By:Gurpreet Bal
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Abstract
This paper is based on an empirical research conducted in the Jalandhar city of Punjab. Punjab has the highest proportion of the scheduled castes among the states of India. They constitute 28.85 percent as per 2001 census while Jalandhar has second highest concentration, i.e., 37.69 percent. The study reveals that 23.75 percent to the total respondents in Jalandhar have become entrepreneurs. However, their process of modernization has not broken the bond of caste–occupation, but certainly the modernization of their traditional hereditary occupations is taking place. The scheduled caste groups have found opportunities of mobility not only in their age old occupations but have also ventured into some other entrepreneurial activities which earlier were in the reserve of higher castes. Therefore, it is predominantly the better off amongst the scheduled castes who have become business and industrial entrepreneurs. The explorations into their background reveal that they are young, educated and largely the natives of the place. The study reveals that through entrepreneurship the scheduled castes have empowered themselves in the political and social spheres. The Jalandhar city under study has a Dalit Mayor and is the center of the Bahujan Samaj Party. The city is popularly known as North India’s capital of scheduled castes. Many have become the rich persons of the city who reside in the most posh localities. The study explores the type, extent, nature and performance of their entrepreneurial activities and how through entrepreneurship they have empowered themselves economically, socially and politically.
Indian society has historically evolved on the principle of hereditary occupations where the choice of occupation was absent for the people. Occupations were not simply inherited in the family; rather a caste was identified with the hereditary occupation. Sometimes even the name of the caste corresponded with the occupation. As we move to the castes lower in the hierarchy, the restrictions on the choice of occupation were more severe. The restricted choice of occupations provided for limited or no social mobility.
The industrial development in India led to the emergence of new occupations. The new occupational composition acted as a catalyst in changing the rigid structure of the society. Linking occupation with the caste status definitely posed a problem in the case of new occupations. It also implies that such an occurrence could either take place through the intervention of some external power or the society itself experienced cataclysmic changes. In the case of India, both the events took place. The British colonial intervention was the major factor that transformed the Indian society in a definite way. The political economy of the colonial development though characterised by many limitations, but it certainly created two interesting trends that broke the caste occupation linkages combined with power and privileges. First, some of the hitherto stigmatised occupations became lucrative due to the rise in the demand of certain commodities. Secondly, new occupations emerged that were to be performed by the people who were traditionally linked with their caste occupations. Could they come out and leave their traditional occupations behind? The experience of India shows that it happened like this. However, it involved both voluntary and involuntary compulsions. Economic development brought misery to the artisan production and the indigenous production system did not have the ability to compete. The destruction of artisan production turned the artisans into workers. The age-old correspondence with the caste and occupation was broken. Even then the opportunities for the lower caste to go for any occupation were limited. It remained
Confined to the cities that were not growing at a fast rate. So far as the upper castes and
power holders in the society are concerned, they might have been unrestrained by power relations in the village to choose particular occupations though it is quite possible that their higher caste status might have limited their choices in opting for particular occupations even in the case of those individuals who were not economically well off.
In the light of the above, it becomes clear that breaking of the tradition tended to encompass all aspects of human life. What made it so all pervasive was the existence of caste system and its ideology that provided the justification to the system. The link between caste and occupation has been quite complex and there is a need to examine it in the context of scheduled castes. Since a lot has been written on caste and scheduled castes, there is not much need to repeat various views, however it may be pointed out that as a form of social inequality, it seems to be implicating all aspects of social relations and interactions. Caste status is determined by birth accompanied by hereditary occupation, endogamy, and restrictions on eating and interaction. To understand the process of sustenance, here is need for clear-cut identification of the agents who exercise power as well as articulate powerful ideology. The latter exists in the form of Dharma-karma principle that links the caste status with the deeds of the previous birth. In such a system, the choice of occupation is limited for a caste and it is enforced by power. The scheduled castes, ideally speaking, were performing the occupations that were degraded and polluting. Refusal of these castes to do that polluting work and an attempt to go for some non-polluting work implied the powerful response from the power holders, that is, ruling castes.
