Wily Gujaratis
Published by Yazad Jal April 12th, 2005 in Culture and SocietyAmit Varma tries to get a grip on events and the Gujarati psyche just before today’s ODI between India and Pakistan in Ahmedabad.
Gujaratis are expert at constructing order out of chaos. What could have more tumult than the trading floor of a stock exchange, for example? There you will find, making sense of the thousands of transactions that take place in a sea of noise, the Gujarati, calm and precise. Or watch him at work in any market where Gujarati traders sit, and you will be assailed by confusion, by a sense of frenetic desperate activity, but there too, the Gujarati will be in command. Heck, India’s freedom movement was guided by a shrewd Gujarati, and though his methods of operating were different from his merchant brethren, he, too, had that ability to not be intimidated by turmoil, to cut to the chase and see the bigger picture clearly while not losing sight of details.
The shrewd Gujarati is something India and Pakistan have in common. Pakistan was guided into existence by one, and he was born barely a few miles away from the Indian. So regardless of which side of the border you belong to, give a little salute to the banias from Gujarat who beat the Brits at their own game.
cultural stereotyping, eh? wily gujratis? RSS laboratory?
Not really. I’m not saying all Gujaratis are wily or shrewd. And wherever did you get “RSS laboratory” from?
As an aside, I consider myself to be at least in some part a Gujarati (my supposed mother tongue is Gujarati)
Not sure what to make of the “wily” vilification of us Gujjus..
Think Varma’s making a bit of a stretch w/ his Gandhi references..
Full disclosure: Me, 100% Gujju… lineage consists of diamond traders (paternal) or stock market/ commodities traders (mother)… (LOL)
I quite agree, but there are exceptions like me and my family, we can’t think business for nuts. So i think we are poorer among the lot.