
Gujarati Capitalism: Going Global - omarkassim
http://www.economist.com/news/christmas-specials/21683983-secrets-worlds-best-businesspeople-going-global
======
ashayh
Since we are generalizing, its worth mentioning the tendency of Gujratis (or
most Indians) to be extremely insular and selfish:

"Trust and honesty remain essential to Gujarati-dominated industries. Mr
Mehta, himself a Jain from Palanpur, whose diamond company has a turnover of
$1.8 billion and offices from Antwerp to Tokyo, says that, despite the size of
the business, it is still “all based on handshakes and words, with no
contracts”. "

These people have traveled from Antwerp to Tokyo for 200 years...yet Palanpur
is a shithole just like every other town in India. They have seen all the
benefits of a free and modern society, but have not lifted a finger to bring
1% of those ideas to the town where they live.

Surat which processes 90% of the worlds diamonds is also a shithole. Its just
yet another massive Indian city with no modern infrastructure, garbage and
sewers everywhere, and had a plague outbreak about a decade ago!

While these globe trotters make millions which they stash, how much money do
you think the rank and file of diamond polishers make? Do they have adequate
health benefits and protection against problems like this:
[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16201206](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16201206)

“We don’t have to deal with government too much, and mostly not with the
banks, as most money comes from families,” says Dinesh Navadiya, the head of
the Surat Diamond Association. “So there is little scope for corruption.”

No corruption...except massive tax avoidance. It is impossible to run the
smallest business in India without running into corruption.

Some might argue these people have no obligation to improve society and that's
Ok. But any article writing about the pros, should also write about the cons.

~~~
hackaflocka
Indian Gujarati here. OP is correct. Gujaratis are good at making money in a
host society. But the original towns etc. in Gujarat are shite-holes, and
they've not cross-pollinated all the progress of their host societies into
their source society. Also, as far as helping non-Gujaratis is concerned,
fuhgeddedaboutit. To me, the implication is that they essentially lack
societal vision, altruism and out-group empathy. (I'm considered an outcaste,
a "wannabe sell-out" because I question why no Gujarati billionaires do more
for Gujarat -- or India or Africa -- than Bill Gates.)

~~~
ElysianEagle
As another person of Indian origin, I'd have to say that unfortunately this is
true of the vast majority of Indians and not just Gujaratis.

------
lumberjack
The confidence with which the author generalizes various groups of people in
the article makes me quite uneasy.

We know that this is not permitted if we are attributing negative qualities to
a group of people. Why is it then permissible to generalize when we are
praising the same groups? In doing so the author is sort of admitting that it
is at times logical to generalize groups of people and that there is no risk
of prejudice in doing so.

~~~
chime
I agree with you that this article makes too many sweeping generalizations but
nevertheless it struck a chord with me. I am a Gujarati programmer and have
never fit in with any of my family or community members in the realm of career
or goals. I have no problems with nurturing personal relationships with other
Gujaratis but I just can't connect with them on any STEM topics (except
medicine). I closely know probably 100+ Gujaratis but I can't think of even
one person with whom I can discuss non-arithmetic math or non-business-related
software. On the other hand, I can easily think of a dozen who would love to
discuss derivatives (stock market not calculus), marginal utility, or
EHR/EMRs.

Growing up in India, I was told that owning your business was the only path to
success. In 1990, my dad borrowed a ZX Spectrum from a friend so I could play
video games and he was genuinely confused when he found out that I spent all
day typing (I was learning BASIC) instead of beating his hi-score in Jetpac.
Thankfully, as I learned programming, I got a tremendous amount of support
from his Gujarati friends, all of whom wanted me to write DBase III+ / FoxPro
software for their businesses. But whenever I came up with non-business ideas,
my people just didn't get it. I don't think anyone outright discouraged me
when I wanted to write software for fun but they just didn't understand why I
would write freeware when I could easily sell it. Half of my years between
15-20 were spent being lectured by successful businessmen on why/how I should
market my music player or transliteration software.

This article resonated with me because I finally get just how ingrained
business is to my culture. I always knew I was the odd one out and came to
terms with that a decade ago but now I realize how others in my community must
think of me. Time and again I have chosen to not make money even after I made
a finished product. For me, once the product is built, I completely lose
interest and want to make something else. For them, I already did the hard
part of making the product and am bailing out at the fun part of making money
from it.

To any Gujaratis reading this who love hacking for the sake of hacking, I'd
say there are dozens of us! Let's keep talking business with family and
friends of family during the day and quietly watch Numberphile after everyone
is asleep.

