Entrepreneurship among Diasporic Communities / 181

Entrepreneurship among Diasporic

Communities: A Comparative
Examination of Patidars
of Gujarat and Jats of Punjab

GURPREET BAL

A comparative examination of two communities of India, namely, the Patidars of

Gujarat and the Jats of Punjab, who constitute a majority in the Indian diaspora,
reveals that both these communities share certain features such as landownership,
middle caste status and a dominant caste position besides some socio-cultural
similarities. Despite their common background, each has performed differently in
foreign countries. The nature and streams of their immigration patterns differ. In
the case of Patidars, it is a step migration while amongst the Jats the pioneers
were ex-soldiers. The innovativeness and entrepreneurship of the Patidars signifi-
cantly contributed to the economic development of the host countries. The Jats—
the most progressive community—are found in almost all parts of the globe. They
have largely taken up agricultural and industrial labour activities. They invariably
invest their surplus money in buying some agricultural land. The differential per-
formance of two communities points towards their different attributes, orientations
towards work, work ideologies and primordial ties such as sense of family and
kinship networks.

Gurpreet Bal is Reader, Department of Sociology, Guru Nanak Dev University,

Amritsar, India.

The Gujaratis and Punjabis make up a majority of the Indians abroad.

If the Gujaratis constitute the largest community in terms of actual
numbers among the Indian diaspora, the Punjabis are more numerous
than all others in terms of their proportion to the total population of
Punjab. If we also include the Punjabis of Pakistan and look into the
diaspora from the South Asian perspective, the Punjabis perhaps are the
largest in size. The history of migration of Punjabis has been qualitatively
distinct from that of the Gujaratis though both the communities did not

The Journal of Entrepreneurship, 15, 2 (2006)

Sage Publications New Delhi/Thousand Oaks/London
DOI: 10.1177/097135570601500205

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182 / Gurpreet Bal

emigrate as indentured labour. The path adopted by them was shaped by

many historical conditions. One of the distinctiveness, historically speak-
ing, is the recruitment of the Punjabi Jat Sikhs to the British army on a
preferential basis, which was based on the notion of the martial race.
There is no evidence to suggest that there was comprehensive recruitment
of Gujaratis in the British Indian Army. The migration of Punjabis to
various countries was a result of their recruitment into the army. The ex-
soldiers became pioneers among the Punjabi diaspora. The Gujarati
migration, however, began with the exploration of business opportunities
in Africa. At present both Gujaratis and Punjabis are found in all parts of
the world.
This article proposes to examine these two caste communities, who
having similar class status, have traced distinct economic paths for them-
selves. These two castes are the Jats of Punjab and the Patidars of Gujarat.
These castes have many things in common with the exception that most
of the Jats in Punjab are Sikhs. The common features between the two
include landownership, middle caste status and the position of a dominant
caste. It is well known that among the various communities that immi-
grated to different parts of the world, the Jat Sikhs from Punjab, and
Kunbi Patels from Gujarat were among the most prominent. Most of the
immigrant Jats of Punjab belonged to the Doaba region consisting of
Hoshiarpur, Jalandhar, Kapurthala and Nawan Shahar districts. The Kunbi
Patels of Central Gujarat, particularly of Kheda district and the Junagadh,
Bhavnagar and Jamnagar districts of Saurashtra region that took over
the class status of the Patidars were in majority among the immigrants.
It has also been noted that both the Jats and the Kunbi Patels also practised
hypergamy (Judge, 2005; Pocock, 1972). The dowry system is prevalent
among both the communities and the practice of dowry has proved to be
such a disaster for that the birth of a daughter in a Patidar or Jat family is
a source of sadness. The Patidars as well as the Jats tend to inter-marry
within families of similar economic status. The Patidars spend large
amounts of money on dinner, gaiety, pomp and show. They are a happy-
go-lucky people. The similar attributes are commonly found among the
Jats of Punjab as well. The Patidars are the most prosperous community
of Gujarat and the Jats are also the wealthy people in Punjab and there is
hardly any corner of the globe where both these communities have not
reached today.
In spite of all the common features between them, Jat immigrants in
various countries such as the US, Canada and England are largely

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 Entrepreneurship among Diasporic Communities / 183

confined to blue-collar jobs in the unorganised sector, whereas the Patidars

have shown tremendous business acumen. They are best known for their
entrepreneurship. In the US, the Gujaratis have dominated in the motel
business in particular. In New York they have captured the newspaper
stand business. We do not come across any Gujarati Patidars who has
started farming in the US, but Jat Sikhs in Yuba City are mainly farmers.
Though studies reveal that Hindu Khatris from Punjab are found in the
retail business, particularly in Northern Ireland, the Patidars are mainly
in the peddling business, trade and manufacturing (Ghaie & Birley, 1993).
An attempt has been made to examine this difference between the two
agriculturist castes. It has been argued that similar historical conditions
that inhibited the entrepreneurial motivation of the Jats have facilitated
it among the Patidars. The cultural and regional background might have
significantly contributed to this differentiation.
This article is divided into six parts. The first part deals with the theor-
etical perspective on immigrant entrepreneurship and the second part
recapitulates the background of both the communities. The third part
focuses on the process of their migration. The business entrepreneurship
of the Patidars is discussed in the fourth part. The fifth part discusses the
Jats—a progressive community. The last part gives certain conclusions
have been drawn from the differential performances of the Jat and Patidar
diaspora.

