- Hindenburg’s actions against Indian companies, particularly the Adani Group, are part of a broader strategy to undermine India’s economic growth and global rise.
- There is an uncanny parallel between Hindenburg’s tactics and historical instances of colonial economic warfare, with Hindenburg as a modern-day East India Company aiming to destabilize India.
- Hindenburg’s financial bets against Indian corporations are a form of economic sabotage designed to benefit Western interests at the expense of India’s economic sovereignty.
- Hindenburg’s actions may represent a new form of corporate warfare, where private firms are used as tools in global power struggles, with significant implications for emerging economies like India.
- India needs to be vigilant against such external threats, as these attacks could have far-reaching consequences for the country’s economic stability and growth.
Are economic hitmen in the guise of stock market traders targeting India to derail its blistering growth? This is not a farfetched or outlandish theory. Don’t forget that India was completely colonized, not by armed invaders on horseback but by merchants of the East India Company backed by the English ruling classes. In 1670, Charles II of England provisioned the company with the “rights to autonomous territorial acquisitions, to mint money, to command fortresses and troops, to form alliances, to make war and peace, and to exercise both civil and criminal jurisdiction over the acquired areas.”[1] Four centuries later, nothing has changed – the West still uses private corporations to destabilize and bring down rival governments.
Skeptical? Read on.
In August 2024, Hindenburg Research released a report accusing the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch and her husband of having a stake in dubious offshore entities used to inflate shares of companies owned by the Adani Group artificially. The couple have denied the claims.[2]
Hindenburg, which has the backing of several secret overseas investors, makes financial bets that the stocks of the companies it is targeting will fall after the firm issues its research. When the stocks do fall, Hindenburg makes its money in what is called a “short” trade.
While the US-based short seller targets a range of companies, it’s intriguing that Hindenberg has targeted the Adani Group twice. The research firm’s report in January 2023 set off an over $150 billion selloff in the conglomerate’s stocks despite the company’s denials of wrongdoing. SEBI has been investigating the group ever since.
After Hindenberg’s latest accusations in August 2024, the Adani Group faced another heavy share selloff. As much as $2.43 billion, or 1%, was wiped off the market value of Adani companies on August 12.[3]
Wars via corporations
Throughout history, nations have used various strategies to protect or advance their interests, and this often involves the corporate sector. The mercantilist wars of the colonial era provide a prime example: England and France clashed over the East India Company’s monopoly in India, demonstrating how governments would go to great lengths to promote their corporate interests.
In modern times, the practice of undermining rival nations’ corporations is viewed by the naïve as a relic of the past. However, the harsh truth is that governments continue to engage in economic and political maneuvers that target big corporate players from other countries. Despite focusing on profitability and shareholder interests, Mega-corporations are closely tied to their home countries’ national interests. This truth has persisted through the centuries.
The principle remains clear: damaging a nation’s interests often means attacking its corporations. This concept holds nearly everywhere – except, notably, in India. Companies that venture into risky commercial and geopolitical territories in India often face discouragement. Furthermore, when such companies do succeed, they risk being labeled as beneficiaries of government favoritism, with terms like ‘cronyism’ used to describe their success.
The Adani Saga illustrates this dynamic well. Success in the Indian business environment is frequently met with skepticism and accusations of undue governmental influence, regardless of the actual merits of the business achievements. This situation reflects a broader trend where political and economic challenges intersect, and successful companies are sometimes unfairly criticized rather than celebrated.
The interplay between national interests and corporate power is a long-standing phenomenon. Understanding this relationship helps shed light on current geopolitical and economic strategies, emphasizing that the struggle over corporate influence is as relevant today as it was in the colonial era.
