’The Gujaratis’ book review: An insider and outsider view of a community

Most communities beyond the modern world's primary interpersonal and village boundaries are not monolithic. Socio-economic strata and variations in cultural norms, values and individuation diversify them. This is true for nearly 60 million people who consider Gujarati their mother tongue and ethnically perceive themselves as Gujaratis. Of these, 55 million people live in the state of Gujarat in Western India, and nearly six million live abroad. Salil Tripathi presents a portrait of this community as both an insider and an outsider in his latest book, The Gujaratis: A Portrait of a Community. He presents various facets of the community in over 700 pages, in 12 parts, divided into 87 chapters and an epilogue.

The book cover a wide swathe—the community’s history and spread over different countries, dialects, family systems, cultural and professional norms, politics, literature, art, religious practices and rituals, food habits and cuisines, sports, family, love and sex. The volume offers encyclopaedic information about the community with anecdotal narratives of different observers Tripathi has interviewed as well as his own observations and reflections.

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The strongest aspect of the book is that the author does not portray the community as homogeneous and highlights its contradictions. Like Indians from other parts of the country, many Gujaratis, irrespective of their residence, are obsessed with placing people in hierarchies, considering divisions as a natural order. According to Tripathi, Brahmins and Baniyas, constitute nearly 7% of Gujarat's population. This segment views other trading Gujarati communities, like Bhatias and Lohanas as well as Jains (together around one per cent), as rich as them or richer than them. The upper castes, he writes, “love Parsis and hope they like us,” and consider Muslims (10%) as “others”. These upper castes have “disproportionate power over others, dictating social discourse and controlling agendas.” A few of the elite Brahmin families have standardized the language, ignoring not only the influence of Parsi but also a large number of dialects from different regions of the state. They treat Dalits (7.5%) as not “equal to us” and Adivasis and de-notified tribes as “primitive” (14%), pastoral communities and nomads (2.5%) as “neither them nor us,” and Kolis (25%) as “backwards”. However, Tripathi does not consider Patidars, who make up 12% of Gujaratis and are traditionally Shudras, as ‘upper castes’ though Patidars have acquired economic and political power and now claim Vaishya status.

Gujaratis are also known the world over as merchants and an industrious, enterprising community. Trade, commerce and mutual aid are their distinguishing characteristics. They form investment clubs, pool cash together and invest in stocks. Eleven of the top 40 Indian billionaires are Gujarati, and out of the 100 richest, 24 are Gujarati. They include Hindus, Parsis, and Muslims. One of the longest chapters is on asmita or the pride of being Gujarati, which is perceived differently by Gujaratis.

Mahatma Gandhi, the father of India, is as much a Gujarati as Mohammed Ali, the father of Pakistan. Sardar Vallabhabhai Patel, is credited for negotiating with the native states and merging then with the Indian Union. Gujarat has also produced two prime ministers, Morarji Desai (1977-79) and Narendra Modi. Narmad, known the father of modern Gujarat, championed it as a land of all those live here. For Umashankar Joshi, a renowned poet, Gujaratis aspire to be “universal persons”. However, in the last three decades, politicians of different parties have re-invoked Gujarati asmita—the pride of being Gujarati—against “others”.

K.M. Munshi, a litterateur politician, first coined the term in the 1930s. He called upon the Gujaratis “to reflect on their cultural sensibility, historical character, and political identity”. Gujarat pride was re-invoked by Chiman Patel in the early 1990s with a slogan, “naya Gujarat, agavu Gujarat” (new Gujarat, unique Gujarat), branding the opponents of the Narmada dam as “enemies of Gujarat.” Today’s Gujarat is closer to Munshi’s imagined past than Narmad’s, Joshi’s or Gandhi’s, Tripathi writes.

Ironically, Gujarat has the longest sea coast among all the Indian states and a history of overseas trade with south Asian and Arab countries for centuries, and Tripathi dedicates 13 chapters to Gujaratis abroad. Bhatia traders from Kachchh first explored trade in Africa following European penetration in the early 19th century. They played a pivotal role in Oman’s development, transforming Muscat from a backwater to a thriving trading hub. Following them, some Gujaratis from central-south Gujarat and Saurashtra—Hindu and Muslim traders as well as Patidars—moved to various African countries to explore economic opportunities, and prospered abroad.

Yet, Africans looked at Gujaratis as exploiters and racists. A small segment of Gujaratis did support anti-apartheid struggles and the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya in the 1950s against the British. But many Gujaratis considered themselves closer to white Europeans than the natives. Things came to a pass when Idi Amin, the leader of Uganda, expelled and harassed Asians, including Gujaratis, from the country in the 1970s.

Their British citizenship forced the refugees to relocate to the UK. Britain had a small number of Gujarati immigrants who had settled there during the colonial period. The African immigrant Gujaratis gradually settled, mostly in Leicester. With mutual support, they improved their lives. They even rejuvenated Leicester with communal harmony, where Hindus worked with Muslim employers and vice versa. But the situation changed in 2022 when the more recently emigrated Gujaratis did not mingle with locals. During an India-Pakistan cricket match, which India won, they intimidated local Muslims during the celebrations, shouted slogans against Pakistan and screamed Jai Shri Ram, which led to riots. “The politics that divides India had finally made its ugly entry in a British city known for diversity,” as the author notes.

Some Gujarati Patidar African emigrants had moved to the US after a stopover in Britain. They first invested in motels in California. America already had a small Gujarati population working in different sectors in the 1970s. British and American Gujaratis, besides running grocery stores, are now in business and industry. In the political sphere, one finds Gujarati British and American citizens in conservative as well as liberal and left parties. There are quite a few who have played a prominent role as progressives and radicals championing Asian workers' rights.

Self-righteous Gujaratis who see themselves as “peace-loving, non-violent… cheerful vegetarians” may not like the last chapter of the book, entitled “The Way We Kill,” on the 2002 carnage. Tripathi here throws a question to fellow Gujaratis (including Gujarati intellectuals) about their silence and, worse, their role in legitimizing all that happened then. One can only find solace in the fact that there were numerous instances, documented in at least two volumes, that demonstrated communal harmony and helped the victims.

The book’s frequent rambling may disappoint a reader accustomed to neat narratives around a single theme. It also suffers from some factual errors. Notwithstanding, The Gujaratis warns open-minded readers against stereotyping any community.

Ghanshyam Shah is an independent researcher based in Ahmedabad.

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