Theoretical Perspective on Immigrant Entrepreneurship

Why do people choose to migrate to other countries? Among the various

reasons, one thing is very clear. They move to other countries with a clear
motive to work and make money. Work, apart from providing intrinsic
satisfaction in an alien environment, also becomes the basis of life there-
after. One’s lifestyle and life chances are determined by what one does
and the type and quality of work that one performs. The amount of remit-
tances sent home are also determined by the availability, choice and
selection of work. Why do people tend to choose one kind of work and
get concentrated in that kind of work? Is it due to their inherent qualities,
religion, caste or community?
In the beginning an immigrant may have some choice of work at least
in his mind, but soon he gets into a type of work that a majority of his
relations, friends and community members are doing. It gives him a sense
of satisfaction, belongingness and we-feeling. Thus, it is commonly ob-
served that a majority of the members of a community get concentrated

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184 / Gurpreet Bal

in one type of work. A large chunk of immigrant communities tend to

fall in the class of labourers—industrial and agricultural. After accumulat-
ing some money people may choose the occupation of their choice.
Though the choice of occupation appears to be haphazard, yet it follows
a pattern, which may be economic, social, cultural or psychological.
Which social and economic conditions contribute to the emergence of
entrepreneurship among communities? Entrepreneurship is a risk prone
economic activity of innovative, hard working and decisive people who
take the initiative, organise and manage their own business ventures with
the objective of creating something new, different and appealing.
The economic sociology of immigrants reveals various trends, pro-
cesses and patterns of their entrepreneurial activities. Immigrants largely
land up in informal activities which are closely related to their partici-
pation in small-scale entrepreneurship. For some immigrants, the informal
economy is a means of survival in an alien social environment; for others
it is a vehicle for rapid economic ascent. For still others, it is a way of re-
conciling economic needs with culturally defined obligations. Immigrants
whose mode of incorporation is highly unfavourable are commonly found
in survival activities. A study of the Haitian informal economy in Miami
revealed that discrimination, official hostility and lack of resources forced
the Haitians into informal menial and low paid activities. Most of their
businesses begin as informal ventures and gradually move above the
ground. Many of the Cuban residence construction firms in Miami began
as ‘back-of-the-truck’, informal home repairs businesses. This is also
true of many established shops in Chinatown in New York (Portes, 1995).
Immigrants largely depend on family-based strategies of economic
adjustment, because it may be the only resource available to those who
come with few material assets and low-level skills. Studies have also
shown that family members are the most trustworthy and least costly
collaborators in business. Ethnic resources- families, rotating credit asso-
ciations, enforceable trust, multiplex social networks and ideologies be-
sides religion encourage and support the founding of new business firms
(Light & Rosenstein, 1995).
For a business to grow there must be some demand for the services it
offers. The initial market for immigrant entrepreneurs emerges within
the immigrant community itself. They have special needs and preferences
which are best served by those who also share those needs and know
them intimately. Generally, businesses that develop first are purveyors
of culinary products. Also businesses that provide cultural products such

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 Entrepreneurship among Diasporic Communities / 185

as newspapers, recordings, books and magazines and clothes and jew-

ellery become popular quickly. Immigrants also have special problems
that are caused by the strains of settlement and assimilation. Therefore,
businesses specialising in their problems such as law firms, travel agen-
cies, realtors and accountants are most common. However, ethnic business
also becomes a major obstacle for them because it can serve only to a
numerically small ethnic community. In order to survive in the market
they have to do business in the open market. They can catch up under-
served or abandoned markets that are affected by uncertainty and instabil-
ity. Here the entrepreneurs can achieve the highest levels of efficiency
by engaging in self-exploitation, i.e., working for long hours. Moreover,
when there is a demand for exotic goods in the general market, immigrants
convert the contents and the symbols of ethnicity into profit making
commodities. In such a business environment, they lack competition but
also have to sell the products at low prices.
The policy of multi-culturalism particularly in Canada, USA and UK
may also help us to understand the nature and type of entrepreneurship
among diasporic communities. Multi-culturalism is a state policy that
enables any ethnic group to participate in the social life of the country
while preserving its own cultural heritage. Multi-culturalism with its
underlying policy of ‘equality with difference’ gives space to each ethnic
group to maintain its identity in the host society (Judge, 1994). Maintain-
ing their identity involves preserving their dress, food habits, language,
religion and entertainment. Thus the policy of multi-culturalism encour-
aged some enterprising persons to venture into business and ethnic entre-
preneurship emerged. In fact, it is an issue whether ethnic entrepreneurship
is a product of the emergence of multi-cultural societies or vice versa. It
may be argued that after ethnic entrepreneurship emerges and consolidates
its position in the market, multi-culturalism may be regarded as way of
recognising it.
Waldinger, Aldrich and Ward (2000) have developed an explanation
for immigrant enterprise that emphasises the interactions between oppor-
tunity structure of the host society and the group characteristics and social
structure of the immigrant community. The demand for small business
activities emanates from markets whose small size, heterogeneity or sus-
ceptibility to flux and instability limit the potential for mass distribution
and mass production. Small-scale enterprises lower the entry barriers to
immigrants with limited capital and technical resources. Opportunities
for ownership result from the process of ethnic succession, and vacancies

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186 / Gurpreet Bal

for new business owners arise as the older group that previously domin-
ated small businesses moves into higher social positions.
As for group characteristics, two factors promote recruitment into
entrepreneurial positions. One, the situational constraints that immigrants
confront sometimes breeds a predisposition towards small business and
further encourages immigrants to engage in such activities. Two, resource
mobilisation is facilitated if immigrant firms can resolve problems by
drawing on a supply of family and ethnic labour. A group’s success in
attaining business ownership is determined by three characteristics
namely, its pre-migration experiences, the circumstances of its migration
and settlement and its post-migration experiences. How these charac-
teristics interact with one another and with the local opportunity structure
is equally important.
Why do some groups among immigrants become entrepreneurs and
others do not? Light and Rosenstein (1995) view that demand and supply
interact to generate entrepreneurship. The entrepreneurial capability also
depends upon socio-cultural resources such as socially oriented action
patterns, embedded transactions, social networks and social capital. The
more abundant these productive resources, the greater the entrepreneur-
ship of a group. There are internal characteristics of groups that provide
an explanation of persistent inter-group differences in entrepreneurial
responsiveness. Some of these differences are cultural, while others may
be policy choices. Cultural factors are more enduring. The economy is
embedded in society. There is dependence of every economy upon the
functioning of a society which constrains it but also makes it possible.

