How Come Indians in Hong Kong Are So Successful?

"Since the influx of several thousand Sindhi businessmen to Hong Kong in

the 1950s, the position of the Indian business community has gradually

strengthened until, in the early 1990's they controlled as much as 9

percent of Hong Kong's export trade, or somewhere in the region of US$10

billion"

The Sindhi Business Mind At Work

 "A tale circulates of an enterprising Hong Kong Sindhi who shipped

  5,000 left shoes to Bombay and 5,000 right shoes to Calcutta, claiming

  neither shipment upon arrival. When Indian customs auctioned off each

  unclaimed shipment in its port of arrival, the wily Hong Kong Sindhi

  repurchased the shoes for far less than he would have paid in import

  duty and reunited them, presumably somewhere in the middle of India."

The Culture

Sindhis, the backbone of Hong Kong's Indian business world, are the

territory's most numerous Indian group. They can be divided into two

groups: Bhaibunds and Amils. Many of Hong Kong's 7,500 Hindu Sindhis

settled in Bombay after 1947 when the north Indian Sind became part of

Muslim Pakistan. Some Sindhis then moved on to Hong Kong, while other

relatives settled in Africa, Japan, or South-East Asia, offering natural

business links. The older generation arrived in Hong Kong wealthy only in

enterprise and ingenuity. Because, Sindhis felt exiled from their homeland

and had to build up their businesses from scratch, the accumulation and

conspicuous enjoyment of wealth is central to many Sindhis in Hong Kong. Of

all Hong Kong Indians, Sindhis donate the largest sums to charitable

fund-raisers, they provide most of the talent for the Indian Arts Circle

shows, and the women donate endless hours to worthy causes. Without

Sindhis, Hong Kong would be less vibrant, and less wealthy in the full

richness of life.

The Classes

Sindhis in Hong Kong have had varying levels of economic success, leading a

class system to develop that is highly referred to as A Class, B Class, and

C Class Sindhis. Most easily categorized by residential area. Class

distinctions go beyond addresses into behavior and entertainment patterns.

Touting shopkeepers are considered uncouth and are rarely invited to attend

the social functions held by wealthier Sindhis. Class divisions are

ferociously maintained - partly because most fortunes have been amassed

within the past generation.

Some of Hong Kong's older generation of Sindhis knew each other back in

Sind, where they attended school together or where their fathers were

business associates. They are philosophical about the extreme disparity in

their current wealth, and even though many of them started out in Hong Kong

in the early 1950's with few material resources, the fact that some Sindhis

have been far more successful than others is taken with a shrug and

attributed to karma, or fate. Local cliches imply that Sikhs are all poor

watchmen and Sindhis all impressively wealthy businessmen. Neither, of

course, is true. But, most Sindhis started in Hong Kong either working for

a larger firm from which they branched out on their own or with a small

family business which they were able to expand.

Because of their contacts with Sindhis in other parts of the world, and

their willingness to gamble high risks against high yields, many have

prospered in the import-export business. Although Sindhis are typically

engaged in business, some young people are turning into the law, academia,

and journalism. Links were never broken entirely with India, and most Hong

Kong Sindhis still have relatives who settled in the Bombay area, providing

business connections, offspring for potential mates for Hong Kong raised

Sindhi children, and some recipients of Hong Kong Sindhi largess.

Prosperous Hong Kong Sindhis invest money in home in Poona or Bangalore,

and some have done well through Indian housing projects sold to fellow

overseas Sindhis. As fellow Sindhis in a changing Hong Kong, and despite

the inevitable rivalries, there is a strong sense of community.

Sindhis relish the best of life, and support each other through its

sorrows. Sindhis are out going, even flamboyant, and can be generous to a

fault. At the least provocation, women flaunt their latest gleaming sari or

Chanel suit from Paris, set off with their most opulent ruby and diamond

necklace. They retort that other Indians who find Sindhis too flashy miss

exulting in the world's riches. When a Westerer commented that jewellery

was downplayed at academic functions in the United States, the Sindhi

reaction was 'How dull. No diamonds or lovely saris.'

