History of Marketing in India

The concepts and practices of marketing, as well as the ideologies that impel these, are rooted in specific social and cultural contexts, predominantly those of the USA, and Europe. Moreover, the Western dominance of marketing thought permeates it with Western values such as individualism and rationalism. This has led to important contexts outside these traditions such as India being overlooked.

India has an enormously rich and varied culture and history, and this book addresses the need to understand marketing practices within this diverse context. Such an understanding will not only enrich marketing as a discipline, but also provide both Western and Indian marketers and academics with valuable insights into the cultures and behaviors of Indian consumers. By analysing historical writings on business in India from the BCE period to the current period, and providing a coherent narrative of the marketing practices during these periods, it critically engages with the larger socio-economic structures which influenced, and were influenced by these practices.

All scholars of marketing history will find this a fascinating and unique assessment of a highly significant market.

Rohit Varman is a Professor of Marketing at Indian Institute of Management Calcutta. He is a PhD from University of Utah and MBA from McGill University. He has worked in the market research industry for a few years. His research interests are broadly in the fields of Critical Marketing and Consumer Culture Theory. He has also taught at Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, University of Reading, and at University of Utah. He was a Visiting Research Professor at Karlstad University, Sweden. Rohit has published his research in some of the top international management journals that include Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Retailing, and Organization Science. He serves on the editorial boards of Journal of Macromarketing and Consumption, Markets, and Culture.

Hari Sreekumar is Assistant Professor in the Marketing Area at the Indian Institute of Management Trichy, India. He teaches courses on marketing research methods and consumer behavior at IIM Trichy. He is also visiting faculty at the National Institute of Technology Trichy. His research interests are in consumer culture theory and history of marketing. His work on the history of marketing thought in India is expected to appear shortly in the Journal of Historical Research in Marketing. He is also interested in consumption behavior among poorer migrant consumers, especially Indian consumers living in the Middle East.