Advaiti Management

by L. N. Godbole

Preface

Those who don't learn from history are condemned to repeat it, observed a great thinker. One may add, :those who don'tshare possible lessons from their own experiences, tend todo the same.

Few executives, till recently, chose to pen down their experiences, so that others may gain prospectively . Dr.Godbole is one of them.

Even among such writers, Godbole is unique. He is unique because, - the hall mark of his writing style is to give an Indian touch and couch Sanskritterms to makea point.

The book is autobiographical and still not autobiographical.Even the autobiographical part isabout events that are not 'self flattering’. Godbole reflectson the many events in his working life, rather than merely recording them. Itis introspective and also prompts the reader to introspect visavis their working environment.

Each chapter or adhyay, as Godbolecallsit, makes a lasting point..

Professionals —_willwelcome the pointers for being a thoughtful, reflecting executive, in today's environment.

I heartily commend this book.

N.H.Atthreya

Dedicated to the most influential First teacher I had in the field of
people management:

my —Aai, the late Annapurna Narayan Godbolé
Adwaiti Management Copyright ©Dr. L. N. Godbolé 2013

I gave you go-ahead but These lines are necessary Advaiti Management Introduction

The purpose of any economic activity or business is value-addition. Whenever a business fails, it is a failure of Management to ensure value- addition. Business fails because of failure to attain this primary goal. Every entrepreneur borrows from society two resources: people and money. One can achieve Value-addition if one can motivate People and the Organisations they may form to work with money borrowed from the Society. Human Resource Management, therefore, occupies the primary position in management. Measurement of value-addition is done in terms of money and reported in terms of profit or Loss. I had the privilege to head these two functions at an Indian Pharmaceutical Company in Mumbai for 30 years. I have recorded in this book my. personal experiences ofa specific period namely from 1964 to 1994.

I was fortunate to have as my boss, Padmabhushan Amrut Vithaldas Mody, who gave me an opportunity to make my experiments and accepted failures or losses as well as benefits arising out of my actions. He was an entrepreneur-Chairman from day one and I was Company Secretary from 1964.

Panini (urferett), the earliest Grammarian in the world, has propagated one idea: He says Swatantrah Karta (Sada: Fall). Literally and grammatically it means the individual is independent. Some verbs and adjectives vary in Sanskrit grammar according to subject (Karta). In the traditional philosophical discussions, this statement of Panini is made in relation to the philosophical position that an individual is free to think and decide on his or her course of action. This liberty of the individual is not restricted to mundane daily life but applies more importantly, in speculation about the nature of life as such, or about the afterlife. It is, therefore, necessary for every individual soul to seek individual salvation. The concept of Free will is acknowledged as a given here. An individual is independent and not bound by any routine, religion, or system of worship. The individual is free to embrace even the atheist position in order to seek and achieve salvation. The liberty of the individual soul is a very important concept to assume and take into account, if one sets out to understand

the behaviour of human beings in India.

Management is a practice which deals with the relations of human beings in their capacity as managers, supervisors, owners, workers, suppliers, buyers and sellers amongst themselves. When we study the behavioural patterns of human beings in their various roles, it is important

4 � to understand their conscious or unconscious philosophical assumptions. These assumptions are transmitted by one generation to another through the medium of language. An individual acquires these philosophical assumptions through words used in the surrounding language.

We accept them, mostly uncritically, by hearing those words use by the people amongst whom we move and stay. The language of each Person, local language, therefore, becomes a very important factor in to communicating with that person and for her or him to achieve communication with others.

Excellence in any venture depends on this human point. Any management practice by definition has to depend on this human point. The language we use is one operable parameter of the human point we expect excellence from. I have therefore focussed on this aspect in my thoughts and have gone to the roots of the societal assumptions which are expressed by the thought leaders in India and are discernible in their philosophical postulates. Take the first idea of Swatantrah Karta. We often talk about change that we must have in our country or society. ‘Who am I’ ?" becomes a very relevant question. If the answer is ‘I’; then who am ‘I’? , becomes a very relevant question. Different traditions have given different answers to this question. We have to seek answer to this question in our own surroundings.

In India of the present days, we respond to every question with ‘the Government’ as the answer. Everyone thinks that Government should initiate change. We have erected structures of law intended to transform the Society. We assumed that by enacting laws a Welfare state will come into being. We wanted to manufacture welfare by means of laws and we elevated the State to the position of an operating agency. This idea is actually an extension of our idea of Joint Family, In the beginning it is parents or Maa-Baap (#1-aT7) who are expected to initiate any action and its extension is Maa-Baap Sarkar (AT-a1 UR), If you read the daily newspapers you will find a strong yearning shown by people for solution of their problems by the government. Since the politicians are also the product of the same society, they readily respond with assurance that their Government will take care of the problems of the society. This is not @ genuine independence of an individual. This is not a logical extension of Swatantrah Karta.

The idea of reliance on government is an attitude acquired by people who have been subjects of alien Powers and never thought of becoming a Karta themselves. The common refrain is that we need some Gandhi or some Avatar to come and redeem us from our difficulties.

2 � However, the basic philosophical tradition in this country does not accept such sops, for it is not based on Messiah or some Book. It says that you have to acquire your own salvation by your individual efforts. There is no promise: it is all in your own hands. This libertarian ethos is not easy to digest and implement. Acharya Vinoba Bhave in his ‘Swa-rajya-Shastra ' ¥a-WsF WET (1938) said that the logical extension of the movement for Independence should be attainment of Swa-Rajya or Rule by Self.

There is a huge amount of literature available in India where different ‘Darsanas (e2fet)’ Philosophies have flourished. All lead their followers to one supreme reality each in their own way. We also therefore search for and find messiahs almost at every corner in India, consistent with a layer of philosophical thought prevalent there. Everyone has to be true to their own Dharma (tet). This is the second significant aspect of reality in India. This gave impetus to basic social Plurality. This makes India the greatest democracy in the world. People understand only her numerical size, while forgetting that the social Plurality that exists as a base is sustaining her democracy. It is not because of a book entitled Constitution of India. It is one of the texts among the Smritis (remembered teachings). Even in personal law relating to inheritance, family division,

and rights and liabilities of members of the family, several systems prevail simultaneously in India today. 3

It is necessary for Indian managers to connect themselves to some of the basic philosophical tenets prevalent here, which are distinct from the societal reality that obtains in the West or East. Those who study management as a Discipline often do not consider this fact, and think in terms of foreign ideological constructs. History of management scene in India since 1950 is a treasure house of such inappropriate ideas and technologies which are perpetuated by the educational system as the right path. In these ideas there is no original insight or meaningful practice which can be shown as a distinct Indian contribution of Indian thinkers. We have tried to live off imported ideas when independent countries (like Japan), though smaller in size, have developed their own styles and adapted ideas from all over the world and poured them into their (Japanese) mould. In a sense all ideas about human behaviour are universal and no one Country has a monopoly over ideas. My effort here is directed towards developing a new connection to the basic Indian contribution in the arena of Social Sciences as faced by a practising manager. I wish to keep my work open-ended because that is the true Scientific way. And scientific way

is universal way. I want my Readers to record their experiences, once they

read mine, and think about their own Practice and experiences.

Another fact mal

kes this specific declaration at the beginning of the book necessary,

namely: this book has metamorphosed into English from

3 �

+ arial day my nephew Amit Desai came to visit

7 oka ie styl I mentioned to him publication of my Book iw Granthali (Survatache Phulpakharu Herd PetGIS published in March 2009. He said that I must translate it into English if I wanted him to read it. I express my thoughts in Marathi and therefore I wrote my book in Marathi. Another aspect of this rendering is that Most of my friends are not very conversant with the Marathi language. Since I wanted them to comment, I had to translate the original. My daughter Rca helped me with her editing skills and Dr NH Atthreya, my Guru, also encouraged me to transform my Marathi text into English. This is how my book on Indian Management Practice came, which I have called Advaiti Management, into being in the present form.

T have put the theoretical propositions in the early chapters and correlated to them my actual experience in their implementation in 30-odd years of practice in the later chapters. I cannot claim to have followed the ideal way, but I have stuck to that method in consonance with my original Marathi text based on tradition of Naradeeya Kirtan (aera aida). It consists of theoretical exposition of an idea or theme first and explanation of that theme or idea by narration of actual stories or experiences later, This book is not an exact translation of the original, since Indian tradition itself evolves with every story teller embellishing the same old story with each new experience encountered in life. In that sense this is a New book.

My experiences involved Human Resource Development and Finance-related matters as a virtual General Manager in an establishment within Private sector employing about 1500 People in various capacities between 1964 and 1994 in the city of Mumbai. I wrote down my experiences in Marathi for the benefit of new entrants in the field of human resource development and many small-scale industrialists who would be More comfortable, if the text were available in Marathi, I had observed around me many a small scale industrialist established in business, and then the inevitable ‘labour-problem * would erupt in their industrial units, and that becoming the end of the story as far as those individuals were concerned. He would make every effort to remain ‘small-scale’ and work against the basic idea of growth, in order to fly beneath the radar of the existing legal framework for organised industry. He would make a ‘bonsai’ of his enterprise with his own hands. This is one sure way of remaining insignificant in the Global Market. In Global market size matters. And now we can think only in terms of Global Market.

My Personal experiences as a manager, the roots a tions in basic Indian Philosophical assumptions (Advaiti fade) ident divergence from the theories propounded in the Westel

observa and evi

4 � literature on management I was exposed to, Prompted me to write down these juxtapositions. I felt that they are relevant today in the Global Village, which has boundless access to information and pressing need for localised action. The inherent power of the Indian thought and basic assumptions open up possibilities for Indians to come into the limelight in the area of management. Absorbing the technological revolution brought about by Internet and welding it with the latest ideas put forward in the Western management literature (mostly in English) in accordance with my Indian roots became the focal point for this book. I have deliberately framed and presented my work in the context of it in the field of Practice of management based entirely on my personal experiences in order to ensure authenticity.

Like all philosophical disciplines, Management is universal. Are there any special Indian dimensions to it? This thought has engaged my mind all these years. This book is an attempt to answer that question. Like Chemistry, Physics, Medicine: is management also Universal? I think so. This book is a result of my search.

Adhyaya 1

I worked in various managerial posts from 1964 to 2007. There are books on management by Western authors and I have read many of them. I tried out several ideas propounded in those books at my work places. I wrote about those ideas through a monthly news letter for the workers employed in those companies where I worked. The thoughts that crystallized in my mind from those ideas have been presented here as a continuum. I continue reading new ideas and live as a new person

- every day. I try to change myself according to those ideas. This nitya nutantva (continuous change or transformation) is the essence of any

living organism.

Kaal-Jaranam (eTet-SIRUT) is the phrase used in Upanisads for this attitude. It places emphasis on living in the present and not allowing oneself to be burdened or bound by the past or worried about future. We can ACT only in the Present, while the past and the future are only abstract ideological constructs. This fundamental belief lends urgency to action in real time. It is becoming more and more relevant in the current age of instant telecommunications.

i i ia in the English

Many ideas in the management field come to India in \ language. Seminars are held on those ideas. The notable fact which I have observed here is that I have rarely come across articles written by Indian managers who have put those ideas into practice in their

5 � immediate workplace. The disconnect, as I see it, is that Indian authors in the field of management rarely cite Indian experiences, Indian examples, Indian case studies or their own experiences. They present instead summaries from one or more books. Interviews with successful managers and entrepreneurs, are published in newspapers. In those interviews statements are recorded eulogising the person concerned. Conclusions about their success are drawn which are in conformity with the theories propounded in Western, mainly, American books. Perhaps to add Indian flavour quotations are interspersed from Mahabharat, Gita, Ramayan and Arthashastra of Chanakya. Quotations from books are given as guiding Principles followed by these interviewees. A reader does not get any feel of distinctly Indian management practices followed by them in practice in their management career.

There is another set of articles which picks up the ideas from the latest management Journals and tries to prove that they were extant in the old Indian literature. Some words or phrases from the old classics are quoted as proof of that. I do not find it the right approach. Unless you build your practice on strong basic philosophical postulates, you tend to parrot words and phrases while the meaning eludes you.

When National Panasonic, a Japanese electronics company, made their first collaboration agreement with Philips from Holland, they said, “we will pay fully for the scientific technology and import it from you but we do not need your management technology”. A renowned management thinker Ohme has stated that what is called Japanese management is really picked up by them from American books but they have poured it into crucible of Japanese thoughts and traditions and transformed it into Japanese management theory. There is an important lesson for us in this approach.

In 1952 a listener asked Acharya Vinoba Bhave a question after his daily discourse. “What was the great wisdom that Jawaharlal showed when he gave one vote to himself and also one vote to his chaparasi?” Vinoba replied that though Jawaharlal Nehru was educated and brought up in British education system, he is at heart (31-1) (non-dualist). Since all living beings have the same aicHq (Soul), he gave equal voting right to all Indians, I have yet to come across a more elegant, simple and easily understood explanation of equal voting rights for the Indians. I have my doubts whether Nehru had this idea or thought in his mind at all when universal adult franchise was enacted into the Constitution of India. Its foundation was the Government of India Act 1935 and other Laws passed by British Parliament, and Constitutions of France, the United States of America and the United Kingdom laws were before the framers of the constitution. The idea of Universal Adult Franchise has come to India from

6 � abroad. Vinoba connected and grafted this idea to Indian ethos and mind with his deft hand. ;

I believe that ideas from Western management techniques can be poured into the crucible of Indian experience, setting them upon a base of Indian philosophical tradition, and thus can be converted into an Indian management system. This book is spurred on by that thought.

‘If no one else has done that, then why shouldn’t I be the one to do it?” without disturbing the basic Indian philosophical postulates, 1 am willing and mentally ready to change completely and adapt to all that is modern in transient matters. Basic belief in democracy, gender equality, and free will of individual are some of the ideas which are articles of faith for me. Irrespective of what is stated in any books of the past I want to remain faithful to those ideas. Most important in my opinion is action according to these thoughts. I am not satisfied with high falutin spiritual thoughts or intellectual convictions alone : I want to see them tested in action before subscribing fully to them. Our thoughts, speech and action must flow in the same direction. I am interested in action in conformity with thoughts and words.

In the first ten chapters of this book I explain the theoretical base in the tradition of Naradeeya Kirtan (awa ita) as purva rang (qaXaT), the following eight chapters narrate stories of my experiences as the uttar rang (SRT) and the ideas of the first base are confirmed by the examples in the next eight. There is some repetition in this scheme of presentation.

Ideally, the eighteenth chapter should represent the beginning of an Indian management system as people working in this field could take up these ideas and contribute their experiences thereafter. This is just the beginning of the journey. I started looking out for the distinctness of Indian management after I attended a Seminar on Management by Values in 1992. I hope my readers treat this book as a similar starting point for recording their own quest.

When Western authors present a new idea or technique of management practice, they assume base of their culture as given. These assumptions are present in the writer's and reader's minds. The foundation of Judaeo-Christian thought is deeply ingrained in their minds. We can read those ideas as an intellectual input despite a different cultural foundation. While we read them as words; they are not a part of our beliefs. As Indians we believe in essential identity of Universe Advait , (3#¢e1) call it ‘Wart Get faut ag-ut aéfa(Ekam sat vipra bahudha vadanti ) which can be paraphrased as ‘All roads lead to one truth’, as a matter of belief. On a related theme: Acceptance of plurality in action and beliefs is the

7 � foundation of democracy and was not an import from Britain or a legacy of British Raj in India. This fact is often ignored in the present day discussion in India. In the field of Business Management we must therefore be true to this basic Indian tenet of plurality.

Take a simple idea like Oath. Very few Indians perceive breach of an oath in its original connection with a grave Sin as in Christianity. A retired Chief Justice of Bombay High Court has gone to the extent to state that, “In western countries even an accused states truth while under oath, while in our so-called religious country there is no witness available who tells the truth under oath. No priest, or politician is exception and on the basis of such oaths ‘justice’ is meted out in our Courts!”

When a solemn affrmation is made on the application form for a job no one takes it seriously. If any statement contained in it is later proved false, it can lead to instant dismissal. This principle is not necessarily understood by the applicant or it is ignored. It is not implemented by the Managers either. Affirmation becomes a column to be filled in, just like a ritual devoid of any meaning.

So is the case with recording full name, correct spellings, names of near relatives, their ages, birthdates and addresses on various forms filled in by the employees. The need for responsibility to keep those inputs updated is not understood by anyone. In the event of sudden or accidental death, the relevant papers remain stagnant in offices due to some missing detail or misrepresentation. It is then that the people become aware of the deficiency but by then it is too late or at least too expensive to correct. Sanctity of information and its updating is not understood by workers or their managers. Managers do not check the details at the right time and alert workers about it. They do not consider it as their natural responsibility as seniors. If we conceive the society as one body and_all individuals as limbs of it (Advaiti base), it would naturally prompt them to do so. Presently this is not so because the managers have cut themselves off from subordinates from their consciousness in which information is given and preserved for mutual good. A basic value system governs information which is exchanged at the beginning of any employment contract, and it is not respected with predictable consequences.

Adhyaya 2

_ Independent Human life starts with breathing and ends when breathing ceases. In Yoga Shastra a great deal of importance is given to regulation of breathing or Pranayama. Patanjali in his treatise on Psychology built his structure on the basis of Yogasutra. Yoga means to Join or connect. We must therefore know what is to be joined or connected. Idea of Yoga is to join your ‘self’ (Atman 3-H) with Universal reality 8 � (Paramatman)(XATeHe).

A reader would naturally wonder how this relation of Atman and Paramatman is relevant in the discussion on Indian management practices relating to employer-employee relations, management, and business and

Industry.

Every individual is a member of the society around him. Apart from your personal status as a believer or non-believer, you must be aware of the tradition of the people working with you for effective management of these people. This is essential if you have to get desired levels of production from people, if you have to get work done by the people from a particular region, if you want to sell them anything, if you have to develop business with them, if you have to win election or ultimately if you want to rule the people. You must know the social norms, cultural traditions, and basic beliefs of the concerned people. You must know the impact and internal connection of the people with their basic values or Value System. If you do not know it then all your efforts shall become meaningless from the perspective of management of these people.

The concept of Atman and Paramatman is embedded in the minds of people of India consciously or unconsciously, at least at the level of word recognition. If this concept becomes a matter of belief or conviction of a Manager so much the better, As far as operational social intercourse is concerned, the manager at least has to know these basic postulates, the core values in the minds of Indians. Acharya Vinoba Bhave has said that,"when you start with Euclidian Geometry you start with definition of a ‘point’. It says point has existence but no magnitude, that is, it has no length, breadth or height. Now if it does not have magnitude how can you ‘see’ a point? Euclidean geometry starts with assumption of point and then goes on to line, straight line, circle, angle, triangle and the entire superstructure of Engineering is built step by step and taught on this fundamental axiom. Machines and Buildings are constructed on such mechanical designs. If you get into the issue of existence or otherwise of

point then you will not progress in Engineering.”

Once you accept the concept of Paramatman(OXaTcae), Brahman(s@t), or Ishwar ($a) then it becomes easy to explain and understand how all are children of God, or all of us are related as brothers or sisters to each other or more so as limbs of the same body. That each one of us is a part of the Paramatman also becomes easy to understand. If you accept all these assumptions by faith and deep in your mind, then it becomes easy to encourage people for action. It also necessitates checking your own assumptions. When you have to achieve great results then it is not enough to have only great physical strength or abilities, you

9 � have to motivate people to achieve these great results. You have to kindle their minds. Poetess Bahinabai (afeorras) has aptly put it; “when there is no feeling there is no worship and when there is no inner urge there is no strength”. The primary task of any manager is to create this inner urge in the minds of workers to do their job. Once this problem of motivation is solved then all other problems become soluble. Without this motivation all the goods, machines, wealth and conveniences cannot produce great Works. Nothing constructive happens.

People educated in English in India and of a certain vintage have cut their connection with the land of their heritage. This is a class among current educated elite. The elite imported science and technology from the West, while many of its members subjugated themselves to the economic ideologies prevalent in the West. In practice they could not motivate the sons of the soil to do Work. They only talked of or created Jobs. They could not provide motivation and inner urge amongst the workers. This elite class behaved and acted with indifference towards its own people and their traditions. This class and rejected whatever was Indian, and considered it worthless.

Atmarthe prithvim tyajet 31a yf <stct (Give up even world for ‘self’-realisation) is the position of basic philosophy of India as far as individual liberty is concerned. Extreme freedom of thought and action in self-realisation is the creed of India. In this land Stalinist centralisation of economic and political power was foisted on the inhabitants by the English speaking educated elite. People were treated as nuts and bolts or dolls from the mould and it was emphasised that human beings are only one dimensional Economic Man .That people have no ambitions except the monetary kind was the belief held by the elites. Western science and technology are superior and therefore, the Western social ideas are also better was the message spread by the elites through education. Western spectacles were ready and a large class among the elite in India started using them with slavish fervour. It was no wonder that they started thinking in English and saw India in that image. Perversely, they failed to see or perhaps they were incapable of seeing the Judaeo-Christian heritage, the Calvinistic work as worship model,that has propelled much of the thought behind gainful work in the Western countries. This elite as a class did not absorb the work ethic, devotion for acquiring knowledge, or compassion from Christianity. They accepted only the superficial layer of materialism or acquisitive methods. A simple habit like punctuality was ignored. Sanctity accorded to manual work remained alien. How can we hope to compete with the West by imbibing the worst of their negative points? We must have their science, their technology, but we should not uproot our philosophical base covering all living beings and their connection to the Supreme reality. Our social thinking must be true to our roots and true to our philosophical

10 � postulates. We must have it Homespun.

