How did followers of Jainism, a faith that shuns attachment to material goods, come to boss the global diamond industry?
“You can enjoy nice things in life, but it’s about doing it in a good manner, and being a gentle human being,” says Akash, seated at a table opposite me, as he tucks into a plate of curried vegetables. “It’s the difference between cutting something’s hair or nails and cutting its throat. Control yourself. Take only what you need. That’s the Jain philosophy.”
Akash’s humble vegetarian diet is a reflection of his devout faith. The Jain commitment to non-violence is so highly tuned that monks and nuns sweep the ground before them to avoid stepping on insects. Religious figures and lay people alike – Akash included – follow a strict vegetarian diet, catered for by restaurants like Aahaar. Even root vegetables are prohibited, because harvesting them kills the plant.
‘Purely business’
The majority of Antwerp’s Jains have their roots in the city of Palanpur in the western Indian state of Gujarat, although Akash himself grew up in Udaipur, a city famous for its palaces and lakes in the desert state of Rajasthan. The Jains’ reasons for moving to Belgium, he tells me, were solely business-based.
“In India, the diamond business is commanded by the Jain community, so when they found opportunities here in Antwerp, or in Hong Kong, New York, Tokyo – they moved,” he says. “It all depends on business conditions, and Antwerp is the diamond business hub. Here they found that the government, the facilities are favourable for business. Purely business.”
Alcohol is forbidden, so Jains are unlikely to be found enjoying Antwerp’s bustling nightlife scene; rather, their social lives are centred around home, the temple, and Jain-friendly restaurants such as Aahaar and Sangeetha, another popular vegetarian place.
The professional world in which Akash works, however, along with many of Antwerp’s 1,500-strong Jain community, is anything but humble.
Jains dominate Antwerp’s diamond industry, the most lucrative and influential in the world, having slowly taken over from the Orthodox Jewish community over the past 60 years. So how did followers of a faith based on moderation and non-attachment to material things, come to dominate this most glittery and profane of professions?
“Jewellery and diamonds are in my blood,” says Akash with a self-effacing smile. “My parents and grandparents were in the business of precious metals, bullion and pearls in India. The Jain community is traditionally very highly educated; they are mostly in business, management, finance and accounting. Since ancient times, Jains have been trading in gems, diamonds, spices and clothes.”
Trading, not manufacturing
Jainism originated in India thousands of years ago, and is one of the oldest extant religions in the world. Jains only make up about 0.4 percent of the Indian population but are disproportionately influential within the country, especially in the world of business. Many, like Akash, bear the surname “Jain”, but many others don’t.
Gautam Adani, India’s second-richest – and the world’s 23rd most wealthy – person is Jain, as is Amit Shah, the country’s powerful home minister who is widely seen as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s second-in-command.
“Our main teachings are: truth; ahimsa (non-violence); and aparigraha (non-possession) – not taking what you don’t need,” says Akash. “Don’t get attached to physical things; money, land, things like that.”
“In Jainism you have these big ethical injunctions which have led to rules about which jobs are acceptable,” says Professor Tine Vekemans, an expert in Jainism at Ghent University. “They would never work as butchers or leatherworkers, nor traditionally in agriculture – there’s a lot of potential violence with pulling things out of the ground, damaging little creatures in the soil.”
Mining diamonds is not exactly eco-friendly either, of course. “That’s why Jains are into trading, not manufacturing,” says Akash. “Less direct.”
Jains have also taken steps to counter the unethical elements of the industry and to stymie the flow of “conflict diamonds”.
“Jain diamond firms have done a lot of work looking at the source of their diamonds and for anything in the supply line which may be unethical,” says Vekemans. They were influential in the development and application of the Kimberley Process; India, where the diamond trade is also dominated by Jains, was one of the founding members of this international certification scheme which aims to eradicate conflict diamonds from the industry. Furthermore, Dilip Mehta, the Jain CEO of Rosy Blue, one of Antwerp’s largest diamond companies, has advocated for expanding the definition of “conflict diamonds” in his role as a director of the World Diamond Council.
Tucked away in the shadow of Antwerp’s grand Art Nouveau railway station, the Diamond Quarter is an unprepossessing cluster of boxy, grey and brown buildings dating back to the 1960s and ‘70s. It’s a modest setting for the capital of the world diamond industry – a title Antwerp has claimed since 1456 when jeweller Lodewyk van Bercken infused his polishing wheel with olive oil and diamond dust to invent the scaif, a revolutionary tool which allowed for the cutting of perfectly symmetrical diamonds. Today, Antwerp processes 100 million euros ($106m) of diamonds each day.
At the centre of it all is Antwerp’s diamond exchange, next to where Tom Neys, a representative of the Antwerp World Diamond Centre, which oversees the city’s diamond trade, works. He can be found in an elegant, cavernous room lined with trading desks, where hushed conversations echo off marble columns and parquet floors.
Orthodox Jews had dominated Antwerp’s diamond trade for hundreds of years before Jain traders began arriving in the mid-20th century. “The first diamonds ever found were in India, but historically they didn’t trade much internationally,” says Neys. That all changed in the 1960s, when Jain traders from Gujarat began buying small, rough diamonds at a low price, outsourcing cutting and polishing to craftspeople back in Gujarat, and then selling them in Antwerp. “Today, 95 percent of the diamonds sold here are cut and polished in India,” he says.
That supply chain gives Jain traders an edge over everyone else. About 80 percent of Antwerp’s diamond traders are now Jains, most of them tracing their roots to the Gujarati city of Palanpur. The Jain and Jewish communities in Antwerp are well-suited to the diamond trade for the same reasons: they’re small, close-knit and built on trust.