The major change came after the Independence when the pace of industrialisation picked up. In her study of transformation of smithy from an artisan production to the industrial production at different levels of technology, Bal (1995) has found that the moment technology entered the traditional artisan production the non-artisan castes also took up that enterprise. The trajectory of change in the caste-occupation correspondence gave rise to two kinds of dynamism. In the first case, the transformation of artisan production into modern enterprise led to the entry of new caste groups, particularly the upper castes into that activity. Secondly, new occupations opened up to accommodate all castes thus breaking the barrier of restriction on the choice of occupation.
The main objective of the paper is to map the nature and extent of entrepreneurship among the scheduled castes as well as to see whether it has brought about change in their social and political world. It may seem truism yet it may be pointed out that the moment we find entrepreneurship among dalits a level change is subsumed under it. Entrepreneurship is innovative, creative and risk prone activity where they have ventured in, which requires capital, decision- making ability and leadership traits. Thus taking to entrepreneurship points towards change in social and economic conditions of the people.
The study presents a case of a caste that has excelled in entrepreneurship. The focus of examination of empowerment here is the Chamar/Ad-dharmi, an artisan caste located in Boota Mandi area of Jalandhar city. The interview schedule and case study method have been used for the collection of information that is both qualitative and quantitative in nature. In all 100 respondents have randomly been selected out of which 64 per cent are entrepreneurs and rest of the 36 percent are engaged in various other occupations. The data pertaining to 64 entrepreneurs also includes a few case studies of successful entrepreneurs. The traditional caste occupation of Chamars/Ad-dharmis has been dealing with carcass/ skins and hides. These Chamars from adjoining villages were frequently coming to this place for the sale and purchase of dead animals and many of them settled here. From then onwards it became Boota Mandi (North India’s major market of rawhides and skins).
The Chamars chose to become Ad-dharmis when Mangoo Ram – former activist of the Ghadar party movement from the village Mughowal in Hoshiarpur district launched the Ad-dharm movement in the 1920s. The movement remained concentrated in Jalandhar and Hoshiarpur districts. The agenda of the Ad-dharm movement was to create a new religious identity – Ad-dharm (an ancient religion) for the lower castes, which would carve out a separate religious space for them (Ram 2004). Thus the term Ad-dharmi has become a polite synonym for Chamar. Henceforth, in this study Chamars are referred to as Ad-dharmis.
The Ad- dharmi are the most progressive and enterprising of all the scheduled castes. Sabarwal in Mobile Men (1990) has made a comparative study of Ramgarhia, Ad-dharmis and Balmikis in an urban area of Punjab. The Ad-dharmis have been found more open to new experiences and exposures, learning new skills, venturing into the industry by restricting their consumption and ploughing the savings back for expansion. Through their entrepreneurial skills they have moved up in the social and political hierarchy. They could occupy many positions of political and social importance. There is also a study that informs that many Ad- dharmis also migrated to foreign countries such as England in the first half of the last century where they took up various types of occupations and the remunerations sent back home further contributed to their economic well being (Judge 2002). Many of them improved their life style and also ventured into the wholesale business of hides and skins and tanning industry. A study on entrepreneurship by Dahiwale (1986) on five different scheduled castes - Mahars, Mang, Dhor, Chambhar and Bhangi in Kolhapur city reveals that they moved up in the social hierarchy by taking up new and modern occupations. These castes attribute their social mobility to education, occupational mobility and the personal performance. The ruler personally practiced and monitored the policies and programmes to uplift the ex-untouchables by giving them education and sending them to cities to learn new skills. They were also financed to start new ventures. At the social and interpersonal level, he took exemplary personal lead by employing these people in his kitchen and palace. He encouraged interdinning and intercaste marriages. Besides their efforts, the ruler of Kolhapur, Shahuji Chhatrapati, the social reformers and Christian missionaries worked for their social and economic upliftment. In their case the entrepreneurial activities are the result of comprehensive action programme. The leather shoemakers the Labbai community of Tamil Nadu have become international entrepreneurs who sell their finished leather and shoes to European, Australian and North American markets. Believed to be ex- untouchable they converted to Islam and were responsible for its industrialisation during 19th and 20th centuries (Flamant 2003). These Tamil Nadu leather goods entrepreneurs have close business dealings with the entrepreneurs under study. The raw hides and semi-finished skins procured in Jalandhar mainly have their final destination in Tamil Nadu’s tanneries and factories.