You will not be in a position to create great things in this country by denying its roots. Our basic urge is for the search of self. The aim is to improve oneself and transform oneself. Without transforming individuals you will not succeed in transforming our society. People will not be motivated without such transformation. Inner urge for doing one's job best will not occur. Changing the society by transforming oneself is the method of change in this society. All our social emphasis is on sacrifice and not on self-aggrandisement. People may listen to you but they follow only what you do.

A sanyasi gets maximum respect in this country and the sanyasi takes minimum from the society and returns his utmost back to the society. He does not stay in the same place for long; does not develop any attachment for a place. He gives to the people to a maximum extent and with full fervour. He is,therefore , considered as worthy of first worship. Even today Vivekanand, Gandhi, Vinoba, Jai Prakash, Khan Abdul Gafar Khan, are remembered by the people. Their worthy selflessly working followers are also respected by the people. They were not or are not necessarily wearing saffron clothes. Worship is offered to a sanyasi. He performs obsequious rituals of himself first and then enters the Sanyasashram. He virtually receives a new birth, takes a new name, and a new personality. He sees self in all living beings and his relation to Shiva the ultimate reality. He enjoys and experiences his own enjoyment in the enjoyment of others. People follow the words of such sacrificing people.

Their constant desire is that of 'Giving'. Their influence extends beyond their sect and even their mistakes are ignored. This is so because sacrifice (Tyaga) is considered a major value in Indian thought. Contrary to that philosophical position sacrifice is treated as a matter of joke in our present economic thinking and managerial practices.

People do not work only for bonus or incentive bonus, Industries are not raised, and soldiers do not fight for bonus. Only fuelling desire for wants cannot create enthusiasm for work amongst the workers. A call for performance has to be suborned by some emotional appeal. Inspiring this urge for increasing production, increasing value-addition is the key factor in any managerial success. Keep extraordinary goals before people, they can deliver extra-ordinary results if they are motivated enough.

Adhyaya 3

People working in the field of management feel uncomfortable when I talk about the idea of sacrifice, because according to them such a term does not belong in the canon of their received wisdom. Their received wisdom says that everybody works only for personal benefit or more particularly for money. You can move a donkey with the enticement of carrot. Either dangle the carrot before the donkey or take a stick to beat him in order to make him work. Only these two ways get work out of people. This simple rule, which is a common philosophy or possibly the only philosophical base according to some.

However, if this question is put to someone who has started a new venture, broken some new ground, the answer will be different, Some basic principles of ethics are followed even amongst the gangs of smugglers or thieves. In fact criminal gangs need a code of behaviour among themselves more than citizens. There are people who break away from the gang, who turn informers, and the punishment meted out to them by the gang is extreme. Even when engaged in anti-social activities, like theft or smuggling, when a task is performed by a group (and nothing these days can be done solo), fidelity to the gang is considered an essential behavioural trait. In this Trust is a cardinal principle. Honesty and loyalty to the gang are considered very necessary values. No society or group can survive without internal trust amongst its members. As breathing is necessary for life, trust is necessary for existence of the society. If you do not trust your Family members, can you ever sleep in your own house?

Itis a common sight to see Leaders surrounded by security guards. At places like Dhanbad in the coal belt of Bihar, the mafia leaders and trade union leaders cannot sleep in the same room or under the protection of the same guards for more than two hours at a stretch. They have to change rooms or guards. Even those people have to decide whom to trust: Wives and children? Other family members? Members of the same caste? What's the guarantee? The daily newspapers from these areas regularly report breach of this trust in these inner groups. Murders and cheating in such groups are commonplace. Most of us can sleep comfortably because most people in our society accept the principle of trust as a cardinal principle of social existence. We can live in the society of others only because of this assumption of trust.

In some cities in the affluent Western countries even in the cities like New York, the incidence of violent crime is alarming. Violent crimes take place all the time. With all the material comforts available, there is often an absence of mental peace. The reason for such a state of affairs is that the existence of trust in social life which was inculcated in the minds of the people by Christian religion is undermined by the impact of secularism and rationalism, which were accorded higher esteem than the religious teachings. The foundations once laid by religion are demolished and their place is taken over by a system of relative truth. Once all values become relative, then the individual freedom becomes a licence for behaviour

12 � beyond control. If I enrich myself by looting another then why shouldn’t I do so? The relativist and rational answer is rather weak on this, a lame duck response. I should not loot or kill others because they should not do it to me, not because it should not be done. These are mutualist arguments based on the principle of buy and sell. Thieving is not wrong, but getting caught is, can be the logical extension of this concept of mutuality. Any number of people who will show you the legal loopholes if you are caught. Once it is accepted that a person’s criminality is subject to.being convicted, then legal loopholes, buying judges or other methods, are always available, and they are all very rational ways.

If I am not benefitting then why should I work? Why should I obey the laws? Why should I be good? Why should I not exploit anyone? Why should I accept equality in social intercourse? Why should I give up what is already in my hand? Every society has to find answers to these questions from time to time. Unless you have clear confirmation in your mind, you cannot proceed in human resource management. Whether we are consciously aware of these answers or not, they are basic assumptions in any given society. When I am working as a manager in India I must know the value systems of the people who work with me. If I look at them with foreign spectacles my perception is likely to be wrong. Often perception of a problem indicates the solution of the problem. It is how

” you see yourself that defines how you would see and interact with others. This is the connection, this Yoga we were seeking at the beginning of the previous chapter.

In Indian Darsanas the Body (Deha %&) of a human being is considered temporary or ephemeral. According to assumption of Rebirth only the soul of a person is permanent. Body is considered ephemeral. Soul or Atman is permanent and it does not have any beginning or end. Body is like clothes. Old ones will go and new ones will come. Therefore this body is not me. Answer to ‘Koham?” or who am I? is not my body. In Indian philosophy considering body as ‘I’, is called Dehabhav. According to Adwait philosophy the answer to who am I? is I am Brahman or Aham Brahmasmi.(3%@ sees) If you understand this larger connotation of yourself then you are in a position to look at many things with a different perspective. This perspective signifies a basic change in your Self-Concept. A complete transformation takes place. This is a ‘perspective shift’ It is very crucial in managerial life.

When you look at a natural scene through a viewfinder of a camera you select a piece of physical reality present before your eyes. You capture that piece of reality and freeze it in the camera. It is your view. It is your Darsana axa of reality, Is it a Truth? The answer could be both Yes and No, Any photographer will tell you that from any actual scene before your

13 � eyes, you can easily show two or more totally different meanings in the photograph. By changing the frame the meaning can be changed. Many jokes and puzzles are an outcome of changing of the frame. Change of frame becomes change in the meaning. When we select a frame for a picture, we draw a mental line that decides what is included and what is excluded. What is in your mind decides what is to be included and what is to be excluded. Frame of mind really determines what is the meaning of your picture. In fact you are adding this frame as a comment on the physical reality present before your eyes at any given point of time. The potential greatness or distinction of the photographer lies in choosing this selection of frame.

When an ordinary picture of natural reality can add and express, different meanings in the external reality by changing angle, or frame, then you can understand what Darsana you are having about What is Truth? Who am I? What is world? What is my relation to my society? How much am I connected? What is the connecting thread, What is it? Such are the basic philosophical problems. One’can only imagine what kind of changes in the world will be possible if we change the ideological frames. Managers above all, they must accept that these paradigm shifts are necessary in the field of People Management.

Indian philosophy states that One truth can be seen by many from different ways. Possibility of Many views is the crucial point

In India there are six main Darsanas besides many others subsidiary ones. New Darsanas can be added. Number of Darsanas is not restricted by a finite quantity. New Manus will come and they will have new Darsanas, and they will continue to express them in their own way. Thus the flow of philosophy in India is like the flow of Ganga. It is durable and permanent and still changing every second. This is a special attribute of Indian Philosophy. In the book bound (Kitabi) religions, Ekam Sat is accepted but they do not accept these different views, Bahu-dha Vadanti is not accepted. In a fixed perspective change is not acceptable.

In Western or Christian philosophical thought God and Individual are accepted as two entities. God does everything, HE is the karta behind all that happens in the world, HE is omniscient, omnipotent and HIS edicts, orders and values cannot be transgressed. All these orders or edicts, values and norms have been communicated by God through his prophet or the Messenger. All this is recorded in the Bible and it is a source book of Philosophy. Anything against the Bible is apostasy. Interpretation of this Book as interpreted by Pope, who represents Jesus, is binding on all Roman Catholics. Protestant Christians do not accept this infallibility of the Pope but they accept the base of Bible as the Book. Jews accept part of

14 � _ the Bible or Old Testament as the Book and Moses as the Prophet. Talmud is the book of revelation according to them. According to Muslims the holy Koran is the Book and that is the basis of their philosophy. According to them Mohammed is the last Prophet, and the instructions he received in Arabic are Koran and they cannot be changed even by a word by anyone. No one can change even a letter of it. There cannot be any commentary on Koran. All philosophical thought and the behavioural prescriptions must be followed as per Koran. No other Sat has even a right to exist.

All these Semitic religions have their basic tenet as Bible, or Koran and its un-changeability and acceptance of Moses, Jesus or Mohammed as the prophet as a bedrock of their philosophy. The basic postulates in the societies from the West have been codified in those books, namely Bible or Koran or Talmud. All of them accept God and the individual as distinct duality. They are Dwaitis ¢dit. They are conditioned by their Greco-Roman background of dividing the issues between, Yes/No, True/False, Justice/ Injustice, etc into defined categories. Again the answers are expected to be according to the answers in those basic Books. That is the basis of their social thought. It is called Morality and it’s a basic postulate for them. They have been fixed and rigidly conditioned by the enforcement of those ideas of their Books.

In the nineteenth century Marx as an economic philosopher declared that all these old books are like opium of the masses and his Book contains the scientific history of humankind. His Book has answers for all social problems according to his followers, who are spread all over the world as they are here in India as well. Majority of the people in India, however, are not Kitabi in any sense.

How to avoid the rigid unchangeable framework of religious dogma, of eternal views on morality, .of The Book, of a single philosophy? Society cannot exist without a framework or frame of values. It cannot be value-free, Rigid insistence on following certain values can be different. Social pressures can differ but no society can work without a value system. The Semitic religions did not insist only on the values prescribed by their religions, but insisted on every letter of their book as unchangeable. Theirs was the truth. Accepting any change was treated as attack on those Books. It became necessary for their societies to align their method of worship, social mannerisms and all norms of social behaviour to conform to those words in the books. Religion or Organised religion created a rigid framework. As a reaction to this rigidity, emphasis was lead on breaking those Frames. However, in order to function, they had to set up their own Frames to replace the broken ones. No effort was made to establish new values or frames to replace the old rigid ones by Indian leaders. Nobody bothered to establish this new system or norms and the people went for

15 � hedonist pleasures and excess in consumption. Every individual is drifting towards that pattern.

Adhyaya 4

Increasingly and all over this country, people opt to send their children to schools with English as the medium of instruction. If the Indian national languages are neglected or allowed to wither away, and the young Start thinking in English, then the cultural slavery that ushers in will be more dangerous and basic than the political slavery of the past. It will cut at the very deep root level. The children’s only aim will be to get American Green Card. Indian-ness will be only restricted to ethnic fashions, . and fancy dress competitions. I Personally find this a terrible scenario. Still worse spectre that is looming before Indians is that their capacity to think independently may be extinguished.

This is the workforce ( talent Pool) that we would increasingly have on our hands, To remove this loss of Self significance Indian Managers will have to develop Techniques of Management based on the basic Indian value system. They must acquire such robust capacity to absorb the Western ideas with all their contrary assumptions and compete on the basis of their Indian responses, like Lord Mahesh who drank the poison thrown up in the churning of the cosmos and become Neela Kanth or poison bearing aspect of Mahesh. Two examples should be illustrative. Indian. Scientists have mastered the technology of Atomic Power generation and Space science without any significant foreign collaboration: on their own and with whatever morsels were made available to them from abroad. They enriched their scientific techniques and proved their Capacity to detonate a nuclear device. How to make it and use it is an option available in India. India can handle atomic energy for power generation, preservation of agricultural produce, and so many allied uses. Indian Scientists have done this on their own strength and that is why several countries are willing to collaborate with India in these fields. India is offering to launch satellites for clients abroad in commercial ventures. We acquired the Science from the West and used that knowledge for the development of our own. In the field of Information Technology, India is recognised as a power in software field. Good many students from national language medium schools are Now established as authorities in this field in the Silicon Valley. India has achieved success in the field of tocketry, space science and achieved all this on the basis of self reliance. Indian managers will have to seek Indian basis to absorb and implement Western Management concepts, or else we will remain dependent slaves of Western thought.

Japan is in the Eastern hemisphere. Buddhism has blossomed there and left a cultural continuum for us to share with these countries. Looking at them in order to see how they grapple with this western/

16 � eastern conundrum might be instructive for us. Quality Circles, Common Uniforms are some of the apparent techniques we have picked up from Japanese Management techniques, but largely as verbiage. They imported all science and technology from the West while developing their own techniques of management. A city state like Singapore gives importance to the family rather than an individual. It believes in Harmony rather than Adversary culture and litigation. In India we have virtually debarred Mutual agreement from our human resource management area. Instead of settlement between the parties we are resorting to legal redress through Courts. Even in the field of Health and Consumer Protection we are creating vested interests in litigation and huge compensation awards by courts which is already a problem in the USA.

In Japanese industrial thinking: I, my company and all those who work in it are like my brothers or sisters and therefore if there is a conflict, Managers are known to commit suicide out of shame for the death of amity at the workplace. Something that we are unlikely to see here, in India. It is easy to imitate superficial behaviour patterns. Likewise, we have not acquired insistence on punctuality, precision, treating physical labour with dignity. British work culture in general was not absorbed by Indians despite two hundred years of British political domination. The main challenge now before us is how to acquire the nationalist spirit of Japanese.

Matsushita (National Panasonic) Company has a Mission Statement and Company Song which begins with the words national service through Industry and it is so recorded and repeated every day before the beginning of work. This goal is defined by a profitable company which is known for its aggressive capture of world market. It gives first priority to national service as a goal for their enterprise. It does not count maximisation of profit, maximisation of market share or highest share price as its first priority goals and that is a noteworthy feature of its song. With this lofty goal in mind its employees as well as managers strive and work. They do achieve leadership in profits, market share and share prices, but that as a by-product to their primary goal of National service. All of them have this Framework of national service very clear in their minds.

People work hard, with enthusiasm, only if there is some emotional urge in their minds. With carrot and stick policy they do not get energised or inspired. When people are motivated by some super-ordinate goal they can achieve continuously rising productivity. Excellence can be a motivating goal. A Japanese fights for the nation and for a salary but the first part is fighting for a nation and second part is the pay. We see all around us that people fight for the nation. It is very true that ‘Soldier fights for Nation and penny a day’ but nobody will stake his life for his Bonus. For

17 � the last fifty years peoples’ awareness was kindled for bread alone. Each one must get bread. Better bonus will not make soldier a better fighter, Those who think only of their bread, may sell security secrets to enemy, Most of the Japanese do not do so and therefore the borders of the State remain protected.

If you think rationally then Param Vir Chakra is not useful for getting a meal in the day. And if I do not survive what is the use of medal to me? If I die what is the use of medal or money? This is a very rational thought. Everyone knows that wisdom. If you die in fight you will go to heaven and if you are successful you will earn the kingdom on this earth is a logical assumption, because the heaven is imaginary, why not accept the suzerainty of a superior power? Many in this country have opted for this view in our history.

If our Indian Managers keep in mind this identity of self with Universe and learn to have common goals with their co-workers on this basis, they would understand their powers to be functions of their hierarchical positions. They would not remain trapped in seeking gains for their individual positional reality. Then it will be possible for them to accept Equality as a basic value and its implementation will be easy. If any suggestion comes for improvement in methods or practices then it will be easy to support it and there will be no desire to suppress it. It will not be ignored. The higher step is that all authorities, powers are to be used for the benefit of the enterprise and not for self glorification. Equality between all organs will be underscored for the ultimate benefit of the enterprise.

This will need an understanding of the individual ‘self’. You will have to forget the outer trappings and concentrate on your core. How do I see myself as an accounts manager/ personnel manager/ research manager in order to enhance my organisation? Once this belief in your self is established, then how to behave as a Manager, how to lead others will be easy to understand. Search of this self will lead to the individual's growth through transformation.

How will I change, how will I blossom, how will I fructify and how will I reach my individual goals will be clear to my eyes if I start with this definition of self. Normally people believe that their human body is their self. It is a Dehabhav. Likewise the position of an accounts manager/ personnel manager/ research manager in the organisation is but an external detail. The answer to the question who am I is that Atman 31eHeT which resides in this body. The body is its clothes. Body is a carrier of this Soul. This search is to be undertaken by every individual for himself. It is an important step in Spirituality. So also, you in unity with your co- workers, represent the organisation in this particular trapping, the real self of your organisation, with which you can identify, is in every function,

18 � every individual in equal measure.

In Western management techniques, physiology, sociology, economics, human being is considered only as the manifest body. Body is the only reality. In religious doctrine there is no freedom for the soul. The individual can be happy only by grace of God; can achieve emancipation through divine grace. Only if you follow the rules of your behaviour as prescribed by religious Book then only you can you reach heaven. This is religious position. As against that, the Indian premise is that an individual is free Karta and acquires his or her salvation by his or her own actions. This freedom is not for the body but for the self which is beyond body-

There are many people who do not believe in any religion. Many educated people in our country follow rituals like visit to temples, Pujapath and other rituals and are believers in religion. But religious thought is kept out of workplace under the pretext of secularism. If I do not work as per expectations, if I shirk work or did not work at all but collected my pay, then nobody thinks it is irreligious behaviour. Keeping my part of the bargain is not considered to be my duty at all. Dereliction of duty by worker or manager is not considered as a wrong in morals or in religion by society. It is defined as misconduct under law. What nobody bothers about is defining good moral conduct. Trade Unions do not consider it as their duty, managers also do not consider it to be part of their responsibility, and workers themselves do not bother to think about it.

Anyone who works he must know what is his or her work- even simple tasks like typing, filing, assembling parts relates to ultimate goal of being in business is. It is only then that incremental improvements in small jobs are possible. Avoidance of small mistakes is achieved, frauds are detected in time, and in general huge mistakes or losses are averted. It can avoid catastrophies provided the good in each case is thought about, propagated and implemented at each level of the production hierarchy.

Individual-society-environment and the supreme reality are

linked in the same chain. The religions try to educate people about the - Individual and Supreme reality and their internal connection. Religions are not making it part of their duty to educate about the internal linkage between society and the environment. Nobody therefore tells people how they should behave as a Manager, Trader, Worker or as a Consumer and what value system they should follow. This is not consciously disseminated by any religious authority. It is assumed that it will come naturally to the People but it does not happen automatically. Connections between Positive behavioural patterns at large and workplace activity for an individual have to be seen and defined by the Managers. It really needs to be taught. Thought leaders in India have not done this. Good citizenship behaviour, nationalist feelings cannot be spread by printing a book of Constitution of

19 � India. This neglect is continued on that wrong assumption.

Western social thinkers are searching for these eternal values, They are trying to find out whether India can contribute in this effort. It is possible to have an eternal value system independent of religious or sectarian rigidities and rituals, is the basic assumption in India, which it has proved workable. We now have an opportunity to show it to world.

Management is a Universal discipline, but connecting these ideas to our common Indian roots by going deeper into the rationale, and deep understanding because that basis is more rational and has capacity to expand all over the world. To realise the goal of civilising the world is Possible if remember these roots. Indian Management must have this distinctness and must show it to the world. @Udat faarey 31h! Let us Civilise the Universe can be our Goal.

Adhyaya 5

If you keep your mental picture of ‘self’ restricted to your body (Deha) then how much that self can grow or expand becomes limited by definition. Your age, your health come before you as limitations. The pain and pleasure experienced by your body, experiencing good or bad feelings, become very limited in scope.

If you are a Manager or Supervisor the most important issue before your assistants is why should they work for your comfort? This is more particularly true in big organisations when salary is paid by the organisation and supervisors’ persona limits the horizon to suit his needs. What the assistant receives is thus not directly related to the supervisor or Manager. He can stop increment but he cannot give more increments. In his self concept there is no room for his juniors. He does not in fact give monetary salary, nor does he give psychic salary. Why should anyone work for You? The manager has to answer this question at least to himself. That limited horizon of manager starts getting narrower and narrower. Progressing from caterpillar to Butterfly becomes almost impossible, You can dream of becoming a bigger and fatter caterpillar, as that becomes the limit. If you expand idea of yourself growing up to Universal Entity then a huge space unfurls before your mind. The framework of your mind gets enlarged before you, the widening horizons become visible to you. A transformation from caterpillar to Butterfly becomes a possibility.

After all, what does the caterpillar do? It draws into its self, Produces threads and keeps itself busy in the cocoon of its making. It gives up the physical body of the caterpillar, discards the small and limited life of creeping, moving only on land or branch of a tree. It makes it Possible for itself to fly and see larger world around by flying from flower

20 � to flower. In case of caterpillar all these changes happen physically. The life in the caterpillar and the butterfly is same as we can see. Human mind is capable of thinking bigger than the body unlike a caterpillar. By keeping the same small ephemeral body as a context it can conceive the idea of Space, Universe and Time.

