The rise of Guru Inc: How India’s holy men became tycoons at the forefront of local manufacturing boom
India’s modern gurus defy the stereotype of men who opt out of worldly occupations and meditate for days – instead, they own large swathes of real estate, hoard untaxed wealth and gold and drive luxury cars.
For more than a decade, the orange-robed guru Baba Ramdev hosted a popular TV show, showing millions of Indians how to breathe correctly, eat herbs and knot themselves into impossible yoga postures.
Ramdev, 50, always augmented his talks with a diatribe about the dominance of foreign companies in India.
Today, the guru of good health is a business magnate himself. His ashram manufactures hundreds of herbal and organic products including soap, shampoo, cleaners, juice and honey. The company, called Patanjali, is worth more than US$600 million, Ramdev says.
This makes the multinational companies sweat. Why? Have we untied and let loose their buffaloes?
Some call it Guru Inc – the rise of businesses run by gurus and holy men. Buoyed by the popularity of religious television programming in the past decade, many spiritual leaders in India are starting their own product lines, tapping into the renewed faith in the country’s ancient knowledge systems such as yoga and ayurveda.
In the past year, Patanjali has become the fastest-growing consumer product company in India, with plans to quadruple the number of manufacturing plants by year’s end.
“Our goal is not to build a brand. The brand is just a by-product,” Ramdev said at a news conference in New Delhi this month. “We want that Indians’ wealth should remain here; it should not be taken out of the country. This makes the multinational companies sweat. Why? Have we untied and let loose their buffaloes?”
Ramdev is one of the most visible success stories of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “Make in India” movement – a push to boost indigenous manufacturing that includes India’s ayurvedic and yoga market, a US$490 billion industry.