Mahabharata in Polyester: The Making of the World's Richest Brothers and Their Feud

by Hamish McDonald

Dhirubhai Ambani was a rags-to-riches Indian tycoon whose company Reliance is now one of India’s major corporations. Ambani’s sons Anil and Mukesh, who took over after their father's death in 2002, are worth $43 billion and $42 billion respectively, but their relationship is far from amiable. Demonstrating the complicated links between government and big business, this account is not only the riveting story of one of the wealthiest families in the world—including their infamous feud—but also an illustration of India’s transformation into a global economic powerhouse.

Genres: India

432 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2010

About the author

Hamish McDonald is an Australian journalist and author of several books. He held a fellowship at the American think tank the Woodrow Wilson Centre in 2014.

McDonald has worked as a journalist in mostly Asian countries like India, Japan, Indonesia, Hong Kong and China, where he was a correspondent based in Beijing from 2002 to 2005. He was in India between 1990 and 1997, covering the time immediately after the economic reforms. He was the political editor for the Far Eastern Economic Review and the foreign editor for the Sydney Morning Herald.

In 2005, he won the Walkley Award for newspaper feature writing for his article "What's Wrong With Falun Gong", which is about the brutal suppression of the Falun Gong religious movement in China.

Reviews

[Sireesha · Rating 3 out of 5]

At last finished reading this book. Through sheer perseverance. It actually took me several months to get through, on and off.

Though this a story worth telling, it could have told in a more engaging and readable way. It’s mind bending, and mostly overwhelming to comprehend the breadth and depth of financial and political maneuvers carried out by this industrial tycoon family.

I bet a corporate finance professional might have found the details exciting and astounding.

[Umang Yadav · Rating 5 out of 5]

much of the content is same as polyester prince but interesting story behind the split of reliance

[Raivat Shah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really appreciate the author's deep research - setting cultural connotations, unbiased investigation. A must read for someone who wants to understand the history of corporate India.

[Ethan Lambert · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a rehash of his earlier book 'Polyester Prince' which was about independent India's first self made Entrepreneur. There are a lot of fascinating anecdotes about the protagonist , politicians & typical corrupt incompetent Indian bureaucrats.

Where 'Polyester Prince' had too many spelling mistakes & printing errors. There are absolutely no such issues with this revised print.

I am kind of surprised Reliance fought to ban publication & distribution of this book in India. Most of the stories were already covered in Print media & it's already in Public domain. Says a lot about Indian Judiciary that passed the order.

If anything it shows Dhirubhai Ambani as a brilliant businessman, visionary & an excellent Hustler who built all his empire thanks to his wits & guts. He had no Godfather or Mentor, learned everything on his own despite failing to finish school.

The book reflects very poorly on Indian Bureaucracy specially those who framed Economic Policies, they are incompetent as well as being corrupt.

The fact that Congress had & still has the most corrupt & incompetent politicians in whole of Asia is not a big surprise, we can see the proof in India's Economic Indicator.

That a man from Dhirubhai's background made it this big in India speaks volume about this Giant.

Must read.

[Manish Agarwal · Rating 4 out of 5]

THIS IS A GOOD BOOK

[Sanjiv · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice story of business, corruption and greed in India

[Dayendra Madanayake · Rating 5 out of 5]

An awesome read, would highly recommend this book, for someone looking to understand India's current virtues and vices.