Background

This section discusses the background of the Patidars and Jats. The
Patidars have often been referred to as Gujaratis. ‘Gujarati’ as a word
signifies the inhabitant of a region, i.e., Gujarat state in India. In common
parlance this word is taken to mean a businessman of any sort, as Gujarati
and business have become synonymous. The diaspora Gujarati commu-
nity includes the Bhatias, Lohana, Brahmins, Khojas, Bohras, Memons
and Patidars/Patels. Though they belong to different religions and castes,
they are all Gujaratis and share a bond of common language (Mehta, 2001).
Jat is a caste group that is found in Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan
and Punjab. This study refers to the Jats of Punjab who depict some that
are characteristics distinct from others.

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 Entrepreneurship among Diasporic Communities / 187

Patidars

The Gujaratis in India are known as typical businessmen. They are also
described as the Jews of India. The soil of Gujarat being very fertile,
rich agriculture is a lucrative pursuit. A large area was under cotton culti-
vation even in the pre-British period. The cotton industry flourished in
rural and urban areas, which spread out their products into far and wide
areas. Consequently, the peasantry has always been shrewd, intelligent,
cultured and politically conscious. Prosperity through commerce, industry
and agriculture reduced disparity at the economic, religious and cultural
levels between the rural and urban areas. The man of commerce aspired
to be a landlord; the agriculturist came to the city or crossed the seas in
search of trade profits and on his return invested his savings in land
(Tambs-Lyche, 1980). Hence, the merchant model became important in
Gujarat society.
The Patidars regard themselves as descendants of a son of Rama—the
divine hero. Among the Patidars, besides Patels two other surnames com-
monly found are: the Desais and the Amins. The difference among them
is that Patels were cultivators and Desais and Amins were jagirdars. The
Patidars in Gujarat are divided into four sub-castes, namely, Kadavas,
Levas, Anjanas and Matis. The Kadavas are found in North Gujarat, the
Levas in Central Gujarat, Matis, a sub-section of Levas, in South Gujarat
and the Anjanas use Choudhry as their surname. Yet another section of
Patidars called the Chullias live in certain areas of the Saurashtra region
of Gujarat. The Patels in North Gujarat are also known as Kanbis.
Patidars originally belonged to the Kanbi caste. Kanbi is the most
widely spread agriculturist caste in Gujarat. In historic times the Patidars
broke off from this caste and the branch of Kanbis from which they
broke off was the Leva Kanbis. Patidar meaning landholder was originally
a term for some Kanbis who had become tax collectors under the Mughals.
Under the British and the Gaikwad of Baroda they became quite pros-
perous. In the 1931 census they returned themselves as Patidars rather
than Kanbis. Now they have stopped using the term Kanbis and they do
not marry their daughters to non-Patidar Kanbis.
In Central Gujarat the Patidars are concentrated in the district of Kheda,
situated between the Mahi and Sabarmati rivers (see Pocock, 1972;
Tambs-Lyche, 1980). The land is good for agriculture and the villages
are large. The Patidars are rich and form the dominant caste of the
local villages. They comprised 42 per cent of the landholders, holding
71 per cent of the land. They provide 70 per cent of the village income.

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188 / Gurpreet Bal

In the 1960s, the average annual household income of a Patidar in a

village was Rs 4,332 as compared to an overall average of Rs 1,927 per
household.
The term Patidar denotes an ideal—it is an aspiration. The history of
the Patidars upward mobility reveals that when they rose to power as tax
collectors, they claimed equality with the Rajputs who previously domin-
ated the area. The Rajputs lost their landownership to the Patidars and
have become their tenants. Patidars claimed the Rajput’s Kshatriya status.
The adoption of indigo crop in the 19th century led them to have close
contact with the merchants of the region. Knowing the prestige of
the merchants, they started claiming the Vaishya status (a step down in
the hierarchy) rather than being Kashatriyas. Traditionally, being an agri-
culturist caste, they now became traders/merchants and started small
enterprises that led them to migrate to other places (Tambs-Lyche, 1980).
Though Patidars carry the surname Patel, all Patels are not Patidars.
The Patels have been divided into two major sub-groups—rich peasants
and cultivators. They come from rural Gujarat and are politically power-
ful. The rich Patels are believed to have benefited from Pax-Britannica
and from the development of irrigation and building of railways that led
to the expansion of new markets for cash crops. In Gujarat, they have
diversified their interests into marketing and small-scale manufacturing
(Hardimann, 1981). They have emerged as a class of capitalist farmers.
In the 1920s, during the British era, a violent political agitation against
the land revenue administration took place in Kheda district. Due to the
ruthlessness of the British, many peasants lost their homes (Dhanagare,
1983). Later on, during Mahatma Gandhi’s Civil Disobedience move-
ment, Gujarati Patels moved in large numbers to other parts of India in-
cluding the princely states adjoining Gujarat. many of these Patels were
small landholders who could not fight against the British. Even those
who support the British could no longer stay in Gujarat due to the upris-
ings (Panigrahi & Panda, 2000).