The case study of empowerment of the Ad-dharmis/Chamars of Boota Mandi depicts their own initiative, motivation and hard work to make their traditional skills in hides and skins relevant in the changed scenario of industrialisation and modernisation. Punjab has the highest percentage (28.85% as per 2001 census) of scheduled castes out of which Jalandhar district has the second highest concentration, i.e., 37.69 per cent. Jalandhar is the centre of Bahujan Samaj Party. Incidentally, the present Mayor of the city also belongs to this community besides his being a successful entrepreneur.
Besides the main theoretical issues, method and objectives of the study, which we have already explicated, the present paper is divided into two parts. The first part deals with the entrepreneurial activities of the Ad- dharmis at the empirical level. While a few case studies of successful entrepreneurs are discussed in the second part, whereas in the end some conclusions are drawn.
I. Empirical Mapping of the Entrepreneurs
Personal Profile: All the respondents are males falling mainly (84.37 per cent) in the age 20 to 50 years. Therefore, taking to entrepreneurship is relatively a recent phenomenon. All of them are Ad-dharmis. Except for a Christian and a Buddhist, all others are Hindus. They (89.06%) are mainly the natives of this place as they all have moved to the present location from the nearby surrounding villages some 70 to 80 years back. Most of the respondents are born here. With the growth of the area many of these villages have been subsumed by the place. Only four of them have migrated to this place from outside the state. All are educated though 55 percent have got education up to matriculation and plus two level. Even in the case of their fathers, 64 per cent were educated. Most of the mothers of the respondents are illiterate, yet one quarter of them are educated up to the level of matriculation.
The traditional caste occupation for all the Chamars was dealing with raw hides (59.37%), tanning of leather (29.69%) and snaring of skins (9.37%). Whereas, a significant transformation has been found in the present occupational status of the respondents. Apart from becoming leather goods industrialists, rawhide merchants, commission agents of animals and wholesalers of hides and skins, and owners of tanneries, they have also become large businessmen (18.75), medium (23.44) and petty shopkeepers (9.55). One of them is also running a school. The information on their father’s occupation reveals that 64.06% of them were engaged in large and wholesale business, while 6.25% were in medium type of business and 7.81% were running small and petty business. Nearly 17 percent of them were engaged in different types of jobs including junior Government officer, clerical job, and skilled workers. Besides 4.69 percent of them were either farmers or immigrants.
2. Entrepreneurship: A large majority of the scheduled castes that have become entrepreneurs have mainly ventured into those activities that deal with their hereditary occupation. They have modified and diversified their hereditary skills in preparing the hides and skins. It is significant to note that 9.37 percent of them have become industrialists out of which nearly six percent are manufacturing a variety of leather goods, such as leather garments, purses, belts, and tool- belts- a hundred percent export product, while rest of them are running shoe factories. A large proportion i.e., 44 percent has become rawhide merchants, and nearly five percent of them have become commission agents of leather. The raw hides are procured from different parts of Punjab. It is relevant to note that one truck full of raw hides is worth five to seven lakhs rupees and many times they deal with a large number of trucks in a day. There are also small traders who purchase the hides by pieces ranging from rupees 700 to 1100 per piece and after the processing is sold for 1500 to 2000 mainly to cobblers/mochis. Excessive heat and cold usually perishes many animals. As the data were collected during the months of December- January, the rawhides merchants and agents were visibly busy and contended having a good season. This trade usually takes place in the mornings as the trucks are allowed in the cities during night times only also trucks loaded with raw hides produce foul smell, therefore many small raw hides traders were found running parallel shops of music, D.J. owners, cassettes recordings and PCO/STDs. While other eight percent are running shops of various leather goods- coats, jackets, purses, bags, belts, etc. They have experienced a transformation in their work as now they manufacture the leather goods in their tiny workshops and are selling the same by opening their own shopping outlets. They usually get the material from the leather complex, situated at the outskirts of the city, from where they get pieces of waste leather that can be used for many other purposes. Such as making sports goods- Bats, Balls, Footballs etc. Similarly, another twelve and half percent are running shoe shops. It is quite clear in their case (78%) that their traditional skills still have market in the changing economic scenario. This also explains why this artisan group could survive the onslaught of industrial development. However, many persons engaged in traditional vegetable tanning feel that they are loosing their work, which has been taken over by the tanneries. A respondent who was carrying on leather tanning for the last fifty years narrates his experiences thus