All living beings live in here-and-now span. We do not know whether non-humans are in a position to think of yesterday/today and tomorrow or Time. In case of Human beings, they can certainly understand it. Therefore they can differentiate between past, present and future. They connect themselves to past, live in present and can dream of the future. Human being is capable of this feeling of time and brings in tensions and mental pressures on his mind. Without changing body, one can connect oneself to eternity and expand oneself beyond one's body with others. One can change one’s mind and bring about changes in one’s surroundings. If a person thinks only about his own body and only in the present then one becomes small. One cannot grow. One remains a dwarf. One's capacity to think of visualising the future and the past can make one grow beyond the confines of one’s body, and without overt physical changes one can become a Butterfly.

Because this power of mind one can remember the things that have happened in the past. One can bring before one’s eyes the past events. One’s mind can travel faster than the speed of light. In one’s mind one can go to any past event or place visited earlier. One can bring before one’s mind’s eye any place, area, event, or scene, while keeping one's body at the same place and time.

This will make two things clear. Each one of us has it in his or her's capacity to become a butterfly from caterpillar. It is up to us to keep it under wraps, or allow it to develop. Physical body of a person is too small and limited entity. Mental entity of a person is capable of expansion and

growth.

According to Adwait philosophy, suggested way to search for self expects one to go deeper into the mind and that is the way to enlarge one's personality. Going deeper into the search, one can accommodate many or even the world in that definition. It is possible to see beyond the material world. This idea of infinity is capable of accommodating the things beyond the material world and can see the connection of our self with Universal Reality. One can come out of the limitation of one’s body as

a limiting factor and expand oneself.

If you expand yourself, grow yourself, then you can accommodate others in your concept of self. Individual’s own bodily pain, pleasure, remorse, profit, loss, is least important from the perspective of the society.

21 � imi ignit . Nobody else can participate in ee gee cles * peal from his selfish viewpoint of personal profi starts living and working eS i TG es will be limited. It will mean limited to his/ er body o — one ides others as they will have no space to achieve. If one expa ; .

i in it his family, his group, his caste, his area, his province, ahha: finally the heed one can work better and can grow. al can achieve this. It is not that all can achieve this level, but however sma or limited one’s experiences, one’s aim should be to reach that goal. The Motivating factor, the urge to grow, to dream should be that of expanding one’s universe, moving towards that goal.

According to Indian Philosophy, the journey from self to Universal Reality is taken as basis, and then the individual's viewpoint changes as his frame of mind changes. Even if the surrounding material things remain same, people remaining same, an individual’s worldview will change. The Capacity to see big picture, this Capacity to expand yourself and ‘your connection to the Supreme Reality is considered important step in Indian Philosophy. If this expansion of mind reaches up to an idol, to country, or up to God. The person can see beyond God as well.

Indian Philosophy can see beyond God. The idea of infinity is such an expanding concept. * It can expand your idea beyond God. This idea Coupled with the idea of Advaita has immense ibili

see only the physical assets and forget the hu their fathers,

Everyone involved in the Management game has some idea about ‘why people work’, whether one has thought it out or considered from all angles, knowingly or unknowingly, has his Concept about this basic question. Every political leader likewise has idea about this question. 22 � This is a very basic and fundamental problem. Management, Quality and standard of Management are dependent on it. A leader whose concept of self does not extend beyond his body, who cannot imagine beyond his body as self, whether he is an owner, political leader, manager or supervisor, keeps the concept of self of his juniors at limited level of his self concept. His juniors are bound to feel suffocated. If one’s mental framework is narrow, and restricted to his/her physical pleasure, then where would there be any space for your assistant’s ideas and growth? What interest will they have? Is it not natural that they will also work at the minimum required level of possibility?

Each supervisor has to ask himself this question. Will you allow your juniors to become butterflies or will you attempt to keep them at caterpillar level? The answer to this question is also to be searched for by him. Every living organisation or business is always a growing or a decaying entity. There is no stationary position in nature. This will explain why the organisations or companies established by law by government are lifeless and afraid of competition. Growth or death are the only alternatives before industrial and professional organisations just like a human body. When business dies then the jobs die is a simple rule. If we take the example of Textile Mills in Mumbai this will become very clear. Such examples are too many.

People want JOBS they are not necessarily interested in WORK. It is not taught by anyone that one’s social worth depends on one’s work and not on one’s Job Title. I need the existence of surrounding society; society is not dependent on me. My productive work connects me to the society. This simple truth is often forgotten. A person who cannot think beyond himself cannot think such simple thought, All management problems contain a clue to their solutions in that basic reality.

Adhyay 6

When the boundaries on minds of the leaders and or the spectra of their imagination are expansive, then the followers enjoy a larger area for their own growth. For this reason any Manager or leader should undertake search of his self For this reasonthe leader's quality is tested by ability to keep a broader target before his or her followers. People ask other people to work only for the bread alone treat their followers only at the animal level. Bread is important for everyone. It is necessary but not enough. Itis a primary need, but not a sufficient reason to live. If you limit your responsibility to give jobs, give money, or give wages as an employer, the entire discussion in labour-management relations revolves round a Bread: with or without butter, well-made or not, and then how to share it are the only matters of discussion in the labour management talks. It cannot go beyond the limits of this area. Then competition and the fight is only for

23 � those who get the better share, giving becomes robbing, and then the only rule can be carrot or stick. That becomes the guiding philosophy.

Every industrial entity, Company, or business organisation should have a primary aim beyond earning bread of their workers or shareholders, It should be much wider than mere bread. That wider purpose gets relegated once there is quarrel for the bread only. The purpose of the business that is Customer, gets ignored. Nobody bothers about the customer. Factories, Banks, and companies then start working for their employees only, If this continues, the business does not grow, it does not prosper, the size of the cake to be divided does not increase. The focus of labour management action rests only on the cake, Matsushita Company therefore puts national service through Industry as a first priority. They have fixed this as a super-ordinate goal. The company tries to inculcate it in the minds of its employees in their daily prayer. The capacity of the industry grows according to this concept. If the framework is small how many people can it accommodate? How many people can join it? How much energy can it connect?

The entrepreneur's context provides the texts of the People who work for him. They can fix their smaller frames within his big picture. Context of the organisation provides text for the people who work in it. In achieving effectiveness of the organisation this is a material factor.

Once the objective of the organisation is big, you are constantly reminded of smallness of your individual goals. Your dependence on society is underlined and it makes you humble. Humility is considered an important value in Indian Darsanas. If you really want to make humility a Part of your mental attitude, then you must remember this smallness of your ‘self* in the total scheme of things.

If you have wish or seek to control your mind you have to fix its polarity. You have to show it the correct direction. When a magnet is moved over a piece of iron, then the north and south poles get equalised and the magnetic force gets transferred to the piece of iron albeit temporarily. Even for a small period daily if you concentrate on observing silence, dhyan and controlling your breathing, then the mind gets trained at least temporarily. The idea that my body alone is my ‘self’ with attendant pride starts getting diluted. Your mind becomes willing and ready to think beyond your body and beyond bodily needs. Prayers, Collective Prayers, Callisthenics and some such rituals before starting daily work and normal daily routine are

aimed to achieve this polarisation of all minds of the people who work together into a common goal. Rgveda says:

warelt a ample: Samaaneev aakutih 24 � Wate Fautfer I: Samaana hridayaani vah, WaAEY al Het: Samaanmastu vo mano, WUT I: BASRA (to.2¥.83) Yatha vah susahaasati.

(Let our objective be common, let our Hearts be one, we shall spend our day in this equality.

Once this is achieved then we can proceed to fight to achieve goals before us. Any collective work needs this connecting of minds as a first step. Once you harmonise the minds of the people, it becomes easy to understand that though our roles in the drama may be different, our drama is one. Roles are small and big, there is a hierarchy of roles also, some are big and some are small roles, but we have equality as individuals. Jobs may be small or big but the bigger goal for all is the same. If you have to achieve big results, make impossible things possible, then we have to work in that spirit.

Those who work together they are like an orchestra, Each musician is playing a different instrument. Each instrument and every player are different from others but the score for all is the same. They have to play according to that score. If all are playing the same tune, to same score, then the listeners can experience ecstasy. There is a symphony. Failing that, even if each artist plays at his or her best, but to a different score then there will only be noise. There will be no pleasing music. You will not experience sublimation of your feelings. Indian philosophy therefore emphasises this equality of minds. Each player is not expected to play one instrument only. Insistence is on common score, common direction. This progression from one small self to all encompassing larger self is called param samya (XA AeA and Vinoba says that is the crux of philosophy of Gita. Abhidheyam param samyam is a basis of Indian philosophy.

In Western thought the individual is considered and treated as different from the society. Indian thought starts with the assumption that all individuals are like limbs of the same body. As your mind starts enlarging, including others into it becomes the primary purpose of the Social Organisation. Thoughts should start spreading from an individual to Society rather than the other way round. We are expected to think from self to Universe, not from society to an individual. In words of Vinoba, plural of ‘I’ is ‘We’. Therefore if I do not start, nothing will be started.

We must do this, we must have this and that, is a common talk. Society, State, Government must do this or that. If others are good to me I will be good to them. All these thoughts are of dependent variables. For behaving well, I do not need anyone's permission. I may have to start

25 � ing it. such dependence makes me lame and becomes Seren on acne. It takes er 4 oe hy i ition to change the world. I c a self : area oe eal oF this cody, HUMAN body changes itself or ed by changing its own cells. I have to fill up the gap in my cells. I must change, Iam one of many I's. The society is the joining factor. There is a common thread that joins all of us. My society is composed of many Kartas like me, This thought goes from an individual to the Society. No one will arrange for my deliverance. I will have to earn my Moksha (#tat) or Liberation.

The changes that I want in my Society should start with me and performed by me. I can improve myself. I can make myself humble, I can discard egotism. Once you understand this thought and start working on it, a lot of social problems become solvable. Most important thing is that when an individual starts working, rather than only thinking about un-solvability of problem, then some action starts. Nothing is achieved without someone starting .

There is a parable in Vedas. Once a group of ten people embarked on a hunting expedition in a thick forest. It was necessary for the group to remain in sight or hearing of each other. It was necessary to be near each other. It was necessary to keep track of each other from time to time. In such effort a person started counting the number of the group. He ran up to nine and then realised that one was missing. He cried halt to others and said there is some problem. One of us is missing. Worriedly, another member started counting and he also came to the conclusion that there were only nine of them. This counting was done by all of them and ten of them unanimously came to the conclusion that they were only nine and one was missing. It became a first priority to search for the missing member of the group. Then suddenly it dawned on one of them that they were making a small mistake. He said: ‘We are foolish to count our number without counting ourselves in it. We are worried that we are only

nine and one of us missing. Start counting yourself in the group then we are all ten’.

This is what happens when we start any social activity, including organised work. We expect others to be punctual. They must come on time for the meeting. I, however, need to be excused. Others must avoid unnecessary controversies in the meeting. Others must follow lane discipline while driving. Others must work with devotion and concentration. They must follow good practices. Our society must change. Our Union

should change. Our Housing society should change. Family members must improve themselves. We all agree on that 100 per cent.

What will I do? How will I change is not in our minds. It does not appear important to us. We try to improve the world, excluding ourselves. 26 � The world does not change and I also do not change. Those who improved themselves, they succeeded in improving not only themselves, they improved their society as well.

Indian tradition therefore insists on you doing your duty. It does not teach you about your rights. By my following of duty, the rights of others get automatically protected. The Managers must remember this key to success.

Adhyay 7

In the discussion about management issues a choice of rights/ responsibilities naturally occurs. When more than two people come together this issue always crops up. What is the connecting factor between the scattered individuals, what is the energy that binds them, is a crucial issue. Different answers have been given by different philosophers for this perennial issue before mankind according to their own Darsanas. According to Bertrand Russell what is energy to physics is power to social dynamics. In the history of mankind various people have acquired and retained this Power in the name of Religion, on the basis of ownership of Property, on the strength of Organisation, or on the primal energy of Sex. These are considered focal points in society. Freud explains in terms of Sex, and Marx explains in terms of Wealth. According to Russell real point is Power, and the others are aspects of acquiring that power. If we keep this in mind many Social issues become easier to understand and we can understand social events in a more logical manner. Of course this Darsana is based on the assumption of moving from Society to Individual.

In contrast Indian philosophy starts with individual and goes to Society. The drive of the individual for money or sex becomes secondary in this assumption in power dynamics. The importance of an individual is dependent on his larger self image, so his money or lust becomes secondary in importance. People without money, like Saints and Seers have ruled the minds of people in India. It was so done on the basis of their enlightened self perception and resultant achievements.

Even Marx considered the Human being as a measuring rod of social development. His ideas are based on the concept of ethics. Being a materialist and Atheistic in approach, he assumed the ethical concept, that all human beings are children of God and therefore equal before God. He expanded it into economic sphere by asserting that all should be equal in economic sphere as well. All human beings appear different is a natural fact. They are different in colour, physical and mental strength, abilities and skills, which also is a natural fact. When you should assume their equality in economic sphere, it is very apparently not a fact. It is an ethical value. Western concept of equality is based on the assumption that they

27 � are the children of God and hence equal before him. In Indian concept of equality, all living creatures are a part of the same Paramatman WRareaat are arranged as his limbs. Even the trees and other animals are the part of same Paramatman UatteHat is an idea which gives a basis for the environmental issues which we are facing today. Such equality of all living beings is an ethical value.

Vinoba goes further and says that all living things are equal and hence Non-violence or Ahimsa 31féat is a value which is well established, In ancient times man was eating other men. Now he does not do so. He does not eat flesh of another tribe or alien human being. It is so because all are part of the same Ultimate reality. When you extend that idea further you can understand why eating flesh of animals for food has acquired a status of being unethical.

Once you treat all human beings as equal before God then the management of people should be left to orders, laws, and religious edicts or to the conscious self. Will of people becomes a material factor in social governance. Indian and Western answers are apparently on opposite

poles.

Western thought considers rights to be the basis of internal relations between human beings. In India Man’s duty towards fellow beings is considered as a basis of interpersonal relations. When we are trying to think of effective and successful management of people this basic difference has to be kept in mind as we have to find solutions for these

problems.

Indian thought is based on self control, aiming to keep this small self within self-control and to enlarge and expand it in the larger self. In this larger self other people will become a part of my ‘self’ and therefore it will be my duty as an individual to take care of their interests. These others are also part of me: they are not others but part of me like limbs of a body. If I am equal before some superior power, or before God, still that I am different from others remains a fact. If, however, I accept that they are also part of the same reality like me, if you accept that a-dwaita (non-duality) relationship, then the job becomes easy. We do not say that hands protected legs or legs protected stomach, or neck protected head, because it is considered the duty of each limb to protect others as 4 natural duty as self-protection, and not as matter of convenience or for any profit . Taking care of other people's interests becomes a duty in a society as a natural consequence.

A senior officer has to look after the interests of his juniors, 7 also he has to protect the interests of fellow officers as a natural duty . oneself is a new revolutionary point of view. It is a change. This will no

28 � come about by passing laws or will be enforced by one’s senior officers. It will be initiated by me and will be implemented by me. The self of the officer will do it not by anybody's order or instruction but by his free will. This is an Indian approach.

I am free. I am the creator. I do something and therefore the things happen. These are my Karmas, Each action will have its effects. I cannot avoid it. I cannot avoid my karma. My Karma will not leave me. This is a natural law of cause and effect and it cannot be avoided. I will have to face the effect in this life or in my next birth. I get the (result) benefit of my accumulated Karma of my past birth. This idea of continuity or circle of life is a part of Indian philosophical thought. Thinking of environment becomes my present worry if I expand span of my horizon beyond one life. Vaidik, Vedantis, Sanatan, Jain philosophies have accepted this tenet of karmavad (Tare) in the individual's spiritual sphere. This sanchit (afc) or Karma is collected by the Atman in every birth and when my karma ends then I get the Moksha (#tat)or Nirvana (fetatet) according to Indian philosophies as a theoretical base.

Once you make it your duty to look after the interests of others as a basis of social behaviour then personal animosity ends. Each one of us has duties. Officer, employee, manager, owner, worker, citizen, mother, father, son, daughter, man or woman have duties in their roles as such. These are defined duties. They will acquire fruits of their karma accordingly. This takes care of protection of each other's interests.

Indian culture has nurtured these ideas as values for life. That is why Arjuna got worried on the battle-front: He said,

Krishna swa-jan he sare HOOT FA-sat F A Yuddhi utsuk pahuni Jal segw urge... Kalyan na dise yuddhi, wear at fee Bet Swa-janas vadhuniya. Faoreare ayfeai (Gitai 1.28)

TR

His brush with remorse came when he found his own kith and kin ready to fight amongst themselves. Even in a bitter great war he refers to his enemies as swa-jana (my people). This is not possible unless his mind has imbibed the basic philosophy of these others as part of himself. He felt remorse for that reason. Shrikrishna of course advised him of the emptiness of his remorse and made him ready for fight for a just cause.

My writing has a strong basis in Gita which was told to Arjuna 29 � by Shrikrishna on the battle ground and its conclusion is the Nishkam Karmayog (fetsprat wafateT) or (work without desire for benefit for self), Thatis the source of my inspiration. The commentary on Gita by Lokamanya Tilak and Vinoba Bhave are the basis. Adi Sankara, Jnaneshwara, Tilak and Vinoba have interpreted Gita in their own different ways. They are their Darsanas. In my experience, most of the battles a Manager has to fight are with his own people.

Adhyay 8

What should one do to become a good Manager? “Why do people work?“ was a question which led me to the roots of the Indian philosophy and Value system. As a result of this search I understood better. I received better the people working in my workplace co-operation from them. Tensions in my mind lessened. Now this is an important point. One cannot fight to maintain status quo or run harder only to remain in the same place or aim just to get through the day and simultaneously build a thriving, productive organisation. The need to be thus defensive does arise from time to time, but it cannot be a constant feature of a successful business.

Indecision is not a special situation experienced by Arjuna. Every human being experiences it in daily life. This despair may be caused by physical strain, mental tension with deep thought or by some shock. Everyone experiences this kind of indecision in life at some point or other. Arjuna faced the problem; “Why should I fight? “. Before another individual it may be: “Why should I work? For what should I work?” The Karmayog (aeTatT) enunciated by Gita is useful for everyone. This is especially relevant for one who has to get work done by others.

A life that one lives in society is dependent to a greater or lesser extent on others. Worries, tensions, speed of life and vexed problems are so complex, that even if one wishes to search deep into one’s mind for his decisions, it is not an easy task in the fast flow of events. Number of people one comes across, contacts with people from all over the world, increasing number of daily necessities and their complexity Virtually predispose you to vertigo. Progress of Science is makes availability of things possible and one's desire expands accordingly.

There is a famous story concerning King Yayati in Mahabharat. King Yayati spent his life in enjoying all the pleasures of life to the full, but eventually the old age crept in. His desire for pleasure had not diminished. He therefore exchanged his old age with his son for youth. Even after this exchange he was not satisfied. Then he suffered a shock of remorse and experienced a feeling of futility of life.

Na jatu Kama Kamanamupabhogen shamyati a ag «= Baar 30 � ________________

उपभोगेनशाम्यती Havisha krishnavartmeva bhuya evabhi vardhate. हविषा कृष्मवर्मेन भूयएवाभिवर्धते Seeking pleasure and still more pleasure leads to desire for more pleasure. The desires do not end. They keep on increasing. As offerings in the yajna or fire adds to the flame and there is no end to desires. By enjoyment you does not give the satiation is a common experience. Man constantly thinks about external things and the external world, gets more interested in external attachments. These external things take so much time that leaves hardly any time to think about his own self. These external things keep their pull on him and one's self-concept is lost. One cannot understand the purpose of one's life, living becomes clueless. Actions do continue to take place. One cannot reconcile one's thoughts and actions. In the process compromises with basic beliefs are made. One has to make efforts to convince one's own conscience. It is therefore necessary to turn the thoughts towards internal feel avoiding the externals. It becomes necessary to keep sanity of behaviour. It becomes all the more necessary to jump into oneself, to concentrate on search for realising who am 'I'. This is not possible without proper efforts to practice this concentration. Mental peace is a need of every individual. One cannot face external threats without this inner peace. One's body and mind are continuously fighting these external waves. When one is busy fighting these external pressures, one has to have a very strong personal assurance about oneself and one's connectivity. The commitment to values one cherishes has to be very strong. For want of such firmness people become distracted. The problem of this professional distract is becoming more and more acute, while to talk about values in life, and their significance for effective performance, was ignored or derided as a matter reserved for preachers and religious discourses. These values were considered a preserve of Saints and Preachers and disdain was shown towards them in professional life. Values became relative to financial status, and money became excuse for perpetrating social wrongs. Wherever this relativity was brought in the new Yayatis came to the fore. Relative values lead to slippery beliefs and convenient truths. Where these values are accepted only at rational level, or logical discussion level there the propensity of those values becoming slippery is more. Ultimately convenience of the moment wins. A student who cheats in the examination hall, a professor who leaks the question papers before examination time, a manager who tells lies and promises things which he cannot deliver, the director indulges in insider trading in company's shares are all examples of the people who 31 have a slippery value system.

There are liars who can talk about values, can show their mastery in using words, but they are not in a position to inspire their assistants, These liars or charltans are not in a position to earn confidence of others, Reliable people alone can surmount the difficult times. Good times and bad times come and go. Only the people with strong value base can survive in the longer run. Firm beliefs, solid values can be based at emotional and psychological level. To make difficult decisions you need people who have strong value sense based on rational and emotional thinking. The value of Swadeshi, the value of nationalist view is followed rigorously in the Japanese culture. They fly by their national carrier, use Japanese goods, and surpass in the international competition. They buy technology from anywhere in the world, but do not import management systems. They developed management in consonance with their national ethos. With full conviction they have accepted national goals and patriotism as values. They have no doubt in these matters. They work with confidence and vigour and succeed tremendously.

