Washington: "The world's richest Muslim entrepreneur defies conventional wisdom about Islamic tycoons: He doesn't hail from the Persian Gulf, he didn't make his money in petroleum, and he definitely doesn't wear his faith on his sleeve."
That's how the Wall Street Journal describes Azim Premji, Chairman & CEO of Wipro Technologies, one of the largest software companies in India, in a story about "How a Muslim Billionaire Thrives in Hindu India."
He has tapped India's abundant engineering talent to transform a family vegetable oil firm, Wipro Ltd., into a technology and outsourcing giant, notes the influential US financial daily.
By serving Western manufacturers, airlines and utilities, the company has brought Premji a fortune of some $17 billion - believed to be greater than that of any other Muslim outside of Persian Gulf royalty, it notes.
Such success, Premji says in an interview with the journal, shows that globalization - a force Islamist activists decry as Western neo-colonialism - is turning into "two-way traffic" that can bring tangible benefits to developing countries.
Premji's rise is already inspiring some Indian Muslims to embrace the modern, globalised world, the journal says yet, to many in India's Muslim community, Premji's enormous wealth, far from being inspiring, shows that success comes at a price the truly faithful cannot accept.
But unlike some Muslim community leaders, Premji bristles impatiently when the plight of the broader Muslim populace is cited. "This whole issue of Hindu-Muslim in India is completely overhyped," the 62-year-old executive says as cited by the Journal.
Premji's private philanthropy is dispensed through a foundation that's managed by a Hindu former Wipro executive and cuts across religious lines.
After the Sep 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, US officials asked the Aziz Premji Foundation to help start an education programme that would instil moderate values in Islamic schools. The foundation declined the religion-focused project, according to its chief executive, because "we are working for all."
Premji, the Journal said, scoffed at the idea he should display his Muslim identity or champion the cause of Muslim advancement in India. "We've always seen ourselves as Indian. We've never seen ourselves as Hindus, or Muslims, or Christians or Buddhists," he was quoted as saying.
As a prominent Muslim businessman in the 1940s, Premji's late father, MH Premji, faced repeated requests for support from Pakistan's fiery founder, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, who offered the father a cabinet minister job in the new Muslim country.
But the Premji family didn't believe in a religious state, and refused to move. "We did not think in these terms," Premji says as cited by the Journal. "There were roots in India, there were roots in Bombay. Why should one in any way dislodge these roots?"
While India's Muslim groups complain about facing daily discrimination, Premji says the only time he has been singled out because of his Muslim heritage wasn't in India but at a US airport shortly after 9/11.
In doing business in India, he maintains, "I don't think being a Muslim or being a non-Muslim has been an advantage or disadvantage. It's just been based on the merits of the opportunities."
As Wipro becomes a global powerhouse, company officials say they seek to hire the best regardless of creed. "All our hiring staff is trained to interview in English," Premji is quoted as saying. "They're trained to look for Westernised segments because we deal with global customers."
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