Entrepreneurial Activities
| Entrepreneurial Activities | Numbers | Percentage |
| Leather Goods Industry | 4 | 6.25 |
| Shoe factory | 2 | 3.13 |
| Raw Hide merchant | 28 | 43.75 |
| Leather commission agent | 3 | 4.69 |
| Property dealer | 1 | 1.56 |
| Saw Mill | 2 | 3.13 |
| Running a School | 1 | 1.56 |
| Leather Goods Shop | 5 | 7.81 |
| Readymade Garments | 1 | 1.56 |
| General store | 3 | 4.69 |
| Karyana shop | 1 | 1.56 |
| Music Shop | 1 | 1.56 |
| Shoe Shop | 8 | 12.50 |
| Tailoring Shop | 2 | 3.13 |
| Electric goods repair shop | 1 | 1.56 |
| Telephone booth | 1 | 1.56 |
| Total | 64 | 100.00 |
“Earlier 100 persons were engaged in this traditional work and now only ten persons are left in the work to carry on the activities. It has ceased to be profitable as was in the past, because people prefer to buy machine made goods”. He further laments that in “1950 there were 90 units of leather tanning in Boota Mandi, but now only five units of traditional tanning are left and this change has occurred drastically for the last five years”. In the tanneries, many of the Ad-dharmis have become workers though more than half of the workers are migrants who are involved in cleaning, peeling, and stitching of the hides. It means that in order to meet the demand of the work, the migrants are also attracted. Some of the Ad- dharmis have also become workers in sports goods industry located in another locality Basti Nau in Jalandhar. It is significant to mention that many younger generation Ad- dharmis are interested in immigrating to foreign countries while many of their relatives are already settled abroad.
Globalisation has given boost to their traditional occupation. Their market has in fact been extended to all over the world. The process of their mobility and modernity may be explained through the relevance of their hereditary skills in the modern–industrial world. But why did they take up to entrepreneurial activities? It was found that 11 per cent of the respondents considered their earlier occupation stigmatised, 7.81 per cent find their traditional occupation not profitable and lost its demand. While 63 per cent mentioned that their new work is linked with their caste occupation. Therefore, it is an extension of their traditional work, whereas 17 per cent considered it more profitable, whereas three percent have got the training/ educational qualification to take up to the new occupation. When did this process actually take place? The change started occurring after the independence of the country. A slow process of change in occupation carried over up to the late 1970s (20.41%), another 14.06 percent changed the occupation in the next decade. The pace accelerated in the 90’s when it reached to thirty percent. The first five years of this century have already witnessed transformation in 20 per cent cases. There are 15 percent such cases that did not respond to this question. What was the source of motivation for them to take up to this occupation? For more than fifty per cent respondents the present occupation was related with their hereditary occupation and they have learnt it through experience another 31 percent did it for economic survival and due to self-realisation and awakening (14.06%) besides one case of the impact of social reformers.
It is interesting to note that their fathers (76.56%) and grandfathers (65.62%) were also running the businesses and were carrying on different trading activities. The rest of the respondents’ fathers and grandfathers were engaged in other economic activities. In fact nearly 88 percent of grandfathers’ and 90 percent of fathers’ nature of business activities were at the same prestige level as that of the respondents. Only one case of grandfather and four (8.16 %) cases of fathers were at a higher level of prestige than them.
What kind of preparation they made for taking up to the business activities? It is relevant to mention that seventy two percent of respondents mentioned that it was their hereditary occupation and other sixteen per cent believed that they had experience. Only in case of eight per cent of respondents it is either through education or vocational training. Accordingly, the source of learning the skill was hereditary (70%), on- the –job/through experience (24%) and private apprenticeship (6%). But how did they start their enterprises? Seventy percent of respondents invested in their enterprises through their personal savings. While their relatives and friends helped nineteen per cent financially, six per cent got financial assistance from the banks and only one of them got the finance from a moneylender. Since Boota Mandi is a market and a residential locality, all the enterprises are located either in the main market or in the residential area.
