Financial decolonisation reshaping entrepreneurship – The Hindu BusinessLine

A part of the decolonisation effort entails a aware effort to reclaim and worth India’s cultural heritage, beforehand usually undervalued from a colonial lens
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MOHAMMED YOUSUF

Within the backdrop of UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer visiting India — his first since taking workplace — the highlight is as soon as once more on the India-UK Free Commerce Settlement (FTA). However past the specifics of a commerce deal, this second presents one thing deeper: a compelling chapter in India’s financial decolonization journey.

This isn’t merely a shift in commerce phrases, reasonably, it represents a nation asserting its company and voice at a world stage from a place of newfound power, a stark distinction to the useful resource drain and managed markets of the East India Firm period. This reclaimed financial sovereignty and decolonised mindset aren’t simply confined to diplomatic boardrooms, they’re actively reshaping India’s entrepreneurship panorama, fostering improvements deeply rooted within the native context, information, and tradition.

A part of this decolonisation effort entails a aware effort to reclaim and worth India’s cultural heritage, beforehand usually undervalued from a colonial lens. Whereas debates about historic reparations proceed, the rising mindset seeks an acknowledgement of the colonial wealth extraction and the return of cultural artifacts. Latest years have seen optimistic steps to this finish, corresponding to Glasgow Museums’ returning seven artifacts in 2022 and the Nationwide Gallery of Australia returning 14 artworks in 2021. This cultural renaissance isn’t just symbolic, it’s driving new entrepreneurship efforts. Startups like WhoVR and Leelaland Studios are leveraging know-how to create digital immersive areas and video games round historical artifacts and heritage websites, tapping into the rising marketplace for cultural rediscovery.

Indian Data Techniques

Equally, there’s a rising recognition and integration of Indian Data Techniques (IKS) into mainstream schooling, which have been systematically suppressed throughout colonial rule, making a lingering sense of inferiority round indigenous information traditions like Ayurveda and Vedic arithmetic. The Nationwide Training Coverage 2020’s deal with integrating IKS into fashionable schooling and the revival of Nalanda College (an historical centre of studying) alerts a concerted effort to reclaim this cognitive heritage. This shift is unlocking new avenues for entrepreneurship. Startups like Brhat and Vedic Pond are growing instructional content material and workshops on the intersection of IKS, fashionable know-how, and future pondering, making a marketplace for information beforehand relegated to the periphery.

The decolonised perspective additionally challenges the historic biases in opposition to India’s numerous native and indigenous cultures, usually judged as ‘primitive’ by colonial requirements. This led to the neglect of indigenous ecological information, sustainable farming practices, and conventional useful resource administration. The success of neighborhood initiatives like Shivganga Jhabua’s work on water conservation drawing on native symbolism, and the pan-India success of films like Kantara celebrating indigenous practices, is creating area for native narratives. That is driving entrepreneurship in areas just like the revival of conventional crops, with startups like Meloop Meals innovating in millet-based merchandise. Equally, government-supported efforts like One Station One Product are creating market entry for conventional craftsmanship, fostering cultural entrepreneurship.

Maybe most importantly for addressing the digital divide, the decolonised mindset is elevating the significance of India’s regional languages. The colonial schooling system, famously articulated in Thomas Macaulay’s Minute on Indian Training in 1835, was to create a category of “Indian in blood and color, however English in tastes, in opinions, in morals, and in mind,” marginalising Indian languages. Right this moment, larger appreciation of regional languages, such because the emphasis on mother-tongue-based schooling within the Nationwide Training Coverage, in unlocking newer markets. Startups are differentiating based mostly on language, with Karya creating AI datasets in regional Indian languages, and Sarvam AI growing giant language fashions particularly for India’s linguistic range, opening digital entry and markets to a different billion customers.

Whereas the India-UK FTA does sign a marked shift within the financial ties between the 2 international locations, the deeper story in India is considered one of financial decolonisation. This isn’t about turning inwards, however creating a contemporary international economic system that leverages India’s distinctive cultural, mental, and linguistic strengths. This decolonised mindset is making a vibrant entrepreneurship ecosystem, forging a nationwide narrative rooted in financial confidence and native tradition, far faraway from the shadows of the colonial previous and poised for development.

The author is a Professor on the Adam Smith Enterprise Faculty, College of Glasgow

Revealed on October 18, 2025