According to journalist PR Ramesh, “The Adanis, even if one is not ready to give them a certificate of innocence, have shown that they have the hunger and the capability for betting big and expanding business even against economic and commercial odds. Above all, they are not risk-averse. One cannot count many companies that would be willing to undertake the construction of a port in Sri Lanka, considered a Chinese playground. Sri Lanka experienced the Chinese fleecing them and reducing Colombo to a listening post, if not a staging ground, for anti-India operations. And when the Lankans were looking for options to put themselves back on the road to growth, it was the Adanis who stepped in.”[4]
Again, in July 2022, a consortium comprising Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone and Israel’s GADOT Group secured a $1.2 billion tender for the Port of Haifa. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu celebrated this achievement as an “enormous milestone.” Netanyahu added: “Over 100 years ago, and during World World I, it was brave Indian soldiers who helped liberate the city of Haifa. And today, it’s very robust Indian investors who are helping to liberate the port of Haifa.”[5]
The Port of Haifa, Israel’s largest seaport and the second-largest container traffic, also holds the title of the country’s biggest port for tourist cruise ships. The Adani Group had committed to significantly investing in Israel, which includes plans to establish an Artificial Intelligence lab in Tel Aviv and transform the skyline of this prominent Mediterranean city.[6]
A coordinated attack by Hindenberg and the Indian left is thus an act of financial terrorism aimed at bringing down the Adani Group – a major pillar of Indian capitalism and the country’s economic success story. How does this favor forces inimical to India? Ramesh explains: “One, it scares existing and potential investors about India. More importantly, it puts extraordinary pressure on a corporate group that has continued to invest in infrastructure through the thick and thin of India’s economic swings, positive and negative.”
The financial website Money Control agrees that Hindenburg is not just an unethical short seller trying to make a quick fortune targeting specific stocks. “Right from the start, it was obvious that it was training its guns not just at the Adani conglomerate but also in India’s economic and political ecosystem. Hindenburg itself never made any secret of its larger game plan. So it was not a casual hint when it posted a teaser on ‘X’ – “Something big soon, India.” [7]
Indeed, when a short seller—typically known for their pragmatic and skeptical outlook—starts lauding India’s diversity and democracy, it’s worth examining their motives and timing more closely.
Money Control adds: “Narendra Modi’s opponents may have calculated that assailing Adani would, by extension, debilitate Modi’s domestic political capital and growing international clout. However, they fail to factor in – or, more likely, deliberately ignore – the collateral damage it can cause to India. While their limited objective would be to oust Modi, the global players would like to cut India to size. It is time they realize that they are being co-opted into a no-win game in which the only loser can be India and its ordinary citizens.”
How Colonialism is Making a Comeback
Ironically, when the West is weak, the emergent nations of Asia and Africa have reason to worry. Colonialism 2.0 isn’t just a catchphrase; it is simple economics—the wealthy will always need to be vigilant against the desperate.
In the 18th and 19th centuries, when the world was being colonized by Spain, Britain, France, Belgium, Portugal, and the Dutch, India and China were the two richest countries in the world, together accounting for over 50 percent of global GDP. And yet, the two giant Asian nations ended up under colonial jackboots.
If you think colonization happened when the East was decedent, and the West was rising, or India neglected its military and ignored the foreign threats lurking at its shores, you couldn’t be more wrong. Indian kingdoms had very powerful armies and naval flotillas led by able commanders.
In the early 1700s, India’s legendary Admiral of the Fleet, Kanhoji Angre, routed the British, Dutch, and Portuguese navies on the high seas. For 33 years until his death in 1729, the Indian remained undefeated. The British were so pissed they called him a pirate.[8]
Despite the eclipse of Indian kingdoms with the advent of Western domination, Indian shipbuilders continued to hold their own well into the 19th century. Ships displacing 800 to 1,000 tons were built of teak at Daman and were superior to their British counterparts in design and durability. According to the Indian Navy’s website, “This so agitated British shipbuilders on the River Thames that they protested against using Indian-built ships to carry trade from England. Consequently, active measures were adopted to cripple the Indian shipbuilding industries.”[9]
The beginning of British colonial acquisitions in India can be traced to the early 18th century. An English embassy had a stroke of luck when one of its members, William Hamilton, a physician of questionable medical skills, managed to relieve the figurehead emperor of severe pain in his groin. The emperor gratefully signed a decree giving the British inland trading rights, customs duty exemptions, and the right to keep a garrison. The rest, as they say, is history.