So far as the conditions of work were concerned, it was found that these entrepreneurs were working rather for long hours. Nearly seventy five percent of them were working between 9 and 12 hours a day for six days in a week with a rest for one day. Since it is a well-established view that in business the relatives, friends and primordial ties do play a very significant role, an attempt was made to find out the participation of family members in various entrepreneurial activities. Though it was found that in case of 60 per cent respondents it was not applicable, in the rest of the cases father/uncle (8%), brother (14%), or son (18%) fully participated in all business activities. Besides the family members, nearly three quarters of them have up to five employees. In the case of big enterprises more than twenty persons are hired to perform various activities. They are also holding managerial positions, besides the accountants, supervisors and a large number of attendants/helpers and labourers. One may get interested to know the caste background of these employees. Are there some persons who belong to upper castes? Interestingly, fifty eight per cent have hired the persons from their own caste. Other eight per cent replied that some of their employees belong to their caste while some belong to upper castes, and three percent mentioned that some of their employees belonged to the same caste as of the respondents while others belong to lower castes. There are thirty per cent such cases in which the respondents either do not know the caste background of their employees or they do not want to disclose it.
In the market economy, commodities are bought or sold on the basis of their quality and performance. We may thus expect that their customers would be from their own caste. The data do not corroborate with the expectations. Ninety five per cent of the respondents mentioned that they had customers belonging to different caste groups of the society- including the upper and lower castes. This process reflects the transformation of the rigid social structure. Further we are interested to know the extent or expansion of their market. Fifty five percent of the respondents have their market locally, three percent have it all over the state, five percent have it up to the whole of North India, and other five percent have spread their market throughout the country. There are six percent such respondents who have also the export business in addition to having business through out the country. Their main export products are shoes, leather purses, Jackets, gloves, tool belts, workman’s gloves, industrial equipment pouches (100 percent export business) and many other leather items depending upon the orders.
Unlike other industries such as textile, iron and steel based in Punjab, the leather and sports goods industry depends upon the raw material that is locally available (51.56%). There are twenty eight percent such cases that are largely engaged in various trading activities including the business in raw hides for which material is locally available. The other twenty percent procure their raw material from the whole state (9.37%), North India (6.25%), and also from throughout the country (4.69%).
All visible indicators reveal that the Ad-dharmis in Boota Mandi are by and large doing well in trade and business, but the information we could gather from them on their investments is highly under stated. The pattern of their investment remains traditional as usual. They started the business with a few thousand rupees and presently, some of them (10%) have grown to crores of rupees of investments.
In the case of Ad-dharmis, the entrepreneurship is rapidly emerging economic phenomena where more than a quarter of their family members have also become entrepreneurs. Some of them are running businesses at the same level while others are doing it at a larger scale. It is relevant to explore that with the globalisation where privatisation and liberalisation of the market have prevailed upon, whether they introduced any changes in the business to be competitive with world market forces. And what kind of problems they are facing as a result of it. A significant number of persons have not yet awakened to the call. They are continuing with the already existing set up. Whereas others have introduced changes in the techniques and mode of work besides the organisational set up. Their major worry is competition- both internal and external. More than thirty percent respondents fear the competition from leather industry of Agra, other big companies and MNCs. The main competition they are facing these days is from China, which is aggressively pumping its goods into the Indian market. Only an insignificant number of persons face problems due to their caste status.
II. A Few Cases of Entrepreneurs
This section of the paper presents a few cases of the socio-economic and political empowerment experienced by the scheduled castes. The cases presented here somehow reveal that though the process of their mobility has accelerated for the last few decades, yet their fathers and grandfathers had already paved the way to success for them. In all the cases, their grandfathers some 80 years ago moved out of the villages to the place where ample opportunities were available in their traditional work. With their sheer hard work, perseverance, business acumen and innovativeness they have become multi millionaires, political representatives, and socially mobile persons.