The Prosperity

Most Sindhis at similar levels of prosperity or in parallel businesses meet

constantly through business and social events. The Harilelas are esteemed

as the leading Sindhi family in Hong Kong, and the most cherised source of

a dinner invitation. The Harilelas entertain hundreds of guests in their

Kowloon Tong Mogul-inspired mansion every year, and so a large percentage

of the Indian community, as well as non-Indians, have enjoyed their

hospitality. The Harilelas' mansion , combining Indian, Chinese, and

Western decor, features a sterling silver chair used by the host at dinner

parties, while tendrils of real gold leaf intertwine around the underside

of the circular glass tables. (For more information on the Harilelas, Click

Here.

The Hong Kong Sindhi home expresses the same elation in unabashed

prosperity visible at Sindhi social events. When wealth has been acquired

in abundance, Sindhi home decorations runs towards international guilded

chic. Marks of financial success are European crystal and goldleaf

chandeliers, thick wool Aubusson carpets, guilded Louis XV chairs, and the

odd Chinese item, often inlaid with gleaming semi-precious stones. Those

still pining for their first million decorate the walls with colored

portraits of Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth, and the most impressive stereo

equipment available in Hong Kong. Sindhi flats display more bottles of

French liquers than books, and more recently released videos than classical

Indian or Western compact discs. The ideal is to own a luxury car, freshly

waxed and polished, and certainly not driven by oneself. This is new

wealth, and it is not enjoyed as much.

When a foreigner, after a sumptuous meal at the Holiday Inn Golden Mile

shared with a member of the Harilela family, reached for the bill, it was

taken up with a smile and the remark, "That's all right, we own the hotel!"

The willingness of many Sindhis to reminisce about their impecunious days

in Hong Kong does not always extend to the members of other long-resident

Indian groups. When a reporter mentioned that a nineteenth-century

newspaper article listed an Indian jockey, an old money Parsi sniffed 'Our

family owns races horses, we never ride them!'

The Success

The Success of Sindhis has generated some jealousy amongst other Indians

and communities. Members of other indian groups occasionally criticize

Sindhi materialism. An oft-repeated joke, related by other Sindhis, goes

"What should you do if you meet a snake and a Sindhi? Kill the Sindhi

first!" Despite this, members of the all the Indian groups in Hong Kong get

along well at both the personal and organizational levels. A recent full

page ad in a Hong Kong Indian cultural programme offered a single small

firm's export services for electronics, textiles, toys, and sanitary

fittings. The diversity is not unusual, because of the willingness of

Sindhis to try almost anything that might make money and to spread risk.

Sindhis also serve as the middlemen between the Orient an the rest of the

world. Hong Kong Sindhis revere their business heros, and conversations at

Indian functions resound with the names of successful businessmen like

Harilela, Chotirmall, Chellaram, Parnanand, Melwani, and a host of others.

The Business Circumstance

Business is a major area in which Indians have contributed to the

prosperity of Hong Kong. Sindhis have generated trade links with India,

America, China, and the West which have poured millions of dollars into the

territory, providing jobs for many Hong Kong Chinese. Sindhis are also big

investors in Hong Kong real estate, construction and shipping. Since the

influx of several thousand Sindhi businessmen to Hong Kong in the 1950s,

the position of the Indian business community has gradually strengthened

until, in the early 1990's they controlled as much as 9 percent of Hong

Kong's export trade, or some where in the region of US$10 billion.

A number of Hong Kong Indian firms either hold assets of or turn over more

than US$100 million per year. These include the Harilela Holdings, The Hind

Corportation, run by the Marwari family of Jhunjhnuwalas, the Sonex

Corporation of the Makhijas, Multitex Limited under Haresh Mohanani,

Rattonjee Estates Continuation Limited, H.Daya International Co. Limited,

Chellarams, and others. Even some low-profile Sindhis have done

outstandingly well in international trade. When Ram Parsram, a textile

manufacturer, died early in the 1990's his assets were estimated at over

100 billion Hong Kong Dollars.

The Risk Factor

The innovative approach of Indian businessmen has blended well with Hong

Kong laissez-faire economy. The strength of the Hong Kong Sindhi

businessman has always been a willingness to take risks which others would

hesitate to take, to grease palms if needed, to seek out untried trade

opportunites, and to work through an international network of other

Indians. Hong Kong Sindhis have also tried working with Indian government

officials to ease restrictions on imports into India. They have also used

bribes and reassembly techniques to import goods. These methods work in a

number of ways. A Hong Kong Sindhi may declare and pay duty on HK$100,000

of goods brought into India. He then bribes customs officials and actually

brings in a million dollars worth of merchandise.

