Indian business history
S. RAMACHANDER
THE CONCISE OXFORD HISTORY OF INDIAN BUSINESS: Dwijendra Tripathi, Jyoti Jumani; Oxford University Press, YMCA Library Building, Jai Singh Road, New Delhi-110001. Rs. 275.
The study of the evolution of Indian business is not merely fascinating in itself, but is also a useful preparation for a managerial career. Unfortunately the typical Indian manager, trained in science, engineering or commerce, has never been introduced to the value of history as a doorway to the present. Little of a high academic standard has been published on the managerial and industrial revolutions for a wider audience. The Concise Oxford History of Indian Business admirably fulfills this long-felt need.
Dwijendra Tripathi is uniquely qualified for this task as the first to teach the subject as a full-term course, at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, in 1966. An updated version of his earlier work, the book begins with the state of the economy at the tail-end of the Mughal Empire. Few know that even all that time the Indian economy was more prosperous and robust than that of say, the U.K. and certainly most of Western Europe. The per capita GDP was higher and the institutions of trade and banking were well-developed for the time. Indian traders and indigenous bankers not only helped fund international trade but lent money to the Company to pay for its wars in India. India also had a flourishing textile industry and handicrafts, and long-standing and extensive trading connections with many countries, both in the East and in the West.
Hundi system
There was a well-developed hundi system for transfer of money. Banking was established, if rather conservatively practised. Of course, what it lacked was the technological leap forward that was made possible in the case of Britain by the industrial revolution, in turn driven by a number of inventions, notably the steam engine and the spinning jenny and the power loom which gave an impetus to the textile mills. Once that happened there was no stopping the British Juggernaut, and the vast Indian resource-base became a hunting ground for the traders interested only in setting up agencies to buy jute and cotton and other material from India and sell manufactured goods (from Harris Tweed to cutlery made from Sheffield steel) to the growing Indian urban class.
Yet there was much that was enduring and quite sophisticated in the managerial methods of the business class. To the well-known communities of Jains, Chettiars and Marwaris were added those of the Parsees and the Muslims of the West Coast, who built the foundations of modern company, first through partnerships and then trading groups. Subsequently came the managing agency houses that gradually replaced and took over from the string of Scottish and English businesses which had dominated the jute and tea plantations and other commodity-dependent industries and trading, especially with the U.K.
Some of the early companies, such as Parry's and Binny's, though foreign-owned, originated in India and catered to an internal market while others concentrated merely on feeding the British demand. The authors try to trace the growth of all segments of business, although it is a mammoth task, given the general lack of interest in keeping archival records. All the four regions are covered; there is no bias, unlike in some other recent writings on princes of Indian industry, which recognise only the region north of the Vindhyas.
Rigorous
The analysis is rigorous in as far as data is available and there are never any exaggerated claims. Simplistic and popular clichés — as for instance that the Indian business tradition is entirely mercantile with no interest in building institutions, and that the businessman is generally a self-seeking and short-sighted person — are exposed. The examples of JN Tata, the founding father of the textile as well as steel industry in the country and Ranchchodlal Chotalal of Gujarat are treated objectively .
As with any historical sweep over a vast scene such as India over four centuries, there will be some readers who could easily point to omissions or too brief a mention. Amul for example gets about half a page; some industrial groups a couple of lines in all. This apart, the data seems quite convincing; it is staggering for example, that since mid-1991, the top 100 Indian companies grew seven-fold and their combined profits rose from around Rs. 7000 to 91000 crores. In any economy in the world, with the possible exception of China, this would be incredible. So, much awaits the historian of the next decade.
All in all, a very reasonably priced volume that would be an essential addition to any good library, and to the reflective practitioner.
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