Slippery beliefs, like floating and only rationally accepted values do not stand the test of tough times. If you are on a slippery slope, how can you support others?

We have to have full faith in our basic values, including proper control over our mind, control over our desires. Non-expectation of the baubles of office will have to be developed over a period of time. In all Indian philosophies this internal cleansing and external straightforwardness are taken as a base for the rules of proper behaviour. The intellectual originality of a life based consistently on the basis of truth is the Indian basis for social life. This includes business, production, research or marketing. You cannot exclude any aspect of your professional life from this value system, because should you do so, you end up on the slippery slope. Great importance is attached to calmness of mind. All concentration is on this calm mind. Balanced mind and clean mind are the first step. Everything of importance is covered in that step. Managers, owners, workers, leaders, followers all must have this calm of mind as a first step and a first proiority patel All this is so because the basic belief is that We is a plural of I.

Adhyay 9

__Indian thinkers have put emphasis on mind and its movements over intellect. Mind is considered like a generator within a machine. The urge to excel is a state of mind. Intellectual capacity is not enough to induce a person to work better. And nothing can happen in this world, unless someone starts doing something. This urge to take action and to

32 � do work needs to be channelled along the right path. To achieve that cleansing of mind is considered as a first step. Any power is capable of doing good or doing bad. This power is like a machine. A clean mind of the person using the machine determines the good or bad result.

According to Yogi Arurobindo the mind of the human being evolved first like other animals. Therefore there is a Predominance of animal feelings in man. The development of the intellect is comparatively later development. Mind and Brain are the two ends of a common spectrum like that of colours in rainbow. The non-visible portion of feelings has a long history. That is why all religions emphasise on the purity of the mind

as a first priority. Buddha says that even a learned person's wisdom gets polluted by desires,

The emphasis on the faculties of Brain in the Western thought, and less emphasis on the control over mind is worrying the Western thinkers. Continuously increasing desires, use of brain power to meet them, and consequent degradation of natural resources and environment have raised some major challenges before mankind. The rational answers are not found satisfactory. The emphasis by all religions on attaining control of the desires is finding a resonance in the minds of the thinkers everywhere. The control over desires, non acceptance of Yayati-like position, is coming back into vogue. The problem of Agriculture which affects every individual at a very personal level is again being seen with traditional perspective. Organic farming with non-chemical fertilisers, is coming back into use. It is becoming increasingly acceptable even though costly. If you think only rationally then every opportunity to exploit natural resources should : why should you not do so? It is no more a matter of dispute between individuals but more between Nation, or States, and those issues are acquiring global significance. Controlling these problems will be possible only if and when individuals can control desires, and that can be done only on the basis of ethical values.

Vinoba has posited this issue more precisely fifty years back. He said Religion and Politics have become out-dated. The coming age is an age of Science and Spirituality. Geographical Borders of the states are going to be constricting. He therefore said that ‘Jai Hind’ (Victory to India) is not enough: now we must work for ‘Jai Jagat’ (Victory to World). Taking spiritual thoughts from the oldest sources, we must connect them with the latest in science and technology. Considering Growing power of science, if its destructive power is not regulated by the knowledge Of ‘self’ or Atmajnan(3eaettet), then the annihilation of mankind will be inevitable.

According to Indian philosophy the mantras or suktas are permanent. We have to put new meanings into them and use them for the benefit of mankind. We have to search new meanings in those mantras

33 � i i t of science, and expand them. They have Not a = ee ace or in the books. With every individual, every thinker they are capable of bearing new meaning in the present situation. New ideas, and thoughts sprout. We cannot confine the growing thoughts in any book, philosophy, School, or political theory or sacred edifice. It must continue growing like a tree. In science every assumption or theory is checked in the light of new experiments, and baser part is rejected. Similarly in social science we must keep our ideas ever changing and growing. By checking the postulates of belief from time to time they too become stronger, the baser part is discarded and the original thought illuminated. Such ever-growing belief cannot break or die with passage of time.

In India worshipping idols is a common practice. The idol is a kind of medium! (made of metal, glass or mud). Idol is brought home, a life is inspired in the idol and then it is worshipped. After few days with equal devotion final puja is performed and then the idol is immersed in water. Permanency of Soul and body treated only as a garment is expressed in this practice of Idol worshipping.

Even in our present day politics from Prime Minister to Village Sarpanch or President of India to a President of an Organisation are all considered as idols. The Concept of idol is constant; the individuals occupying the posts are temporary. In idol worshipping, in inspiring life in the idol and inevitable immersion this idea of permanency of idea of God but the idol as temporary incorporation is stressed. The idea is to test and retest the ideas with changing times and idea of the one Supreme Reality is expressed in many idols in many shapes and sizes. All of them are ever-changing. Every society has some basic ideas as its basis. They come before us in various forms and garbs and that is a Part of constant flow of life. New Ravanas, new Duryodhanas and also new Shrikrishna s appear in newer and newer garbs. This changeability is the essence of Indian thought. In the field of Management every new problem has to be tackled at the roots and no such efforts are made around us at present

In Indian thought there are Four i

ideals for a Man. Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksha. How to decide the rig

ht path is defined in this way.

Shrutirvibhinah smrutayasya bhinnah, aaetarcagat Pea

Naiko Muniyarsya vachah Pramanam aera ferret

34 � oer

E Dharmasya Adnya nihitam Guhayam, — wateasirenfeeeaperearay t Mahajano yasya gatasah panthah. ApraeanaeTaaay

(There are different Vedic edicts, Smritis give different viewpoints, and Darsanas are different. There is no one Muni whose advice is standard, so what is right Dharmic path is a perplexing issue. Therefore an individual should follow the practices which are told, followed and acted upon by the Mahajans or Great Men).

Even in interpretations of modern laws the judges follow not only the letter of the Law but the prior judgements and conventions that are laid down by earlier jurists. Kings used to have vast powers, but a king was supposed to rule within the limits of Dharma. This was a convention. Anushasan was the Anushasan of Dharma. Again the definition of Dharma was not to be made by the king but by those Mahajans who were following the Dharma. That is why the Rights are not important but Duties are and they were based on conventions of the practicing Dharamachari Mahajans. Duties of seniors were taking care of the rights of the juniors. And all have

~ to be within the limits of Dharma. That is why the first ideal of Man is Dharma. Moksha is the ultimate achievement of self realisation. Two other ideals of Artha and Kama are to be achieved within the boundaries of Dharma and Moksha. These are fundamental rules of social behaviour in India. As these boundaries are kept intact the society remains strong and sustaining.

While teaching arithmetical sums, the teacher cannot give the example that if A has ten rupees in his pocket and B steals them without consent then calculate how many will remain in the pocket of A cannot be an example of subtraction. Such a style of arithmetic teaching will would contradict all the basic values and the edicts of Dharma. While teaching mixtures, ratios and proportion we cannot teach students how to adulterate things. To have definition of a Dharma which is flexible yet firm, based on the actual behaviour of Mahajan’s everchanging is the crux of

Indian Philosophy.

Every Manager has to achieve this status of Mahajan. Managers are constantly connected to a large number of people and their behaviour is likely to affect the behaviour of many others.

Adhyay 10

an ideal of becoming Mahajan then the things

If Managers keep to n ment. Vinoba has expounded the following

become simple for manage! 35 � ideas with regard to social behaviour. He has divided the Society into Five classes of people. He calls it Panch-Jana-Shakti ta-stet-2rl(Five powers of people).

“We have five fingers to a hand. These five powers of the people _

are like those five fingers. First is the Thumb. It is a most powerful finger, This is the power of Common people or Jana-Shakti (aeterfer). I want to awaken this People’s power on the basis of Satya and Ahimsa. (Truth and Non-Violence) (@ea and 3ifea1). Second is the power of minds. This is motivating power. This is like a small finger. It is a power of people's servants and the good people in the society. They spend their life on the basis of ethical practices and simple living. This is a power of the people who engage themselves in the useful work all the time. The third or Index finger is like the power of people who can show to the people the right path. I consider this as a power of the thinkers. They show the right path to others. What is good and bad in the world is studied by them and ina neutral fashion they guide the people. Then is the power of people who are Rich, Industrialists, Traders, and managers. They are the Mahajans. The last finger is called Anamika or nameless in Sanskrit(3taTfetenT). It has no significance of its own. It helps in bringing all other fingers together and makes a fist. That finger is often decorated with a ring. According to Vinoba the job of this finger is the job of the Government or State. By itself this finger cannot do anything and so is the Government. It is nameless because it has no function as such. In Democracy it is like a zero. If the people are behind the Government then its power grows tenfold, otherwise its value is Zero. We see this in life; where there is no support of the people those governmental actions become ciphers.

In the context of management Practices we have to see the function of this Mahajana-shakti. The problem before our society is a problem of hungry minds. Because of the colonial contact, we have picked up the English language with attendant mode of thinking but where our feelings are concerned, the idea of Dharma has remained separate from all this social behaviour.

In life there was a role for the Christian religion. The English people had the basis of ethical thoughts acquired from Christianity. Those ideas are not embedded in the minds of most of the People in our country. Impact of Bible is not on our minds. It is not on the minds of most of the Managers, Supervisors or Workers in our country. Because of our English language schooling, we pick up English words, but we do not have the English cultural ideas associated with those words in our minds. The religious and cultural thoughts acquired by us through Dharmic teachings were treated by many ruling colonizers as backward, idiotic and born out of superstition. They were eventually rejected by most of the Indian

36 � educated elite, who went to the extent of proclaiming that religion is a private affair and that it has no role in social life. It is the received wisdom of many educated people at present. They are bent on removing cultural ethos from our life, because of a way of life which strives to differentiate between the private and professional life, and which we have imported into our thoughts without its cultural context.

Those Indians who learnt in English presumably say that there should be no place for the ‘organised religion’ in the social sphere. Dharma is an all-encompassing idea or a way of life in the cultural sense in India. It is the sum of all traditions in the Society. All values are preserved in that idea of Dharma. In that sense you cannot keep Dharma out of our social discourse. Since educated Indians have forgotten their sense of ‘self’ and as they do not have a clear concept about the word Dharma, they have attempted to banish Dharma from social life creating a vacuum in the society as far as good thoughts and behaviour are concerned. They are unleashing the individual desires without any control mechanism and giving them free reign over their actions. People are therefore running in pursuit of unending desires and their fulfilment in whatever way possible. People have lost the peace of mind. Taking Drugs, and violence are growing unchecked and we expect government, which is the weakest finger in the social context, to control these activities. It is a losing game.

Swami Vivekanand has put this problem in the following words. He says: Everyone has two options. You either idealise the reality or realise the ideals. You have to make a choice. If you say that whatever exists is good then nothing remains to be done. Once you accept this softer option then you become free to engage in mental and verbal gymnastics.

In India those who think in English have denied their umbilical cord with the traditions of this land. The members of the English-thinking minority are regarded as intellectuals, and they have disproportionate influence in the social discourse. They consider this search at the roots for values as a foolish endeavour. They call it a retrograde attitude.

The first question that arises is whether as a manager you are ready to take ideological jump? Once you take a jump, then you will realise that there are very few ready fixes. You will have to check every action of yours in the context of these basic tenets. There will be a lot of bumps and wrong turns. The accepted wisdom and solutions will have to be given up. Many new solutions will emerge. There will be mistakes and many experiments will have to be made. Then in consonance with the mind of the people working with you, new paths will be visible and you will have to traverse them. Many of our old rituals will show new meanings to the discerning eyes. New meanings of our actions will become visible. It is possible that we will find the reasons and replies to the original question of

37 � i it. This is not an why people work. Many good reasons will become apparen easy task. There is no ready mix like American Management or Japanese Management which will be on offer. We wilh have to work hard.

The first step will start with change from oneself. There is a lot of unknown or hidden part of our mind. We have to come out and above it. According to Western assumption, it is dark. Indian assumption is that it is sacred and lit by its own light. To reach that level there are many difficulties, hardships that will result in diversions. There are temptations galore on way. But the end is pure bliss. We have to start with the first step on the road.

There is a story from Puranas. Hiranyaksha was a demon and was harassing all people. He was not controllable by any. Everyone was at their wits end. People did not know what to do. They went to Lord Vishnu and requested him to end their plight. Lord Vishnu agreed to help the people. He decided to take the guise of a Boar. With that disguise he ended the anarchy of Hiranyaksha. All Devas in Heaven were happy. After some time they found that Lord Vishnu had not returned from the Earth. The Gods were worried. They went out to search for Lord Vishnu. They found to their surprise that Lord Vishnu was happy on the earth in the form of the Boar and he was happily living in the gutter with his newly acquired family and children. He had forgotten his origin as Lord Vishnu. The Gods were worried so they went to Lord Mahesh and requested him to help them bring back Lord Vishnu to Heaven. Lord Mahesh saw Lord Vishnu in his Boar guise. He requested him to come back to Heaven. Lord Vishnu was not ready to come back. He wanted to remain as Boar only. Then Lord Mahesh aimed an arrow at Lord Vishnu in his Boar guise. He pierced entire body by his arrow and retrieved the original Lord Vishnu in that body and then Lord Vishnu in the original form returned to Heaven.

According to Indian belief the external body of an individual is like the guise of a Boar. It enjoys living in the mud of Cravings and pleasures of the body. It is happy in the fulfilment of desires and pleasures, The internal body of that guise is the original body of Lord Vishnu. It is self- illumined. We have to keep it in mind that each one of us has this original body of Vishnu and by that way one can keep oneself and raise all his surrounding people on the higher level of fulfilment. To ignite this idea in the minds of Indian Managers that all of us are children of Light and to encourage them to travel on this desirable path is the method of Indian Darsanas. Western studies in psychology started with the patients who were mentally ill and therefore the focus started with the diseased state and then continued searching for the solutions of the problems. The body of science and theories of psychology are based on the Pathological cases.

At the core of their existence, all are good and healthy and Atman 38 � is having all these dresses of body, Dehabhav agar, are all coverings of Soul is the basic belief. If you remove the coverings with certain efforts then you can experience the original bliss. According to Christian belief a man is thrown out from the heaven for original sin. His existence begins with this Sin. These are two opposing fundamental viewpoints.

The ideas of Morality, ideas of social values and the religious beliefs are obstacles in the way of Materialism. These basic values as Values are not mentioned in the books on Management. But the Social thinkers assume all those basic values as fundamental when they write about Management. Indian philosophy is based on the concept of Dharma. You will not be in a position to think of Indian Management without this base of Dharma which has a great resonance in the minds of our people. We have to build our Management practices on the basis of it.

First part or Purva Rang of this Naradeeya Kirtan is over here. Subsequent chapters are that of Uttar Rang.

Adhyay 11

Following the theoretical discussions in the Ten Adhyayas of first part, or Purvarang, I am proceeding with some examples of personal experiments that I made in the course of my managerial life on the basis of these theories. These experiments will be narrated in the remaining Eight chapters or Adhyayas of this book. I think it is necessary to include some details of my personal background in order to provide a proper context for these experiments. In any scientific experiment the external facts are necessary to note. If someone wants to understand or replicate the approach which I am advocating, these external narrations become helpful or even crucial. They may appear autobiographical and unnecessary. I however do not think so.

I started working as a Company Secretary in a pharmaceutical manufacturing company in 1964. At the beginning of my career the period was of Industrial growth and employment opportunities were plentiful in India. Everywhere there was an atmosphere of enthusiasm and foundational work of industrial India was being undertaken. Talk of Socialism was in the air, and there was enthusiasm for a centralised Planning Commission or ‘GossPlan’ on the lines of Soviet Union. During those days I read original Communist Manifesto. Fortunately I also had read Animal Farm and 1984 as text books during my college days.

That I had to stand on my own was very clear to me since beginning. I never thought that society or someone else owes me my living. I knew I was dependent on society, and society owes me nothing. Society does not need me. I have to search for work and no one will bring

39 � Mme job. I will have to search employment.

After completing my post-graduation, my first job came into existence became of Naioaalleation of Life Insurance business by the government in 1956. I had opportunity to see the working of the Government Organisations and minds shaped in the government tradition. I tried to start a Marathi Vangmaya Mandala in LIC 9Life Insurance Corporation of India) with permission of my seniors. They possibly smelled a rat and thought I was starting a Union of the employees. They duly tefused permission.

Later I joined Sydenham College as an Assistant lecturer. I turned my attention to Private sector job later, only in 1963. At that time there Was a proposal to start an informal Union of Gazetted Officers’. The idea was to make printed individual applications for raise in salaries, since any joint application by government employees was tantamount to Mutiny by government Servants. I remember that I had signed one such application. After 1964 Government servants started to form their unions and followed the standard union practices. I left my job in the Sydenham College in 1964 and joined Unichem Laboratories Limited as a Company Secretary and started working as a senior Manager. I have narrated all this only to explain that even subsequently I have had no personal experience as a Union Member nor have felt as a worker at any stage in my working life.

Once I became a senior company officer I was automatically labelled as a ‘lackey of capitalists’ in the union parlance. I have continuously worked on the side of ‘Haves’ and became representative of the Establishment according to this perception. I was a ‘non-progressive’ in the view of the Unions and remained so for thirty years until the end of my employment. Then I became a Director of a company and became a Capitalist proper. Today all these terms have vanished from the discourse of labour-management relations. I had during my career with Unichem Laboratories worked as Company Secretary, Financial Controller, Resident Manager and un-designated Human Resource Development Manager. I was in a position to interact with several types of people and several groups of people. Founder of Unichem, Padmabhushan Amrut Vithaldas Mody, kept me firmly in the habit of reading books. He kept me studying all the time, As a representative of the Company, I attended all the courts up to Supreme Court of India, appeared before government committees and Commissions, and Employers’ Organisations, challenged government decisions, fought litigations initiated by Public Interest NGOs financed by

international organisations including Roman Catholic Church. Be this multifaceted work experience I had to kee eed

u Pp thinking in new ways every time. I came to see real motivations of public leaders in their fe colours. I always functioned as General Manager though my title was

40 � Company Secretary. First lesson I have learned in and for an organisation is that the Actual job and the Title of the job are not necessarily identical or connected to one’s own official education.

I lived on the company facility, and was with in personal contact with nearly a thousand people and monitored further two facilities. On the whole, with sales organisation spread all over India and two factories, I have handled issues relating to fifteen hundred people in the field of labour-management, faced strikes, go-slows, internal fights, multiple unions including the Union of Traders and Stockists in Pharmaceutical Trade. I have interacted with nearly 150 managers, observed their behaviour pattern, and internal tensions.

In my working life I came across, Members of Board of Directors, government officials at various levels, government ministers and their contact people, people working with public charitable institutions, full-time workers of NGOs, Trustees and many such categories of people. Those whom I had to deal with, included Managers working in similar positions in other companies.

Thus from 1950 to 2007, for fifty seven years I accumulated varied experience in human behaviour, and interpersonal relations. Reading of books and periodicals was a regular diet. From 1951 I have been reading Vinoba’s thoughts in published form. I did not get into Marxist tangle because of Bhoodan movement. I have drunk deep on Vinoba’s writings and speeches. I was convinced that nobody is a ‘have- not’ and saw it in action as well. I have no personal experience of class- war philosophy. Experiences are always as an individual and class is an intellectual construct. Class, Varna, Caste, Religion, Society, and State are all indirect or academic constructs. They are matters of conjecture and approximations. Initially I was learning about the happenings in the society from newspapers and Marathi literature. My Professor of English, Prof S L Khot had. given me a guru-mantra. He said, “Don’t waste time reading fiction, read only autobiographies. They are full of stranger events than fiction.” Fortunately I was in a position to read those books.

Bertrand Russells book, ‘Power’ has made a tremendous effect on my mind. I could understand a lot of social and human transactions because of that book. He posited that when two or more people come together the power-play comes into operation. Many experiences in life became understandable on that basis. Another important book was that by Edward De Bono entitled Beyond Yes or No: PO : His lateral thinking idea knocked my exclusive reliance on logical thinking. To realize that logical thinking is one of many ways of thinking, not the only one, was a blow that hit me hard. I attended a programme on sensitivity training in 1974. All these changed me a lot.

41 � From 1966 to 1993 I edited Unichem Bulletin, a house magazine of the company. This was my effort to spread positive ideas amongst workers. This Vichar Prasar was Vinoba’s message. I did not urge the readers to accept my viewpoint but went on spreading the positive ideas in labour-management relations. I did say I am right, but did not insist that I alone am right. I left the action to free will of the readers. I remained free and more importantly remained writing all the while. Habit of thinking and talking about my thoughts remained with me. I addressed workers at every possible opportunity. I picked up the habit of thinking and talking on my feet without any preparation or notes. Because of this habit of speaking my thoughts looking at the faces of listeners, I kept learning from the response of the listeners.

Right from the beginning, whenever I read or hear anything I have a habit of checking it with my existing base and adding to my base only the part that is acceptable or congruent. It is my way of my learning. I continuously went on checking and rechecking my facts and opinions. I have therefore remained fresh and growing as far as my thinking goes, ‘Nitya-Nutan‘ (fea eet) Always-New is the Mantra that Vinoba has

inspired in my mind. In my making, George Bernard Shaw was another main plank.

I have attended several seminars on American Management techniques and read several books, periodicals, and case studies, I have however no personal experience or exposure to or knowledge of American practices of management. My writing is based on this basis. I have put a

limitation on myself not to write anything in this book that is not digested by me.

