The author Prof R. Vaidyanathan was the Vice Captain of the Ranganathan Street Cricket team at one time. His team had won the T.Nagar Cup twice. Vaidyanathan was born to Balambal and Ramamurthy. His father had served in the army those days. Vaidyanathan had played cricket on Ranganathan Street as a youngster. He had done his schooling from Ramakrishna Mission High School in T.Nagar and the B.Sc Statistics was from Loyola College. Prof Vaidyanathan is was a Professor of Finance at IIM, Bangalore. He is two time Fullbright scholar and was a Fellow of ICSSR. The professor had been visiting a number of universities in the USA and UK. He was selected by Business Today as one of the ten best professors at all IIMs. He has the rare privilege of being a committee member of many regulatory bodies, such as RBI, SEBI, PFRDA and IRDA. He is a consultant to many organizations and is also on the board of many corporates. Vaidyanathan is on the advisory council of Vivekananda International Foundation, New Delhi. His earlier books India Uninc and Black Money and Tax Havens were well received by experts, policy planners and practitioners.
The author Prof R. Vaidyanathan was the Vice Captain of the Ranganathan Street Cricket team at one time. His team had won the T.Nagar Cup twice. Vaidyanathan was born to Balambal and Ramamurthy. His father had served in the army those days. Vaidyanathan had played cricket on Ranganathan Street as a youngster. He had done his schooling from Ramakrishna Mission High School in T.Nagar and the B.Sc Statistics was from Loyola College. Prof Vaidyanathan is was a Professor of Finance at IIM, Bangalore. He is two time Fullbright scholar and was a Fellow of ICSSR. The professor had been visiting a number of universities in the USA and UK. He was selected by Business Today as one of the ten best professors at all IIMs. He has the rare privilege of being a committee member of many regulatory bodies, such as RBI, SEBI, PFRDA and IRDA. He is a consultant to many organizations and is also on the board of many corporates. Vaidyanathan is on the advisory council of Vivekananda International Foundation, New Delhi. His earlier books India Uninc and Black Money and Tax Havens were well received by experts, policy planners and practitioners.
Prof R.Vaidyanathan is now the Cho S.Ramaswamy Visiting Professor of Public Policy at Sastra University, Thanjavur - Tamilnadu. The friendly intellect simply loves molten ice cream and gulab jamoon. His other favourites are paruppu usili, seppankizhangu curry, vathakozhambhu and morekozhambu. He was at Coimbatore at the behest of IECC ( Indian Economic and Cultural Centre ) founded by Prof P.Kanagasabapathi. A speech was rendered in connection with his book ' CASTE AS SOCIAL CAPITAL - THE COMPLEX PLACE OF CASTE IN INDIAN SOCIETY. The President of Nanneri Kazhagam Subramaniam, Krishnaveni Varadarajan of Sri Varadaraja Textiles were present during the speech and the deliberations thereafter. Arya Vaidya Pharmacy had hosted the event. Padmashri awardee P.R.Krishnakumar Warrier is well known for his interest in matters concerning the well being of the nation.
The book is published by Westland and Prof Vaidyanathan had been part of a committee constituted by L.K.Advani. It was connected with black money. The committee members had been Mahesh Jethmalani, Ajit Doval, S.Gurumurthy and Prof R.Vaidyanathan. The author showers a lot on praise on the shop keeper economy. Basically the book explores how caste works as social capital. It has nothing to do with untouchability. The book also shares details about the surge in Dalit entrepreneurship. " Caste in business unites people whereas caste in politics divides people , " smiled Vaidyanathan during a chat at Zone by the Park on Avinashi Road in Coimbatore.
This book is full of statistics, tables etc., which are real eye openers. Vaidyanathan argues that caste helps in building one's business through this book. " 95 % of capital in the country depends on relatives and friends. The initial capital is from relatives. NPAs ( Non Performing Assets ) are low because of community pressure. Give and take helps and the personal touch goes a long way. The transactions are faith based. This approach is useful for business failure is accepted. Many a time relatives and friends bail out the entrepreneur/startup in trouble, " added the author.
The book talks about reports connected with the Nadar Community who are largely into crackers, grocery, printing and packaging. Vaidyanathan has written about different ' community approaches ' from different parts of the country. The role of the Palanpur Jains in the diamond trade is brought out well. Their approach had kind of helped them to compete with the Jews who had been global leaders in the diamond trade. The author has also shared details about the Patels of Gujarat and their interest in the motel business at the USA. Members of this community own a huge number of motels. Father, uncle, brother, brother in law, son and nephew have facilitated one another and today they are a power to reckon with.
