#BusinessAutobiographies | While narrating the success stories of their subjects, many of the books use oddly pseudo-scientific phrases to refer to communities. Gita Piramal’s Rahul Bajaj: An Extraordinary Life has a bit where Rupa Bajaj, talking about her husband’s penchant for the Rajya Sabha, wonders whether “it is his genes expressing themselves.” Anil Rai Gupta uses a familiar trope—“we are baniyas who are well known in every corner of the country for their business acumen.” But then, at several points, Gupta attributes various qualities to the DNA possessed by his family, which distinguishes them from everyone else: “Like in every other matter, we would go with only the best. This consciousness was now a part of our DNA”; “honesty is in my DNA”; “we didn’t do a lot of things that others of our age were doing because it just wasn’t in our DNA. The family values we had imbibed kept us away from vices”; and so on.

Read Akshat Jain's essay on how business autobiographies deal with caste:
#BusinessAutobiographies