According to Professor Rajesh Kochhar, emeritus scientist at the Indian Institute of Science Education & Research, Chandigarh, “These exemptions gave the English traders commercial advantages not only over other European companies but also Indian traders. More importantly, the various official orders granting trade concessions gave the British a cause to defend, with military strength if needed.”[10]
Does that sound familiar? The CIA-British coup in Iran to reverse the nationalization of Iranian oil. The CIA assassination of Chile’s elected leader, Salvador Allende, at PepsiCo’s request. British Petroleum pushed for the invasion of Iraq with an eye on Iraqi oil.
India’s Recent Rise
Today, India is rising once again. Economists are stunned by the unprecedented manufacturing, finance, and wealth flow to the East. Magid Igbaria, former professor of management information systems at Tel Aviv University, wrote in The Virtual Workplace: “For all but the last 500 years of human history, the world’s wealth measured in human capital and goods was concentrated in Asia. The world’s wealth has been concentrated in the West for the past five centuries. This era is coming to an end. Today, the great concentrations of human capital, financial, manufacturing, and information power are again accumulating in the East.”[11]
Currently, India is the fastest-growing large economy on the planet, and in 2023, it overtook its former oppressor, Britain, as the world’s fifth-largest economy. In a few more decades, India will overtake the US, even though it is only one-eighth the size of the US economy. This process of wealth accretion will only accelerate. The question is, will the US and Europe simply watch the world go past? On the contrary, as the Hindenberg Saga unfolds, it is becoming clear that there is a coordinated effort by the US-led coalition to stop this trend.
Shadowy cabal
The West has plenty of systems in place to further its geopolitical ambitions. Operating quietly behind the scenes is a little-known cabal known as the Bilderberg Group. Since 1954, members of this group have been gathering in secret to discuss everything from the rise and fall of communism to nuclear warfare to cybersecurity. Their meetings began as a way to create more cooperation between Europe and North America during the Cold War.
In 2000, British politician Denis Healey, who had been involved in Bilderberg for decades, said: “To say we were striving for a one-world government is exaggerated, but not wholly unfair. Those of us in Bilderberg felt we couldn’t go on forever fighting one another for nothing and, killing people and rendering millions homeless. So we felt that a single community throughout the world would be a good thing.” [12]
Bilderberg is part of a triad which has two other members. The first is the Trilateral Commission, a private organization that fosters closer cooperation among the US, Europe, and Japan. It was established in 1973 when mutual relations between these three blocs were on a downward spiral.
Senator Barry Goldwater, the Republican Party’s nominee for President in the 1964 election, explained the workings of this secretive organization in his book With No Apologies: “The Trilateral Commission represents a skillful, coordinated effort to seize control and consolidate the four centers of power: political, monetary, intellectual, and ecclesiastical. The Trilateralists truly intend to create a worldwide economic power superior to the political governments of the nation-states involved. They believe the abundant materialism they propose to create will overwhelm existing differences. As managers and creators of the system, they will rule the future.”[13]
The second is the Council on Foreign Relations. With funding provided mainly by the Carnegie Corporation, the Ford Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation, the Council has some 5,000 members, some of whom have been key officials in many US administrations.[14] The three institutes are ostensibly think tanks but are designed to steer the political processes of the North Atlantic alliance, particularly the Anglo-American bloc.
One could argue that considering the huge asymmetry in military and economic power between the West and small individual nations such as Iraq, Libya, Syria, Venezuela, and Iran, the West doesn’t need approval from a talking shop to try them. Therefore, Bilderberg may not be the evil cabal it’s cracked up to be. However, it doesn’t hurt to have a forum where Western thinkers can check out future plans and ideas years before they appear on anyone’s radar. Since all actions germinate from thoughts, Bilderberg may have a catalytic role in the West’s ultimate geostrategic aims.
