Book Description

Lohia & Co—one of India’s largest commodity traders, the country’s biggest jute supplier, owner of tea estates, as well as cement, steel, shipping and motor cycle firms, and its own insurance arm—is in trouble. Now a strike, led by ageing Marxist trade union leader Hirenmoy Chakroborty, is destabilizing its Calcutta headquarters—and Aruna the bitter, power-hungry sister of Hari Lohia, the head of the dynasty, is using the opportunity to launch a covert takeover of the business with the help of her two ambitious sons. But Hari Lohia, who single-handedly built up Lohia & Co from a tiny jute trader in the crowded alleys of Barabazar to a sprawling global conglomerate, is not willing to let go of his empire so easily. He comes from a family of survivors, ancestors who moved across the country from Rajasthan with nothing and built their fortunes from scratch. And he discovers unlikely allies in this last great battle he has to fight—Anjali, his tough, cynical sister, a fiery opponent of Aruna’s; and Shivani, his beautiful, rebellious daughter who has always been too busy having love affairs to pay attention to her father’s business. Who will lose? Who will win? And most importantly—will the house of Lohia fall like a pack of cards? Moving from the crumbling offices of Calcutta to hedge funds in Hong Kong, from the Mumbai stock market to nineteenth century Rajasthan, and boasting an enormous cast of characters, The Inheritors is quite simply sensational.