Book review: Inside stories on Indians who build business empires

Rokda: How Baniyas Do Business by Nikhil Inamdar examines the unique entrepreneurial qualities shared by India's baniya caste.

Rokda: How Baniyas Do Business by Nikhil Inamdar

There cannot be many business books that open with a scene as exciting as a Mumbai underworld shooting and blackmail. But Rokda: How Baniyas Do Business by Nikhil Inamdar grabs the attention from the outset.

Published by Random House India, the book focuses on six exceptionally successful Indian entrepreneurs who are all from the baniya caste, a class of Indian society historically known for being merchants and moneylenders.

In his first book, Inamdar, a financial journalist based in Mumbai, explores the stories of Neeraj Gupta, the founder of Meru Cabs; Rohit Bansal, the co-founder of the Indian e-commerce company Snapdeal; Vinod Kumar Bansal, who became a maths tutor after being diagnosed with muscular dystrophy and built up a coaching empire; Radhe Shyam Agrawal and Radhe Shyam Goenka, the founders of the cosmetics giant Emami and RK Somany, the chairman and managing director of HSIL, best known for its Hindware brand.

The writing is lively and the book rich in anecdotes, based on extensive interviews with the subjects and the people who know them, making it an easy and entertaining read.

Although the entrepreneurs are familiar names in the business world in India, they are not as well known outside the country. But the book is still accessible and inspirational to anyone interested in entrepreneurship and business.

As well as offering an interesting insight into the challenges and opportunities in building companies in modern India, each case study has a personal level to it. It goes into the ups and downs that each of the businessmen faced while building their companies and explores factors in early life that helped to shape the way they do business today.

Mr Bansal, who built up a teaching academy, admits he neglected his family because of his focus on the business, while Mr Goenka of Emami reveals that he does not “have much love for money”; following a deadly fire at a hospital owned by the group, he wanted to relinquish some material goods – and owns an Audi today only because his children insist.

Perhaps one element missing was the entrepreneurs’ own views on the role their baniya caste has played in their business success. Despite the book’s title the reader is really left to draw their own conclusions from the stories as to the influence of caste, because the issue is addressed only briefly.

Q&A

Nikhil Inamdar, author of Rokda: How Baniyas Do Business reveals more about the baniyas.

Is there something unique about the baniya trader caste and the way they do business?

To be honest, I got the brief and I initially had reservations about writing about a particular community because you have businessmen from all walks of lives. But if you look at the biggest names in Indian business, some of the biggest industries in the country are indeed run by baniyas. Is there something wired in their DNA that makes them good businessmen? Is it that historically because they’ve been the trading and mercantile class that they’ve got an edge up in business? If you look at the four major e-commerce companies in India, they’re all run by baniyas. I realised that these historic caste-based segregations still at some level play an important role in what you do.

You mention that there are negative connotations to the word “baniya”. Why is that?

When you talk about a baniya, what one tries to portray is the burly moneylender man who’s featured even in a Bollywood film as a extortionist trying to get his money back from the poor peasant.

So were the entrepreneurs offended at all when you approached them with the idea?

They weren’t offended in particular. Behind that negative connotation of the word baniya, what people understand is that here’s a very shrewd and sharp bunch of people. They have a huge risk-taking ability and a vast network across the country.

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