Retributions  

Premji’s greatest fault is that he is a secular Muslim in ”Hindu” India

That seems to be the precise argument of this atrocious article in the Wall Street Journal. The title it self is a dead giveaway of where the sympathies of the writer lie: How a Muslim billionaire thrives in Hindu India? And how has he managed this monumental achievement in a society so biased against Muslims?

Yet, to many in India’s Muslim community, Mr. Premji’s enormous wealth, far from being inspiring, shows that success comes at a price the truly faithful cannot accept. They resent that Mr. Premji plays down his religious roots and declines to embrace Muslim causes — in a nation where people are pegged by their religion and where Hindus freely flaunt theirs. “If you are a Muslim and want to be rich in India, you have to show you are very secular,” says Zafarul Islam Khan, secretary-general of the All-India Muslim Majlis e Mushawarat, an umbrella group.

Unlike those observers and Muslim community leaders, Mr. Premji bristles impatiently when the plight of the broader Muslim populace is cited. “This whole issue of Hindu-Muslim in India is completely overhyped,” the 62-year-old executive says.

Mr. Premji has mentioned his Muslim background so rarely in public that many Indian Muslims don’t even know he shares their heritage. None of Wipro’s senior managers aside from Mr. Premji himself are Muslims. The company maintains normal working hours on Islamic high holidays. Among its 70,000 employees, there’s only a “sprinkling” of Muslims, according to Sudip Banerjee, president of a division that accounts for a third of revenue.[link]

And of course, the rest of the top Indian businessmen from Narayan Murthy to Ratan Tata flaunt their Hinduness! Of course, the small matter of many of India’s richest businessmen being Parsis–not exactly Hindus finds no mention.

But then one has become used to such ill-informed and half-baked coverage of India in the Western media. From The New York Times to The Christian Science Monitor to The Economist, the pattern is nauseatingly similar; any achievement of an Indian must be analyzed from the prism of caste/community/religion even if that person himself rejects such classification. Indeed, the underlying assumption is clear: for a minority to be successful in India, he must have given up his identity. Inferences are drawn from every action; that Premji’s personal philanthropy makes no distinction between Hindus and Muslims is in it self a crime!

Perhaps, Premji should consult the Wall Street Journal before he decides to spend his own money!