I consider Equality is an important Value in Human Relations. This value is not learnt by me from any books. I have acquired it as my native sustenance. I have never felt any pressure or awe in talking to any important personality. I have also acted so that nobody should feel any pressure in talking to me. I have always behaved with others as equals. Even today when I go to my village, weakest members of the community treat me as their equal. They still talk to me as a son of Nana Upadhye or son of Annapurna-vahini. They do not consider me an exalted personage, and I consider this a great attribute in them. They do not feel cowed down by my education or my financial station in life. I am therefore able to live happily amongst them. I am not an owner or employee of any one. Tam not a customer in a Hotel. I am an individual, Pure and simple. This equality in my social interaction is received by me from land of my birth. I have kept that value alive in my life till today,

I do not feel any hesitation in bowing down before a learned person, before elders, or simple social workers working tirelessly, but for

42 � others I find it difficult to bow down. I was always treated b i Padmabhushan Amrut Mody as equal. I consider it as my good fertume i have acquired a habit of retaining a feeling of equality while working wii others and I feel proud of it. I have also seen

eel that very few have that attitude in their life. They carry the office walls ail a thinking all the time.

Land of Rajapur has given me this grounding or the feel of Equality and therefore I do not get carried away by any event or person. I have seen many big People with their feet of clay. However I have avoided being Cynic. Once you give in to cynicism, you become incapable of any positive work. Your entire behaviour starts getting a stale smell of futility. I find this futility or non-productive nature in many a Politician. Many Maharashtrian intellectuals, writers, and thinkers make me wonder about their anti- production bias. I find their writings unhelpful and pure noise of the sterile variety. Someone who starts a business, produces goods, becomes less important to them than someone who instigates the employees to go on strike, and abandons them to their fate while becoming a hero. This I think is a major problem in my society.

Do not disturb or misguide anyone who is doing some productive work is the message of Gita, and in the heart of my heart I am fully convinced about it. Wherever I had a difference of opinion I left the job or post but I did not do or say anything against the Institution. I made no unproductive move, I always remained in favour of productive people. For that reason I have not bothered about being labelled as a lackey of Capitalists. I have also tried to keep the management pro-production. When that attitude changed I left the job and entered Vanaprasthashram on my own volition.

I find efforts devoted to creating the Cake very important. In any economic activity we have to generate some added value. This value-added is the justification for starting the business in the first place. Any business which does not generate value-addition has no economic justification for existence. This is called a Cake in labour-management discussions. There should be equitable distribution of gains of Industry between the factors of production in my view, since all of us are connected by a common thread. I find this assumption very valid and socially relevant, but my first priority is baking a cake. Distribution should take second place. Since I have worked with several people and their groups, I know that instead of adversary Positions it is better to have bilateral agreements and settlements.

I am fully convinced that in Social life, if you have no Work, you have No Worth. A person’s achievements in the society are decided by work. It is my need that I should get to eat: it is not a need of the Society. It is therefore my responsibility to earn my bread: it is not responsibility

43 � i i i bliged to the society for of the society to provide me with bread. I am o ¢ my oe society is not obliged to me. I need society for my very existence.

Many people want Jobs, and they are not necessarily interested in Work. In the urban society in India there is always a demand for and talk of jobs. There is no talk about work. Those who want to work, get some Work. I can clearly see that there is a great shortage of Jobs, but there is no dearth of Work. This is a summary of the lifetime of my working. I try to spread this Idea wherever I go, or talk. That is the purpose of this book,

My concept of society is formulated on the basis of this human equality and the idea that all of us like being part of a body. It is thus Connected to the basic concept of Indian philosophical and social thinking.

Change must start with me. Once I change myself then all will change gradually.

In traditional Indian thinking all emphasis is on individual transformation. There is no concept of organisation beyond a Family. This is visible in political, business and other social organisations. This idea of joining the people in the society beyond their birth has helped me in understanding the idea of building good organisations. This idea of having a common organisation built beyond the relations of blood or Marriage, organisation beyond the family and the Caste is an imported in India and idea drilled into me by RSS. RSS has digested this Western idea. This is possibly one reason why Indians settled abroad find organisational character in RSS attractive. Few have noticed and commented on this aspect of RSS swayamsevaks.

All political and other organisations, unions, companies, and NGOs are bodies in imitation of the Western concept of Organisation. They have their registered Constitutions, Office bearers, Accounts and audits, minute books and all the paraphernalia of their Western counterparts. They are such bodies without the soul of an Organisation. These are all imported external garments. Their internal Power structure however still remains like in the family. They are not Organisations in the Western sense. The succession is decided by birth. The motive power or generators are still restricted to some individual and his family. We have still not internalised the idea of differentiating between Person and Post. It is not a part of our present day ethos. We have not Poured these so-called Organisations into our Indian mould. This graft of Western idea of Organisation is still not

holding fast. That our thoughts must now orient towards this aspect is one of the concept to start discussion on it.

I have written this long personal story to stress that these are experiences and attempts of one individual. This history has a complete

44 � others I find it difficult to bow down. I was always treated by my senior, Padmabhushan Amrut Mody as equal. I consider it as my good fortune. I have acquired a habit of retaining a feeling of equality while working with others and I feel proud of it. I have also seen that very few have that attitude in their life. They carry the office walls around their thinking all the time.

Land of Rajapur has given me this grounding or the feel of Equality and therefore I do not get carried away by any event or person. I have seen many big people with their feet of clay. However I have avoided being Cynic. Once you give in to cynicism, you become incapable of any positive work. Your entire behaviour starts getting a stale smell of futility. I find this futility or non-productive nature in many a politician. Many Maharashtrian intellectuals, writers, and thinkers make me wonder about their anti- production bias. I find their writings unhelpful and pure noise of the sterile variety. Someone who starts a business, produces goods, becomes less important to them than someone who instigates the employees to go on strike, and abandons them to their fate while becoming a hero. This I think is a major problem in my society.

Do not disturb or misguide anyone who is doing some productive work is the message of Gita, and in the heart of my heart I am fully convinced about it. Wherever I had a difference of opinion I left the job or post but I did not do or say anything against the Institution. I made no unproductive move. I always remained in favour of productive people. For that reason I have not bothered about being labelled as a lackey of Capitalists. I have also tried to keep the management pro-production. When that attitude changed I left the job and entered Vanaprasthashram

on my own volition.

I find efforts devoted to creating the Cake very important. In any economic activity we have to generate some added value. This value-added is the justification for starting the business in the first place. Any business which does not generate value-addition has no economic justification for existence. This is called a Cake in labour-management discussions. There should be equitable distribution of gains of Industry between the factors of production in my view, since all of us are connected by a common thread. I find this assumption very valid and socially relevant, but my first priority is baking a cake. Distribution should take second place. Since I have worked with several people and their groups, I know that instead of adversary Positions it is better to have bilateral agreements and settlements.

1am fully convinced that in Social life, if you have no Work, you

have No Worth. A person's achievements in the society are decided by work. It is my need that I should get to eat: it is not a need of the Society. It is therefore my ‘responsibility to earn my bread: it is not responsibility 43 � of the society to provide me with bread. I am obliged to the society for my existence: society is not obliged to me. I need society for my very existence.

Many people want Jobs, and they are not necessarily interested in Work. In the urban society in India there is always a demand for and talk of jobs. There is no talk about work. Those who want to work, get some Work. I can clearly see that there is a great shortage of Jobs, but there is No dearth of Work. This is a summary of the lifetime of my working. I try to spread this Idea wherever I go, or talk. That is the purpose of this book.

My concept of society is formulated on the basis of this human equality and the idea that all of us like being part of a body. It is thus connected to the basic concept of Indian philosophical and social thinking. Change must start with me. Once I change myself then all will change gradually.

In traditional Indian thinking all emphasis is on_ individual transformation. There is no concept of organisation beyond a Family. This is visible in political, business and other social organisations. This idea of joining the people in the society beyond their birth has helped me in understanding the idea of building good organisations. This idea of having a common organisation built beyond the relations of blood or marriage, organisation beyond the family and the Caste is an imported in India and idea drilled into me by RSS. RSS has digested this Western idea. This is possibly one reason why Indians settled abroad find organisational character in RSS attractive. Few have noticed and commented on this aspect of RSS swayamsevaks.

All political and other organisations, unions, companies, and NGOs are bodies in imitation of the Western concept of Organisation. They have their registered Constitutions, Office bearers, Accounts and audits, minute books and all the paraphernalia of their Western counterparts. They are such bodies without the soul of an Organisation. These are all imported external garments. Their internal power structure however still remains like in the family. They are not organisations in the Western sense. The succession is decided by birth. The motive power or generators are still restricted to some individual and his family. We have still not internalised the idea of differentiating between Person and Post. It is not a part of our present day ethos. We have not poured these so-called organisations into our Indian mould. This graft of Western idea of Organisation is still not holding fast. That our thoughts must now orient towards this aspect is one of the concept to start discussion on it.

I have written this long personal story to stress that these are experiences and attempts of one individual. This history has a complete

44 � Indian attitude. I have tried to write in as objectively as possible but still it is a personal view. On the basis of theories enunciated in Purvarang I have narrated stories in Uttarrang. I have restricted to give only those examples which I knew personally. I have avoided relying on stories of others. I want others to write them for themselves. I have tried to follow the advice of Namdey, that ‘one should experience at least one Ovi ‘ (stanza)

Adhyay 12

Trust is as important in social life as breathing is in physical life. Social transactions are not possible without this Trust. In Business and Industry this is a very important factor. Each one of us must ask oneself a simple question, whether your word or your promise is believed by the listener. Many people have a notion that in Business the skill lies in telling a half truth, to talk in a glib manner, not to get caught in your statements, even making a false promise as a master-key to success in business. Many people believe that in business it is necessary to tell lies. In Selling, management, and politics, telling lies is considered normal or fair practice by many.

Is it true? If you ask this question to a businessperson having long term perspective and experience, the reply will be in the negative. You may succeed by means of liesonce in a while or with one person or in a single transaction. You may succeed and even fabulously with a false statement once. But success in business is not judged on a single transaction, however profitable. You cannot base long term business policy on untruth. To run a business, to run a shop or run a factory is a thing to be done day in and day out on a long term basis. It is a chain of many transactions.

When will people trust you? The answer is simple. Only when they trust you. Whatever is ordered, wherever is to be delivered, at agreed price, and regularly are the characteristics of business transactions that depend on trust. The ordinary person, unlettered person recognises instinctively whether a person is straight or crooked. Your false masque falls off instantly. False smile, false promises, are recognised by the people by their natural instinct.

I have encountered this truth several times. Truth has got strong legs to stand on its own. One who is telling untruth has to be always cautious, and remember all the time what he has said earlier. He creates tension for his mind all the time. The following is a story from 1965. I had just started working in the company at Jogeshwari. The strike by the workers had completed 35 days. Workers were realising the futility of that strike gradually. Some workers started coming back to work. There was one worker called Vishnu who got down at Jogeshwari station. Another

45 � worker who was quite a strong muscled person was one of the strike leaders. He accosted Vishnu and beat him and Vishnu came to factory with his bleeding mouth. I had seen that at the gate. He attended work. After @ few days the strike fizzled out. The Company gave a charge-sheet to the worker who beat Vishnu and I was appointed as an Enquiry Officer.

Once the enquiry proceedings had started I wrote down the statement given by Vishnu. The charge-sheeted worker was present at the time of enquiry. I was recording in my own hand the proceedings as they were taking place. Usual formality of signatures on the papers etc was proceeding normally. Vishnu repeated the complaint as he had done orally to the Company officers: He narrated how the worker slapped him in the face and how and how his lip was cut bleeding with the thrashing he received. Vishnu was an illiterate worker who was known to be a simpleton. As against that the accused worker was a stronger, younger, and educated person known for his tough behaviour. That Vishnu was beaten and bleeding was a fact but he would find it difficult to face the cross-examination by such a stronger person. The atmosphere at the enquiry was tense. But it was necessary to prove that the accused had beaten him. Due to general atmosphere at the time of strike, there was no possibility of any other witness coming forward to substantiate Vishnu's allegation. Since both accused and the victim worked in the same company identification was not much of a problem. I was convinced that what Vishnu was stating was Truth. Vishnu was not capable of narrating a fictional story. I was worried how he will face the cross examination by the accused. The accused was treating Vishnu like a fool. Vishnu had no other support but the Truth.

The accused started the cross-examination. There were some preliminary questions, like the time of the train, the platform number of the station, time he got down and other details of that type. Vishnu stood all those questions firmly. Vishnu stuck to his story as per original statement and he was not deviating. Then as a final blow the accused asked Vishnu, “Vishnya, you say that I slapped you on the cheeks and you started bleeding. How is it that there is no scar on the cheeks at all?” He asked this as a final straw to break the complainant's evidence. There was no scar on the cheek of Vishnu and it was very clear as day light. Vishnu replied, “Melya, you hit me on the face. My teeth pierced my cheek from inside then how can you see the scar on the outside?” He opened his mouth and showed the scar inside his mouth. And then the Accused just collapsed and became small in a moment of Truth. He immediately admitted the charge, and lost a good job. The truth of a simpleton like Vishnu was so strong and powerful that everything else just fizzled out in a trice.

46 � I saw this assertion of Truth unfold before my own eyes. I was recording the details as stated by both of them. Nobody doubted the veracity of my: recording. I was conducting thirty-five such enquiries. Union had no objection and later all those documents stood verification by the Labour Court. Even if I was called a lackey of Capitalist, and a Marathi Officer who was siding with the Gujarati Owners, nobody had any doubt about veracity of my recordings.

So many years have passed but the shining truth of Vishnu and the collapse of the arrogant accused and his argument is still clear before me. I have experienced the display of Truth on various occasions in my life. Iam convinced that Truth is self-reliant and self-willed, and I have no doubt about it. I was in on the side of Truth at that time.

Ihave faced the Truth from the other side as well. Before the Anti- Diabetic tablets, daily dose of Insulin supply by injection was the remedy available for the diabetic person. Taking daily dose of injection at home was a cumbersome and troublesome procedure for the diabetic patients. Around 1969, Hoechst and Pfizer jointly promoted Tolbutamide as an anti- diabetic medicine in the oral tablet form. It was a great relief for the patients as it saved the daily injection. The original Patent of Tolbutamide was taken by Hoechst and co-promoted by Pfizer in the market. It was a costly product but had high demand. Haffkine Institute of Mumbai had taken a patent for the same product with manufactured with different process. Unichem marketed Tolbutamide prepared by Haffkine’s process at a very cheap rate. This was giving a tough challenge in the market to Hoechst and Pfizer. Hoechst filed a petition against Government of Maharashtra and Unichem for infringement of their patent. They wanted Haffkine patent to be deregistered and declared as invalid. The patent authorities who had granted patent to Hoechst had granted subsequent patent to Governor of Maharashtra on behalf of Haffkine Institute. Unichem’s defence was that they were manufacturing on the basis of patent granted to Haffkine and that its process of manufacturing was distinct from the process patented by Hoechst. Starting materials in both processes were same, and the end product Tolbutamide was same, but the manufacturing process was different. In India there were only process patents and no product patent was registered for Pharmaceuticals. According to Unichem since they manufactured their product under a registered patent even issued subsequently they had not infringed Indian Patent Act. That was our side

of the Truth.

Even if a subsequent patent is granted by the patent authority it can be challenged in the High Court and Hoechst had done that. They wanted the subsequent patent declared invalid and Unichem prevented from exploiting the patent which was their property. As a strategy they

47 � had engaged almost all lawyers who specialised in patents law with their briefs. As it is, it is very rare to have litigation on patents law and only @ few lawyers were specialised in that branch of law. Whosoever was Practising had been briefed by Hoechst. We were thus cornered in that Way as well. We engaged Shri Marzban Mistry, a senior counsel from the High Court. He was ably assisted by Shri S P Bharucha as a Junior lawyer who later retired as a Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India in 2002. My Professor and specialist on patents Law Shri S B Shah also joined them and appeared on behalf of Unichem. Our argument was based on the fact, accepted by Hoechst, that we were manufacturing our product according to a patent granted by the Comptroller of Patents, Government of India which had accepted our distinctness. Although the two companies’ final Product was same the Processes were different.We had reached the same destination by two different routes.

Chronologically the Hoechst patent was earlier, and it was not a Matter of dispute. The fact that our patent was granted even when the earlier patent was on record the fact that our patent was also a registered patent were further points, accepted by Hoechst. We were harping on these points. The real dispute was therefore a single issue and that was whether Unichem process was distinct from that recorded in the Hoechst patent. The scientists from Haffkine were telling us that their process was different. Hoechst had furthermore engaged Shri Blanco White a barrister

from England, as a lawyer with specialisation in patents law to argue their case.

Our lawyers were not having a background of Chemical Science and Technology. We were relying on the scientists who had developed the process. In other words the fight in the High Court was between the reputed Scientists on one hand and a reputed Lawyer who also knew his science well on the other hand. The point of dispute was about a distinctness of two scientific Processes. The Judge is not expected to

be expert in the subject matter and were knowledgeable in the Process claims.

My knowledge of Chemistry was near zero. Pre

Paring for this case Thad to learn the intricacies of Carbon atoms,

benzene ring, valencies and

distinctness of our Process e. r educational system there is

id to e» Ntific propositions in common

man’s language. Emphasis is laid on technical terms and their usage in the class. It works all right in the class oom, as students are hardly interested

48 � in going into details. In the court of la go into the detail of the statements, attempt is made to catch in ground.

iw the opponents and their lawyers , the words are spun in details and an your own game. We were very short on that

Barrister Blanco White had come with full pre aration. He had brought with him a plastic model of the product Tolbutamide with all the different atoms in different colours and their internal connections. He explained to the court the entire process of Hoechst from various atoms from stage one and the additions and deletions till the end of the process as a final product. He explained what changes take place at every stage in the process, how different atoms are joined or eliminated in the Process or changed in the process to end in making Tolbutamide. He showed this Hoechst process and he also explained as per our patent how we had added some atoms and removed them in a perfunctory manner in order to claim distinctness. He explained all this with the plastic model of various atoms in the open court in simple words and in a visual form. He showed our differences as perfunctory. Our Scientists were not in a position to challenge any of his arguments and could not demolish his points in any way. Not an iota of his technical argument was rebutted by our scientists. He explained in simple manner how Haffkine process was really a copy of Hoechst process, I faced this Truth in the High Court in 1968. Our side was not based on confirmed and tested Truth. We had a support of a registration paper and it had a Government Seal. In reality our process

~ was process of Hoechst's.I faced this naked truth needless to say that Unichem lost that case.

I saw the Truth at the enquiry of Vishnu’s case and this vision of truth in the Tolbutamide case was the second occasion when I personally saw and felt the truth .These two insights were sufficient to teach me that Truth stands on its own legs and has strength of its own. I had taken a lot of trouble in the Tolbutamide case. I had had several discussions on this case. I had a strong belief in the Truth in my case. That the same ultimate truth is reached by several paths is a scientific fact as well. We failed in the open court test. What I had believed as Truth was not Truth at all. It is possible that it was my own false belief. Other people may have known the truth but thought that it may prove otherwise in court. They might have thought of it as a workable truth.

Afterwards, I discussed this issue with many people and realised that our registered truth was based on weak foundation. A good many Indian inventions and the claims based on them fail if tested on the anvil of testing. Many of our claims are proved false at cross questioning at first stage. They are not based on truth. Euclid very categorically states that when two straight lines intersect each other then only the truth gets

49 � established. It is the cross-hair that settles the true point. Many of our inventions and theories are self-sustaining assertions. When they are challenged then the baser part of it vanishes and any truth remains. Then only the truth shines and you get a Darsana of truth. Karl Popper says that where falsification is not possible you have to accept the statement as statement of faith are not scientific truthsor have no basis in evidence.

I have benefitted in my personal life because of such realisations of truth. I have realised that however strong my belief in my truths I may have, I must be ready to challenge my beliefs from time to time. My conclusions, beliefs, could be wrong and therefore I must check my facts and conclusions again and again. My faith in this dictum is strengthened day by day.

The world changes and my understanding of it changes all the time, and I have learnt this in a very direct way. Once you accept the necessity of everchanging nature of reality around you, then it becomes easier to take tentative positions. Many of my colleagues used to think that I was a coward and I did not take firm stand on issues before me. I have heard them say so. I have heard such comments about the managerial decisions that I took. It may be true also. But I did not think so at those points of decision making. Those who have made agreements with me, however, consider me very firm and unchanging at times. I have done a lot of bargaining in making industrial agreements. But I do not suffer from the illusion that I alone am right.

Reality is reality. It has no need to be true according to any logical or fixed framework. It simply exists. My knowledge, my descriptions, my roadmaps, have to be true to scale Frameworks have to be logical. Reality is not obliged by that limitation. What you consider as impossible has often happened in actual life of people. This is my knowledge based on reading several autobiographies. Those facts would not have been acceptable as fiction. It would have been labelled as untrue. But often it has happened so. My professor's advice to read autobiographies as instead of fiction has helped me.

Adhyay 13

Thave experimented with another example of social values. When I worked with Unichem, from 1974 to 1979 the local Union of workers was affiliated to Mumbai Mazdoor Sabha headed by Shri RJ Mehta. It was a recognised Union under the Act. Shri RJ Mehta was a very dynamic, influential and aggressive leader of the Union. I experienced many aspects of his personality and important amongst them was his capacity to understand Balance Sheets of business. He was very clear about the business position of the units under his control. He hailed from

50 � a Palanpuri Jain Community which is known for their business acumen in Diamond Trading. Business understanding was in his blood. He knew the businesses and their practices intimately. He knew business finance well. Workers must work sincerely and well, and they must also get good wages was his approach. Many industrialists knew by experience that whatever commitment RJ made they were implemented on the side of workers. He used to ensure that. To lead workers into strike and if the matter deteriorates for long time, then not to know the way out was not his style. He knew what a company can afford to give what and his knowledge was not generally wrong. He was also well versed in the legal niceties in court appearances, *

T have entered into several agreements with such a senior and knowledgeable Union leader. The agreements were implemented on both sides. The only problem with him was that he expected that both Workers and Management must accept his decision or word as Final. Both workers and management must obediently follow his instructions. Workers were always happy to obey him as they were not interested in running their own Union and were happy to delegate their side in collective bargaining to him, and they were bound to get some extra benefits by following him and paying a paltry sum as Membership fee not only to him but also to other Unions as well. This is so because the one-sided legal framework is such that the agreements are to be implemented only by the Management.