For years, India has tried to to protect its own electronics industries by

restricting the importation of televisions and other foreign goods.

However, a convenient loophole thoroughly explored by enterprising Hong

Kong Sindhis was the legal importation of spare parts. The result was that

televisions, stereos, and anything else saleable would be disassembled,

shipped to India as spare parts, then reassembled. A tale circulates of an

enterprising Hong Kong Sindhi who shipped 5,000 left shoes to Bombay and

5,000 right shoes to Calcutta, claiming neither shipment upon arrival. When

Indian customs auctioned off each unclaimed shipment in its port of

arrival, the wily Hong Kong Sindhi repurchased the shoes for far less than

he would have paid in import duty and reunited them, presumably somewhere

in the middle of India.

Hong Kong Sindhis excel at exporting inexpensive manufactured goods from

South-East Asia and China to more places in the world than most of us can

locate on a map. When not working with other Sindhis, they also deal with

Jewish and Lebanese buyers throughout the Middle East, both East and West

Africa, and Latin America. Other Hong Kong Indians have entered the

razor-edged competition of quota restrictions in markets in the European

community and the United States.

Indians point out that there is red tape in dealing with China, but, it is

minor compared to Indian and other bureaucracies. Manufacturing of sundries

used to be done in Hong Kong, but costs have skyrocketed to among the

highest in the region. Watches, for example, may now be assembled in China

using Hong Kong made parts, and then shipped to the United States under the

Chinese quota. Indian traders talk about 'friendship' with officials in

China and knowing the 'right people' - often euphemisms for bribes, which

many Indians accept as a necessity of business life. In some countries such

as Indonesia, however. Hong Kong Indians have often found cooperation from

government officials without bribes or undue complications.

More Risks

A Sindhi exporter explains that the character of Hong Kong itself is

overtrading and gambling, and this is abbetted by the excellent facilities

for banking, manufacturing, and shipping. 'We Sindhis are willing to court

bankruptcy as part of the chance we must take to compete and succeed here.

Bankruptcy is just the part of the whole picture. It happens fairly often

to us Sindhis, but then we go on. And if our business moves succeed... just

look at the Harilelas!'

Although every Sindhi would like to have international business concerns

like the Harilelas, selling 24-hour suits to foreign suits to foreign

tourists is as close as many come. Larry Mangalani, a small Sindhi

shopkeeper himself, feels that many Hong Kong Sindhi shopkeepers deserve

their dubious reputation because of their touting and shoddy business

practices. But, Hong Kong is a tough, competitive city, and other Sindhis

defend their practices as the only way to get ahead. It is tricky for Hong

Kong Sindhis to rent shop space in Hotels, Larry explains, because Hong

Kong hotel management are anti-Indian. This is with good reason, he feels

because Indian shops use touts when they can get away with it, and this

gives the hotel a sleezy aura. In 1987, the Hyatt Hotel on Nathan Road

decided to go up market and terminated all but two of its Indian shops with

the excuse that there were too many tailoring establishments. Sippy was

able to stay because ofa good lease, but was forced to move to an

undesireable back-corner location. Sippy continued to do well, but, by late

1992 their Hyatt shop had been replaced by a Chinese one. Business news

travels faster than a typhoon, and if is known that a local Sindhi is

responsible for dubious business practices, the whole community gives him

the cold shoulder. If he pays his bills and straightens out his

difficulties, however the community becomes friendly again. Some Sindhis

complain that others are out to do as well as possible for themselves, and

consequently business can be fiercely competitive. Those who are

successful, or hope the community will assume they are, are expected to

donate generously and publicly to worthy causes supported by Indians. The

result is impressive support by Sindhis for causes with the community, for

general Hong Kong charities, as well as for those in India. Success in

business is more important to most Sindhis than education for its own sake.

The current penchant for wealthy Sindhis to send their sons to Universities

abroad to gain business degrees stems from the desire to further the family

business and increase its prestige.

Hong Kong News

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How Come Indians in Hong Kong Are So Successful?

How Come Indians in Hong Kong Are So Successful?

The Sindhi Business Mind At Work

Contents:

The Culture

The Classes

The Prosperity

The Success

The Business Circumstance

The Risk Factor

More Risks

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