In the nineteenth century, a tiny community from the deserts of Rajasthan spread out to every corner of India. The Marwaris controlled much of the country’s inland trade by the time of the First World War. They then turned their hand to industry and, by the 1970s, owned most of India’s private industrial assets. Today, Marwari businessmen account for a quarter of the Indian names on the Forbes billionaires list.// What makes the Marwaris so successful? Is it their indomitable enterprise, or their incredible appetite for risk? In this new book, Thomas Timberg shows how the Marwaris rely on a centuries-old system for conserving and growing capital which has stood them in good stead, alongside a strong sense of business ethics which has earned them respect.// Family businesses in general and the Marwaris in particular might have a vital role to play in shaping India’s economic future.

In recent years the phenomenal rise of the economies of China and India has led to a proliferation of academic studies. Much of the focus has been on economic performance, development strategies and the comparative advantage of the two economies. A comparative study of business as an agent of change has been lacking This volume brings together articles by leading scholars in the field of Chinese and Indian business who offer fresh perspectives on the historical antecedents of business in the two economies.

In recent decades, private investment has led to an economic resurgence in India. But this is not the first time the region has witnessed impressive business growth. There have been many similar stories over the past 300 years. India's economic history shows that capital was relatively expensive. How, then, did capitalism flourish in the region? How did companies and entrepreneurs deal with the shortage of key resources? Has there been a common pattern in responses to these issues over the centuries? Through detailed case studies of firms, entrepreneurs, and business commodities, Tirthankar Roy answers these questions. Roy bridges the approaches of business and economic history, illustrating the development of a distinctive regional capitalism. On each occasion of growth, connections with the global economy helped firms and entrepreneurs better manage risks. Making these deep connections between India's economic past and present shows why history matters in its remaking of capitalism today.

WINNER OF THE 2022 TATA LITERATURE LIVE! BUSINESS BOOK AWARD 'I had never seen a cement plant in my life. I had no idea about limestone deposits or the cement industry in Gujarat. And I had never negotiated an industrial agreement. Yet, in the next few weeks, I would need to be ready for a substantive meeting with Gujarat government officials.' The year was 1983. A cotton trader, still in his early thirties, began to dream big. His aspiration was to become an 'industrialist'. The venture he was about to embark on was uncharted territory for him. He knew nothing about cement, limestone or anything remotely associated with it. In the era of Licence Raj, where everything from production to consumption was controlled by the government, Narotam Sekhsaria saw the huge potential in cement and its role in a growing nation. Trusting his instinct, he started Ambuja Cement and went on to create one of the most successful cement companies in the world. Told by the man himself, The Ambuja Story is a tale of grit, determination, honesty and integrity. For a cement company, it's a unique case study that broke many stereotypes, such as cement production can't be an environmental friendly activity, good cement can't be cheaper and it's difficult to market a product as boring as cement. Narotam Sekhsaria's vision for Ambuja wasn't just limited to financial success; he undertook community development around all Ambuja plants to a whole new level. Ambuja's work in women empowerment, skill development, health and education created new benchmarks for the industry long before corporate social responsibility became mandatory in India. The Ambuja Story provides a new perspective on business and life, inspiring the next generation of entrepreneurs to scale greater heights.

A study of the response of indigenous businessmen to the growth of political nationalism in India.

This book has brought together some of the foremost scholars of South Asian and Global History, who were colleagues and associates of Professor John F. Richards to discuss themes that marked his work as a historian in an academic career of almost forty years. It encapsulates discussions under the rubric of 'frontiers' in multiple contexts. Frontier has often been conceived as a space of transformation marking new forms of economic organization, commodity trade, land settlement and state authority. The essays here underline the range of interests and approaches that marked Professor Richards' illustrious career - frontiers and state building; frontiers and environmental change; cultural frontiers; frontiers, trade and drugs; and frontiers and world history. The volume discusses issues from medieval to early modern South Asian history. It also reflects a concern for large-scale global processes and for the detailed specificities of each historical case as evident in Professor Richards' work.

