April 7, 2023

Last month the Harvard Business Review (HBR) began selling an article titled Shri Ram Temple:A Fintech Solution for Large Scale Project, priced at $8.95.

“This case focuses on the challenges faced by the Shri Ram Janma Bhoomi Teerth Kshetra (SRJBTK) in managing the fund collection drive project for the construction of the Shri Ram Janma Bhoomi Temple in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh, India,” states a summary of the article on the HBR site. “The campaign was designed to raise awareness of the temple's construction, enlist public support, generate a large base of contributors, and accept contributions, regardless of size. While raising funds was part of the campaign, the focus remained on the masses' emotional and social support.”

The case study, which has eight academics in India as co-authors, was sourced by HBR from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Bangalore. HBR’s distribution of the article has gotten wide media and social media attention in India.

The temple, which is expected to be completed later this year, is being built on the site of a 15th century mosque that was demolished by a Hindu nationalist mob in 1992. More than a thousand people were killed, mostly Muslims, in Hindu Muslim violence that erupted across India following the demolition.

The demolition of the mosque was the culmination of a campaign started in 1984 by the Bharatiya Janata Party – which rules India with Narendra Modi as Prime Minister - and other groups reportedly affiliated  with the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS). The RSS is a militant hierarchical group which advocates a Hindu nationalistic agenda for India under the banner of hindutva, or “Hindu-ness.”

HBR is part of Harvard Business Publishing (HBP), which was founded in 1994 as a not-for-profit, wholly-owned subsidiary of Harvard University, operating as part of the Harvard Business School. It says its “mission is to improve the practice of management in a changing world.”

HBP media offerings include print and digital versions of the Harvard Business Review, Harvard Business Review Press Books, Harvard Business School Cases and blogs. It also organizes seminars and other events and online learning programs including Harvard ManageMentor, Leadership Direct, Online Courses and Simulations.

HBP media has around 450 employees, primarily based in Boston, with offices in New York City, India, and the United Kingdom. Like Facebook, Twitter, Disney, and other American companies, HBP apparently views India as its biggest potential market.

In 2018, HBP signed a three-year agreement to distribute teaching cases developed by the faculty of IIM Bangalore. It was “the first of its kind” agreement between HBP and a business school in India, similar to those between HBP and Stanford and other business schools, IIM Bangalore said in a statement at that time. Evidently, the agreement between HBP and the IIM has been renewed.

HBP states that, through its publishing platforms, its mission is to be “able to influence real-world change by maximizing the reach and impact of its essential offering—ideas.”

“Feeling proud that as a @RSSorg #Swayamsevak I was part of this,” tweeted a volunteer of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), along with a video of one of the authors describing the case study on the Ram Temple.

In the video, the author says that the Ram Temple effort became India’s largest crowd funding campaign project, which involved 3.5 million volunteers, one million small teams and 42,000 branches of three government owned banks. When faith and technology come together, think of what can be done, implores the author; adding “this is Faith Tech.”

Is it Harvard Business Publishing’s intention to sell a “faith tech” case study about an idea whose focus is on mobilizing “the masses' emotional and social support,” for a temple in India, on land where a mosque was demolished by a Hindu nationalist mob three decades ago?

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