Reason Why Brahmins Lead Western Firms

In response to the opinion by Banyan (Jan 1st) in the Economist, “Why Brahmins lead Western firms but rarely Indian ones?” I would like to highlight a historical reason. When I grew up in South India during 1960s, I had seen the tensions among the castes first-hand. British rulers in India before independence, favored the Brahmins and gave them government jobs since they worked well, were obedient, and did not cause trouble. Unfortunately, Brahmins felt empowered due to this treatment and started treating the natives (called as Dalits) as inferiors and untouchables. This negative energy toward the Dalits came to haunt the Brahmins after India gained independence in 1947. A movement called Dravida Kazhagam was formed in South India with its main plank being hatred of Brahmins. This party came to power after 1967 and since then, there has been persecution of Brahmins in South India. They had been denied opportunities in education, business, politics, and other spheres of life. Many Brahmins from South India have emigrated to other countries such as US, UK, and Australia due to the discrimination against them. Being immigrants, we have worked hard and persistently to succeed in these countries and to assimilate well with the local culture. No doubt a few Brahmins have succeeded given the open platform to compete and have become CEOs of technology firms as mentioned in the article.