Jats

The Jats in every respect are the most important people in Punjab. They
are Sikhs in Punjab but racially they are the same as their Hindu counter-
parts in Haryana, Rajasthan and western Uttar Pradesh in India and the
Muslim Jats in Pakistani Punjab. The Sikh Jats can be distinguished by
their higher status, which they acquired due to certain historical, cultural,
religious and political reasons. The ascendancy of the Jat Sikhs in the

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 Entrepreneurship among Diasporic Communities / 189

hierarchy of the caste structure started in the time of Guru Gobind Singh
when a majority of those baptised were Jats (Singh, 1999). It was the
baptised keshdhari (unshorn hair) Jats who were the chief instrument of
Sikh rise to power and consequently became the landowning aristocracy
during the rule of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. During British rule, the Jats
maintained their position as the premier caste among the Sikhs.
Most of the Sikhs are Jats and owing to their numerical preponderance
and landownership, they are a dominant caste in Punjab. The word Jat
and farmer are synonymous in Punjabi. They are landowners and their
occupation is agriculture. There are many clans amongst Jats. It is often
stated that the Jats are the best farmers in India; in fact, they made the
Green Revolution with the phenomenally high agricultural growth rate a
success in the state. A Jat Sikh is also a soldier par excellence. Bingley
(1985) describes the military qualities of a Jat Sikh. They are known for
their hard work, courage, dynamism and spirit of enterprise. According
to the 1931 census, 60 per cent of the Sikh population was Jats. They
were the hereditary landowning caste of the Sikh community. In Maharaja
Ranjit Singh’s time they had constituted the ruling aristocracy and
had continued to prosper during British rule. They developed canal col-
onies which are now in Pakistani Punjab. They cleared land, dug canals
and made investments. In fact, the Jats developed Lyallpur, Sargodha
and Montgomery (now in Pakistan). Historically, the Jats knew two occu-
pations: farming and military service. On seeing their willingness to serve
as soldiers, the British passed the Land Alienation Act which limited the
transfer and purchase of landed property to the agricultural classes.
The Jats divide themselves into a number of clans, known as gots.
Each of the gots has constructed an anthropological past of tracing its
descent from a Rajput ancestor and of having come to the Punjab in the
16th century. Jat as a caste group is endogamous and their clans are exo-
gamous. There is no established hierarchy of the clans and they are un-
equal in size. According to Pettigrew (1978) the clans among the Jats are
merely divisions which are recognised by the Jats themselves for marriage
purposes. They also practiced hypergamy in specific situations.

Waves of Migration

In this section the history of international migration of Patidars and Jats

is traced which covers a concise description of the pattern, processes
and trend of migration of both the communities.

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190 / Gurpreet Bal

Patidars

Trade has remained the basis for migration from Gujarat. Apart from
South Gujarat, which was almost the stock granary of India during the
18th century, the Gujarat trading capital had its extensions up to Fiji,
Mauritius and many African countries. During the 19th century, Gujaratis
sailed across the Arabian Sea, settled in East Africa, learnt the local lan-
guage and customs, developed land and business and prospered. Records
reveal that between 1879 and 1916, there were 60,639 Indian indentured
workers in Fiji and a few thousand in South Africa. The large-scale migra-
tion to Fiji was supposed to have occurred in 1834 when about 1 million
Indians were transported to sugar producing colonies (Tinker, 1977).
These labourers were taken on five-year contracts. After the expiry of
the contract a majority of the Indians stayed back in Fiji. Some of them
joined the free migrants of Gujarat and Punjab in the 1920s and 1930s.
During the 19th century, the famine in Gujarat forced some of the Gujaratis
to go to East and South Africa, who in due course of time, by their thrift
and entrepreneurship achieved economic and political prosperity. The
Gujaratis in South Africa were from trading castes and by the 1870s
they had made their presence felt in the country. Soon this entrepreneurial
community began to establish businesses that threatened to weaken the
entrenched businesses owned by the whites who started objecting to the
presence of Indian traders in their localities (Bhowan & Tiwari, 1997).
The first Indian traders in Fiji were two jewellers originally from
Kathiawad, who in 1906 went from Natal to Pacific Isle as indentured
labourers. Most of the Gujaratis in South Africa were agriculturists. It is
reported that in the famine of the late 1890s, Gujarati castes like Kolis
and Kunbis sought employment as labourers and traders in Africa and
became prosperous (Panigarahi & Panda, 2000). They went far and wide
to England in the west and even to the Pacific Islands like Fiji in the east;
and to the Caribbean—Trinidad, Guyana and Surinam. In some land
like Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and England, they have established their
economic presence, while they have exercised political influence in Fiji
and Trinidad.
The Patidars became one of the biggest communities of Indians in East
Africa. They focussed on trade and white-collar occupations. In East
Africa they realised the merchant ideal of Gujarati culture to a great
extent. However, there were also some cases of failure, as Oonk’s study
(2005) of Gujaratis in the Zanzibar area of East Africa reveals. In spite

