Author: Business Sutra Devdutt Pattanaik
Publisher: Aleph Books, Rs695
Most management theories are lopsided as they are solely based on the Western framework. Over a cup of coffee with Utpal Kumar, Devdutt Pattanaik explains why we need an Indian approach to management, why we don’t follow rules within the country and why it’s a myth to call Hindus other-worldly
Devdutt Pattanaik, for me, was a mythbuster — or one should say myth interpreter. He would often cite a verse or two from traditional Hindu texts and show us how wrong we were interpreting them literally. He would quote the Mahabharata and the Ramayana as if he were born reading them. But hold on, Pattanaik has read these books only as a hobby while he was the student of medicine. “I read medicine for food, and mythology for mind,” he says.
Today the author of books like Myth = Mithya, Jaya: The Illustrated Retelling of the Mahabharata, 7 Secrets of Shiva, among others, is on a different mission: He now comes across as a management guru, telling us how the field of management — till date a preserve of the Western framework — needs to have an Indian approach.
From mythology to management, isn’t it a long journey for PattanaikIJ “It is an obvious journey, instead,” he insists. “I am not an MBA, but have worked in several companies with the management background. While working there, I realised that most management problems had solutions in mythology. So I started writing four years ago. And here I am with the book, Business Sutra.”
It took Pattanaik a while to realise that classical management was actually a product of Western mythology. “Funny part is that even Western institutions don’t acknowledge their own mythology. In Harvard University, for instance, when management is taught, it is never said that it is based on Greek, Biblical or Protestant mythology. Probably they don’t know it. They are convinced that their approach is rational and objective,” says he.
Pattanaik believes that Western mythology-based management can’t be applied universally. “Chinese mythology is different. So is Indian,” he says, reiterating there are many ways of running a business. Every business school across the world is teaching one correct way of management it regards as true. “Till a few years ago, the Western model was perceived to be universal, but economic meltdown has made people challenge this notion. They have realised that they are missing something.”
The classical management structure is Western in nature. So in today’s globalised world, the question arises: Can a management approach so Western in nature work in IndiaIJ Shouldn’t it incorporate ideas from Indian and Chinese mythologiesIJ Says Pattanaik, “At least, the world knows a bit about China, thanks to Sun Tzu’s The Art of War, but there’s complete lack of information about traditional Indian practices. There are a few philosophical texts, along with the Arthashastra, but these are not mythologies.”
So what’s the difference between the East and the WestIJ “When we look at Indian mythology — be it Hindu, Buddhist or Jaina — we find new ways of looking at business. Our approach changes. Indian approach is both profit-related as well as people-centric, while Western approach is profit-centric, thus turning people into mere resources,” says Pattanaik. He elaborates this argument when he says that in India, you can get away by breaking rules because we value people and are more than willing to adjust. Also, this country, unlike Singapore or Switzerland, is so diverse that one rule can’t be good enough for everyone. “In the West, which is homogenous, rules are paramount and can be implemented strictly. If you don’t follow rules there, you are in trouble. But India is complex. As one goes through the epics of India, there are rule-following heroes (Ram) as well as rule-following villains (Duryodhan), the rule-breaking heroes (Krishna) as well as rule-breaking villains (Ravan). Thus, here goodness and righteousness has nothing to do with rules; they are at best functional, depending on the context they can be upheld or broken. This explains why we don’t value rules and systems in our own country, but adhere when we go abroad.”
Pattanaik is sincere in rehabilitating mythology in the arena of management, but knows it’s a tough task. “There is distrust for mythology and it has historical reasons. After the scientific revolution in the 16th century, anything not logical or mathematical was considered inferior. Also, symbolic thinking was seen with suspicion by many people, particularly left-wing thinkers who were abhorred to find the interpretation of symbolic literature being the monopoly of the Church. So, myth was meant to be illogical and false,” says the author.
Things, however, are changing for good now. “In the post-modern era, all ‘rational’ thoughts are believed to be based on assumptions and presumptions which are subjective. So, the Western framework is just another kind of myth. This also means that every kind of myth is just another kind of truth. Unlike in the past, today we are saying that your myth is myth, my myth is also myth. We are all myths, but this is difficult to swallow. After all, for 100 years the West has survived on this assumption,” says he.
Myths aren’t always to be taken literally. They have what Pattanaik calls codes which must be decoded to understand the real meaning. “When someone says that ocean parted, you can take it literally. Or you can see it as an idea of something impossible happening. Also, take the example Draupadi’s chir haran. You are entitled to believe that lord Krishna appeared to save her, but you can also explain it by saying that so devastating was the scene that even nature protested. It’s like poetry.”
Pattanaik is equally annoyed with epithets like ‘other-worldly’ for Hindus which, he believes, is again a Western construct. “They couldn’t understand the Indian complexities, so the easiest way was to call them exotic, other-worldly, etc. But the fact remains that we are the most pragmatic, worldly people in the world. No one does lakshmi-ninda (lakshmi-bashing) in this country. Even among Buddhists, Goddess lakshmi has a place of pride among a host of deities. In fact, the very divide of wealth and spirituality is a Western framework; this doesn’t work in India,” says he.