This implicit requirement of obedience is difficult for the Employers or their representatives. Many industrialists treat an arrangement with a union as an easy way of buying industrial peace. In their view Union is a supplier of Industrial peace in the factory. Once you get along well with Shri Mehta, you do not have to bother about keeping scores of workers in your employment in discipline. Such owners find that a better option. Real problem comes before bigger units where the employer is a company. Identity of owner(s) is hazy. Manager as a new entity comes into the picture. Such managers are caught between the owners of the company and the industrial peace supplier like RJ, and they find themselves in a difficulty. They get two bosses to report to. On the background of uncertain job tenure in private sector they turn more and more to political approach of playing one boss against another.

Mumbai Mazdoor Sabha under RJ had started Go-slow agitation in Jogeshwari factory of Unichem almost for six months. This is the most pernicious form of industrial action and is painful experience for the Managements. You have to pay full wages while being all the time uncertain about the output, since payment is connected with attendance. This go-slow agitation was going on from 3 June to 3 December 1979 and the production was hardly 40 per cent of the normal expected. The

51 � law stipulated that the employer must pay full wages and pursue action against the worker as individual misconduct despite collective action of the workers. I was pursuing the matter in the appropriate court. I was running a monthly bulletin for the company’s workers since July 1966 and was communicating the happenings in the factory and the problems it was facing from month to month. I had created a habit of reading in the households of the workers. The family members were also acquainted with these happenings at the workplace. People were aware of the neutral transparency of the published material like an independent newspaper. I had created a value of truthfulness in the readers’ minds. I used to print the letters and articles of the employees which were often critical and the Opposite of the company’s viewpoint. Their comments and questions were replied to by me. I did not print only news favourable to the management. I kept communications flowing and created an impression that I will not publish Untruth.

This go-slow was not entered into for the purpose of achieving any demands of the workers. It was to show the control of RJ over the management of the company. It was a matter of his personal ego. I was communicating this opinion to the employees and their families through the Bulletin for six months. This was a very significant factor.

‘No work no Pay’ is the accepted principle in matters of Industrial relations. But ‘Go-slow ‘is not a strike in the normal legal sense because some work is done. Workers do some work and their inaction does not amount to cessation of work. The relevant law expects management to treat go-slow as a personal misconduct and proceed with charge-sheets, enquiry and so on. In fact this is an inappropriate remedy. Collective action like go-slow must have a collective remedy. I therefore followed a different track. I started deducting salary proportionate to the work not performed. This was totally unexpected by the Union. Whether legal or otherwise, we pressed on with proportionate deduction of salary. We deducted salary only where it was clearly possible to prove conclusively that a worker was under-productive. Again it was done in respect of those workers where it was most apparent. From the third month the workers started getting the hit for their go-slow action. Naturally the message reached to all households. My information through Unichem Bulletin was already known to them.

RJ Mehta’s union was known for the financial probity and proper accounting of the funds collected and deployed by him. Union therefore had a pile of cash which could be used by the union to provide succour to the workers to meet a shortage in salaries. Union had invested nearly Rs 150,000 in making disbursement as advance to those whose salaries were cut by the company. His was possibly the only Union then operating in

52 � Mumbai which had managed their membership collections and finances on sound business footing. He wanted to continue the agitation in spite of our cuts and he also moved the court to declare our practice of proportionate deduction as illegal. We pleaded at court that we will pay the workers’ deducted amounts when they make good the lost Production. In any event we were willing to deposit the deducted money in Court but would not pay workers who have not worked and therefore not earned that money. Even for a court this was a novel approach. The court accepted it in all fairness and RJ did not succeed in getting a decision in his favour. This was a great setback to RJ as his reputation was such that he did not lose any case at court. Go-slow continued to fester, but once workers realised their mistake the case was lost in the Court.

Most of Unichem workers, as soon as the union lost the case in

the court their support for the go-slow ended. It was not for any of their

. demands. At that time under the leadership of young dynamic workers

they separated from their earlier union and joined a new union under

the leadership of Bharatiya Kamgar Sena, a labour wing of Shiv Sena. En

masse the workers left the recognised union, Mumbai Mazdoor Sabha and

they joined Bharatiya Kamgar Sena. Mumbai Mazdoor Sabha, however,

continued as the legally representative (recognised) union but the workers’ support evaporated. It had ceased to be de facto representative union.

In all this matter my personal position was that all workers were like me employees of the Company. Even when I was a manager I was their equal as an Employee. Even when all brothers in the family are equal the responsibility of the elder brother is more. In Unichem family I was in the role of that elder brother or Karta. I knew how much an elder brother goes out for the family by my personal experience. Shri RJ Mehta or his union was representing my younger brothers as their representative and leader, But all the same he was a representative. My responsibility was tied to my younger brothers. Even in the period of tension I had kept my family communication intact. I never believed in communication only through legal notices on the Notice Board or writing to the workers what was vetted by the lawyers. I did not buy that method. In any industrial establishment the communication between the management and the

workers has to be continuous.

Since I am a product of the land of Konkan I consider equality as a greatest values in social arena. Since I occupied a senior position in the official hierarchy in the company I did not become a senior human being as an individual. That my responsibilities, my education, my experience, were superior to my fellow employees was as clear as a daylight to me, but as a human being I was not superior to them. My superiority was in my work and my post, but not as a human being. I always made it a point

53 � that this distinction between a person and his post or role was a matter worth remembering.

Six months of go-slow, deducted salaries and that too deposited in the court and since the court was proceeding on at its own speed, the Workers of the company got tired. As workers had resumed after failed strike of 52 days in 1965, and had said a good bye to Maharashtra Workers’ Union in the past, same story was repeated on 3 December 1979, when workers gave in writing that they are discontinuing their go-slow agitation and resuming work. The productive work started. They gave up Mumbai Mazdoor Sabha in 1979. I had kept the workers posted through Unichem Bulletin about the loss of production suffered by the company from time to time.

Workers got tired of unending court case by RJ. They changed their Union and came under the leadership of a young internal leader by secret ballot held on the premises of the company. New Union thus got the first round of legitimacy in its pocket. Legal representation remained with Mumbai Mazdoor Sabha under Maharashtra Recognition of Trade Unions and Unfair Labour Practices Act. The Company made an agreement with the new representative Union for the production lost during go-slow and payment of deducted amount to be made to workers.

When the workers filled up the production gap company made Payment to the workers. At that moment the workers of Unichem did something that made history. RJ had given Rs 150,000 as advance to many workers as individual advance. In other words the Union had invested that amount in its Unichem Unit. Normally such monies are recovered from the payment of difference as and when the union makes the agreement with management. Here was a peculiar situation. The union that gave the money to workers was no more having their allegiance, and another

competing union was making the agreement. Those workers were free to default on the advance received by them.

I called meeting of the workers of the old Union and the new union committee and a condition was agreed that the advance amount paid by the old union will be deducted from individual workers’ Payment and repaid in lump sum to the old union. I deducted the amount and paid recovered amount by cheque to the old union. The workers agreed on their own volition to take such deduction. It was done with consent. All investment made by RJ's Union was returned to his union in full. He got his investment back and the workers had already left him.

Generally once the union is changed the workers do not bother about the old union. I had a fight with that old union, that ended in parting and I never had to deal with Mumbai Mazdoor Sabha afterwards, but my

54 � fellow employees in Unichem did not renege on their

understanding that was shown by the pene of the. pods union and the Bharatiya Kamgar Sena which was the incoming union was remarkable. This was a unique event in the history of trade union movement in Mumbai. I recorded the uniqueness of this event in the Unichem Bulletin.

Importance of trust in social life is underscored by such events.

I was in a position to keep this approach alive in my fellow employees and the credit goes to the communication that was kept alive by me all through the difficult days. Every religion teaches that one must return the loan taken by one. According to Hindu shastra (21) one has not only to repay loans taken by self but loans taken by father or grandfather as well. It is a duty of every Hindu. The soul of the person cannot enter heaven without completing this duty. This is a part of Hindu traditions of this land.

What I did as a Manager was that I connected the action of my fellow employees to the traditional belief etched on their minds. I only saw to it that they should not default on repayment. I used my position of authority for connecting their belief to their action. Leaders of the union and workers in the factory agreed to it because they were also brought up on the same traditions. They had the same belief system. I only awakened it. The Union which had created the problem and put company to losses could not expect any cooperation from me. It was not expected of me nor was it a part of my job-specifications to do anything in the matter. I was not responsible in any way to the outgoing union. I am however a person who went on writing my own job-specifications.

The Old Union had put my company to losses. I had no responsibility to recover their advance. In fact this advance was given to the workers in order to put pressure on my company. My company was not responsible to repay and did not repay. I got payment made by those who had taken the advance. My fellow workers were duty bound to repay and I facilitated the repayment. I not only reminded them of their duty but also saw to it that they followed it. It was a risky action from my personal point of view as well. The new incoming Union could misunderstand my action as keeping up the contact with the old Union. In the general atmosphere prevailing in such matters it could backfire on me. It was a wrong decision on the face of it. It was against normal business methods. But it was according to Dharma, a right thing to do, but strictly according to normal business dealings a possibly inadvisable thing to do. Workers had lost faith in RV's Union. He could have continued to create harassment for recovery. I knew that as a businessman he would not remain meddling in the losing business. It made business sense to release his investment in the unit. So it happened. As soon as he received his investment he gave up his interest

55 � in the unit. Newly elected representative committee with local leadership became stable in the unit.

I feel that this commitment to local traditions is an important Matter. Faith in trust is very necessary in social interaction. Western societies and their religions consider this trust as an important factor. Where is the distinction in Indian tradition? If all those workers had individually returned the advance to old union then their behaviour would be normal according to Indian tradition. That action would be according to their personal and family values as Indians. But would all people give Money back? Would new union approve of it? As a matter of fact the new Union and their leaders had won the battle for allegiance of workers. Why should they have bothered about the losers? It was necessary to rekindle Ram in their minds. As a Karta of the family it was my duty to awaken this Value in their minds. Ram ultimately said after winning the battle that the animosity has ended with the death of the vanquished. (Maranantarani Vairani AXoTrcfereRToR). This was latent in their minds. My job was only to rekindle it. As a Manager, as a Karta or elder brother I had to do my duty. I did that. Distinction in my behaviour lies in my assuming the role of a Karta. As it is, I was not a worker. I was not their leader, politician, elected representative, government officer or Court official. I was a Manager. I was relatively a minor officer in a small industrial unit.

This role of a Karta does not fit into the Western practice of management in the individualistic framework. It is also customary amongst Human resource managers to call it paternalistic approach with disdain. Even according the existing labour laws based on Adversary culture it is wrong for the management to dabble in affairs of the union-worker relationship. There is an assumption that Management and Workers are two classes. Their relationship is expected to be adversarial. The clauses in the Industrial Disputes Act regarding conciliation etc are apparently like patches fitted later. Basic idea is that of a class war. It is considered inevitable. It will be settled by conflict. Their behaviour will be decided by agreements, These are present assumptions.

Tconsider the idea of class war as un-Indian and not in consonance with the tradition of the country. Though human bodies are different, assumption of a common soul is a valid assumption. The idea that all owners constitute one class or all workers are of one class is not borne out by facts in life. The internal fights and competition between the workers are as real as they are amongst the employers. To hold a gate meeting of workers, asking people to wait for gate meeting, and stopping them from going home after the settlement are tough tasks which will be vouched for by any union activist. The differences amongst the employers are equally strong as I can say from my experience. People think and calculate their

56 � own personal interest point of view. To assume th i

is a wrong assumption. em notionally as a class This simple day-to-day

and they regarded labour-ma

In industrial relations they ha

reality was ignored by the educated elite Sia relations with Western eyes, rela ve thought only of disputes and provided for them. This is not a difference in toute is Soren in basic assumptions. Those employers and Managers who have found alternative perspectives have achieved great successes in their organisations. They have created standards of achievement of world class. Just to cite one example: From 1978to 1980 the Government of India mooted an idea to nationalise Tata Iron and Stee! Company at Jamshedpur. The plan was successfully opposed by the workers’ Unions. There. was no work stoppage

on any count in that unit for 50 long years. It was a record in India despite having several unions in existence.

Adhyay 14

Aristotel’s and Descartes’ logical method which is prevalent in the West makes a division of the world in two compartments of Yes/No. The arguments therefore are made inside these compartments very rigidly. This categorisation puts forward views in two defined classes. The thinking system is thus expressed or compressed in these rigid compartments. Talking logically means to follow this given categorisation. It is therefore not accepted by many intellectuals that there can be another category beyond Yes/No. Since Indians came in contact with Western thought as a thought of Victors, the received wisdom of English-language educated classes is based on this categorisation of yes or no, In many books, lectures and dissertations this is the basis taken as axiomatic truth.

I was not aware of this straightjacket of thinking in my own mind until I came across a book by Edward de Bono, entitled “Beyond Yes or No: PO”. I had to unlearn the old framework imposed on my own thoughts. After reading the book I became aware of this intellectual shackle. Dr De Bono's concept of Lateral Thinking rattled my ideas at the roots. Though Aristotelian logic is an effective logical system it is not the only logical thinking system. Once this yoke was removed it became easier for me to understand Indian logical propositions. Bono’s lateral thinking helped me in changing my entire thinking pattern. This hit at the roots took me to Indian Thought in a better and useful manner.

Once you accept that the method of categorisation into Yes/No is logically correct, the next step is that is that it is the only correct method. That every event or happening then has to fall in this categorisation becomes an expectation. This insistence on ‘only “method, easily slides into belief that mine is the only correct method. This word ‘only’ is a

57 � shackle. Wars and violence are started because of this insistence. Vinoba has in his pithy style put it in Hindi in a very beautiful way. He says itis a difference between ‘my only’ and ‘and my also’. It comes expressively in Hindi as Hi (€t) and Bhi ($f). Once you adopt an attitude that it is not my way that is the only true way but my way is also a true way, then disputes remain at oral level. They do not become bitter. One's attitude changes.

That all problems of the world are in economic inequality is a basic faith of Communists. Their analysis is based on economic disparities and its removal. Karl Marx divided the world in two compartments of ‘Haves’ and ‘Have-nots’. His analysis and perception of the world was based on his observations about social situation existing between 1850 and 1890 in Britain and other European states. Even this concept of Nation came into being only in the 17" and 18 centuries. These states were eager to extend their influence and economic empire in the world. They had colonized Americas. To have monopoly in Trade the political power was acquired in many countries in the Eastern hemisphere. So far as India was concerned the hereditary landlords joined hands with local rulers in Asia who were bringing in wealth from the colonies and became the class of owners (haves) and all others as a class of have-nots. This was a social scenario witnessed by Marx. The main problem was how to divide the cake of inherited wealth and the looted-cake from the colonies. His theory or economic ideas therefore concentrated on division of cake and not on making of cake. That the size of the cake need not be assumed to be constant is not factored into his thinking. First country which benefitted from the Industrial Revolution was Britain. It needed free trade to operate and monopoly in the market for its goods. Britain acquired captive market from its imperial control over large parts of the world.

Idea of Scientific Socialism or Communism is based on social reality as it obtained in Britain and on the division of society into Haves and Have-nots. Perceptions of Marx on social reality in Britain and the world during the Nineteenth century were: ‘Workers of the World Unite you have nothing to lose but your chains’, and worker as a class has no conflict with workers of any other State, the geographical boundaries are

Hise by the imperialist states in order to benefit from looting by the traders.

____ In India between 1950 and 1980 Rulers enacted laws followed political Practices and pursued economic policies on the basis of this Marxist thought. There was a clear assumption of division of Society into Haves and Have-nots. Therefore laws were enacted on the basis of class- conflict and assuming all Employers as Haves and All labour as have-nots and therefore anticipating the inevitability of class-conflict. The corolla was Disputes as a basis of Society rather than the Harmony. There re

58 � slogan of Class War as well.

When I started working as a Manager in an industrial Unit in 1964 and right up to 1980,in Acts that were enacted in respect of labour- management relations, the curriculum that was prescribed in the Colleges, and the way labour officers were trained this Socialist idea of class-conflict was an assumed factor. It culminated in 1976 when the democracy was virtually strangulated in Emergency the word ‘Socialism ‘was added to the Preamble of the Constitution of India. Originally it was not there in 1950.

T was not seeing or experiencing Class Conflict as an idea germinating in the minds of the workers. In the Scientific Communist jargon, their class consciousness was not awakened sufficiently. Even today I do not find them growing in that direction in any way. An ordinary worker wants job, wants a stable source of income and wants rise in this income from time to time. A worker often wants more salary than his fellow worker. A worker wants promotions, pension Fund and numerous holidays, loans also once in a while, wants guarantee of Income is willing to follow leader and is ready to respond by shouting leader's slogans. ‘Eating even mud for the community’ is the basis of willingness to strike. In fact one is unwilling because industrial action disrupts stable income, one does not necessarily think identically as a member of worker as a class, does not see Employer as an enemy. If that employer happens to be a company then one does not see any individual as such an employer. What one sees are the fellow employees who are as much beneficiaries as oneself. One is jealous of those individuals for their salaries. One thinks that one should get more. One does have some personal quarrels, anger and enmity but they are as an individual and not as a Class.

Thave not seen the unity amongst the employers or factory owners as a class. Even in employer-employee disputes I have not seen employers helping each other. Each one was on his own for profit, for benefits or for solving own problems. There used to be employers’ Associations formed or split when an issue arose with the Government to formulate common petitions and in distributing largesse like import licences. I have seen more divisions, jealousies and quarrels than united actions in such employers’ associations.

To solve the disputes between the labour and management,for ‘class-warriors’ there is the Industrial Disputes Act and other legislation and armies of labour-lawyers, Courts, Consultants, and officers, clerks and Peons. The basic approach is to go to court for settling bi-partite disputes. Regardless of nomenclature used there is an inherent fallacy in all these laws and legal superstructure. The inherent untruth is based on upholding the notion of class- conflict. Since it is based on this conflict culture, and since court has to say yes or no, and it results in one side

59 � being declared as right and other side as wrong. One side wins and the other loses and therefore the court in any event cannot declare both sides as right. This is called Justice. Many transactions in human society become complicated because of this framework. Instead of conflict, harmony is a more important factor when we think of human relations. People do learn this ‘but law waits at the win-lose fork. It cannot be Win-Win situation which alone is long lasting.

For answers to questions concerned with running a household, for bringing up children, for marriage, no Hindu refers to or reads book on Hindu Law. That book becomes necessary when a matter of dividing family property arises or when one wants to take a divorce, or when one has to claim maintenance allowance. At that time you have to resort to lawyers, courts and books. These are or should be still rare occasions in one’s life and that is the experience of a common man. Generally the family disputes are settled by talks, adjustments and mutual settlements. It is still considered as below dignity to go to court for such matters. Still the relations of employers and workers working for the same establishment and whose livelihood depends on it.are based on disputes. People are attracted towards the courts.

According to Indian Tradition all initial clauses of the Industrial Disputes Act are referring to two- party settlements, conciliation, arbitration and finally the reference to court only if recommended by the Government. Similarly the lawyers cannot appear on behalf of any party unless accepted by the opponents. The bias apparently is inclined towards harmony between parties. Proceedings in a court of law is a last resort. Political leaders also deliver sermons on amity and harmony in industrial relations. However actual experience is in the opposite direction. The picture becomes clear when you look at the end of conciliation proceedings how many settlements are reached and how many failure reports are submitted. The disdain that is shown for conciliation is phenomenal. Both sides are keen to go to Courts. Everyone wants a third-party decision.No application of a labour union is generally rejected by the Labour Minister. Disputes ultimately end up in Courts.

When I started working as a Manager I went through all these steps and processes. I have gone to and fought cases for my company in Labour Courts, High Court and even up to the Supreme Court. Right of appeal to higher court is always an open option. When you make a bi-partisan agreement you are likely be cheated, or you are likely to be coerced into signing an agreement, so there is always a tendency to avoid making any agreement. Easier option is to go to Court. It is often mutually convenient. ,

I became acutely aware of the limitation of this adversarial 60 � approach. It is a sterile process. It can only be useful for establishing rights, or deciding victory or defeat, who is right or wrong is decided, but it is not at all helpful in increasing value-addition which is the basic purpose of any industrial activity. Increase in productivity or production is not possible by means of any Court decision or third party intervention. These socialist laws are based on the fight for distribution of the cake and class conflict and the notion of class conflict and division between Haves and Have-not is suitable for distribution struggle. It has no capacity to increase the size of the cake or increase production. By the collective effort of all it is possible to increase the size of a cake is something which is not rooted in that basic belief. Our laws however are based on the assumption that production or productivity will increase by operation of law.

The United States of America came out of this sterile approach only after 1933. America has all the natural resources at its disposal but there was no readymade cake to distribute. Cake had to be created first before distribution. USA had the same British idea of sharing the cake made or derived from imperial loot. After the great depression of 1929 USA threw away this yoke and Indian leaders took it on their shoulders with the dreams of Soviet Socialism in 1950s.