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 Entrepreneurship among Diasporic Communities / 191

of their hard work and honesty many of the businessmen became bankrupt
due to illness, theft, bad luck, excessive religious charity and expensive
weddings of daughters.
Many of the Patidars came to Britain from East Africa. A study of
London Patidars (Tambs-Lyche, 1980) reveals that about two-thirds of
the respondents came from East Africa. The rest might have come directly
from India, but even they had their relatives and friends settled in East
Africa. In East Africa, the Patidars were educated within the British rather
than the Indian system and this gave them a marginal advantage in Britain.
These people also came to England with more money than the Indians.
Most of the East African Indians came to Britain after 1960. There was
a wave of well-to-do Indians migrating to Britain between 1960 and
1966. The exodus of Asians from Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania pushed
many of them to England—the land of unlimited prospects—in the 1960s.
Idi Amin’s policy of the Africanisation in Uganda in the early 1970s also
forced many of them to take refuge in Britain. Thus in the first phase,
immigrants from East Africa to Britain were relatively prosperous, well-
educated and fluent in English, but the immigrants of later phases were
of a different class. They stuck to their jobs and homes without the capital
and the knowledge of the earlier group. The pattern of migration of Patidars
to England may be described as a chain migration where people chose to
migrate on information supplied by kin and village mates. This helped
them when they arrived and that is why they tended to concentrate in a
few areas. London and Leicester have emerged as Patidar centres.
Virchand Gandhi was the first Gujarati to visit America. He reached
New York in 1893 to attend the World Religions Conference held in
Chicago. Around the mid-20th century, a few Gujaratis came to San
Francisco. They came in ships and many of them came via Trinidad.
They were artisans and two of them started mom and pop sort of hotels
in the San Francisco area in 1919. Prabhubhai Makanji and Nathubhai,
both Patels, came to San Francisco without their families and stayed for
twelve years. They had a bad experience because of their colour. With
the liberalisation of immigration in 1965, many of the Gujaratis opted
for American citizenship to sponsor their close relatives. Thus began the
second wave of immigration in the 1980s, particularly from Kheda district
in Central Gujarat. There are cases of Patidar families who have extended
their families and kinship hundred times through chain migration. They
also started bringing in elder members of their families. In the 1980s,
people coming in the second wave had started motels and stores for which

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192 / Gurpreet Bal

they needed family members. Young Gujarati girls sponsored their spouses
through matrimonial advertisements.
Among Indian Americans, Punjabis were the first to settle in America
in the Northern California region around the 19th century. Then came
the Gujaratis. They were one of the first communities to touch the Pacific
and Atlantic shores of America. Many were a part of a double diaspora.
They had first gone to Trinidad, Uganda or England. After living there
for some time they migrated to America. The African and Caribbean
sub-streams have enriched the Gujarati diaspora in America. In America
they settled in the Queens, Flushing in New York, Edison in New Jersey,
Cerritos in Los Angeles and Elmhurst in Chicago. These areas are in the
making of ‘Little Gujarat’ in America.
In the first wave, the Gujaratis were professionals and had an upwardly
mobile thrust. The second wave comprised of sponsored immigrants who
were generally less educated. Gujaratis constitute the most visible and
widespread community across regions and occupations within the Indian
American community. They are estimated to be more than 40 per cent of
the 1.4 million Indian Americans.
Israel (1994) mentions about 50,000 Gujaratis living in Ontario, Canada
having East African roots. A substantial portion of the community consists
of direct migrants from India. Among these, 80 per cent of the nearly
10,000 are Patels or Patidars. A majority of them are Hindus although
there is a small Muslim sect among them called Surti Vora now repre-
sented in Ontario by a community of 800–1,000 members. The Patel
community life is organised in a range of sub-castes in which marriages
are arranged in the context of unions of villages, each with its own govern-
ing body. There are six such unions and members of all of them have
migrated to the UK, United States and Canada.

Jats

The Jats are the most mobile people of Punjab. They not only migrated
to the canal colonies, now in Pakistan and the Terai area in Uttar Pradesh
in search of fertile land, but they also migrated to almost all the parts of
the world. They migrated in large numbers to the jungles of Africa, deserts
of Australia, to mills in England and to the ranches in Canada and the
US. They also went in large numbers to Myanmar in the late 19th and
early 20th centuries primarily to establish shops in its small towns (Nath,
2000). Significant studies (Ballard & Ballard, 1977; Helweg, 1986; Judge,
1994; McLeod, 1986) on migration of Punjabis to various parts of the

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 Entrepreneurship among Diasporic Communities / 193

world have identified three important reasons for them to migrate: poverty
and sub-division of land due to the law of inheritance; the Punjabi per-
ception of prestige and status; and to buy land and construct big houses
in villages back home.
Punjabis, mainly Sikhs of Jat caste, went to foreign countries to earn
money in the first phase; they never meant to stay there. Many of them
even returned to go back again to developed countries. This time they
were pushed by families back home. Immigrants of the second phase
went with a clear understanding of settling in the country of destination.
The early migrants were the soldiers in the Royal Army and when they
went to attend the Golden Jubilee celebrations of Queen Victoria’s rule
in Canada, some of them decided to settle in America and other countries
(Judge, 1994). Presently, one will hardly find any developed country
where a Jat from Punjab is not seen. In the early years they moved to
Malaysia, Singapore, Myanmar, Hong Kong and different countries of
Africa in large numbers. After India’s independence many Sikhs migrated
to the UK, US and Canada.
Punjabis, mainly the Jats who migrated to UK, Canada and the US in
large numbers way hail mainly from the districts of Hoshiarpur, Jalandhar,
Nawan Shahar and Kapurthala. The causes of their migration in view of
McLeod (1986) were three-fold: land, housing and marriage. However,
recently education has also been added to these. Winchie and Carment
(1989) indicate that economic and prestige-related factors are no longer
primary motivators to migrate. Rather career-related aspects and better
education for children are main considerations for migration. According
to Judge (1994) migration from Punjab to Canada and other developed
capitalist countries was caused by the economic pull and not by poverty.
Migration to a particular country is also to be understood in the light of
the political economy of migrant labour. The developed capitalist region
always has an area of subsumption of labour. Third world countries have
become the source from which labour is drawn. The migrant labour force
carries out the jobs normally avoided by indigenous workers.
McLeod’s study (1986) reveals that the first Punjabi reached New
Zealand around 1890. Later, many Punjabis migrated from Australia and
Fiji. After World War I there was a significant increase in Punjabi arrivals.
At present there is a sizeable proportion of Sikhs in the country. The 1981
census in New Zealand revealed that there were 11,244 Indian residents
in the country.
Till 1920 there were about 7,300 people, most of them from Punjab
settled in California, USA. They worked in orchards and rice fields and

