In a video clip shared on his LinkedIn, Mukherjea, citing the book India Before the Ambanis by historian Lakshmi Subramanian, highlighted that during the Mughal era—spanning the 16th to 18th centuries— Indian entrepreneurship was thriving. The subcontinent enjoyed flourishing commerce that extended beyond domestic markets to the Middle East and Southeast Asia.
He pointed out that several wealthy Indian merchants and financiers, such as Virji Vora, Shantidas Jhaveri, and Jagat Seth, operated at a scale comparable to today’s unicorn founders. These business leaders were not just traders but multi-sectoral giants who worked in areas like shipping, textiles, and money lending. Their success symbolized a deeply rooted entrepreneurial ecosystem that thrived under the Mughal administration.
British Colonial Strategy: Undermining Indian Business
However, this momentum was disrupted as British colonial influence grew stronger in the 19th century. According to Mukherjea, the British began systematically displacing Indian entrepreneurs through discriminatory regulations and social engineering. He referred again to Subramanian’s book, which documents instances where Indian business communities such as the Parsis in Bombay and families like the Tagores in Bengal were deliberately sidelined.
Mukherjea explained that the British also ran a long-standing campaign to shape public opinion against Indian businessmen. Over time, they associated Indian entrepreneurial groups—particularly Gujaratis, Marwaris, Sindhis, and Parsis—with negative stereotypes. By painting them as cunning or untrustworthy, the British were able to diminish their social stature and curtail their influence in commerce.
Post-Independence Continuity of Colonial Bias
While India’s independence in 1947 marked the end of British rule, Mukherjea argued that the colonial mindset persisted through the newly empowered bureaucracy. The civil service, inherited from the British Indian administration, continued to hold a skeptical view of private enterprise. This bureaucratic suspicion delayed India’s return to its business roots and suppressed entrepreneurial initiatives for decades.Mukherjea stated that it wasn’t until the 1991 economic reforms led by then-Finance Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao that the tide began to turn. Liberalization policies encouraged private enterprise and slowly helped India shed the lingering effects of colonial economic suppression.Reflecting on the present, Mukherjea noted a sharp resurgence in Indian entrepreneurship. The number of companies being registered in India has tripled over the past decade, signaling a renewed embrace of business creation. However, he emphasized that this revival is not just about policy change but also about challenging the deep-rooted narrative that once pushed generations into salaried jobs instead of entrepreneurship.