Terrorism and Rural Entrepreneurship in Punjab

Abstract

The existing empirical studies on the emergence and growth of entrepreneurship emphasise the significance of caste, region and religion in India. Unlike the West, where the "achievement motivation" or "innovations" in the growth of entrepreneurship acquire an important position, the Indian situation presents a case of the centrality of traditional groups in this regard.' Weber was one of the key figures who emphasized the significance of religion in facilitating the growth of a particular economic system in Europe'. However, it is in India that the relevance of' traditional factors have been highlighted more often than anywhere else so far as the entrepreneurial change is concerned. As a result the analysis of entrepreneurship entails the analysis of caste, religion and region of entrepreneurs. This paper aims at describing the process by which entrepreneurship of members of particular caste and religion has emerged in a region, i.e. Punjab, as a result of the "Punjab Crisis". In other words, it has been argued that political instability caused by insurgency and terrorist violence might facilitate the emergence of a new social group as entrepreneur when there develops an economic vacuum. Accordingly, the paper has been divided into four parts. The first part provides theoretical and empirical context of the study, whereas in the second a description of "Punjab crisis" is given. The discussion of data pertaining to various dimensions of entrepreneurial change is given in the third part. In the fourth part concluding observations have been made.