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194 / Gurpreet Bal

in the lumber and railroad industries. Many settled in Yuba City near
Sacramento (Sheth, 2001). Yuba City is a mini-Punjab in America. They
worked mainly as agricultural labourers. They transferred funds regularly
for family agriculture or purchase of land back home and also offered
opportunities for relatives to visit America. In fact Sikhs were the pioneers
of the Indian diaspora in America in the early period of this century.
Didar Singh Bains is the epitome of a highly successful agriculturist. He
also represents the success story of a generation of Sikhs who, in the
early period of Asian immigration, were denied citizenship but who be-
came heroes of farm labour and farm business development. With his
10,000 acre peach farming business, Bains has become one of the most
successful Indians in America and that too through farming.

Gujarati Entrepreneurship

Nature of Entrepreneurship

The Patidars were involved in every facet of commercial life of East

Africa until they were pushed out by the regime. They had developed a
diverse retail and wholesale trade and besides building a large number
of factories they dominated the ginning industry. Their withdrawal from
business was so strongly felt by Uganda in particular that recently the
Ugandan government has announced many incentives for them to come
back and invest in business (Mehta 2001).
Gujaratis are characterised as a ‘business community’ in the US and
they are engaged in the hospitality business. They mainly run motels; a
few of them are engaged in the luxury hotel business. Many of the Indian
shops and businesses that have sprung up in New York since 1965 are
Gujarati owned and managed. They are also in retail businesses such as
grocery stores, convenience stores, candy stores, restaurants, liquor stores,
7–11 and Dunkin’ Donuts stores and many are engaged in running gas
stations and laundromats. The medium-built Gujaratis were once prom-
inent in running the risky newspaper stalls on the streets of New York,
and twenty-four-hour gas stations. They are also prominent as jewellery
businessmen in America. Many Gujaratis were professionally employed
while simultaneously running a business with the help of wives, children,
other kinsmen and friends (Fisher, 1980). Waldinger, Aldrich and Ward
(2000) inform that Indian entrepreneurs are prominent in retail busi-
nesses such as chemist shops, small grocery stores, discount airline ticket
businesses even in areas such as Glasgow where very few of these immi-
grants stay.

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 Entrepreneurship among Diasporic Communities / 195

In England they are the best shopkeepers. Tambs-Lyche (1980) divides

them into external and internal shopkeepers. The main difference is in
the price and quality of the goods that they sell. The external shops are
larger and more specialised. This customers are different and so is the
style of shopkeeping. Hence they attract customers more from the English
middle class. Their approach is more business-like whereas the internal
shops are more like a meeting place of the community. Both internal and
external shops have numerous grocery and health food shops. Many novelty
shops sell Indian and East Indian handicraft products, cloth and sarees,
besides Indian kitchenware, books and newspapers. The external shop-
keepers are among the earliest Indian settlers in the UK. The first shop
was set up in 1928–29. Their franchise was based on Indian students, the
occasional Indian businessmen or intellectuals in addition to middle class
English customers with whom the Indian food and spices had become
popular. Besides shops they were also house owners, moneylenders,
wholesalers, agents and brokers that provided them secondary status.

Motel Business Among the Indian Americans, the first two moteliers
in America happened to be Gujaratis, Kanji Manchu Patel and Dayabhai
Patel, both in San Francisco. They came into this business in early 1950s
before which they were doing odd jobs in the plantations. Dhayabhai
took on lease a former monastery and turned it into a 100-room hotel.
After much hard work he was able to buy his first hotel and he gradually
expanded to a large number of hotels. By 1998, out of the total 4,500
members in the motel or hotel industry more than 2,300 were Patels
(Sheth, 2001). A Gujarati Patel, H. P. Rama became the first non-white
president of Asian American Hotel Owners’ Association. Ninety per
cent of the Association’s members are Indians, a majority of them are
Gujarati and most of them happen to be Patels. A Patel would generally
start with a modest and old motel, and with hard work, business skills
and his risk taking aptitude change it into a decent multi-room motel. By
the 1990s they were well entrenched in the hospitality industry sector
and had acquired franchise of prestigious hotel chains. Their motels are
prominently found in Tennessee, Georgia, Florida, Texas, Alabama and
North Carolina. In terms of service, job creation and revenue payment,
Indians in the hospitality industry contribute substantially to the country
of their adoption.
Over the years, some professionals have changed occupation and joined
the motel business. With their skills they purchased obsolete, run down
and undervalued properties and renovated them with infusion of capital

