The Polyester Prince - A banned book about Reliance’s history
Credits: Amazon.com
Written by Australian Journalist Hamish McDonald, the book was never allowed to publish in India
The Rothschilds of the USA were famous for their involvement in various conspiracy theories. The family was in hereditary business from the early 17th century. From the early to the mid-19th century they were the wealthiest people in the world. The mentioning of the Rothschild is of importance as they had the same tactic and impact the Ambanis had in India.
Background of Dhirubhai and the book
Dhirubhai was born as the son of a schoolmaster who belonged to the Modh Bania community from Gujarat. In financial aspects, he was poor and he had ambitions to opt for schooling and higher education. After his struggle in Gujarat, he after his brother went to Yemen.
Dhirubhai Ambani rose to dominance in Aden, Yemen. He went to Aden as a teenager and did minor jobs in A. Besse & Co. He, alongside his elder brother Ramniklal together worked in A. Besse & Co. After establishing himself there, he came to India.
After arriving in India, Dhirubhai alongside Champaklal Damani started Reliance in the 1960s. In 1963, Dhirubhai had the sole ownership of the company and he soon started to spread the company in various verticals, primarily Polyester.
Dhirubhai after returning from Aden established his factory and offices in Gujarat and Mumbai respectively. He was in rivalry for the flourishing polyester business in India with Nusli Wadia who started the Bombay Dyeing.
Why the book was banned?
The Polyester Prince revolves around Dhirubhai’s life in Aden and his return to India and the establishment of the polyester business. Hamish McDonald records each and every business, social and political aspect of Dhirubhai’s life in India.
Not only the sales of the book but the publishing of the original text was banned in India.
As Hamish writes in the book, Dhirubhai’s contacts in the Government, viz. with the Prime Minister, Finance Minister and other politicians gave him an edge over Wadia’s Bombay Dyeing. The book records the interviews and events where Dhirubhai was given the license in 3 months (Wadia was given the same in 2 years) and his evasion of taxes and other public finances.
Controversies started to gather around Ambani and Reliance
Hamish records in the book how Ambani played his little tactics in disturbing the business of his rivals, mainly Nusli Wadia’s. In one of the chapters, Hamish writes that how Reliance planned to kill Wadia by plotting a murder. In the plan, Reliance’s PR head Kirti Ambani was the mastermind. As the plan failed, the story of the plan reached out to the masses only to be suppressed later.
In the 1990s Reliance Industries Ltd. was flourishing in the Stock market and this caught the eyes of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). SEBI later found that RIL was issuing duplicate shares and this helped the company in earning some internal profits.
Acting on this stiffly, SEBI issued a notice to RIL. In reply to the notice, RIL stated that they would de-register themselves from SEBI and pay their investors their sum of money. SEBI was afraid because RIL was the major contributor in the stock market and its transposition would crash the market.
Post the 1990s, Dhirubhai’s health started to deteriorate and he handed over the business to Mukesh Ambani. His son, following his father’s footsteps, took the same approach. Mukesh soon started to build contacts with Politicians from Congress, BJP, etc.
As of 2020, RIL is the biggest company in India with verticals in Oil and Petroleum, Footwear, Reselling, Electronics, Telecom, etc.
With criticism and reality recorded from the man who was in touch with the PM’s office, the book was not allowed to flourish on Indian soil.
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