Ghosal & Daughter: The Howrah Sweet Shop Rewriting Indian Succession Norms

From Television Broadcaster to Confectioner

Located on Netaji Subhash Road in Howrah, the storefront appears typical at first glance, featuring whitewashed walls and wooden benches. However, the signboard above the entrance—Ghosal & Daughter—signals a radical departure from the masculine branding that dominates Indian commerce. The founder, Sutapa Ghosal, transition to this trade from a diverse professional background. Before entering the food industry in 2018, she served as a newsreader for Doordarshan and earned a PhD in drama from Rabindra Bharati University.

To ensure her venture was grounded in technical expertise, Ghosal earned a degree in food processing from Jadavpur University. Unlike many of her competitors, she did not inherit a family recipe book or a staff of skilled artisans. Instead, she built her operation from the ground up, recruiting specialized sweet makers from Nadia and Howrah. Her shop focuses on milk-based delicacies rather than the traditional chhena-heavy Bengali sweets, with her milk cake and kalakand earning a dedicated local following.

Challenging the Patriarchal Script

The decision to name the business after her daughter, Momoiro Mukherjee, was both intentional and subversive. While West Bengal leads Indian states with over 23 percent of women-owned MSMEs, the industry remains heavily influenced by gendered expectations. Ghosal reflects that women must still resist a silent patriarchal gaze when managing independent businesses. The daughter’s role was not merely symbolic; Momoiro was the primary catalyst who encouraged her mother to launch the enterprise.

A New Model for Inheritance

In a sector where sons or brothers are the default heirs, Ghosal & Daughter presents a linear maternal succession. The shop serves as a physical assertion that female legacies do not require a male figurehead to maintain continuity. Key hurdles faced by the business include:

• Securing and retaining skilled labor in a competitive market.
• Maintaining batch-to-batch consistency as an independent entrepreneur.
• Overcoming societal assumptions regarding business ownership and lineage.

By bypassing the traditional 'Sons' suffix, Ghosal uses her everyday operations to challenge deep-seated biases. Eight years into the venture, the shop persists as proof that the transition of professional dreams from mother to daughter is as natural and sustainable as the paternal lineages that preceded them.

Source: The Better India