Post-Departure Paper

Post-Departure India Paper

While in India, I encountered many things that I anticipated, but I was also caught off guard by many cultural differences. I have identified five major trends: the self-happiness of Indians, the collective nature of the culture, the strength and importance of relationships, the authenticity of decisions, and the intense focus on a successful future. I will use these trends throughout the paper because I have interpreted these as being essential building blocks to Indian culture.
In the first question, I will offer my brief interpretation of Indian culture and how it has influenced me. In the second question, I will analyze how the culture influences women’s leadership. Lastly, I will investigate how the culture influences organizational and societal practices for women’s leadership. At the same time, I will comment on the ways these five trends have influenced me now that I am able to reflect on my time abroad. I experienced and learned a lot during my time in India. I will look at the overall Indian culture, and analyze how this culture affects women’s leadership through both a macro and micro lens.

1. On our long bus ride to from Jammu to Dharmasala, I had the pleasure of speaking with one of the Jammu University students, Sumit. We discussed numerous topics, but the main recurring theme that I noticed in our conversation was the importance of a clear conscience -- contentment and happiness regardless of extraneous circumstances. During our eight hour drive, we passed villages entrenched in dire poverty and Sumit mentioned that he worked with an NGO that visited such villages to spread drug abuse education, and he commented, “No matter what an Indian’s circumstances, they always remain positive and happy. They don’t want or need more than what they have.” He continued to say that people live in such communities because they don’t have any ambition to leave home or become successful. I argued that the reason he might view their communities in this light is because he happens to be privileged and cannot imagine how hard it might be for a “villager” to rise above their circumstances. Sumit looked slightly confused and assured me that the people we were passing were very content and happy with their lives. I began to think that maybe the American lens of oppression that I was using to derive my interpretations could not be used in the Indian context. This was the first time in our trip when it hit me that, not only was India a different place geographically speaking, but I was living in a place with a different way of thought, culture and way of life.
We began to speak about marriage and relationships; Sumit said that he would only date one girl, and he would marry that girl and never divorce her no matter the circumstances. “What if she was cheating on you,” I asked, to which he replied, “As long as my conscience is clear, I will remain happy and I will work harder to make her just as happy.” These answers really amazed me, and, while we weren’t speaking in relation to management styles, it is obvious that true happiness is something that eludes many businessmen/women in America. It is said that you can either be happy or reach the top echelons of success, but in India is seems that it is possible to achieve both. In America we look for happiness in materialistic things, money, success, etc. We feel complete only once we find someone to “complete us,” but in India, this feeling of wholeness comes from within.
To continue using my interaction with Sumit as an example, we also discussed family relationships. He is twenty-five years old and still lives with his family. He stated that this is a very common occurrence in India. He knew lots of people, much older than he, that still lived at home with their parents and had no urge to leave. Later in the bus ride I spoke with one of the Jammu University professors. He also confided, very unabashedly, that he lived at home with his parents as well. This reminded me of a comment made during our class with female EMPI students earlier in the week. The EMPI student asked our group how much of a role family plays in our lives. Professor Gupta asked her to clarify what she meant by family. The student responded that she meant parents. This would be surprising to most Americans because when we hear the word “family” and think about the future struggles of maintaining a family while climbing up the corporate ladder, etc., we are thinking of a husband/wife and kids, not our parents. In American culture we generally do not have the same respect and closeness to our parents. In another class we had at IILM, in which we were paired up with students from the school, I heard, once again, the disdain that some Indians hold regarding our views toward our parents. The students asked about the elderly in the US. I told him that I heard the concern from Indian students about the way we treat our parents once we move out and start our separate lives. He replied, “Yes, you guys just throw your parents into shelters and never help them.” He was talking about nursing homes; I had to admit that some families do make that choice for their parents or other family members, usually because they are very busy with work, children, etc. In America, we have a saying that “there comes a time when the baby bird has to leave its nest.” I could be wrong, but I highly doubt that Indians say this to their children. And most parents, at least in my experience, when they have to look to their children for support and to help out occasionally, feel that they are a great burden on their families; in India this is expected. It became evident that I was a visitor from an individualistic society immersed in a collectivist culture. “In-group collectivism relates to how individuals relate to their family, as an autonomous identity or alternatively as consciousness of responsibilities towards their families.” (Gannon 55) Additionally, in Hindu philosophy love of family is not merely a purpose in itself but a way to the final goal of life.
