A photograph of Ranchhodlal Chhotalal from a memoir.

Ranchhodlal Chhotalal, Rai Bahadur CIE [1] (April 29, 1823– October 1898)[2] was a pioneer of the textile industry in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India.[3] He is considered as founder of modern Ahmedabad and was also a social activist.[4]

Biography

He was born April 29, 1823, into a Sathodara Nagar Brahmin family to Chhotalal Udeshankar and Labhbai. He learnt Persian from his father Chhotalal, Munshi Bapubhai, and Maulvi Faizuddin, as well as Sanskrit under Pandit Bindu Vyasa. Over the years he also was able to learn English. He started his career as a service man in customs department.[1][5] In 1853, he was discharged from job accused of taking a bribe. He took it as a challenge and turned a businessman and was able to raise initial funds to start a mill.[5][6][7] Thus, in 1861, he founded the first textile mill at Ahemdabad with initial capital of one lakh, and became the second Indian to start a textile mill in India.[8][7][6][9] The mill was named Ahmedabad Spinning and Weaving Company Limited which was the first cotton mill of Ahmedabad, a city which later came to known as Manchester of India. He started his second textile mill in 1877.[10]

He was nominated the first Indian person, as the president of the Ahmedabad Municipality in 1885. He carried out the underground drainage and water supply work, one of the pioneering works of underground drainage and water supply in British India.[11] He served as president from 1885 to 1895, during which time he stood against the conservative society and was able to implement and complete common water supply line to all castes.[12][13] He took help of his poet friend Dalpatram to convince people for common water supply lines to be implemented by city's municipal corporation.[13][4]

He founded one of earliest high school of Ahmedabad, the RC High School in 1846, which is also named after him.[14] Ranchhodlal started the first women's hospital in Ahmedabad in 1865, which is known as Victoria Jubilee Hospital.[15] In 1879 Ranchhodlal Chhotalal was responsible for founding and restarting of Gujarat College, which was put under management of the Gujarat College Committee, headed by him.[16][17][18] He further donated money to Gujarat Vernacular Society to start a girls' high school now named RB Ranchhodlal Chhotalal Girls High School in 1892.[19] Further, an endowment fund named Ranchhodlal Chhotalal C I E Research Award Endowment was also started by him to help bright but poor students complete their education.[20]

As a visionary, in year 1894 he joined hands with other entrepreneurs of town - Mansukhbhai Bahgubhai, Shambhuprasad Becharbhai Lashkare, Lalbhai Dalpatbhai, Motilal Amratlal, Sarabhai Maganbhai, and Girdharlal Amritlal Desai to form Gujarat Navigation Company, with a motive to link Sabarmati with Dholera in an attempt to link Ahmedabad with sea. However, the project was not approved by then British government.[4][21][1] He was first made a Rai Bahadur and later Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire. Further, he was nominated as a member of Bombay Legislative Council for years 1890-95.[1][22] As a nationalist, he protested strongly protested against this unfair duty on Indian cloth in the Legislative Council of Bombay.[22]