In United States of America the labour management agreements are based on law of Contract. Government does not interfere in those matters. Unions work on the principle of collective bargaining. Both sides have to honour the contract like any commercial contract. Workers accept reduction in the wages in difficult days. The guarantee of job is based on guarantee of work or production. It does not depend on an appointment letter. The supply of labour as a factor of production is flexible. The worker who does not give agreed production can be punished with fine. If Union or the workers do not abide by the clauses of the agreement then they can be punished and fined. Till 1980 and arrival of Margaret Thatcher as a Prime Minister Britain had the same yoke was on the shoulders of British workers. It continued till the industrially advanced Britain where Industrial revolution started first, became almost a backward state. The Class conflict was the theme song.

The idea of class conflict in the British tradition, and the Russian idea of Central Planning were accepted in India by our leaders at the time of political independence of our country. People who could think only in English foisted these ideas on our people. I visited Germany in 1996. East Germany was out of the shackles of Soviet Empire (1992). So many relics of the old government in East Germany were still visible. An ordinary Person like me travelling by railway could see the stark difference between the parts of the same country under two different systems of economy. The people belonged to the same race, shared the same language;

61 � climatic conditions and religion, in the same time period only divided by two systems of economy were clearly visible. Almost in laboratory-like conditions two systems of economy were visible. The market economy and the planned economy were in stark contrast. Such near perfect samples for comparison are rare in social sciences. Our senior leaders had access to both these economies and they should have been able to see for themselves the differences from 1950 onwards. They did not see it or preferred to put on blinkers on their eyes. In my own life span in India I have witnessed similar contrasts from days of rationing for everything to present changes after the liberalisation. I feel the pangs of years wasted by our leaders on account of their idiosyncrasies

The first knock given by Mahatma Gandhi when he returned from South Africa was based on his understanding of British system of law as a trained Barrister. He knocked at the adversary culture of jurisprudence which is contrary to the Eastern tradition of preference to maintaining Social Harmony over attaining Individual Justice. During his various Programmes in his struggle for political independence boycotting the Courts was one step. He placed emphasis on settlements and agreements rather than Courts as a dispute redressal mechanism. Majoor Mahajan, a trade union of Textile workers in Ahmadabad continued to make two Party settlements on the basis of their strong organisation. Boycott of the courts was another method of political struggle, but it did not gain importance and it was treated only as a symbol. Courts remained and increased many times in numbers in Post-independence period Providing an Employment Guarantee Scheme for lawyers, judges, clerks and Peons in a totally sterile and unproductive activity. There is no value-addition at all in this vast and complex social activity. So much unproductive manpower is rarely seen elsewhere except in United States of America, 3

The division of Society in two Parts as Haves and Have-nots was rejected by Acharya Vinoba Bhave. He said that every one of us has got something to ‘Give’ to the Society. As a firm believer in Advaita he refused to accept the division of Society into warring factions as a Dwaiti thought

r without giving any Compensation to land owners. He did, not only theorise but made it happen in India. Man is not only an Economic Man. Man has other dimensions which are equally important to make a whole human being. Vinoba demonstrated the Param

62 � Samya postulated by him. Subsequent le it

¢ gal enactments by various State

Governments in the form of Agriculture Land Ceiling Acts could not collect

that much acreage through confiscati i ee tion by way of law and after paying

I started looking with this new Indian vi it

onwards. T realised that the blinkers were FRSA ver By cei? by foreign ideas as a hindrance. After that for 15 years I insisted on making two-party settlements in my company without recourse to Courts and created a string of settlements in two factories covering employee strength of 1500 people. I tested my ideas with practical applications. I kept contact with all workers from 1966 to 1993 every month with a Unichem Bulletin. I changed myself and brought about transformation in myself. Vinoba became easy to understand after reading De Bono.

Adhyay 15

Why do workers resort to strike? Some day or other this problem comes to the lot of the Manager in an organisation or work place. The original problem that should come to our mind is to understand why people work. As long as hand, leg, back, or neck are working normally one does not have any feeling about their existence. Those limbs of the body continue to work or function as long as everything is in normal and fit condition within the body. One takes them for granted. If for a change there is a small thorn in the sole of the leg, and starts swelling then one immediately becomes aware of existence of leg and sole and all that. One starts thinking about the thorn in the leg as a very important problem in the world. One ceases to think about anything else. An apparently small thorn becomes the biggest problem in the world. No other thought comes to the mind, no other thing is felt by us. The strike by workers or their behaviour has the same impact. A small problem in small part of the work place becomes the focus of the nerves of the work place as a whole.

There is a small story from Second World War. For a major offensive in the War the Defence Ministry was preparing a list of provisions necessary for the Operations. General Montgomery sent a list of provisions for this offensive to Winston Churchill as a Prime Minister. There was a mention of two dental chairs in the list. When Churchill saw this he was angry. He called General Montgomery to meet him. He asked him are - going to fight war or some holiday. We are sending our troops to fight ani

not to camp. Montgomery was a Soldiers’

ivi i i municating General. He was living with them, moving amongst them comm with them. He immediately replied that; Sir, our soldiers are going to war theatre. All provisions are required for the campaign. But c mee of so many years in army tells me that no soldier can aim his ri 63 � his gun correctly if his tooth is aching. We have to give the dental aid immediately and then to send him to fight. Churchill understood the need and the dental chairs were sanctioned on the spot.

What General Montgomery understood about his soldiers every manager in the factory has to understand. Awareness about the ground we stand on is very essential. Most of the political leaders in our country were bookish. They had acquired their knowledge about India from books read since most of them came with degrees in medicine, law, and the educational field during early years following independence. They did not have experience of even running a pan-bidi shop let alone manufacturing or running a factory. They had the skills of word splitting and proficiency in use of words. They therefore sought solutions in books and words. Traditional method was also based on Punditry with words. To acquire market, to add to resources, to increase the marketing territory under control, were absent from their mindset, possibly because of political slavery of thousand years. So the laws that were enacted were anti- production or anti-growth. Anyone who produces wealth became an enemy or criminal and therefore laws were in that anti-production mode by definition. To bake a cake was not on anyone’s agenda. Emphasis was on distribution, then what else can result except internecine fights?

The strikes, Go-slows, Gheraos, were not only popular but they had a seal of approval by the political leaders. A person creating jobs for five hundred people did not become an idol, but a person taking five thousand workers on strike became a hero. Violent demonstrations, burning buses, killing people became a normal practice. In Industrial Management focus was on ‘labour-problem’. Increasing production, improving production methods, increasing level of quality were relegated to background. To keep and “buy” industrial peace became the full time job for the management.

The interest of anyone who starts a factory is in production i.e. running the factory. Everyone connected with the business knows that salary will be paid if the business works. If this is known to all then why is it that common methods of showing strength by the workers and management in industrial relations. tend to stop or reduce production? As an answer to strike by the workers the employer resorts to lock-out. Again a matter of reduction in production!

_That strikes, Bundhs are against the interest of Society is agreed

by Politicians. Then why there are so many strikes? It is a method of bringing a pressure on the Management to concede to the demands of the workers. Any employer or manager will say that strike is a worst form of putting pressure. Then how do employees express their dissatisfaction, express their demands or ask for the increase in the price of their labour? How should they bring pressure on the Employers? A housewife can 64 � expresses her anger or dissatisfaction by non-cooperation, non-speaking, spoiling the taste of food or raising noise level of the utensils while washing to a higher pitch. In labour-management relations there are bound to arise frictions, disagreements, clashes all the time. The workers are bound to exert pressure by collective action, since their strength is in a group and not in individual action. Strikes, Go-slows Bundhs are token actions indicating existence of these problems. The resultant loss is for both employer and the employees.

Those who believe in Class conflict or Class war have easy choice. If strike is successful, then the workers (have-nots) gain financially, if the strike fails there is a loss for the employer there is a loss to Capitalist who by definition is a class enemy or exploiter. This is a neat theoretical argument. This ignores the result that one factory closed by repeated strikes takes away livelihood of hundred workers. Class-war appears very simple in books. Afternoon meal is a need of every worker. One has to provide for it. He/she and his/her family members have a bad habit of getting hungry in the afternoon. A strike by textile workers started in 1982 in Mumbai is perhaps still going on legally. I will have a cake with icing or I will go hungry without it is a slogan for the labour leader. He gets the icing but the workers have to deal with hunger every day. They have to live dog's life.

Then what is the alternative pressure point? Japan, a country with unique traditions and systems, if there is a labour-management problem in the factory, the workers do not go on strike. They continue to work normally but wear black ribbons on their dress or uniform. The Managers consider that as a personal loss or death of industrial relations and harmony, For them Harmony is higher value than Justice. In extreme cases the manager even commits suicide. The workers and the management consider this wearing of black ribbons by the workers as signifying a method of strike and immediately move in the direction of resolution of the dispute. They try harder for settlement and bring it about. In no case do the employers or employees stop production. Production is the basic reason for the existence of the factory. This is an impact of Confucian thought put into practice in Japanese society.

In Western countries, since conflict of Interests is inevitable in the adversarial context, strike is considered as a legitimate weapon or a right, since Social activities are based on conflict as natural way. Everyone respects the sanctity of contract. Both sides keep up with their end of the bargain. Profit or Loss: the contract is a contract and it must be followed is the accepted value. If there is less production then there is less pay. In recession people will lose jobs. The unions are in a position to enter into such agreements and workers will follow it. Both parties to contract have to face the consequences of the contract. Both employers and unions are fined for a breach. And they pay it. In India nobody bothers about the contract. By making labour laws as welfare legislation and hence one- sided, the value of contract is extinguished. Basic thinking is that the Government is a Ma-Baap and the workers are always supplicants. There is No concept of worker as a seller of labour as an essential factor of production. If any union tries to implement the settlement as a result of collective bargaining the workers desert such union and another union gets in. All agreements therefore become one-sided as far as employers are concerned. By removing these agreements from the operation of Contract act and by labelling them as welfare legislation the government itself has made this possible for the poaching unions.

Union is a seller of labour on the basis of collective bargaining. It has to get market price for labour. Company does not pay salary to labour; itis the products that are sold in the market that pay the salary. If company survives in the market then only is there an assurance of salary. If the produced goods are sold in the market then only does the company exist. New companies are always entering in the market place. The hue and cry against globalisation is by those who are protected from the market forces. The category of protected includes both workers and employers. European farmers protest because they cannot face the competition of Indian farmers. Farming companies in the United States bring pressure on their government to raise the tariff walls against Indian imports.

‘It is not the Company but the Product that brings in salary. The company only distributes salary’ is a quote from Henry Ford who was labelled as the biggest Capitalist in the world at one time. It is a right of employer to start the factory and is one who can decide to close it. To sell or withhold from selling labour is the. right of the Collective bargaining agent, the Union. Land, Machinery, raw materials and Management are other factors of production like labour. Labour is a factor of Production. Rise and fall in the prices of factors of production is inevitable in the marketplace. Flexibility enables the units to survive in the market. It is

therefore considered natural for companies to start factories and close them also.

The Indian situation is like a Trishanku (Fefp), someone hanging in the middle between heaven and earth. Indian tradition is that of Harmony and not of conflict, therefore closing down any factory or business is not considered as a right of anybody. All are in favour of settlement. Indian tradition believes that all living beings are part of the same Ekam and therefore related to each other as limbs of a body. Industrial disputes are also expected to be resolved like family disputes. The Black ribbon protest strike should appeal to Indians.

66 � Mahatma Gandhi popularised the idea of fasting or self-sacrificing as a way of protest. That method was misused by some of his so-called followers and made it a piece of mockery. English Educated Elite always considered fasting in protest as a matter of amusement. Later on the second generation activists took the idea of individual fasting to chain- fasting and made it a matter of joke. Initially when the Sister of the Leader of the Mill owners (Anasuyaben) offered indefinite fasting on behalf of Workers’ demands, it became a genuine holy war. How could brother eat food when his sister was having indefinite fast? It became a moral issue. A Mahatma alone could offer use of such method as it was nearer to Indian Tradition. English educated elite found it a foolish way. Common people, however, did not think so.

Unichem has a factory at Roha. Late Vasantrao Khanolkar was a union Leader of workers at Roha. He had visited Japan and had seen this method of Black ribbons as a method of protest. I had established a practice of bilateral settlements in the Roha unit of Unichem from the beginning in 1976. This time the talks were not progressing. He asked the workers to continue working with black ribbons by way of protest. Manager at Roha at that time was Pedat Bardeskar, a motivated gentleman. He informed me on phone that such a black ribbon protest has started at Roha. I told him that it is a strike. Treat it as a strike and do whatever best you can do with immediate action, and settle the matter as if a strike is on. My colleagues at Mumbai were not so warm to this interpretation. They said, ignore not only black ribbons and even if the workers wear black shirts do not bother about it. They have no courage to go on strike and hence they have adopted this method of protest. Nothing needs to be done. I did not agree with this view. Our Roha Manager was a Christian he possibly could connect the black ribbons to the death of Industrial relations as in the family. He agreed with me and implemented my advice by completing the stalled negotiations. Without a break in the production three-year settlement was signed. Workers at Roha accepted and adopted this form of protest even in later years.

Leadership like that of Vasantrao Khanolkar made a different beginning. A new way of protest was started and followed by workers. I was very happy and receptive to this new way of protest. I wrote about it in the Unichem Bulletin. I wrote about the novelty and positive approach and its efficacy. Whenever I had an opportunity to talk to the workers I mentioned this with words of praise as a pro-production protest. I thought that the Directors as employers who were owners of factories will also like this new approach. They used to talk with vehemence about strike as a destructive method as anti-production, blaming the workers and their leaders for such coercive methods. Vasantrao Khanolkar found a new non- destructive non-violent path. Bardeskar made the path broader by positive

67 � response and so they should, I believed, respond positively.

In the draft of the Directors’ Annual Report for that year I mentioned this new path and its importance in a few words. Every year my draft of such report used to be approved without any change. I expected the same that year. It did not happen. Directors’ Report is a document which Directors send to shareholders and it is considered as officially important document by investors, Shareholders, Bankers, Lenders, Government and other regulatory authorities. It is Official publication and has value as historical record of Company. Every year I used to prepare this draft and so it was done that year. I had noted this new non-violent, non-destructive but effective form of protest with positive approval.

The members of the Board deleted this reference from my draft. There was not much discussion on it also. I had to obey, as I was only a draftsman and they were the authors. The said reference was dropped. In my estimation the value and significance of our experience of the non- confrontational approach and our positive response were unique. This basic change and its value were not appreciated by the Board. I saw a different Truth in action. The members of the Board, my fellow officers, were all highly educated, honest and well-meaning and absolutely production -oriented individuals. But they did not see or grasp the significance of this new path taken or pioneered by the workers; they continued to believe in the routine way of tid-for-tat responses including strike, breakages and other anti-production methods as measures of Pressure. Gandhi's way of non-violence was also rated by his contemporaries as an ineffective way of a simpleton in political struggle. Indian Managers have to traverse many such difficult ways in their careers.

Adhyay 16

I had seen my mother engaging seasonal daily labour for our farming operations. This labour was remunerated in two ways. One was money wages with mid-day meal and the other was all wages on cash basis. The rates of pay in both cases were obviously different. My mother used to look after the property of my maternal uncles and as long as my elder maternal uncle was there she used to hire this labour on this meals- and-cash basis. My mother used to cook food for them. When my younger maternal uncle came and settled in the village he was always finding it difficult to get manual help. He was paying wages promptly but on all-cash basis. For the same work when my mother was hiring the workers they would get less money but a full meal at the mid-day. She used to get as many labourers as she wanted. She was often not in a Position to pay cash component of the wages on time. Still my maternal uncle was not getting the labour with any certainty. There used to be a lot of discussion on this issue when I used to come home from the school at weekend. What I have

68 � written above was latent information accumulated in my mind, but it had not become my knowledge.

/ Whenever Union used to raise the issue of Canteen in discussion my position used to be straightforward and bookish. Canteen question was and is always a matter of permanent headache for Personnel managers. My argument used to be, that let the individual worker decide whether to bring his food from home or buy it from canteen. Company will provide Space, Furniture, Water, Electricity, Utensils and facilities for washing in the canteen to the contractor. Workers must pay from their pocket for the actual food consumed by him/her at the market rates and there should be no subsidy in the prices. The company should pay everything in wages.

Food and shelter or roof overhead are basic needs of every human being. I had also crammed this lesson at the school. I had not understood all the implications of that till late in life. I received the first shock of it at Oberoi Hotel in Delhi. There was a conference of Company Secretaries and Financial Controllers held in New Delhi. All participants were occupying senior positions in their respective Companies and needed dieting as an urgent health requirement. Almost all of us were overweight. The first session of the conference was late in concluding. None of us was likely to be very hungry. The session ended at last and then all of us entered the huge dining Hall of that five-star-hotel. The long tables were laid with great care and even pomp and were full of enticing food dishes prepared to meet all tastes. The hall was full of the pleasant aromas of the cuisine. My colleagues who had been sitting with me in the conference hall very ferociously attacked the Buffet laid out in the dining hall and finished it in no time. In few minutes all the food laid out was consumed and there was shortage of food. The way participants ate food and clamoured for more was a unique experience for me. Participants almost fought for the delicious dishes and the entire atmosphere was marked by clamour and absence of any discipline. I had similar experiences later in my working life at various conferences, seminars and meetings. That first experience was

shattering.

Many of my college classmates were employed in major Industrial and Business corporations like Tata, Mafatlal and Birla at senior level of management. They unfailingly mentioned about the lunch coupons that were given by their companies in Taj and Oberoi Hotels in Mumbai. It was almost a badge of honour for them. Increasingly I realised importance of Good Food more than its money value and independent of money value as such. Between good food and more money people preferred good food. This was a new realisation for me.

ot expecting five-star arrangements I was calculating only the cost of

69

Unichem employees were Nn like Taj or Oberoi in their Canteen. � the canteen. I was calculating it all in money only. Workers expected simple clean and wholesome food, good place to sit while eating and cleanliness in the canteen. I was seeing the cost of the subsidy involved in all this matter and that was my defect in vision. From the point of view of workers, Food had independent value of its own in their mind. The workers were not in a position to bring as good food as the food available the canteen.

subsidy for running

That my mother was in a position to get casual farm labourers and my maternal uncle was not in a position to do so, why senior managers created a chaos in Oberoi in the conference, why my college mates talked about the lunch coupons they were getting from their companies, were all pieces of information in my mind. As soon as I saw the common thread in it;my approach towards the Canteen -problem changed. First I changed the Unichem Canteen in terms of sitting place arrangement, painting of walls, furniture, utensils and decor in total way. The subsidy to the canteen contractor was fixed in relation to actual sale thereby ensuring the quality of food items and the new canteen was ready in six months time. I increased the subsidy many fold and made it attractive to the contractor but strictly dependent on the quality of food which is not easy to measure. In pharmaceutical preparations there are many scientific tests to verify the quality of medicines but there is no scientific method of testing the taste of food. You can measure the size of potato-wada with calliper but people will buy and eat it only if it tastes right. The proof of quality of food in canteen therefore was proportionate to sales by canteen coupons. I converted Unichem Canteen into the best canteen in the neighbourhood. Change in my mind was the part of my education.

This point became clearer when I discussed it with my friends who had occasion to organise functions, conferences and programmes or marriage parties. The success of all those programmes is decided by their Caterers. Mishtannam itarejanah.( feted Satsiet:) is the rule in social functions. In any discussion after the conferences and seminars, the top item of discussions is about the food served. In the literary conferences there is a good deal of discussion about the food and lodging arrangements. It is also common to mention in news reports about the quantity measured in quintals of mutton, chicken, milk etc that was consumed. The creature comforts like lodging and food and decent conveniences are remembered more than the topics discussed. Up to three fourths of the success of a conference is decided by these creature comforts. Everything else is like side dishes. Not only literary but scientific and other conferences and seminars are remembered for these arrangements. I found a lot of commonality in my friends’ experiences.

I have read .several autobiographies. Generally the authors

70 � write these autobiographies in their later years. While writing about their earlier life and difficult times they do mention the places where good food was served to them. This they do when they are senior in age. People remember the good food served by my wife rather than the discussions we had during their visit to my home. That is my experience. Annam bahu kurvit (set TG adic) is the Vedic advice possibly based on this universal experience. I learnt the importance of good canteen facility late in life. We accumulate lot of information and experiences in our mind but collating it and logical arrangement of such experiences is not always done by us to convert it into knowledge. From availability of farm help for my mother to Unichem Canteen was a long journey in my mind.

When the Jogeshwari canteen was upgraded I insisted on common kitchen and common dishes for workers and Managers. My managerial colleagues and staff members were not ready to have a common place for eating in the canteen together with workers. I was not in a position to implement the common eating place irrespective of the status in the job. My Managing Director also felt that this insistence on equality was a part of my idiosyncrasy. He had no objection to spending the money on the up- gradation, but he had already started with a special bathroom for himself. The staff and managers had different places for eating the common food prepared in a common canteen kitchen. In my youth I had seen separate seating for different castes in the annual village festivals. I remembered that. Common kitchen was the limit to which I could stretch my insistence on equality. Later even amongst the managers a separate arrangement was made for different halls for senior managers and junior managers. Subsequently even the kitchen for senior Managers was separated. By that time I was no longer connected with the Personnel function.