~~~
rgovind
Thats a great writeup. I have a followup question. It seems like Gujaratis are
looking at everything from business perspective rather than "problem solving"
perspective like in SV. Is this true?

~~~
chime
If you define the problem as a lack of business or financial success, then
looking at everything from business perspective is just problem solving.

I honestly cannot speak for any Gujarati in SV or even tech, but in my
experience, I don't think that Gujaratis are significantly different in terms
of skills, morality, or values than any other Indian or non-Indian group of
people. It is very easy to say Gujaratis are shrewd or follow the old-boys-
club tactics but those are just typical human traits passed on culturally and
sociologically instead of genetically. The basic Gujarati values mirror the
basic Indian values (be peaceful, love everyone, respect elders, help the
poor, be studious, work hard) but some are emphasized a lot more than others.

For every commenter in here saying Gujarat is a backwards place, I personally
know a Gujarati who has donated large amount of money to non-religious public
service projects. My uncle sponsors the education of 10 kids in our village in
India and feeds 100+ people on the death anniversary of my grandfather. I am
not saying he is a saint, I am saying he is just one data point among the tens
of thousands of successful Gujaratis. It's not fair to measure charity,
benevolence, and kindness because one's native place is not Singapore or
Zurich just yet.

In the past few decades, our village has progressed significantly, with
wealthier Gujaratis awarding scholarships to kids in need (
[http://www.balasinorcollege.com/found_trust.html](http://www.balasinorcollege.com/found_trust.html)
). Is that enough to wipe out poverty from Gujarat or India? Absolutely not.
Gujaratis are NOT any different from other people. Few great, most decent, and
a handful of bad apples (e.g. Harshad Mehta). I don't think the article was
trying to highlight Gujaratis are some uber-exceptional race. It was just
highlighting how ingrained business acumen is in the Gujarati ethos.

------
hackaflocka
Indian Gujarati here, so I get a pass for what I'm about to write.

If this article was about whites or about Christians, it would not have a
laudatory tone. Instead, the author would be writing about how the "old boys
network" keeps others out of lucrative businesses, about how there's no
diversity in the top rungs of these companies, and about how "handshakes" are
circumventing government laws and taxation. But that is exactly what the
Gujarati network is all about. Yes, it is a hardworking group, but also very
in-group oriented, and yes, racist.

------
ignoramous
I'm a Gujarati. My ancestors established businesses in most British colonies
at the time, from Ceylon to Hong Kong, from Siam to Réunion, from Australia to
the Suez, from Kenya to Rangoon. Our family names are based on places where
our dad worked for a living. For instance, my mother's family name is Siamwala
(an indicator that my grand dad and his family were involved in international
trade based in Thailand).

This article seems more like PR but isn't far from truth. I think, as a
community, Jews have probably outdone any one community out there.

In fact, a great many jewish business families in British-India adopted
Gujarat, and spoke Gujarati.

Here's another biased take on the topic by a Pakistani journalist:

[http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/WaBCEddMLH5DaM0aD5wzbN/Why-I...](http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/WaBCEddMLH5DaM0aD5wzbN/Why-
India-is-part-dysfunctional-fully-functional.html)

And here my answer on Quora on a related question: [https://www.quora.com/Why-
do-Gujarati-people-make-up-a-large...](https://www.quora.com/Why-do-Gujarati-
people-make-up-a-large-percentage-of-the-population-of-Mumbai-despite-the-
city-being-in-the-state-of-Maharashtra/answer/Murtaza-Aliakbar)

~~~
pm90
That is a very rosy view of Gujaratis. A lot of non-Gujarati folks think of
them as ruthlessly miserly and capable of going to any lengths to make money.
Surely an attribute that helps in a business, but not one that endears them to
the 'host' society.

~~~
jeffdavis
Be careful listening to that kind of stereotype. It's often promoted by
natives who are outperformed economically by immigrants. That builds
resentment and can have horrific consequences.

Finding moral fault in others is often just a way to explain their own lack of
accomplishment.

Not always, of course. But something to be very careful of.

