Sir Lallubhai Samaldas - A Portrait

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Sir Lallubhai Samaldas (1863-1936) and his family served as Dewans of Bhavnagar State for four generations. After having served as a Revenue Commissioner for about 15 years in Bhavnagar, Lallubhai migrated to Bombay in 1900. He was involved in starting the Bombay Provincial Co-operative Bank and Bombay Life Insurance Corporation besides being one of the founder directors of the Bank of India, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Bank of Baroda and many other significant positions. Lallubhai made a noteworthy contribution to the co-operative movement in India and set up a Bombay Provincial Co-operative Bank meant for farmers. His interests, however, were not confined to business alone. He was instrumental in starting the Samaldas College in Bhavnagar, the Sydenham College of Commerce in Bombay, and was a Fellow of the Bombay University Senate. This biography reveals his truly remarkable personality and his contribution to the making of modern India. He was knighted in Buckingham Palace by Emperor George V.

Dr Aparna Basu with a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge, UK, is currently the Chairperson of the National Gandhi Museum, Rajghat, New Delhi; a Patron and Trustee of All India Women's Conferernce; and President of the All India Committee for Eradication of Illiteracy Among Women. She was formerly Professor of History at Delhi University and has written many books and articles on education as well as on women's issues.

I did not have the privilege of knowing Sir Lallubhai Samaldas as I was around two years old when he passed away. But our families were inter-related and I later heard about him since he was a well-known figure in the world of business and in the public life of Bombay (now Mumbai) and also of India in the first three decades of the last century.

Lallubhai began his life in the princely state of Bhavnagar where his family had served as Dewans for four generations. He moved to Bombay in 1900 when he was 36 years old. Within a short period he made his mark in various fields. Lallubhai was a pioneer in establishing the co-operative movement in India. Together with Sir Vitthaldas Thackersey, he set up the Bombay Provincial Co-operative Bank and the Land Mortgage Bank.

He was inspired by the ideas of economic nationalism and having a vision of India's industrial and financial development, wanted Indians to start and operate their own industries, banks and insurance companies. Together with a group of Bombay's businessmen, he laid the foundation of the Bank of India in 1906, helped to draw up the scheme for the Bank of Baroda of which he was chairman for many years and was consulted by the Mysore state for starting the Indian Bank of Madras. He was the founder director and chairman. of the Bombay Life Assurance Corporation. He set up the first Indian cement company in Porbunder in 1913, the Bhavnagar Electric Supply Corporation and the first Indian sugar factory in Baramati. He was closely associated with the founding of the Indian Merchants' Chamber in Bombay in 1907 and was later its president. He was a director of TISCO and the Tata Hydro Electric Supply Corporation in Bombay and of Tata's textile mill.

Lallubhai was one of the founders of the Scindia Steam Navigation Company, the first Indian shipping company in 1919. He also set up SS Dufferin as the Merchant Navy training ship for Indians.

Lallubhai Samaldas represented a kind of person rare in our public life today. 2013 was his 150th birth anniversary. Only two of his grandchildren, Nikhil and I are left by now, and so we felt that we should try and capture the fading personal memories that no one else could provide. Not only his great grand-children and their children, scattered all over the globe, should know something about their roots and heritage and his contribution to public life but so should a wider public. So here is our combined effort-I have written the text, while Nikhil has provided all the relevant photographs. Our intention in writing this book is not only to cherish his memory but also to record his contribution to the making of modern India.

Lallubhai, whose original name was Tribhuvandas, was born in the princely state of Bhavnagar on 14 October 1863. He belonged to the Nagar Brahmin caste that held a leading place in Gujarat in the world of learning, politics and administration. His family had served as Dewans (prime ministers) to the Bhavnagar state for four generations and was largely responsible for the rise and growth of the state. His grandfather, Parmananddas was the Dewan from 1828 to 1847 and his maternal uncle, Gaurishankar Oza (shortly) termed Gaga Oza) from 1847 to 1879. Lallubhai's father Samaldas was the Dewan of Bhavnagar state from 1879 to 1884, while his elder brother, Vitthaldas held that post from 1884 to 1899. Besides being able administrators and statesmen, all of them had scholarly interests and were highly accomplished men, well versed in Sanskrit, Persian and English.