarding moneylending, immigration and employment practices. The growth of the industrial and banking sectors also contributed to the decline of moneylending.33 In particular, stricter insurance policies in post-war Singapore towards moneylending activities were believed to have dealt a severe blow to the trade. In the 1950s, as an illustration, a brand new ordinance was enacted that required every moneylender to be registered and licensed. They were additionally to be subjected to official supervision.34 Revisions to the Moneylenders’ Act in the 1970s enforced more stringent rules on the moneylending enterprise.35 These rules probably pressured many Chettiar moneylending companies out of business.36
5. (1) At any time when a declare indorsed on a summary summons is for a liquidated sum solely, the indorsement, moreover stating the quantity claimed in respect of the demand, shall state the amount claimed for costs, and shall further state that on cost of such amounts for demand and prices inside six days after service, or in the case of a summons not for service within the jurisdiction, inside the time restricted for appearance, additional proceedings might be stayed.
Common cinema and traditional literature inform many pathos-stuffed narratives of India’s poor caught in that karmic cycle of poverty. Those stories inevitably finish in tragedy. Farmers who fall into the moneylending trap discover themselves locked in a white-knuckle gamble, juggling everlarger loans at usurious curiosity charges, in the hope that sometime a bumper harvest will permit them to clear their debts – to allow them to take out new ones.