I faced certain social problems. Even though people did not have the feeling of different class there was a distinct awareness of difference and senior caste feeling amongst the managers. That managers constitute a higher caste and the workers are members of shudra (%[&) caste was the unspoken dividing line in the minds of my fellow employees. I have found this idea of differentiation in the minds of the managers of other companies also. They insisted on different seating arrangement as a part of their feeling of superiority. They were intelligent, educated and competent people, but in their minds this idea of workers being inferior was present in conscious manner. That a Managing Director must treat the managers with respect and follow the practice of allowing them to give their viewpoint. He should note their viewpoint and should not force his decisions on them. It was a consensus view of these trained managers. They expected that kind of treatment from their superiors. Theory Y in the management jargon was their desire from their superiors and they thought it as a natural method. But they were not ready to follow the

71 � same theory with their workers. They are Mukadams(-pIa41) in the true sense of the terms. Muka as it stands for kissing the boots of the boss but kicking the assistants or Dam for their juniors was their method of becoming Mukadam.

This method of differentiation between categories of employees is commonplace in many companies. Managers want categorisation according to rank in canteens, in sitting places, lavatories, washrooms, and suchlike matters. They do not ask for good food for all, and clean conditions for all. They want their own special row or arrangement. This is a social reality in India and it has to be changed.

This cross-breeding of the caste and class idea is a dangerous matter. This blending of bad things in the Western and Eastern ideas is very dangerous. This is an uphill task and therefore anyone working towards countering these tendencies attracts my attention and praise.

Excel Industries Limited had their factory at Jogeshwari near my work place. Kantibhai Shroff was the Managing Director. He used to eat food with his workers. He would stand in the same queue with workers, collect his plate from the counter and after eating; put it on the counter of used plates himself. He used to move about in the factory in a half pant like other workers and was arranging for his Managers to sit in Air- conditioned rooms. His table was located in a cowshed near the street under the shade of trees just thirty feet away from an unauthorised public urinal on the main road. His table was segregated by beautiful leafy trees and all the stink was camouflaged by his experiments with the trees in the compound. His table was a decent place for the visitors and completely stench-free. There was no pollution in the factory as it was announced to world by the shining young leaves of a pippal (Acus religiosa) tree, That small tree was telling volumes about the pollution-free atmosphere in his chemical factory. Kantibhai is a class by himself but I will avoid narrating his greatness since he is my Guru. Talking about his greatness is not permissible for a shishya (rsx), Nevertheless his distinctness is remarkable. He is a great businessman who knows his onions and he is successful in profitability, but that is my indirect opinion. He has absorbed and implemented all the useful ideas that have come -from abroad and simultaneously has remained a true Indian practitioner of management ideas. This much is universally accepted.

The Canteen facility in the Ghaziabad factory of Unichem remained

primitive, I could not make any changes there. I had made funds available for it since it was in my c

ontrol, but the implementation was in the hands of local manager, Even today whether any quality canteen is available in that factory or not is not known to me. I consider it as my failure.

i � The local manager and his value system determine the implementation of the compan

'Y Policies. Whether it is American or Indian

Adhyay 17 How one becomes a stranger in one’s own home and country was ¢ me several times during my Managerial career. At the beginning I learnt some new Truths. I started working in the Jogeshwari factory of Unichem in April 1964. After that famous Meher Award relating to Bonus came. There used to be great discussions about this award in the Human Resources Development fraternity. The slogan of the unions for Bonus was ‘Twelve months Work and Thirteen Months wages’, Justice Meher Commission accepted that and declared 8,33 per cent as a compulsory Minimum Bonus for all, The Payment of Bonus Act based on this Award was Passed in 1965, Here there is an interesting aspect. India had switched to Decimal coinage from 1 April 1957. Minimum Bonus rate was not fixed at 8, 8.5, 9, 9.5 or 10 per cent. Sticking to the slogan it was fixed at 8.33 per cent or 1/12" of the annual wages. You may think I am quibbling with numbers. I am not. Once a slogan takes possession of your mind then 13 months’ wage for 12 months’ work cannot become 8 or 8.5 per cent. In those days before the Computers, increase in the tremendous amount of clerical work was required for calculating by hand the Bonus award calculation for every worker. Many unproductive( having no value- addition) clerical jobs became necessary adding to the costs without any value-addition in production. Even when the slogans becomeoutdated they are not easy to get rid of.

The Shastras have said Shabdo Nityah (are) fet: ). Belief in the verbatim obedience of the words of shastra is a great weapon. According to Arthur Koestler Man is the only animal which does not hesitate to kill another member of its own species for the sake of Word. He further said that neither poetry nor war is possible without Word. To give new meaning or fill word with the new meanings is the Indian tradition and it is non- violent as well.

Justice Meher Award specified in clear terms that Bonus is a Deferred wage. It is a wage payment which is deferred till the end of the year. It is not necessarily a part of Profit. Whether there is profit or loss to the business the Minimum bonus has to be paid by the employer. If it is a wage then why defer it? If work has to be performed on time why bonus should not be paid likewise? The renowned Industrialist Naval Tata

73 � even advocated an idea that if bonus is a deferred wage then merge it the salary and pay every month and avoid the hassle of industrial unrest and strikes for bonus once and for all times to come. Remove deferred-ness

from it and merge it in wage. Let there be agitations on Wage and not yearly agitations for bonus.

Any Economist or Accountant will readily agree to this suggestion as a method which is logical. Yet although logical, this method it is

not practical. It is far away from ground reality. It took time for me to understand this truth.

Iput this matter to late Gajananarao Gokhale of Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh as an impeccable logical question. He brought me to ground. He said

• our workers are not accustomed to save every month and create a reserve

for the holidays and year- end expenses, Whatever money comes to their hands it is spent immediately. Then lump sum money at Ganapati or Diwali festival becomes a necessity. Where will the workers have the money to spend on buying clothes for themselves and their children or buying some utility vessels? Workers’ need at that Point of time is availability of lump sum money. According to mathematical approach it is possible to set aside the monthly sum but in actual practice many of the workers are not in a position to do that. The idea of Provident fund is to collect the monthly sums from the People and return to them the total at the time of retirement as lump sum with interest. To collect these compulsory savings and investing them in Proper securities and returning the amount at the end of the service is therefore done by the government agencies. As a matter of fact people like me with accountancy background feel that they would earn better interest than public provident or Superannuation fund or Gratuity fund if they could manage the compulsory savings themselves, Some self- employed persons often do that but the common experience is that it is a job which involves a lot of hassle and all cannot manage it. People invest in the share market through Mutual funds for that reason only. There are many cases who were attracted by higher rates of interest the people have lost their entire Principal savings. Money in hand has a Propensity to be spent and hence compulsory savings and investment is socially desirable objective. It is therefore socially sensible to get a deferred wage by way of Bonus once in a year. That need cannot be satisfied by monthly Payment alone as a part of the remuneration.

Once this thought is embedded in your mind and comprehended by you then you can understand why many employers are very stingy in the normal Wage bargaining but liberal in Bonus settlements. In accordance

with these social realities then it becomes helpful to aim to keep wage

settlements as separate and at reasonable level. Bonus settlements

are kept separate annual agreements. Some like me learn it after a lot

74 � of knocks. Even today as a theoretical issue it is considered irrational and undesirable or a paternalistic view of the situation, It is therefore commonly seen that even if there is a delay in settlement, workers or their unions are not unhappy because more delay in settlement means more subsequent Payment out of retrospective effect given to it, Deferred payment is convenient to workers, employers and the union leaders also. Unions generally collect a percentage of this difference as their cut from the payment of arrears to workers. All such decisions make sense.

As an ideal or academic sense it is not logical. I was also opposed to this idea of large amount of arrears. But gradually I learnt to accept it. I became aware of the mistake that one commits by looking at problems in an academic way and find solutions in a logical manner is not necessarily the best way of behaviour. Normal monthly advance to workers and the extra amount of Advance at the time of Ganapati and Holi fell in logical frame in my mind when looked at, in that social framework. The influence of the society that I live in and its connection with my managerial decisions became more and more clear and affected my behaviour and decisions. Apparent illogical or wrong practices fell in proper framework when seen in this social context. I could see interrelations and internal logic and validity.

Edward De Bono and his book “Beyond Yes or No: PO"; played a key role in my managerial development. In categorising into ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ and in defining ‘included’ and ‘excluded’ ,the boundaries of thinking are very clear. Categorising is useful in thinking out a problem, it makes thinking clear, one’s mistakes also become clear, but the events happening in the world are not so easy to categorise. The logical solution to a problem will be identical provided the mental framework is same. Each person has different reference points, frames of mind and Contexts. Each one’s Darsan therefore is different. It is therefore necessary to keep in mind the possibility of different Darsanas. Different Darsanas of the same reality connected me to the concept of Six or more Darsanas as a philosophical base in India. It planted a basic disbelief in insistence on single Darsana. Importance of Anekantvad became very logical. It became easy for me to

move from Bono to Vinoba.

This was a journey of unlearning in my life. Education fixes so many sturdy frames in our mind. The frames become so rigid that one fails to see the possibilities beyond those frames. The idea that those Frames have as much right to exist as my own frames makes the acceptance of different ideas or approaches easy. Our Educational system Is such that this movement away from classification between right and wrong and therefore learning to unlearning becomes a long and difficult journey.

While reading Vinoba I had come across his statement that he 75 � is more afraid of Su-ajya (G-<1sa) than swa-rajya (Fd-tsa) that we go away from self government to Good government and become easy going was not difficult to understand after reading De Bono. Why workers behave in a certain manner became clear. What I was considering logical and simple was not logical or simple from their context, although it was So logical in my context. By changing the framework you can get different answers, follows as a natural corollary. It took years for me to learn this,

In labour-management relations these frames are very troublesome. Why do People Work? If your answer is: only for money, stability, and for bread, or in absence of alternatives, the answers appears logical and complete to us. Often we imagine our own answers as the answers and that is the beginning of complications.

My experience is that it is not the workers but educated managers who believe in the division of society between ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’ and more so with regard to class conflict. This feeling is stronger in the more educated managers who are actually highly paid workers. That is possibly why the Petroleum Company workers and Medical Representatives Association members and Airline pilots are infected by the idea of class conflict more than textile workers. For all these people this is a received wisdom. Insistence on different canteens, different wash rooms, are expressions of the caste feelings rather than class feeling as a social reality in India.

That worker is a shudra, but he is similar and equal to me as a human being is a belief not established in the framework of educated elite. My seniors must follow theory Y and treat me on human side of management is clear but since I am a dwij (f@st)or twice-born and therefore entitled to that approach but I will not extend the same principle to my workers because they are shudras. I must have butter on my bread and I have seen such managers behaving in worst manner than the owners of the classical definition of Haves. They are not a natural growth in this land. This educated elite is an different imported plant. They have cleverly melded the ideas of caste to class and made them more impenetrable. This fusion of caste and class hierarchy has to be removed and we must put before them the true Vishnutva as distinct from the Boar- body in which they function today.

The problem is that of changing these mental frames. We have to help individuals to transform themselves from the caterpillar state to Butterfly state. Without wasting time in deciding who are good and who are bad we have to build organisations from the existing people with their own frameworks and meld them into strong organisation. That is the need of the hour. This is project of ‘man-making’ as conceptualised by Vivekanand. Changing the minds of the people, beginning with oneself, is

76 � the way of Indian Management. Adhyay 18

When I started thinking as a Manager, and as I started going to the roots of my tradition, I was ina Position to do many things. Often we may think that we are too small and the problem is too big and therefore we cannot do anything. We can only pine for it. Once you start doing things then you can do things small and big both.

The factory of the company I joined in 1964 was situated in Jogeshwari West. In 1964 the entire land of East Jogeshwari was occupied by illegal hutments. Many of my fellow workers were living in the hutments in East Jogeshwari. Before I joined the company, a big dispute had ocurred between the hutment dwellers and hutment owners. The Owners were mostly North Indians and the dwellers were mostly from the Konkan region from which I had also come in 1953. There was a major riot between these two communities in early 1964. All this land was technically owned by the Jamshetjee Jijibhoi Trust. Actual possession was taken over by the Milk stall owners and their employees on the strength of their big sticks. They had constructed unauthorised huts in that area. No electricity, water supply or lavatories existed in that area. Our first shift used to start at seven in the morning and the third shift was getting over at the same time. The Supervisors used to complain about the workers coming earlier than shift timing because there were toilets in the factory and that facility was not available in the hutments. Supervisors had overlooked this human need. I took upon myself to convince the supervisors that though it did create some inconvenience for them the workers’ lack of facilities at home was the cause of the problem. They readily agreed and the problem was

solved.

In 1964 fifty days’ strike of workers for their demands for wage revision was over after humiliating failure for workers and their Union. It had however spawned new leadership amongst the workers. Their excess energy needed to be channelized hence the idea of floating a cooperative credit Society first and then the Housing Cooperative societies were formed. This idea of the defeated union leaders was reciprocated by me positively. This was the proper use of their energy. The company offered some small sums of money as interest-free loan as an initial contribution and on that basis they were in a position to borrow from the government's housing finance corporation. I gave the guarantee of deduction from the company and also the instalment for return of Company loan. On the basis of this assurance 120 people got a roof over their head in a city like Mumbai. It was a great achievement for the workers and matter of satisfaction for me. Not a single rupee of the company was lost in this arrangement. Because of this roof children of many these employees did

7 � well in studies and most of them are now well settled as middle class families. This is the difference that roof over their heads made.

Since I came in contact with so many families we started anew programme. Every year children of the workers who stood in first ten ranks in their class were given token prizes. These prizes were awarded to the winners in the canteen hall of the company. Later on for some years we arranged children’s plays for them by various drama groups. This was also an indirect sponsorship for the Children’s Theatre. In 1978 Sudha Karmarkar a well known actor and theatre personality , complained to the Prime Minister that industries do not support such movements. We booked their complete show at normal rates and added to the cultural life of our children. These events did not cost much to the company, but I have not seen many companies doing that at that point of time. A thought behind it was that the workers are my brothers and what my children can have should be had by their children also. This idea was further extended by distributing these prizes at the hands of one who stands first in Secondary School Certificate examination from Mumbai, instead of senior managers like me which is a normal practice.

To receive a prize at the hands of SSC First rank holder by those class rank holders was an experience for those receivers as well as Guests. Usually we would be the first in July to invite SSC toppers. We went on adding to the programme and the Union gave us full cooperation. Not only our Bulletin but such events reached out to the families of our workers. My company was in a position to create this family feeling in the Megacity that is Mumbai.

I have not encountered class conflict in the behaviour of our workers. I was opponent for workers but not a class enemy. I was staying within the factory premises only. When a go-slow agitation was going on in the factory my children would play on the lawns in front of the factory gate. The workers would assemble and shout slogans against me. The slogans were describing their assembly as a procession for my mock funeral. My young daughter was naturally curious to see the mob at the gate and hear the slogans, After some time she lost interest in the slogans and climbed on the nearby Guava tree to pluck the fruit. She fell down from the tree. I was out of the factory at that time. As soon as the workers saw that she had fallen those very slogan shouters came and took her to the doctor, got her the first aid and brought her back and put her to bed in my residence. After doing this they dutifully went back to the gate to shout slogans against me as directed, I learnt about the incident only later. They knew that having my mock funeral procession was as much

a ritual as clapping hands at the Aarti at Puja. O1 then life becomes easier. ja. Once you understand this

78 � Never try to underestimate the significance of these rituals in social life. Many educated people show utter disdain for these social rituals. Even to show such disdain has become almost a ritual. In reality we do not wish to do anything in a disciplined manner. Whether it is a ritual of filling the Batch Card, or performing Puja or starting and closing meetings on schedule, it is anathema to us. We used to have Dasara Puja in our factory. Workers used to insist on our Works Manager to hold the Aarati in his hands at the time of Aarati. Singing of Aarati was prolonged as much as possible. He used to get tired of holding the Aarati plate with full decorum. The accumulated anger against him over the year was expressed in this small action. I wrote about this mischief in the Bulletin and then it stopped. Legally speaking there was no misconduct which could be invoked for charge-sheet or warning.

Every social activity takes its own form. Once you know that strike or go-slow is a form of expressing resentment then you approach towards it accordingly. Your solutions differ. Once you know that Strikes, Fasting unto death, stopping work are only forms of expressing dissent. Even if it is sanctified by Mahatma Gandhi during the freedom struggle, you can use it only sparingly in a democratic society. Fasting unto death to achieve your item of agenda has no place in a democratic society, is not understood by many. Many Gandhians have castigated Vinoba for not using this weapon often enough.

Workers in Mumbai have realised that having multiple Unions in the industrial Units is legally possible. Unions have become industrial peace supplying contractors like marriage event contractors, They pay the paltry Union subscription to any or all unions to keep Unions happy. There is no loyalty to a Union or ideology. They are not worried about a class war. Their class identity is a matter of convenience. One who can get better deal is followed and there is enough competition in the Union field which is made possible by the Industrial Disputes Act.

There must be many people who must have accumulated different and even contrary experiences in their working life. I wish that they record their experiences and publish them and then we will have a compendium on Indian Management. All those experiences need to be collected and collated. I therefore do not consider this as a last chapter of the book on Indian Management but the first chapter. In that sense

I have emphasised the distinct basic thoughts of the Indian society in relation to management. I have used those insights in my working life. T have written in detail about my personal background and experiences only in order to highlight the external me as was seen by the people. That led me to think about my inner ‘me’ or self. I do not wish to propound an exhaustive philosophy of Indian Management. These are experiences of

79 � One Indian who has understood his Indian roots and did eke working life to connect himself to the traditions of this cmt 5 recs eo to Indian tradition a temple construction is always a work-In i ae on is this book. I want other practising managers to treat this boo! e chip in the temple of book on Indian Management.

Tam sure thata country of sub-continental size will contain different traditions, and practices according to regional, and language background and there must be any number of managers who have experienced in their own lives different ways and means in the practice of management. I have Narrated a region- specific time-specific and place-specific experiences in Management. Since I am son of Konkan soil its flavour is obviously there and I cherish it.

Many like me must have done such experiments but I have not Come across such writings by Indian Managers in English, when they have written books on the subject of People Management. Uniqueness in my own book is restricted to this small connection with the roots. I have tried to get out of the blinkers of the shibboleths and slogans and tried to see world around me with my own eyes. I am deeply embedded in my surroundings so my writing has the flavour of that Indian earth. In my

work and writing I have tried to bring about transformation of myself from a Man to Man-ager.

When I completed text of my book I wanted to end it with 18" Adhyaya. My friend Dr Professor Peter Macalister who had critically read the text felt for a universal reader I should add my views about the Advaiti Ownership. When I started thinking about it I realised that whatever initiatives I tried in man-management field they were as a Manager in Mumbai and that was a limiting view. I had no experience as an owner. I had put limitation of my own experience and practised ideas in Personnel Management while writing the book. A book on Indian Management should have an ownership angle as well. For my text I had drawn on my published experiences of thirty years as a database. For the ownership angle I will have to draw on ideas expressed by others and read by me. The connection will not be easy but it did make a sense from the point of view of general readership. I therefore decided to add it as an addendum in the eighteenth Chapter. It is a received wisdom. It is written by me but I have essentially borrowed ideas of Mahatma Gandhi and more Particularly of Acharya Vinoba Bhave.

Mahatma Gandhi was an active politician-statesman besides being Propounder of Non-violence even in a freedom struggle. He called Advaiti ownership as Trusteeship-ownership. A person who owns any property must use it as if he is a Trustee and not owner of the Property. Acharya Vinoba Bhave faced this problem in his Bhoodan (Land-Gift) as applicable to city dwellers. In what way the people who owned Properties in towns 80 � and cities and their wealth-sharing in the National reconstruction after Independence of India in 1947. In village India property was mainly in Land Ownership. But in towns and cities property holding consisted of various forms. He extended the same principle and called it Sampattidan.

The land could be cultivated largely by Human Labour and even an illiterate farmer could grow food which is a primary necessity of all human beings. Using the assets in the sense of a Trustee was the idea encapsulated in Sampattidan. The idea did not envisage its nationalization. The owner should declare every year what he contributed as Sampattidan. He should use that portion of his property in the normal course but set aside income derived from it for public good. He did not want to take responsibility of using the assets, or generating value-addition. Nor did he want to use the services of government servants for that purpose.

In subsequent years Government of India tried to manufacture welfare through the route of Nationalisation of Life Insurance business, Coal mines,

. General Insurance business, Banking services and several businesses following the Russian model of Socialism and Central Planning. For want of properly motivated and oriented work force this did not materialise in reality.

In my dissertation for my Ph D Thesis in 1979 I had suggested creation of a separate cadre of Managers to function as such Public Trustees. This was suggested immediately after 1976, when preamble of Indian Constitution was amended to add words Socialism and Secularism in it.

The Parliament of India entrusted this Role to Indian Civil Service (ICS, later renamed as IAS) which was created by Britain for running the subcontinent-size Colony for maintenance of Law and order. In this they followed the system they had observed of Mandarins in China. This was a cadre which runs the Multinational Corporations and which is aptly called Techno-structure by Prof J K Galbraith in his book ‘The Industrial State’.

Ultimately the strength and weakness of the giant banks or multinational corporations whose decisions are taken by multinational cadre of managers or their super-structure as a separate entity and it is not based on their ownership stake.

The stake-holders in Nation-state are elected representatives of the people and the techno-structure that runs the multinationals are technically elected by the shareholders but are essentially self-perpetuating oligarchies who wield the underlying power-structure in the giant business corporations in USA or China. It is the approach of these individuals that really decides the fate of their enterprises. What I have narrated in the chapters of this book as becoming the Maha-jan power by the Managers in their day-to-

81 � day work of creating value-addition by using two resources that Society makes available to their business enterprise, namely Money and People, is relevant in capitalist or communist systems.

The real movers are the people and their becoming Trustees is the way for

the future of Mankind. That will be the Indian contribution in the field of Management literature.

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