Gujaratis in Diamond Industry

choi

(1) Dan Bilefsky, Indians Unseat Antwerp's Jews As the Biggest Diamond Traders; Lower-cost production in Bombay, Gujarat has facilitated the change. Wall Street Journal, May 28, 2003.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB105389295228553000

Quote:

Indians, "among other things, aren't required by their religion to close their businesses from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday. * * * And in the retail-jewelry sector, some secular Jews are breaking ranks with the Hasidim and keeping their businesses open on the Sabbath.

Indians "have reinvigorated the jewelry districts in New York and Hong Kong * * * In the global diamond world, Indians have been so successful that they are challenging Jewish dealers, even in Tel Aviv. About 80% of all polished diamonds sold world-wide pass through Indian hands.

"In Antwerp, Indians' share of the $26 billion-a-year (€22 billion) diamond revenues has grown to roughly 65% from about 25% in the past 20 years, while the Jewish share has fallen to about 25% from 70%, according to both Indian and Jewish consultants who study the global-diamond trade.

"Antwerp, a Flemish port city of 500,000 people known for its hip fashion designers and conservative politics, is the most important diamond-trading center in the world. About 90% of the world's uncut diamonds, and half of its polished diamonds, are sold here each year.

"The Jewish diamond trade in Antwerp goes back to the 15th century, when Jews expelled from Spain and Portugal settled in what is now Belgium. * * * the [diamond] industry all but disappeared during World War II

"Mr [a pioneer diamond trader at Antwerp Ramesh] Mehta says Jain and Jewish cultures share qualities that make them well-suited to the diamond business: Both value kinship, hard work and cross-border networking, useful qualities in a global industry that depends on wheeling and dealing. Most Jain businesses are operated by families spread across the world. Many of the families come from Palanpur, in north India, and share the surnames Mehta, Jhavari and Shah.

"Indians like Mr [Antwerp's local trader Bharat] Shah gained a commercial edge over the Jews by sending their rough diamonds for finishing work to family-owned factories in Bombay and the northern Indian state of Gujarat, where labor costs are as much as 80% lower than in Antwerp. Even after paying for transportation there and back, the Indians made out better than the Jews, who until recently polished and cut their diamonds locally.

Note:
(a) "In what was once a predominantly Jewish neighborhood near Antwerp's central station, young Indians in Armani suits haggle with Hasidic diamond buyers in long black coats, side curls and skullcaps."

payot
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Payot
(is the Hebrew word for sidelocks or sidecurls; worn by some men and boys in the Orthodox Jewish community; There are different styles of payot

(b) "The city, which even has a trolley stop called Diamant, is home to 1,500 retail and wholesale diamond companies and four diamond exchanges. One of the oldest, the Beurs voor Diamanthandel, was founded by Jews in 1904."
(i) Dutch English dictionary:
* diamant (noun masculine): "diamond"
* The Dutch noun has exactly the same meaning and etymology as its English counterpart
bourse (noun; Middle French for purse; from Medieval Latin bursa): "stock exchange"
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bourse
* voor (preposition): "for, of"
* handel (noun masculine): "trade"
* hovenier (noun): "gardener"
* straat (noun): "street"
(ii) Dutch grammar
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_grammar
(Standard Dutch has three genders: masculine, feminine and neuter. However in large parts of the Netherlands there is no grammatical distinction between what were originally masculine and feminine genders, and there is only a distinction between common and neuter)

(c) "Large groups of Hasidim assemble on Hoveniersstraat and talk into their mobile phones, giving the neighborhood the atmosphere of a modern-day shtetl -- a traditional Jewish village of Eastern Europe.  But more and more, it feels like Bombay."
(i) shtetl
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shtetl
(ii) pronunciation of shtetl
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/shtetl

(d) "The Indian traders began arriving [at Antwerp] in the 1970s, drawn by the lucrative diamond business and Belgium's liberal immigration laws. They are also religious, practicing Jainism, an Indian religion that emphasizes nonviolence, vegetarianism and respect for all living creatures.

