Religion and Business Practices

Religion has always been understood in a contextual form. Every person has his or her own understanding of religion. Geographical boundaries, languages, economy, literacy levels and form or government usually shapes up the popular understanding of religion in a country of region. There are many religions being practised in this world which have different belief and expression systems. The only visibly common factor is the concept of an invisible power, that either directly or indirectly preaches the most suitable way of leading a human life.

Does religious belief regulate the way we do business? Has religion or belief system got any influence on the business practices an organization, a department or an economy follows? Relating it to my nationality – Is there an Indian or a Hindu way of doing business? Why, if true, the Indian way of doing business is different, and whether it is affected by their belief system?


All these questions need to be answered. I have been a dedicated follower of an eminent writer and speaker in India – Dr. Devdutt Pattnaik, who has been successful in explaining it to the world, about the different business lessons that can be traced in Indian scriptures. Up to an extent the knowledge he has shared in his talks and books sounds mind-boggling to an Indian mind who can easily relate it to his religion. What about the other audience, which first needs to be introduced to the Indian way of thinking before being taught the Indian way of business? Is there a way or a model through which the Indian way can be understood by the rest of the world? Here the importance is of the word- ‘Model’ or sometimes a ‘Template’ through which theories can be explained or replicated and are easily understood by a Western Mind.

Much of this difference of perspectives in doing business lies in the belief system of the people. On one hand, where people follow the commandments in the West and anything outside or against it is a sin; whereas in India the same act can or cannot be a sin depending upon the context. So there is a very obvious difference in the way people think in India, which gets filtered down to the business practices.
Hinduism has many big scriptures and many intellectuals have provided their own interpretations on this vast subject. My curiosity is to find out the implicit meaning of many incidences in Hindu scriptures that relate straight to the practices in business. There are some unpolished theories published on the subject are, and so, it will be great to extend these theories and give them a shape of a more understandable and more replicable research. There can be a variety of approaches that can be followed in studying this subject. My approach will be of referring to people, since it is the people that made belief systems and religions.

Although, because of the colonial rule of around 200 years, the education system of India is completely westernised, yet after reading the same books and attaining similar degrees, the difference of modus operandi lies somewhere else. Some people claim that, it is because of cultural difference, whereas my opinion is, that culture is a by-product of belief and religion. The people who do business with or alongside Indians will notice the difference in working very clearly.

As a person, who wishes to indulge into research in business, it is interesting to develop something more organized to understand the Indian way of doing business. The way people think and from where this thinking originated. There are many questions that arise in my mind, when I think about being different from the rest of the world due to an ‘invisible force’ - belief. The classifications mentioned above, about geographical boundaries, languages, economy, literacy levels and form or government, have their roots in history, and history is the place where religions developed.

Researching on topics like this will be of great learning and motivation. It will be a path-breaking area of study which will involve in-depth study of business theories, religious scriptures and understanding of belief systems of different people. Besides these there will be a big round of feedbacks that will have to be collected from people who have done business with and in India, people who have Indian colleagues and people who have Indian spouses. 

The revelations made in the study will establish the Indian way of doing business in the Western minds and would be a great way to have ‘cultural competence’ between countries and individuals. Problems of expatriate failures, cultural empathy and cross-cultural relations will get a new dimension through the study.