" We have to understand that one has to learn a number of intricacies while going into business. The twists and turns , legal implications are all learnt from the members of the community. Knick knacks are picked up and here knowledge is also capital. Community members are in co operative competition between each other. Somehow the partnership and proprietary firms which happen to be the engine drivers of the economy were not recognized in India. I visited a number of places at the dawn of this millennium and these visits helped me to understand the real reasons behind growth and the real issues faced by the businessmen who are the engine drivers of the economy. One has to look at the approach of the Kongu Vellala Gounders in Tamilnadu. They were basically from a agrarian background. A number of them moved into business with the help of the members of their own community. The Seed Capital was from their intimate circles. Today the Kongu region is an economic power to reckon with in our country. The growth of the textile business in Erode, Karur and Tirupur stands as a testimony for their success. This has not only helped their community but the others too. Money gets shared automatically because the entire cross section of the society gets involved eventually. The kick start comes from the community, " stated Prof R.Vaidyanathan.
The author goes into the origin of the word ' caste ' and its interesting to know that it is of Portugese origin. Swami Vivekananda had said that a person's caste was defined by the qualities or gunas possessed by the individual. A combination of the three gunas - Sattva, Rajas and Tamas determined the varna ( caste ) of the person. In the Bhishma Parva and in other stories, there is a clear proof of caste being based on qualities of the individual. In today's context caste is no longer based on occupation but on birth. For instance a Brahmin by birth may become a college professor, thereby not conforming to the caste based activity. Vaidyanathan goes on adding by stating that caste conflicts are often between one section of Scheluded Castes and another ' developed ' Other backward Class ( OBC ) caste. He goes on to state that caste is a pan religious aspect in our country. Vaidyanathan talks about POTA ( Pulled Out of Thin Air ) Data in his book. " The last caste census took place in 1931 and lots of changes could have taken place over years. Hence we can say that most of the arguments are not based on data but on assertions and emotions. Nehru stopped enumerating caste in the census as the State pursued its goal of a casteless society. While reservation is supposed to be on social and economic backwardness , in practice it is based on caste criteria and therefore, a caste census could provide the actual numbers in different castes. There have been attempts to remove what is known as a ' creamy layer ' ( richer sections ) from reservations but they have not been very successful, " shared Vaidyanathan.
Vaidyanathan adds further by stating that caste aggregation has taken place because of electoral politics He has used the data and names of people like M.N.Srinivas, Dipankar Gupta etc., The book has many tables and the first table belongs to the period 1822 - 1825 and its a Survey of Madras Presidency in Education. The share of the ' Shudra ' community in the Tamil speaking areas ( in schools ) was between 70 & 80 per cent. The lowest share was in the Telugu speaking areas ( 35 - 50 Percent ). The Brahmins had accounted for just 13 per cent in South Arcot and 23 percent in Madras. He has stated that according to Sanjeev Nayyar, the economic policies of the British were mainly responsible for the educational mess created in our country. The quantum of land revenue was increased and this adversely changed terms of payment for communities. The collection was centralized and it hardly left any money for creating a social infrastructure. He also has brought to light some facts documented by eminent Indologist Dr.Nanditha Krishna according to which seventeen seers to whom Vedic hymns of the Rig Veda were revealed were women. " The current debate also does not take into account that backwardness is not a static phenomenon but a dynamic one. The Vedic society was generally monogamous and women had an equal place. The answer lies in the ' enquiring mind ' endowed with ancient wisdom which looks at the past dispassionately and provides oppourtunities to disadvantaged sections based on facts and not on the basis of myths, " said the erudite author.
The author spoke at length about Cho S.Ramaswamy , " I knew him well. He was a man with foresight and did not have any fear. All the leaders appreciated him and he had a lot of the traits of Rajaji." It is well known that Cho S.Ramaswamy had advised several leaders on a number of issues.
The book talks about ' Vaishyavaisation of India ' wherein it throws light on the details which state that every caste is entering business. The pioneering work of Dharampal is referred to in this book. Chapter 2 explores how reservation is based on politics and not scientific reasoning. The author states that this has resulted in reverse discrimination.
Caste as Social Capital could have also included the role of the Mudaliars and the Kamma Naidu ( agrarian ) communities in shaping the economy of Western Tamilnadu. Today the Coimbatore region is a pre eminent driver of the economy and these two communities had also worked in the manner elucidated by the author but during an earlier period. This resulted in large scale economic, cultural , social and infrastructural growth. Eventually this work led others to motivate themselves and produce fabulous results for everyone in this region.The book is definitely a master piece.
Caste has always been studied in a social, political and religious angle. The study of Prof R.Vaidyanathan will help the reader to understand the economic ramifications of caste. The complex place of caste in Indian society and its economy have been unraveled by the intellectual , Prof R.Vaidyanathan. The book is a compelling read.