Jainism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jainism
(section 1 Etymology; "rejects the idea of a creator or destroyer god * * * does not teach the dependency on any supreme being for enlightenment" -- in other words, no god)
(e) Following quotation 7: "Mr Shah notes that Indians have been trading diamonds for centuries. India, where the world's first diamonds were discovered in 800 BC, provided most of the world's supply until the 18th-century diamond rushes in South Africa and Brazil."

Diamond History and Lore. Gemological Institute of America Inc (a nonprofit organization based in Carlsbad, Calif), undated
http://www.gia.edu/diamond-history-lore
*"The world’s love of diamonds had its start in India, where diamonds were gathered from the country’s rivers and streams. Some historians estimate that India was trading in diamonds as early as the fourth century BC. The country’s resources yielded limited quantities for an equally limited market: India’s very wealthy classes")
(f) "In Antwerp, Jews and Indians are so embedded in each other's lives that * * * Jewish dealers know how to fix a good cup of chai, the sweet, milky tea drunk by the gallon by Indian traders.

chai
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chai

Most likely, this WSJ report alludes to "Masala chai," whose Wiki page has section 3 Ingredients; section 3.4 Sweetener)
(g) " 'I only hope my son has a business partner who is such a mensche,' he [Isaac Keesje, a Jewish diamond dealer at Antwerp] says, using the Yiddish word for a good human being."

mensche (n; Yiddish for human being): "a person of integrity and honor"
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mensch
(h) "Mr Mehta says the Indians are philosophical about their success."

philosophical (adj): "characterized by the attitude of a philosopher; specifically :  calm or unflinching in the face of trouble, defeat, or loss"
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/philosophical

choi

(2) Kathryn Lum, The rise and rise of Belgium’s Indian diamond dynasties. The Conversation, Oct 16, 2014
http://theconversation.com/the-r ... ond-dynasties-32332

Quote:

"As you look along the names on the office doors [of diamond traders in Antwerp], what is striking are the names. Whereas a generation ago, the vast majority of them were Jewish, today, a significant majority are of Indian, and in particular, Gujarati origin. Names like Mehta and Patel are particularly common.

"The diamond industry cannot enforce written contracts * * * It operates on credit, relies on trust, and hence favours tightly knit community and family-based business networks. * * * [Jews and Gujaratis] operate along similar lines * * * In the Gujarati case however, an additional source of community cohesion, support and solidarity comes from their caste community.

"However, when we speak about Gujaratis in the diamond industry in Antwerp, we are in fact referring to just two communities which have come to dominate the trade – the Palanpuri Jains and the Katiawadi Patels. The latter are a community that in just one generation has distinguished itself with a dizzying rate of social mobility. The Katiawadi Patels were once agricultural labourers who moved to Surat (Gurjarat’s [sic; should be Gujarat's] diamond polishing centre), in order to escape drought. They started off as cutters and polishers, but quickly moved up the ranks and over time accumulated enough capital to open their own factories.

My comment:
(a) There is no need to read the rest of this report.
(b) The Conversation (website)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Conversation_(website)
(an independent, not-for-profit media outlet that uses content sourced from the academic and research community; Headquarters         Melbourne, Australia)

Its first, Australian edition launch in 2011.
(c) For "Katiawadi Patels," see Kathiawar
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathiawar
(also written Kathiawad or Kattywar; a peninsula; section 1 Etymology and history)
(d) "The growing prominence of the Katiawadi Patel community has led to tension in India´s diamond trading centre of Mumbai. In a recent hotly contested decision to move operations to Surat, where rent is cheaper, the diamond community was divided between the Palanpuri Jains, who prefer to remain in Mumbai, versus the Patels who pushed strongly to shift to Surat."

Mumbai is the capital of Maharashtra state. The state is the souothern neighbor of Gujarat.
(e) "The Gujarati-dominated diamond industry has recently been receiving more attention from one of their own, India’s new PM Narendra Modi."

Modi was born in 1950 in the present-day Gujarat, and was Chief Minister of Gujarat (2001-2014).