1. An Illustrious Case of Empowerment: Mr. Surinder Kumar Mahey, an Ad-dharmi has arisen to become the first citizen of Jalandhar - the third largest city of Punjab, that is, he was elected to become the Mayor of the city. Forty-nine years old Mr. Mahey had education not even up to matriculation though his father was a graduate. He has three brothers; one of them is settled in Denmark where he runs an Indian restaurant. His children are getting education but also keenly participate in the family business of raw hides, tanning and in the factory. He is a widely travelled man. He has travelled the whole world. His ancestral place is nearby village, Dhanal, from where his grandfather migrated to this place in 1932. His hereditary occupation is dealing with raw hides while his father also continued with the same business till his death. He started working with his elder brother but at that time he was more interested in one or the other kind of a social work. He was busy more as philanthropist. To begin with, in 1978 he started helping the TB patients by getting them admitted in hospital. Up to 1984 he had got almost one thousand TB patients admitted in the hospital. He used to follow the case at least for three years when he would procure medicines for them and would also help in fulfilling their other needs. His elder brother who was looking after him got angry with him for not taking interest in business. Mahey separated himself to start his own independent business for which he borrowed Rs.10000 money from his NRI friend and thirty five hundred from his sister-in-law. With that money he started his own business of raw hides in 1986. In his first sale at Ludhiana he lost rupees thirty five hundred in the deal. Then he moved to Amritsar where he could earn profit worth five thousand rupees. Soon there came traders from Madras who had sales worth 40 lakhs out of which 17 lakhs sale was his contribution. In this deal he could earn profit of four lakhs and thus he became a raw hide’s merchant. After his success in it he started diversification. He started manufacturing tool belts in 1999. This is an export-oriented product, as in India the workers do not wear it. The tool belt made of leather used to be soft and comfortable to wear to which a mechanic would attach various tools needed by him. Thus he has emerged as a very successful entrepreneur. He has constructed a palatial house in the nearby posh colony.
Though he was elected as a councillor for the first time in 1991 when the democratic procedure was restored. He continued to win as councillor till June 2002 when he was elected to the post of Mayor of the city. There are total 55 councillors elected in the city, out of which 26 councillors are scheduled castes and rest of them belong to the general category. In spite of opposition from upper castes, he was elected to the post of Mayor. After taking over as the Mayor, he claimed to have carried out many projects particularly for the betterment of the scheduled castes. He thought that the earlier Mayors ignored the development of all the four outer areas around the city that were mainly inhabited by the scheduled castes. He gave first priority to water supply and got installed 82 tube wells in the surrounding villages, which fall under the jurisdiction of the city corporation. Further, he took over the slum development project again with the emphasis on the drinking water supply and construction of residential quarters for the scheduled castes.
He is strongly of the view that society can develop on the basis of religion. He argues that the Sikhs have a distinct identity on the basis of religion. Similarly, the Hindus have their own distinct identity. All religious groups have their own religious holy book. The dalits are considered a part of Hinduism, but the Hindus do not regard them so in practice. He strongly believes that it is only when they have their own religious book- a collection of the ideas and philosophy of Guru Ravi Dass is compiled and worshiped - the scheduled castes would be able to come up in the social hierarchy by having their own distinct identity. Till such time they do not have their separate religion, they cannot improve their condition. The argument has simple economic explanation, that is, by placing the religious book at a place where devotees would come and the offering would be generated in the form of funds which later are used for establishing school/ colleges and even universities besides the development of the people. So far they visit the Hindu or Sikh religious places and their offerings go to the common pool, which is used for the promotion of their own religion. He was also feeling disgusted at all those dalits who could succeed in life differentiated themselves by changing their religion and caste identity. They never helped their own community members. He was of the view that the scheduled caste people themselves have to come out of their prevailing conditions. For instance if they stop doing dirty jobs- cleaning, sweeping, etc. then the people concerned themselves would do their such unclean jobs. It is the nature of ones work which makes the person low or high.