Ranchhodlal Chhotalal died in October 1898. He had a son named Madhowlal, who died in 1901, couple of years after his death. However, after him and his business and philanthropic works were expanded by his grandson Chinubhai Madhowlal Ranchhodlal, who became the first Hindu Indian to be made baronet by the British regime.[23] Sir Chinubhai founded Ranchhodlal Chhotalal Technical Institute in 1910 in memoir of his grandfather, Ranchhodlal, which provides certificate courses in information technology, mechanical, electrical, textile spinning, textile weaving and textile processing.[24] At the time of Chinubhai's death in 1916 his son Girjiprasad was a minor, thus the family business was in the hands of his widow Sulochana. However she was an incapable manager and the family fortune was eventually run into the ground in the 1930s.[25]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Memoir of Rao Bahadur Ranchhodlal Chhotalal, C.I.E." COMPILED BY S. M. EDWARDES, C.S.I., C.V.O., LATE OF THE INDIAN CIVIL SERVICE (BOMBAY), FROM MATERIALS COLLECTED BY SIR H. EVAN M. JAMES, K.C.I.E., C.S.I., LATE OF THE INDIAN CIVIL SERVICE (BOMBAY), FORMERLY COLLECTOR OP AHMADABAD AND COMMISSIONER, N.D. 1920
  2. ↑ Bridge, Gary; Watson, Sophie (2011). The New Blackwell Companion to the City. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 9781444395129.
  3. ↑ Makrand Mehta (1991). Indian merchants and entrepreneurs in historical perspective. Academic Foundation. p. 171. ISBN 978-81-7188-017-1.
  4. 1 2 3 "First Rancho: Ranchhodlal Chhotalal (1823-98) - Times of India". The Times of India. 24 February 2010. Retrieved 16 June 2017.
  5. 1 2 Dwijendra Tripathi; Jyoti Jumani (2007). The Concise Oxford History of Indian Business. Oxford University Press. p. 53. ISBN 978-0-19-568429-2. Retrieved 18 June 2017.
  6. 1 2 Harish Damodaran (2008). India's new capitalists: caste, business, and industry in a modern nation. Permanent Black in association with The New India Foundation. p. 51. ISBN 978-81-7824-218-7. Retrieved 18 June 2017.
  7. 1 2 E. Wayne Nafziger (1986). Essays in Entrepreneurship, Equity and Economic Development. Jai Press. p. 99. ISBN 978-0-89232-711-9. Retrieved 18 June 2017.
  8. ↑ (India), Gujarat (1984). Gujarat State Gazetteers: Ahmadabad District Gazetteer. Directorate of Government Print., Stationery and Publications, Gujarat State. p. 325. Retrieved 19 June 2017.
  9. ↑ The Economic Weekly. Economic Weekly. January 1965. p. 483. Retrieved 18 June 2017.
  10. ↑ "Ahmedabad Textile Mill's Association". www.atmaahd.com. Retrieved 18 June 2017.
  11. ↑ Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation
  12. ↑ Indian History Congress (1997). Proceedings of the Indian History Congress. Indian History Congress. p. 751. Retrieved 18 June 2017.
  13. 1 2 Rotary Club of Ahmedabad (1940). Ahmedabad, Being a Compilation of Articles Contributed by Rotarians and Others on Various Subjects Prominently Bringing Out Many Interesting Details Pertaining to and Connected with the City. Rotary Club of Ahmedabad. p. 27. Retrieved 18 June 2017.
  14. ↑ "Entrance test for class IV in 1865! - Times of India". The Times of India. 23 November 2011. Retrieved 16 June 2017.
  15. ↑ Victoria Jubilee Hospital Trust
  16. ↑ Women in India's freedom struggle by Nawaz B. Mody, Allied Publishers, 2000, pp 128
  17. ↑ Mridula Sarabhai: rebel with a cause by Aparna Basue 1965 - Page 14
  18. ↑ Gandhinagar: building national identity in postcolonial India By Ravi Kalia page 52
  19. ↑ Census of India, 1961 - Volume 5, Issue 1 - Page 187
  20. ↑ Rutnagur, Sorabji M. (1987). The Indian Textile Journal. Business Press. Retrieved 18 June 2017.
  21. ↑ Kenneth L. Gillion (1968). Ahmedabad; a study in Indian urban history. University of California Press. p. 00. ISBN 9780520004733. Retrieved 18 June 2017.
  22. 1 2 Research Journal of the Shreemati Nathibai Damodar Thackersey Women's University. The University. 1988. p. 6. Retrieved 18 June 2017.
  23. ↑ "Sir Chinubhai Madhowlal Ranchhodlal". The Peerage. Retrieved 5 April 2013.
  24. ↑ State), Bombay (India (1929). A Review of the Administration of the Presidency. Government Central Press. p. 217. Retrieved 18 June 2017.
  25. ↑ Tripathi, Dwijendra; Mehta, Makrand (1990). Business Houses in Western India: A Study in Entreprenurial Response, 1850-1956. South Asia Publications. pp. 50–51.
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