The strong focus on the future for Indians is putting a lot of developed nations, such as America, on edge, as it is feared we will eventually fall behind Indians in the education realm and business sectors. Indians are extremely intelligent and have an intense focus on education and career paths. In each of the universities visited, Indian students unanimously voiced that they attended school six days a week from morning until late in the evening, and still get an equal amount of homework as compared to most American students. Another surprise to me was that none of the students I spoke with were in a girlfriend/boyfriend relationship. Sumit is twenty-five and never has had a girlfriend. This would be hard to cope with and even embarrassing for a twenty-five year old American male, but in India, everyone is so focused on their studies that most don’t consider serious relationships, marriage, etc. until after they finish the appropriate schooling (master’s level). In India: Dance of the Shiva, Gannon calls this the first stage of life. “The prime responsibility in life during this stage is to learn. Besides, knowledge, the student is supposed to develop a strong character and good habits and emerge equipped to produce a good and effective life.”(53) While the students we spoke with were older and studying for a more advanced degree, it was still fascinating to hear the detailed timelines and goals they had planned out for their lives. During our post-departure presentations at Simmons after our return, I heard many of the girls say that they were extremely shocked by the very detailed plans Indians have for their lives. I didn’t notice this at first because I have specific life and career plans, but after the presentations I saw that this clarity for the future deeply impacted my peers.
During our combined class with the female students at EMPI, I saw, written across a small chalkboard, “Nothing is impossible, for impossible himself says, “I’m possible.” At first I thought that this was just a witty line that an EMPI professor came up with but then Sumit repeated this same line to me during a conversation. I realized that the saying went far beyond EMPI.
If I were asked, I could not articulate how Indian culture has influenced me. What I took away from India cannot be put into words; it is a feeling. I never thought that I would travel abroad, and I thought if I did it would be a horrible experience, but one that I would appreciate later in life. This is what I expected from India. In contrast, throughout the entire duration of my stay I felt completely at home and at peace. Not once did I wish to be back in America; this was a very big deal for me. India welcomed me with open arms and I felt at home even while being on the other side of the world.

2. I used some of the five trends to dissect the way that Indian culture influences women and leadership:
Relationships are, in my mind, the “glue” of Indian society. The strength of relationships were mirrored everywhere we went and by everyone we spoke to during our trip. The importance could be seen at every entrance we made and the ways we were treated, particularly in comparison to America.
Parents and families are very important facets to the Indian culture. With the exception of the two women from our last panel, Asha Goyal, Vice President of Quality at IBM and neurosurgeon Uma Nambiar, everyone we heard from credited their families for their success. Charu Jain, CEO of Merusri Fashion from our NILM panel said “100% of credit [for her success] goes to her parents.” Sudha Gupta, from the same conference said, “ I was nothing. My husband was my biggest strength for me.” This family connection is not only important because its provides authenticity and support for women leaders in India, but also because, as we learned at the Fulbright Center, that most women “at the top” are running family businesses that were passed on to them by their fathers. “A recent study on family business conducted by Grant Thorton found that 46 percent of Indian business felt that their successor should come from their family whereas only 24 percent of European and 22 percent of North Americans subscribed to this view.” (Rajesh 41) This is a major way that women find success in the Indian business world, when they can’t or choose not to start their own business. In contrast it can also be a burden to women that do have entrepreneurial aspirations. Women in very traditional Indian families can do little to stop this cycle. “The family structure is hierarchical with key decisions being made by the head of the family. Such hierarchy is usually accepted by the younger members of the family, as it is accompanied by benevolent paternalism.” (Rajesh 40) This strong desire to maintain family relations could have repercussion throughout Indian culture. In the Economic Times: Igniting Women and Entrepreneurship, columnist, Bijapurkar states that women’s entrepreneurship is the key in increasing economic and social conditions in India.
“The new buzz in the conference circuit is the arithmetic argument that there could be a big GDP boost if more Indian women became economically active (77% of urban housewives, 60% of rural do not work outside the home). To me, a more compelling pay off of women earning is the resultant increase in their self-esteem and negotiating power with family and society and the resultant social and human development benefits. More importantly, if we could get the poor and the ill-educated women to earn their own money, we would have more warriors in the fight against poverty, and more champions of the girl child.
The only problem, as always in India, is how do we make this happen? Conventional job creation will not happen as fast as we need it to, and poor and less educated women will find it increasingly tough to have a shot at those fewer jobs. The only way to fix this is entrepreneurship, enabling them to become economically active at an income level that makes the effort worthwhile. ”

It was clear to me during our visit, after witnessing the high respect given to women entrepreneurs, that these women hold the key to the future of India. Entrepreneurial businesses are the best way for women to succeed given the patriarchic history of many business sectors in India.
Relationships extend beyond just the family. In India, it is important to create strong relationships with everyone as you climb up the success ladder. This is one of the ways India exhibits its collectivist culture. Women in India use their strong relational qualities to their full advantage and use networking groups of other women for support, encouragement, and money, and to cultivate ideas/business plans.