2. Becoming of a Seth: Rich, Famous and Honourable: Seth Sat Pal, son of Seth Milkhi Ram, fifty years old multi millionaire is a rawhides merchant. He is educated up to higher secondary while his father was a primary school educated. He has five brothers and two sisters who all are educated up to matriculate/ higher secondary level. His six daughters and a son are graduates while one of her daughters is doing her masters. Besides being rawhides merchant his grandfather had an agency at Calcutta manufacturing bone china. The same agency was carried over by his father till the partition of the country. Also hunters from far off places were coming with their hunts to him to process and stuff the skins. People were coming even with the skins of tigers and lions, dears, stags, python snakes. (But now for the last fifteen years no such customer has been seen by the people; may be due to the ban put on hunting). He owns a big palatial house beautifully decorated in a nearby posh colony where people with money and status from different castes live. The Seth very proudly comments that “they all invite us to their family functions, as we are rich, powerful and politically well knit”.
He also disclosed the fact that why almost all the people in Boota Mandi are Chamars. He described that earlier the scheduled caste people did not have the right to get the registration of their houses done. There used to be Rajatnama (a kind of agreement) only which was to be stamped by the Namberdar (the local village revenue collector). His grandfather being the Namberdar would deliberately put stamps only on the papers of the scheduled castes.
He has visited most of the foreign countries including England, Canada, Germany, USA, and Arabian countries. One of his daughters resides in Dubai. Here again he narrates an occurrence. Isher Dass, a dalit who did his graduation from Lahore was appointed Passport officer in Shimla and during his tenure he liberally gave passports to dalits as a result of which a large number of Ad-dharmis could go to foreign countries.
Despite being so rich, he himself actively participates in all the activities of rawhides. His office and godown are situated in the Boota Mandi. He comes to the work place early in the morning as most of the sale and purchase of rawhides takes place in the morning. Seth Sat Pal removes his jacket and trousers and dressed in Kurta Pyjama sits on the heap of rawhides with a note pad. Meanwhile the workers start unloading the truck and simultaneously he starts counting the pieces. Sometime it is mixed skins of buffalo, goat, sheep, and calf while other times it is separately loaded. The hides come to this place from whole of Punjab and are sold to local tanneries and Muslim merchants from Tamil Nadu. He has a good rapport with outside merchants that he would himself participate in auspicious ceremonies like Id, Bakrid, Ramadan, etc. Some people of the locality even commented that he has converted to Islam.
In his view, Boota Mandi is like a capital of the scheduled castes. If one has a problem/ trouble can come here and seek the assistance. Lakhs of rupees are collected for the birthday celebrations of Guru Ravi Dass with lot of fervour and gaiety. The sources reveal that on one day the liquor sale from Boota Mandi’s shop goes up to 7 - 8 lakhs. He says that there is a sharp decline in the rawhide market due to high cost of electricity, bank rate of interest, high labour cost and competition from China. Chinese synthetic leather has captured half of the market. He comments that animals’ all parts are useful - bones, teeth and skin and out of total 10-15 percent are consumed in India while 85 per cent is exported.
3. A Case of Inter-Generational Occupational and Social Mobility: Steven Kaler, a successful industrialist, a postgraduate, 35 years of age, calls Boota Mandi as his native place though his grandfather migrated to this place in the first decade of 20th century from a nearby town Nakodar. His grandfather was the first postgraduate from this area, while his father studied up to under graduate level. He has five brothers and sisters. They all are educated and are well placed. His wife is a civil servant. His grandfather moved to Calcutta where he worked and learnt new skills in tanning. He learnt the Bag Tanning, which was better than the indigenous way of tanning. Which later on was improved to Wet Blue tanning. His grandfather became Seth in those days and after learning the technique himself he taught the same too many people in Boota Mandi. His father started his factory in 1925-28 and did a lot of business in finishing the hides. His father also moved to Calcutta in 1960 where he stayed for fifteen years and afterwards resumed his business of rawhides, and semi finished processing of skins. They have an ancestral house in Boota Mandi and all are living in a Joint family. One of his brothers fought elections for three times on the BSP seat.
After finishing his post graduation in the first position, he was offered a job of lecturer by the local well reputed college; but his father decided to put him to business. As the family has three factories, he moved to Delhi in 1990 to join his factory. This is an export unit where leather garments are manufactured. He remained there for seven years and then he came back and joined the tannery where raw hides are finished and the leather is exported and sold to other companies. He has a turn over of worth Rs.10 crores. He has a big tannery with all the modern machines and techniques. He has employed engineers and other technical personnel besides the skilled workers who belong to different caste groups. They produce finished leather. His company specialises in calf leather, which is very fine and soft usually used in manufacturing Hush Puppies. They supply the finished leather in the international market and their biggest consumer is the USA and other big shoe factories such as Drish shoes etc in India. Many sports goods industries also located at Jalandhar procure leather particularly for making footballs. Even football shoes are exported from here to East Europe, Ukraine, Austria and Germany. They are facing competition from China, Singapore, Taiwan, and Malaysia with regard to finished leather.
