Monday, March 25, 2013

Put them Down Again, Shall We?

A number of Dalit Entrepreneurs have come up in India Despite Innumerable Odds. But Shamefully, Our society is still quite Reluctant to Accept them.

“Our country has stuck to ancient norms with respect to caste. Thus, a Shudra can never be a businessman or progress more than his previous generation. All Dalit businessmen that we see now are first generation businessmen who have their own [caste related] tales of struggle,” Chandrabhan Prasad, major Dalit activist, anthropologist and social reformer mirrors the thoughts of various other social commentators, while discussing the issue with B&E. Critically speaking, the metro entrepreneur might and perhaps always would rush post haste to imagine that in India, while cast issues may be prevalent in lower and labour class communities, the same possibly would not exist in business communities.

Now, if you are ‘the’ metro entrepreneur in question, and if your definition of ‘business community’ starts from multi millionaires and quasi billionaires, you may be perfectly right – as is obvious, stinking rich entrepreneurs in India can easily request Union and Chief Ministers to bend their Shylockean backs to provide timely serpentine camaraderie. But if the term ‘business community’ is defined appropriately as any entrepreneur and innovator who provides employment to even one additional person in order to progress his business, you have the fiendish cast wolves running a riot, and almost a lynch mob if you see where to see – and the Dalit business community would surely be a great starting point.

Perhaps you’ve never heard of Devanand Londhe, the director of Payod Industries, who is a manufacturer and exporter of garments exported to Japan and Korea. Or about Rajendra Gaikwad, Director, G. T. Pest Control Pvt Ltd, who is into the business of pest control export fumigation and pre-construction anti-termites. But the stories of their achievements, their struggle with casteism issues and their humble rise to prominence are inspirations for many Dalit entrepreneurs; of course, because the protagonists are themselves Dalits. From having to face open admonition by their business peers to having even banks and other government departments reject their applications, evidently because of their background, the well documented struggles of these businessmen are a mirror to the pitiful scenario of a nation that has been unable to shed away its issues that have lasted for centuries.

J. S. Fuliya, CEO, Signet Freight Export Pvt Ltd, into the business of global logistics with an yearly turnover of Rs.30 million, quite candidly shares with B&E the casteist issues he had to face in terms of education and financial discrimination. The same goes for Sushil Kumar, manufacturer and exporter of automobile parts, sheet metal, press tools components, dies & fixtures and special purpose service tools, who has an yearly turnover of Rs.250 million. Sushil laments about the debilitating behaviour of individuals and communities en masse against businessmen with Dalit backgrounds. And encouragingly, these Dalit entrepreneurs are not running away from their identity. Instead, they’re trying to be proactive in finding social solutions to the situation.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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