Relationships with women who are role models are very important for future women leaders. One such example is Mandanjeet Singh, a graduate from Jammu University’s Entrepreneurship Development Program for Rural Women. Mandanjeet had to work hard to gain her father’s approval to further her education. Thankfully, he agreed and Mandanjeet stayed at Jammu University for a year and studied computer literacy, vocational training, junior management, accounting, general English, marketing and entrepreneurship, in addition to agarian and craft techniques. Upon graduation, Mandanjeet returned to her village and started a family mushroom cultivation business that, at the time of our visit, had flourished. Mandanjeet was the first woman from her village to be educated and now every girl from Nud Village is sent to school because of Mandanjeet’s position as a role model for all the women. Nud Village is now run entirely by women entrepreneurs.
Women in India prefer jobs in which they can use their strong relational capabilites. While at the Fulbright Center, one of our panelists, Samir, said that “banking is the preferred place for women to work, and it has grown phenomenally since liberation.” Why banking? Samir said that there were “clean times” offered to women, meaning no overtime and very steady hours. It is also a relatively new business in India so it doesn’t carry a bad past of oppression with it. The main reason Samir gave was that there was more customer interaction. He alluded to the fact that women work better in environments were they have to maintain relationships with clients, partners, etc.
To conclude with a quote once again from Sudha Gupta, “having beautiful relationships are at the core of every women’s success.”
Another major theme that I identifed was the usuage of authentic decision making by women entreprenuers. I based these findings on our two women entrepreneurship panels, one at the University of Jammu and the other at the NILM Business School in New Delhi. At the Jammu Conference three out of five women left cushy jobs in finance, bureaucracy and other major businesses to pursue more fulfilling careers. The fashion designer Charu Jain from NILM was the CEO and founder of two very successful businesses, but she decided to sell them because she wanted to do something that was authentic to her. This shocked me the most, because so many would assume that such an authentic nature would be more prevalent in America. Regardless, each of the women speaking in the forums hit one point after another that I learned in classes such as Socially Minded Leadership for Women, here at Simmons. This led me to question if America does have a greater “old boys network” that keeps women from being authentic and gaining self-clarity more so than in India.
At the panel in New Delhi we heard from three women entrepreneurs. The first was Sudha Gupta, Creator of Mother’s Pride. She created a school for 7500 students and with 1100 teachers. She shared with us seven key factors that benefited her success: loving herself, believing in her abilities, being courageous, accepting things the way they are, finding success in failure, being okay with problems and always embodying integrity. I found that all of these factors have authenticity and self-clarity deeply embedded in them. Additionally, she made sure to note that no matter how busy her schedule became, she would never work more than 40 hours per week because she always makes time for her family. While her career focus is clear, and she is successful, she has yet to lose focus on what means most to her and what makes her a whole person.
The next speaker, Rita Sehgal from the Association for the Welfare of Handicapped, re-iterated some similar points. To connect with her inner self and to maintain her authenticity she likes to take long walks alone to allow time to clear her mind.
The last speaker, Charu Jain, started two successful thriving companies, SoftSol Inc.and SMC International, companies that were making lots of money and would have had her and her family financially set for life. But Ms. Jain sold her companies because she knew that she had to be true to herself. And after selling those two companies she started MeruSri, a fashion line, and she did this despite having no training in fashion or fashion design.
While the idea of leaving a very secure job might seem rather radical in the US or anywhere else for that matter, in the Jammu panel two out of five women did just that. One left a cushy job in finance to start a nursery; the other left a job in a huge corporation to start a community organization. To make such a huge change takes an immense amount of courage and, once again, authenticity and self-clarity. This also relates to something that happened earlier in our trip, when Jammu University took us to Nud village to meet a woman, Mandanjeet Singh. With the skills previously mentioned and backing by the university, Madanjeet would probably have been able to leave her family and start a business outside of her village. Instead, immediately upon graduation she went back to her village and started a mushroom cultivation business with her family
This theme wasn’t something that I was expecting to hear from the women in India. I assumed that women’s rights and progression would be so far behind that of the US that women would have to conform and fight to succeed, which some do, but most the women we heard from painted a different picture. They do not feel that they have to shy away from who they are or what they stand for and that is particularly true in management and leadership.

3. The culture of India also influences organizational and societal practices for women’s leadership. We saw this best expressed when visiting Evalueserve in New Delhi. One of the human resource employees answering our questions about the business kept repeating that they were not feminists. They didn’t believe in setting up business practices (or they didn’t consciously know they were) that would benefit women only. This is in stark contrast to the majority feeling held in liberal America. American women feel that they have been illegitimally denied many rights and benefits in history and that they need certain accommodations in the corporate world to correct the wrong. As I was listening to the Evalueserve lecture, I was thinking this way, and thought that the woman was really uneducated about women’s rights, effective ways to manage women, etc., but after hearing from more women throughout our stay, my mind changed. Women from panel discussions commented constantly that they are equal to men, and that men are neither better nor worse than women, and they do not want to have any greater accommodations made because of their gender. Neurosurgeon Uma Nambiar said that the only difference between men and women is that “women cannot deposit sperm.” Even at the end of our panel discussion at NILM on Women’s Day, after the students shouted out, “Happy Women’s Day,” one of the women entrepreneurs said, “Yes, but don’t forget the men!” I began to ponder what could make organizational practices so different that women were, in fact, able to thrive in Indian organizational culture.
