Boxwallahs were small-scale travelling merchant peddlers in India. They were known as boxwallahs because of the large boxes in which they carried their merchandise (usually clothes and costume jewelry), though the term has been known to be applied to any traveling peddler and also to people involved in business and commercial activities (as opposed to 'babus' or civil servants). Boxwallahs, the peddlers with boxes, were a common sight in the streets of Delhi and other north Indian cities from about 1865 to 1948. Boxwallah English was the commercial and trade English that Englishmen used when interacting with Indians (traders) during the British Raj.

The Boxwallah is also the title of an ITV Playhouse

ITV Playhouse

ITV Playhouse was a UK comedy-drama TV series that ran from 1967 to 1983, which featured contributions from playwrights such as Dennis Potter, Rhys Adrian and Alan Sharp. The series began in black and white, but was later shot in colour and was produced by various companies for the ITV network, a...

 TV film that aired on 31 July 1982 and starred Leo McKern

Leo McKern

Reginald "Leo" McKern, AO was an Australian-born British actor who appeared in numerous British and Australian television programmes and movies, and more than 200 stage roles.-Early life:...

 and Rachel Kempson

Rachel Kempson

Rachel, Lady Redgrave , known primarily by her birth name as Rachel Kempson, was an English actress. She married Sir Michael Redgrave, and was the matriarch of the famous acting dynasty.-Career:...

.

Boxwallah in fiction

Rudyard Kipling

Rudyard Kipling

Joseph Rudyard Kipling was an English poet, short-story writer, and novelist chiefly remembered for his celebration of British imperialism, tales and poems of British soldiers in India, and his tales for children. Kipling received the 1907 Nobel Prize for Literature...

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. In "The Sending of Dana Da", the title character makes a deathbed reference to his former life as a boxwallah. Most famously, Kipling used 'Boxwallah' as a pen name for his skewer on British Indian life in "An Eastern Backwater".