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196 / Gurpreet Bal

and hard work. Gujaratis are running Indian stores such as Bharat Bazar
and Dana Bazar. With the increase in Indian population, more and more
stores have been opened and a variety of items have been introduced.
The range of items varied from grocery, grains, special tea, household
items, objects of worship, fancy artefacts, handicrafts, and utensils for
cooking, colourful wooden sticks to play ras (a group dance form indigen-
ous to Gujarat which is an integral part of the nine-day Hindu festival
Dussera). Stores selling Hindi movie video and audio-cassettes, sarees,
Indian garments and jewellery too have been opened.
In the mid-1970s when a number of Indians moved to Toronto, the
entrepreneurs among them responded by establishing grocery and sweet
shops, travel agencies, jewellery shops and clothing stores thus fulfilling
the needs of the people. Israel (1994) reveals the experiences of a small
Gujarati businessman who arrived in Toronto in 1980. After working as
a mechanic and saving money, he opened a grocery store in a mixed
neighbourhood. His suppliers were largely local Indian companies. He
also imported fish, vegetables and fruits by air directly from India and
supplied these to other stores as well. The success of the Gujaratis in
business reflects their ability to combine India-based experiences and
opportunities with the capitalist world’s entrepreneurship. Indians as an
ethnic group have their needs, which must be fulfilled in the market
situation. Immigrants of earlier years faced major difficulties in procuring
the items needed to maintain their lifestyle. Thus for them encountering
the alien environment and then maintaining their existence was never
short of an adventure. Mounting pressure of community needs on the
one hand and a recognition of their needs under the policy of multi-
culturalism on the other encouraged some enterprising people to venture
into business. These entrepreneurs performed a vital function for the
community by providing the requirements of daily life. A multi-cultural
society could be possible because of such an ethnic entrepreneurship.
Martin Merger’s (see Israel, 1994) study of Indian entrepreneurship in
metropolitan Toronto reveals that they arrived in Ontario in the 1970s
with a substantial amount of business experience. They were generally
able to rely on independent family-based sources for capital. They came
from a middle class background, living in the suburbs and were educated.
More than 75 per cent of their customers were Indians. The presence of
family and other Indians as employees and the willingness to work exces-
sive hours were common factors for all these businesses. Bipin Patel, an
immigrant from Africa, developed reflecting overhead signs that he mar-
kets across Canada, United States and Europe. Shreyas and Sohan Azmera

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 Entrepreneurship among Diasporic Communities / 197

came from India to Toronto as students in the mid-1970s and now their
donut business has grown into North Americas’ largest supplier of dough
to bakeries.

Reasons for their Entrepreneurial Activities

What are the reasons for Gujaratis taking to entrepreneurial activities?

The reasons may be traced to the economy of motel/hotel as well as the
socio-cultural traits that have nourished them. Sheth (2001) has identified
the following reasons:

1. There is a proverb among the Gujaratis that the best vocation is

self-reliant agriculture, trading is next and service is the lowest.
2. The farming class among them is oriented to the capitalist economy.
They possess the characteristics of a commercially tuned, bargain-
ing culture informed by a pragmatic ideology.
3. The new immigrants, instead of working in the unorganised sector
without any facilities, preferred to work in their small but independ-
ently run stores or working in a motel of a person from their caste
or region.
4. There is a community tradition of helping or supporting a new
entrant.
5. The recession years of the 1970s affected many educated Gujaratis,
as they lost their jobs. Thus they decided to take up the independent
vocation of moteliering. Again in 1987 the recession in America
affected many people. Pushed from Uganda in the 1970s many
Gujaratis settled in England and then moved to America with their
money to invest in businesses.
6. Motels solved the problems of housing and commuting for the
new immigrants as the family was accommodated in the motel
itself. They did various housekeeping jobs and in the process the
owners saved some money. The pragmatic culture of the Patels
with regard to the management of the motels also gave them an
edge over the white people. The capitalist ideology of America
has provided a congenial environment to the Gujaratis.
7. Another cultural characteristic of the Patels is intensely woven
with the economy of the motel industry. If a Patel wants to buy a
motel, he can rely upon the guidance and financial support of his
relatives and friends. Also they buy land cheap on commercially
undeveloped areas and then build motels on it.

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198 / Gurpreet Bal

Progressive Community

Nature of Work

There is hardly any detailed study available on immigrant Jats in foreign

lands and more scarce are studies depicting their occupations in detail.
But one point becomes quite obvious from existing literature: though
the Jats are found in all types of jobs including that of university teachers,
doctors, computer specialists and in administrative positions, they are
predominantly engaged as workers in industrial and agricultural activities.
There are instances from personal observations of the author in America
and Canada that those Jats who are professionals have bought huge pieces
of land particularly in California for cultivation and have grown large
fruit orchards. This shows their passion for land and agriculture.
The early Sikhs, mainly the Jats, were recruited as soldiers in the British
Indian Army. In the beginning of the last century, many Jat Sikhs went
to Canada and settled in the state of British Columbia. Thus the pioneers
were lumber workers who also became farmers after clearing huge forests.
The Jats who migrated to UK in the 1950s and 1960s worked as labourers
in manufacturing industries. However, their children have been educated
and have become professionals. Jats who migrated to America, mainly
to California, became hard working and prosperous farmers. Williams
(1988) writes that the Sikhs in America before 1965 were predominantly
agriculturists residing in the rural areas of California. Yuba City is a
classic example, which houses a majority of the Jat farmers.
Dhindsa (1998) in his study reveals the job status of Punjabi immigrants
in the UK. On their arrival in UK, nearly 80 per cent took to unskilled
labour. Gradually they took up various skilled works and also started their
own businesses. Out of the total, 43 per cent are doing unskilled manual
work in factories, foundries, warehouses, airports and construction sites.
Another 15 per cent are doing skilled jobs like working as welders, fitters,
plumbers, painters, technicians, laboratory technicians and drivers. Only
5 per cent are doing professional jobs such as doctors and engineers.
Only one-fifth of the immigrants are running their own businesses such
as corner shops, workshops, post offices and travel agencies. Almost all
of them bought the businesses after the mid-1970s. Earlier they were
doing factory/manual jobs.
The pioneers in Canada who mainly settled in British Columbia engaged
themselves in wage labour. They were employed in railroad, roadbed