The culture of India designates that from a young age, children are not shown any differences between girls and boys. In America, we are constantly designating gender stereotypes to our children. I am reminded of a personal experience, from visiting with my family in South Carolina for Christmas. One of my young boy cousins received a toy gun that shoots out a small rubber ball; he was running around the house shooting at everyone. My family was laughing and roughhousing with him, validating his aggressive behavior. Meanwhile, his sister received a pocketbook and she was walking around the room, imitating how she had seen her mother sling it around her forearm. My aunts were shouting at her to take some lipstick from her pocketbook, and she began to pretend to line her lips with make-up. This is just one example of how; at an age when even language cannot be fully comprehended, we are differentiating gender in America. India is vastly different in this respect. This debate came to a forefront at our last panel discussion at EMPI with Asha Goyal and Uma Nambiar. Uma Nambiar said that all she remembered from childhood is playing outside with her siblings, both male and female. In fact, she states that the first time she ever heard a gender differentiating comment was when she was studying in America. One of her male peers asked her how she thought that she could succeed as a female and neurosurgeon. Our debate livened as a dean from EMPI said that he thought America was “going too far with political correctness.”
So because this façade of gender equality exists, it only makes sense that organizations, such as Evalueserve, say that they don’t practice feminism.
By contrast the PowerPoint presentation presented to us by Evalueserve employees detailed many organizational policies that mirror those of liberal American corporations. They offer: flextime, paid maternity leave, chauffeured rides home for female employees working late, and mentors. It seems that because the women’s education and the feminist movement might not be as prevalent in the society as in America, that it might not be recognized as feminist policies just because the terminology is not fully understood.
An important point was raised during our post-departure presentations by Dean Deborah Merrill-Sands was that we should not take the words given to us by all women in organizations as gospel. She stated that this same idea that men and women are equal and there is not a difference in treatment, on account of gender, by organizations was used prior to the feminist movement of the 1970s in America. She stated that there are several stages that women go through, when fighting for equality; her thought is that now India is in the middle of the assimilation stage. After some debate, we determined that the younger women we heard from did acknowledge the fact that it is a much harder struggle for women than men in business. Charu Jain proved this true several times throughout her speech. The first time was when she acknowledged that the glass ceiling does exist for women in India. She also said, “being young and being a woman were two negatives.” We found this very interesting because Ms. Jain comes from a technical background, as did IBM employee Ms. Goyal, but Ms. Goyal, who is an older woman, said that she experienced zero prejudice during her tenure with the company. So our class (and guests) came to the conclusion that it was more of a generation disparity and, thankfully, the younger generation is moving beyond the assimilation stage. As noted by the Economic Times of India: She Deserves A lot More, Doesn’t She? “The progress of the women’s movement in India has been excruciatingly slow, but the momentum of change seems to be picking up, if only in terms of legislation. In the last decade alone, a slew of pro-women Acts were passed, the latest being the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act adopted in October 2006. What’s important is that the Act gives civil relief to the victim by ensuring the woman’s right to secure housing instead of just punishing the culprit.” (Nagarajan) Once again, I feel that older generations did not get the same women’s rights education so they just might not recognize subtle discrimination, which is usually what occurs in organizations; it is generally very entrenched and can be hard to detect.
To conclude, my time in India was irreplaceable. I learned an extreme amount about a culture that, before this class, I knew nothing about beyond the recognition of the name Gandhi. Now I feel an extreme connection to all of the people and culture of India. I was amazed at how genuine the main themes of the culture are. It is almost hard to imagine living in a country where love for family and self-contentment are the main virtues. I was also very pleased with the progress that women are making in India. It was really shocking to see that women characteristics and routes to achieve success are similar and connected throughout the world. The Assistant to the Prime Minister, who spoke to us at NILM Business School, called Indians “a unique human race. India has not invaded any country, even though we were invaded 4,000 times, and Delhi was destroyed 200 times. What a strength and life force this country is having. No other country would be able to build after ten invasions. The world has a lot to learn from India; that’s why this country is surviving.” The Assistant to the Prime Minister is correct, India is a unique place that we will hear a lot from in the future. As I conclude this paper, I am reminded of some words I noticed etched in the wood of a desk at IILM, during our discussion with their students. It said “live life happy.” And no matter what conclusions we come to about India and our experiences during our study abroad, it can be agreed in unison that Indians are living their lives happily.