Nanji Kalidas Mehta
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Nanji Kalidas Mehta | |
|---|---|
 Nanji Kalidas Mehta | |
| Born | 17 November 1887 |
| Died | 25 August 1969 (aged 81) |
| Occupations | |
| Organization | Mehta Group |
| Spouse | Santoshben Mehta |
| Children | 5 |
| Relatives |
|
Nanji Kalidas Mehta, Raj Ratna, MBE (17 November 1887 – 25 August 1969) was an Indian industrialist and philanthropist from Gujarat. He founded the Mehta Group in British East Africa, with its head office in India. Known as Sheth Nanjibhai. His son Mahendra Mehta, daughter in-law Sunayana Mehta and grandson Jay Mehta now own the Mehta Group.
Mehta was born on 17 November 1887 in Gorana village, near Porbandar in the Princely State of Porbandar, British India.[1] He was born in a Gujarati Hindu family of Lohana caste. He left for East Africa at the age of thirteen in 1900.[2][3][4] He married young and his second marriage was to Santoshben Mehta and they had four children - 'Didiji' Savitaben Mehta, Dirubhai Mehta, Nirmala Mehta nee Khatau and Mahendra Mehta (born 1932 in Porbandar). Shekhar Mehta, the sports car driver, and Jay Mehta, the businessman, are his grandsons.[5][6][7]
Mehta was a follower of the Hindu reform sect of Arya Samaj. As an active member of the sect, he was instrumental in starting many Arya Samaj affiliated schools, colleges, and temples in East Africa as well as India.[8]
Business career
He started his career as a trader and ventured into growing vegetable, cotton and then sugarcane in British East Africa. Later he ventured in to sugar manufacturing, tea and coffee plantations in that region.At Port Mashindi on the River Nile, Uganda he started the Hoima Cotton Company. He in his later life also started a Cement plant, ginneries, a textile unit and oil mills in India. He thus founded the Mehta Group conglomerate, which is now spread across the globe.[9]
He was contemporary of some other Gujarati businessmen and philanthropists of East Africa such as Meghji Pethraj Shah, Muljibhai Madhvani and others.[10] On the original building of Muljibhai Madhvani's office in Jinja, Nanjibhai's name still appears as DUKA YA KALIDASI, a mark of their friendship.[11]
He established the present day Sugar Corporation of Uganda Limited under the name Uganda Sugar Factory in 1924 at Lugazi. He was one of the first exporters of Uganda's cotton to Japan and other places which greatly helped in the establishment of the cotton industry in Uganda.[12]
In 1932, he established a cotton mill named Maharana Mills in Porbandar, the land for which was given at a measly sum by Maharana Natwarsinhji of Porbandar. The company employed 2500 workers at time of Indian independence in 1947. Nanjibhai was an Arya Samaji and was instrumental in giving Scheduled Caste the jobs in spite of protests by Brahmins.[13] Again it was for breaking the strike in this Maharana Mills, Nanjibhai is said to have employed services of Devu and Karsan Vagher in late 1960s.[14][15] In 1956 he established Saurashtra Cement Limited in Gujarat.[16]
The happy girls working in Maharana Mills at Probandar used to sing in his praise:
Nanji's lamp burns in Japan
Nanji Seth is lamp of our heart
Later life and death
In 1966, he published his Autobiography named Dreams half expressed,[18] where he mentions,
"The way to success is a hard road to travel. Disappointments and failures dishearten us in the midst of struggle but a man of enterprise has to pass through the period with patience and cheerfulness till he gets his well deserved returns."[12]
He died on 25 August 1969 at Porbandar in India.[19] At his demise, the Sheriff of Bombay, Shri S. M. Dahanukar held a Public Meeting to condole his death at the Bhulabhai Desai Auditorium, Bombay on Tuesday, 28 October 1969.