In the 1950s, a modern shoe company- Bawa - now collaborating with Lotus under the brand name Lotus Bawa started by a Khatri family near the Boota Mandi. They had latest technology and many of the Chamars who had hereditary skill in hides were employed in their factory, which in the process learnt new skills and techniques. It is mentioned that these people who earlier were the employees with Bawa are now running nearly fifty percent units. He believes that education, exposures to foreign countries and money have remained very important variables in their success. For the upliftment of scheduled castes he suggests that the only way is through education. But unfortunately they can afford to go to government schools where teachers are from upper castes that do not have any interest in their development. For him caste is not an important issue but after a certain level class position becomes more important. He narrates that his father in his times used to face the stigma of caste but during his time, particularly in college he along with other boys of his caste used to fight back. His family is virtually a mixed one. The relatives - daughters in law of the family are from Brahmin, Jain and Khatri castes. With regard to questions on inter religious and inter caste marriages many of the respondents including him are of the view that a scheduled caste boy is acceptable, they may get girls but nobody is accepting the scheduled caste girls for upper caste boys. That is why they themselves encourage marriages within their own caste status.
Summing Up
By way of concluding the discussion on empowerment through entrepreneurship, we may discern certain features of their entrepreneurship. Boota Mandi a native place of most of the entrepreneurs has emerged as the most important economic and political centre of Ad-dharmis in Punjab. Here everyday trade of rawhides worth lakhs of rupees takes place. Now trading of rawhides has concentrated in the hands of big merchants who after its semi finishing and processing send it to far off places. The traditional vegetable tanning of the hides has been replaced by the use of modern chemicals and techniques to make it compatible in the national and international market. The enterprising Ad- dharmis finding the avenues modified their skills and ventured into leather and sports goods industries. They have started manufacturing leather garments, shoes, accessories, and other export-oriented products. As a result of diversification in their work they have been able to earn more profits, which raised their standard of living and they moved up in the social hierarchy. All those artisans who could not cope up with the brunt of industrialisation have become skilled workers in leather-based industries, tanneries and sports industries. They have utilized their traditional skills through industries. Leather being such a commodity that still has relevance, usefulness and is expensive; the Ad- dharmis find much demand for their work. Due to their affluence as a result of entrepreneurship and political representation, they have started asserting their caste status. Assuming their caste differences, they have been able to, though not uniformly; get equal economic status, political representation and social mobility in the society.
Note: The paper is based on an empirical study conducted under the Major Project awarded by UGC along with Professor Paramjit S. Judge to study “Education, Empowerment, Emigration and Entrepreneurship: A Study of Social Mobility among the Scheduled Castes in Punjab”, 2004-2006.
References
Bal, Gurpreet. 1995. Development and Change in Punjab, National Book Organization, New Delhi.
Flamant, Nicolas. 2003. “The Employer and His Enterprise: International leather Shoemakers in Tamil Nadu” in Dorin, Bruno, The Indian Entrepreneur: A Sociological Profile of Businessmen and their Practices. Manohar, New Delhi. Pp101-135.
Judge, Paramjit Singh. 2003. “Punjabis In England: The Ad-Dharmi experience”. The Economic and Political Weekly, Vol.XXXVII, No.31, August 3-9. Pp.3244-3250.
Ram, Ronki 2004. “Untouchability, Dalit Consciousness, and the Ad Dharam Movement in Punjab”. Contributions to Indian Sociology. Vol.38, No.3. Pp.323-349.
Sabarwal, Satish 1990. Mobile Men: Limits to Social Change in Urban Punjab. Shimla:
Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla in association with Manohar Publications, New Delhi.
source: http://www.ediindia.org/Creed/data/Gurpreet%20Bal.htm
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