Conclusion
Panama’s General Manuel Noriega was once upon a time the CIA’s most valuable asset, doing their dirty work – drug trafficking, racketeering, money laundering, and murdering. However, the Agency wanted total control of Panama, and so in 1989, the US invaded the country and accused him of doing exactly what they had ordered him to do. While serving a 20-year sentence in an American prison, Noriega wrote this memorable line: “If there is someone willing to buy a country, there is someone willing to sell it.” For many countries in the East, their biggest worry is that, like Noriega, plenty of collaborators in high places are willing to sell their country for a few hundred thousand dollars wired into a Swiss bank, along with US green cards for their families.
During the era of European intrusions, the British East India Company found active collaborators among Indians, such as the traitor Mir Jafar, the commander of the Nawab of Bengal, who walked out of the Battle of Plassey. Bengal, arguably India’s richest and most industrialized province, fell into British hands.[15]
Today, Hindenberg Research is exhibiting all the signs of a 21st-century East India Company. The Indian left and liberals are the new Mir Jafars who are ever willing to open the gates for the neo-colonialists to storm in.
In the first era of colonialism, the then-dominant Eastern nations opened up their economies and territories to comparatively backward Western nations over several decades, finally ending up as their colonies. Under the guise of globalization and ‘free’ trade, Colonialism 2.0 could happen in much the same way. India’s political leadership needs to be wary of such agent provocateurs and take active measures to neutralize their threat.
Citations
[1] HISTORICAL BACKGROUND IIET INDIA.pdf; https://www.iietindia.org.in/PDF/HISTORICAL%20BACKGROUND%20IIET%20INDIA.pdf
[2] Sebi chief, husband reject Hindenburg allegations: ‘Our life and finances are an open book’ – Times of India (indiatimes.com); https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/sebi-chief-husband-reject-hindenburg-allegations-our-life-and-finances-are-an-open-book/articleshow/112437997.cms
[3] Most Viewed Business News Articles, Top News Articles | The Economic Times (indiatimes.com); https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/company/corporate-trends/explainer-adani-vs-hindenburg-research-what-you-need-t
[4] The Truth Behind Targeting Adani – Open The Magazine; https://openthemagazine.com/feature/the-truth-behind-targeting-adani/
[5] Haifa Port, Gautam Adani and Israel’s plan for the Middle East | Middle East Eye; https://www.middleeasteye.net/big-story/israel-india-haifa-port-adani-what-tells-middle-east-plans
[6] Adani Group boosts presence in Israel with $1.2 billion Haifa Port acquisition (indiainfoline.com); https://www.indiainfoline.com/news/mergers-acquisitions/adani-group-boosts-presence-in-israel-with-1-2-billion-haifa-port-acquisition
[7] Hindenburg’s desperate attempts to target India’s economic and political ecosystem (moneycontrol.com); https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/opinion/hindenburgs-desperate-attempts-to-target-indias-economic-and-political-ecosystem-12793617.html
[8] Masala History – Podcast; https://www.masalahistory.com/podcast/kanhoji-angre
[9] Maritime Heritage, International Harbors, Sea Captains, Merchants, Merchandise. 1800-1899.; https://www.maritimeheritage.org/ports/india.html
[10] Pirates, Traders, Rulers: From Prince Henry the ‘Navigator’ to British Empire in India » Rajesh Kochhar; https://rajeshkochhar.com/pirates-traders-rulers-from-prince-henry-the-navigator-to-british-empire-in-india/
[11] The Virtual Workplace – Google Books;
[12] Who pulls the strings? (part 3) | Books | The Guardian; https://www.theguardian.com/books/2001/mar/10/extract1
[13] David Rockefeller, “Mr. Globalist,” Dead at 101 – The New American; https://thenewamerican.com/us/culture/biography/david-rockefeller-mr-globalist-dead-at-101/
[14] Council on Foreign Relations, the biggest ‘influencer’ in US foreign policy. Global Affairs. University of Navarra (unav.edu); https://en.unav.edu/web/global-affairs/council-for-foreign-relations-el-mayor-influencer-en-la-politica-exterior-de-eeuu
[15] History of 23rd June- The Battle of Plassey – East India Story; https://eastindiastory.com/history-of-23rd-june-the-battle-of-plassey/