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 Entrepreneurship among Diasporic Communities / 199

clearing, track laying and the lumber industry. Many of them took to
farming in Southern Alberta. The occupational status of Punjabis in the
Alberta State of Canada shows that initially 50 per cent of them were
either in agriculture or were studying. Presently, 11 per cent are in busi-
ness, 12 per cent are workers, while 4 per cent are bus drivers, there are
three railway workers, one taxi driver and three are in clerical jobs and
only 2 per cent are professionals. In Frazer Valley, over 80 per cent of
about 12,000 farm workers are East Indian Immigrants from Punjab. In
Toronto there is a substantial number of Punjabis in the transportation
industry, mainly working as taxi drivers.
In New Zealand they took up dairy farming in a big way between
1920 and 1945, whereas the Gujaratis moved from labour jobs to market
gardening and green grocery. All those who could not purchase dairy
farms went for factory employment. Throughout the first half of the last
century, a majority of the Punjabis continued to work as rural labourers,
particularly as members of scrubcutting gangs. During the 1960s and
1970s many professional Punjabis, particularly the Sikhs, migrated. They
added a new dimension to the existing community. Recently many Sikhs
have also become taxi drivers. In an informal discussion, McLeod told
the author that a driver with a turban is considered very efficient and a
good driver by the New Zealanders. Jats taking up dairy farming perhaps
is a natural choice. Back home buffaloes were valued for agricultural
subsistence, for milk and their possession carried a status in society.
Dudh and putt (milk and son) were the most precious possessions in the
rural society of Punjab. Thus rearing and milking buffaloes and cows
would have remained a preferred work for them.

Conclusion

Both Jats and Patidars are successful communities abroad though the
nature of their work varies considerably. Though their background is
similar, they have performed differently in the developed world. What
could be the reasons for their differential behaviour? Why are Jats, being
such a progressive community, doing mainly labour jobs and the Patidars
in business entrepreneurship? The reasons may be traced to the cultural
practices, values, traits, orientation to work, family feelings and kinship
networks besides the motives and purposes of the communities. The Jats
migrated to other countries for the lure of good fortune. They worked
hard and did all kinds of odd jobs. A few important factors make sense

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200 / Gurpreet Bal

as to why the two communities behaved differently after immigrating to

other countries. These are:

1. Jats belong to the Sikh religion, an egalitarian religion in which

the assignment of work is not rigid. Thus they took up any job
which came their way in an alien environment.
2. In the case of Patidars the ethnic boundary was closely bound
with the ‘merchant ideology’. In the case of Sikhs, there was no
such ‘merchant ideology’. Thus being a Sikh did not seem to con-
flict with accepting the identity of a labourer.
3. If we glean through the proverbs on Jats, a general understanding
is that they are free people, not much bound to each other. It may
be that Punjab experienced a lot of invasions from outside and
they have been experiencing isolation, loneliness and uncertainties
quite frequently. It gave this community a sense of autonomy, inde-
pendence and individuality. Community belongingness (the way
it is found in the case of the Marwari and Gujarati communities)
was missing.
4. The nature of work taken up by the earlier migrants also played a
significant role. They became labourers. When a new migrant
came, he largely depended on his friends and the members of the
community to look for a job. As a result, they tended to get concen-
trated in one kind of job. As we have observed in the case of Gujarati
immigrants, they often found some place in the businesses of their
relatives, community men and friends. Rutten (2001) writes ‘Patidar
caste are seen to be more prone to partnership within family and
kinship than others. Their sense of status and preference to operate
without the assistance from outside the family makes them form
partnerships within families. This emphasis on jointness is often
carried to the extent of an ambition where the business is owned
solely by members of his or her own joint or extended family’
(p. 175). Business always needs more persons to work and in the
process the newcomer also learns the tricks of the trade and estab-
lishes networks. Thus primordial ties play a significant role in the
nature of work that they take up.
5. Rutten (2001) in a comparative study found that the Patidars had
the strongest sense of jointness and family feelings. In his view
they were initially agriculturists and agricultural land had always
played an emotional role in tying the family members together.
As a result, ‘family-centric’ behaviour and attitude had become

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 Entrepreneurship among Diasporic Communities / 201

an important characteristic of the members of this caste group.

This kind of attribute may explain their entrepreneurship in foreign
lands.
6. We observe from the type of work taken up traditionally by the
Jats (agriculture and defence services) that they are temperamen-
tally rugged people lacking finesse. They are broad minded, sim-
ple and hard working. The famous local proverb Jat kee jane longan
da bhaa (A Jat does not know the price of cloves), in other words,
a Jat knows nothing about business aptly describes a Jat. Still an-
other implication is the Jat is too simple minded to understand the
intricacies of cloves—a precious spice.
7. As a result of one and a half decades of political violence in Punjab,
many Jats have taken to entrepreneurship in rural areas as an alter-
native to agriculture or to supplement their agricultural income
(Bal & Judge, 2001). They are carrying on diverse types of trading
activities in the market place. The Jats have either taken to high
prestige trade activities or agriculture related businesses. This is a
new venture for them, but people from other castes tend to believe
that Jats are not good businessmen. They do not follow the rules
of the trade and they lack the style and patience of a businessman.
However, it is too early to explain their success or failure in busi-
ness in their home land.
8. Lastly, is the issue of the integration of Jats with the host society.
The Jats have taken up some of the customs and practices of the
local working class such as going to pubs, eating to non-vegetarian
food and consuming alcohol. Therefore, at one level they are better
integrated with the local people as compared to the Gujaratis who
still have some inhibitions and cultural barriers.

Note

1. The author is grateful to Professor Paramjit S. Judge for suggesting the idea of exploring
such a comparison of two dominant communities of India.

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