Emerald City: The Birth and Evolution of an Indian Gemstone Industry

Chapter 2: Dramatis Personae: Industrial Multiculturalism

2 DRAMATIS PERSONAE Industrial Multiculturalism Most twenty-first century industries in fully industrialized economies —and for that matter many industries in India today—do not need to be anatomized in cultural terms. As an example, between those who work in the executive offices and those who work on the shop floors of General Motors there are certainly class differences and no doubt subcultural differences as well, but to understand automotive industry basics does not require an account of cultural differences. Jaipur’s gemstone industry is very different, for it cannot be understood at any level without taking its ethnographic map into account. This is because the functional niches of this industry are occupied by actual groups (or peninsulas of groups) and their differences extend beyond the normal indices of class. That is, not only are these groups differentiated by income level and social status, but they are isolated from each other by group boundaries expressed by a range of restrictions on interaction including bans on interdining and intermarriage. They are also separated by significant cultural contrasts, in some cases buttressed by religious differences. Each group brings its own traditional skills and talents to the industry, and their variegation can be seen as a local echo of the fabled diversity of India itself. This chapter sketches out the industry’s basic overall anatomy. Its timeframe is the present. I ask for the reader’s patience. This book’s main focus is on those occupying the industry’s uppermost levels, those who capitalize and organize the manufacture of finished gemstones and buy and sell the raw materials and finished product. For most of the industry’s history, this elite group has been drawn from a single ethnically and religiously homogeneous community, and a big 19 20 Emerald City part of our story is how this situation came to be and how it came to an end in recent decades. However, subsequent chapters must assume that readers are familiar with the industry’s basic structure, which is the subject of the present chapter. We begin with some numbers. SIZE Given the importance of the gemstone industry to Jaipur’s economic health, it is surprising indeed to learn that nobody seems to know its actual human extent. Informed guesses are all over the map. In a 1993 study of the gemstone industry in India, Nidhi Khinduka estimated that Jaipur’s gemstone industry employs “over 200,000” (80). In a 2002 study dealing with the same subject but with a specific focus on Rajasthan, Lokesh Sharma (36) estimated that around 300,000 workers are employed in the gemstone and jewelry business in Jaipur, and that about 80,000 Muslim artisans work with gemstones; he further estimated the number of firms in the business to be “in the thousands.” These authors fail to give sources for their figures, which suggests to me that they were probably based on rough approximations provided by informants in the business. Their figures coincide more or less with what I was told by people in the business, but that does not mean that they are correct. In an interview I conducted in 2005 with the Regional (Jaipur) Director of the Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council, he estimated that a total of 70,000–80,000 individuals are involved in the gemstone and jewelry business in Jaipur, including manufacturers, traders, and artisans. This is obviously considerably less than typical local estimates, but not necessarily more accurate. He then went on to say that there are 500–600 “registered units” in the jewelry business in Jaipur, which means any small-scale unit having a plant and machinery worth at least Rs 10,000,000.1 Firms larger than this are very few. Also in a 2005 interview, the then-secretary of the Jaipur Jewellers Association,2 the industry’s principal interest-promoting organization in the city (see map 1.1), told me that there are some 10,000 “jewelers ” in Jaipur. By “jewelers” he meant manufacturers, traders, and brokers of jewelry and gemstones. At that time, the Association listed about 2,300 members, and of these about 1900 were traders and manufacturers , with the remainder being brokers (a separate category of membership). These, at least, are solid figures, but everyone concedes that only a small minority of people in the business actually belong to the Association. 21 Dramatis Personae With the possible exception of the Council’s figures, it is...