the fluid boundaries of internal colonialism

as sanjaya baru says, hyderabad's limited growth is impressive because it was not established business houses, large groups that represented mature industrial capital even before 1947 or 1956, which drove the growth in the city. when you think of hyderabad, you don't think of any of these large business families:

1) Tatas 2) Birlas 3) Martin Burn 4) Bangur 5) Thapar 6) Sahu Jain 7) Shriram 8) Bill Heilgers 9) JK Singhania 10) Sarabhai 11) Walchand 12) Surajmul Nagarmul 13) Goenka 14) Mafatlal 15) Andrew Yule 16) Amalgamations 17) Jardine Henderson 18) Bajaj 19) BIC 20) MacNeil Barry 21) Lalbhai 22) Binny 23) Killick 24) Rallis 25) Kilachand 26) Swedish Match 27) TVS 28) Balmer Lawrie 29) GD Kothari 30) Kirloskar 31) A&F Harvey 32) Mahindra 33) Modi 34) Scindia 35) Vissanji 36) BN Elias 37) Turner Morrison 38) Jai Dayal Dalmia 39) Parry 40) Wadia 41) Thiagaraja 42) Jaipuria 43) Ruia 44) Bhagirath Kanoria 45) GV Naidu 46) Thackersey 47) Khatau 48) Mangaldas Parekh 49)Amin 50) Seshasayee.

found that interesting list of top 50 indian business families from around 45 years ago (1964, to be exact) in this interesting article by gita piramal on the fluctuating fortunes of big business in india. you'll notice, hyderabad had no major role to play in the fortunes of those big business houses at any point of time in the last 60 years. none of them started or grew in the city, had/have corporate offices in the city. none of them had/have any major manufacturing plants in the city, apart from a stray plant or two.

moving ahead by 45 years, we come to this list of top 100 'most trusted' brands in the country, according to this survey by the economic times:

1) Nokia 2) Colgate 3) Lux 4) Lifebuoy 5) Dettol 6) Horlicks 7) Tata salt 8) Pepsodent 9) Brittania 10) Reliance mobile 11) Close-Up 12) Airtel 13) State Bank of India 14) Glucon D 15) Clinic Plus 16) Pond's 17) LIC 18) Fair & Lovely 19) BSNL 20) LG 21) Good Knight 22) Parle Products 23) Bisleri 24) Tata Tea 25) Vicks 26) Pepsi 27) Ariel 28) Dabur 29) Frooti
30) Vodafone 31) Mirinda 32) Coca-Cola 33) Hero Honda 34) Bournvita 35) Maggi 36) Bata 37) Tata Indicom 38) Sony 39) Thums Up 40) Titan 41) Surf 42) Philips 43) RIN 44) Godrej 45) Videocon 46) Maaza 47) Amul 48) Samsung 49) Johnson & Johnson 50) Head & Shoulders 51) Complan 52) Sunsilk 53) Samsung Mobile Phones 54) Fevicol 55) Iodex 56) All Out 57) LG Mobile Phones 58) Limca 59) Cadbury 60) Fanta 61) Rasna 62) Zandu Balm 63) Dabur Amla 64) Onida 65) Asian Paints 66) Cinthol 67) Moov 68) Sony Ericssion 69) 7 Up 70) Hajmola 71) Amrutanjan Balm 72) Tide 73) Pantene 74) Vim 75) Wheel 76) Parachute 77) Boroplus 78) Boost 79) Vaseline 80) Mortein 81) Motorola 82) Maruti 83) Rexona 84) Dove 85) Sonata Watches 86) Sunfeast 87) Nirma 88) Crocin 89) Medimix 90) Ujala 91) VIP Luggage 92) Bank of India 93) HMT 94) Sprite 95) Pears 96) Boroline 97) Big Bazaar 98) ICICI Bank 99) Nestle 100) Bajaj Motorcycles.

you'd notice the same feature again: you'd not associate the city of hyderabad with any of those brands (like you'd think of bajaj-pune, godrej-mumbai, titan-bangalore etc). none of them have corporate offices in the city, or major manufacturing facilities (except for hmt). some of the consumer non-durable brands are partly produced in local plants, but many of them depend on contract manufacturers now. most of the producers of the service brands have only operational/sales and service facilities in the city. (please let me know if you have better information).

as you can see, hyderabad's growth has been very limited, and the separatists need to seriously think about who they should thank for even that little industrial progress. also, a large number of wise men supporting separation have been talking about internal colonialism. perhaps, they need to rethink on what they mean by that because, for all those large indian business houses in the first list, and for the producers of the brands in the second list, hyderabad (and andhra pradesh) had/has been primarily a market. perhaps, they should get out of their very insulated perches in the elite universities that every subject and coloniser in india helped build, and get some fresh air. perhaps, they should stop being small people talking big.