The era of Swadeshi

How businesses that boomed right after independence focused on making India great

- Madan Sabnavis

Lakshmi Subramanian looks at a unique aspect of India's economic history—the evolution of business—in her book, India Before the Ambanis. She traces how Indians took to business actively, roughly from the middle of the 19th century till the time economic reforms were introduced.

Quite befittingly, the book has been titled India Before the Ambanis, as Dhirubhai Ambani stands as a symbol of new Indian enterprise. Coming from a non-business family, his stupendous climb to the top exemplifies his entrepreneurial spirit. Building an empire covering the entire upstream and downstream products makes his story fascinating.

The book starts with the pre-modern era and brings its story to more contemporary times. Business was conducted even in the Mughal period, though it was rudimentary in nature. It gained momentum and came to the fore with the entry of the British through the East India Company. Merchants, she points out, followed money the way and hence were able to bring scale to business. Thus, the so-called merchant capitalist existed for several centuries, though they metamorphosed to something significant only during the past two centuries or so.