~~~
gotchange
This is a two way street. You can't expect with the dissemination of ethnic-
based propaganda and "pride" type movements that natives or other social
groups not to take notice of your endeavors and starts responding to you in
kind.

It's good to celebrate success but not good to determine the worth of
individuals or social groups solely on the basis of financial assets or
business holdings.

This is the real slippery slope you don't wanna step on.

~~~
jeffdavis
I'm not sure I agree that there needs to be symmetry between compliments and
insults.

I think the right approach is to compliment specific groups and people and
behaviors; and criticize only behaviors. The specific people/groups who are
behaving well will value the personal credit and build on it; the specific
people behaving badly can take impersonal criticism without feeling the need
to be defensive.

Occasionally naming names is warranted in criticism, but that's the exception.

------
gotchange
I know that this is intended to be a puff peace about the perceived
entrepreneurial spirit of the Guajarati community as a whole but I would have
appreciated more if the author took the time and effort to shed some light on
the usual failure stories that some members of this community endured and
didn't make it abroad.

The author made it sound like every and each Gujarati person is destined to
entrepreneurial success and failing and losing are unexpected outcomes in
their cases.

Nothing against Gujaratis or Indians in general. I really like entrepreneurial
and trailblazing people provided they earned their wealth through legitimate
means not questionable or unethical ones but I preferred to read a more
impartial analysis or critique of this anthropological topic than this
nauseating self-congratulatory Economist article.

~~~
pavanred
I feel there is definitely an element of generalization and survival bias in
this article. There has been a recent Patidar reservation agitation [1] in
Gujarat, India. The Patidar community, people with the surname Patel (Patels
are one of the communities that is mentioned in the article extensively), are
losing opportunities in education and government jobs due to the reservations
in Gujarat and are calling for reforms with reservations. One of the reasons
being the survival bias of the Patel community, that everyone generalizes the
community to be very entrepreneurial and successful while ones that are not so
fortunate in the community are marginalized with lack of opportunity.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patidar_reservation_agitation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patidar_reservation_agitation)

------
dominotw
I am reading this sipping dunkin donuts coffee made by gujarati lady.

------
littletimmy
Here's the problem: once you allow ascribing a particular laudatory quality to
a certain group, you HAVE to concede that certain groups have bad qualities.
That is, unless group qualities are only good, a claim for which there is no
evidence whatsoever.

So... Gujaratis have an ethic of capitalistic success. Are you also
comfortable saying Blacks have an ethic of failure, Jews have an ethic of in-
group morality, Gypsies have an ethic of stealing, and so on? If you are not,
then you are arbitrarily imposing a limit that qualities assigned to a group
must only be good. If you are, congratulations! You are now racist.

~~~
FlyingSnake
Your argument is basically slippery slope.

The article merely documents the entrepreneurial genius of the Gujarati
community which is worth lauding. Gujarati is not a race.

~~~
Hermel
The article itself contains formulations like "Like the Jews, Chinese,
English, Scots and Lebanese, they have come to form an impressive global
commercial network.", suggesting that this about more than just the community.
At the very least, it must be the values that matter. And once you acknowledge
that some sets of values are preferable to others, and that different
religions come with different values, you are already very close to sliding
down the slippery slope from the original comment.

~~~
gotchange
> "Like the Jews, Chinese, English, Scots and Lebanese, they have come to form
> an impressive global commercial network."

English people as merchants or commercial folks on an individual level, I
haven't heard of that. Maybe from Europe the Italians or Greeks to some
extent, that's true but English people, I don't think that his/her observation
is correct.

~~~
rufuswoo
The article is referring to these diasporas forming 'global commercial
networks', so I think your interpretation is slightly off. Interesting
article. Gujarati's are also responsible for some of the finest 'Indian'
cuisine around too!

~~~
gotchange
I was arguing that on an individual level English people don't rank higher
when it comes to entrepreneurship. I was not arguing that the British Empire
wasn't commercially successful or that it didn't manage to accumulate wealth
from their colonies if that what you were alluding to in your reply.

English people didn't make it commercially « on their own » but with the help
of their state or empire globally and this is a historical fact and thus the
comparison to the Chinese, Levantines or Jews who mostly acted on personal
initiatives is not apt one.