This book is the first systematic scholarly study on the business history of Turkey from the nineteenth century until the present. It aims to place the distinctive characteristics of capitalism in Turkey within a global and comparative perspective, dealing with three related issues. First, it examines the institutional context that shaped the capitalist development in Turkey. Second, it focuses on the corporate actors, entrepreneurs and business enterprises that have led the national economic growth. Third, it explores the ethical foundations and social responsibility of business enterprises in the country. The comparative and historical approach sets the volume apart from previous books on the subject. Business, Ethics and Institutions aims to strengthen scholarly and policy understanding of Turkish capitalism and the diversified business groups which dominate the economy by providing a deep analysis of the evolution of political and social institutions which shaped corporate activity. It demonstrates the key role played by large family-owned business groups in Turkey’s development. It also seeks to identify both the similarities and the differences in the Turkish pattern of economic development, making comparisons with Japan, an early example of catch-up, and a more successful model than Turkey. The comparative perspective makes the book highly relevant to a wide range of scholars interested in the institutional foundations of modern capitalism and will be of value to researchers, academics, and students in the fields of business and economic history, ethics, organizational studies, and entrepreneurship.

This edited book on South Asia is part of the book series “Managing the Post-colony.” This series is co-edited by Nimruji Jammulamadaka and Gavin Jack and is focused on managing and organising within the historical and contemporary structures of colonization and imperialism within and across nation-states and social domains especially the economic and the cultural domain. This edited book on South Asia is committed to a presentation of indigenous understandings and knowledge around the organizing, religion, language and cultural production through the lens of anti, post and de-colonial thought. This book forces the reader to consider not just what we know but how and where we know and can be instrumental in identifying and challenging dominant modes of management knowledge production. The decolonial movement is closely associated with scholars like Walter Mignolo, Anibal Quijano and others who expose how Western rationality and science, emanating from the enlightenment project, are being used by colonial powers to consolidate their imperial projects. The authors in this book argue that a potent form of colonization is epistemic in nature. This book series seeks to present cutting-edge, critical, interdisciplinary, and geographically and culturally diverse perspectives on the contemporary nature, experience and theorization of managing and organizing in post-colonial location under conditions of coloniality. These conditions subsume ongoing and new forms of colonisation/imperialism, and complex resistances to them, and lives lived outside them, and may be drawn out and investigated in regard to a multiplicity of different business- and management-related topics. The power of domination is its ability to silence other ways of knowing, being and doing. Focus on South Asia: Ways of Managing, Organising and Living delivers a profound critique of Western management theory and its universalistic claims. But, it goes much further to advance other managements and ways of organising from the peoples and communities of South Asia. Stella M. Nkomo, University of Pretoria, South Africa I like very much the orientation and the composition of the volume...you have a) the meaning of management in the West changed after the Industrial revolution and by 1900 became a political issue domestically in the US and before that colonial, as you show in the colonial context of South Asia; b) so the constitution of the settler management as you show with McCaulay, destituted all existing local form of organizing their praxis of living; c) the task now is the reconstitution of the destituted, the pluriversal human (and animals too) self-organization subjected to Western regulations to their own benefit, while materializing their rhetoric of racial destitution (incapable of organizing like us, impossible for them to be like, us we have to teach them civilization, etc.). Walter Mignolo, William H. Wannamaker Professor of Literature and Romance Studies at Duke University, USA Very Impressive and Much Needed Pushkala Prasad, Zankel Chair Professor, Skidmore College.

First published in 1980, The City in South Asia is a collection of papers which were presented at an inter-disciplinary seminar on The City in South Asia: pre-modern and modern, held at the School of Oriental and African Studies, under the auspices of the Centre of South Asian Studies. Some of the papers in this volume are comparative; others are concerned with specific cities – Allahabad, Dacca, Delhi, Karachi, Lucknow and Murshidabad. They deal with three main themes: the city and the state, the city and society, the city and the surrounding country. The book is appropriately embellished with maps and contemporary illustrations, and will be of interest to students of history, ethnic studies, and South Asian studies.