Kishinchand Chellaram

Last updated April 11, 2024

Kishinchand Chellaram was an Indian businessman who operated a global trading network, K. Chellaram & Sons. The firm was founded in 1915, an offshoot of a sindwork trading family in India.^[1]

Life and business

Chelleram was born in Madras to the family of Gianchand Chellaram, a Sindhi textile merchant.^[2] He and three brothers attended primary school in Hyderabad and were in training to join the family business. At the age of fifteen, Chellaram began working in the family business and was trained in many aspects of the business.^[1]

In 1915, he branched out on his own with the establishment of K. Chellaram and Sons in Madras, the firm merchandised silk textiles and a few other wares. A few years later a branch was opened in Yokohama. An expansion westward led to the establishment of an office in Lagos in 1923. The Lagos firm traded in textiles from India and Japan in the 1920 and 1930s^[2] competing with European firms. Prior to World War II, the firm established a local office in Sierra Leone.^{[ citation needed ]}

The Chellarams were Hindu from Sindh province in pre-partition India, when the union was split into India and Pakistan, Chellaram sold most of its assets in Sindh and increased his interest in Nigeria.^{[ citation needed ]}

Chellaram formally registered the business in Nigeria in 1947 and in the 1950s, he established a chain of department stores.^[3]

Chellaram owned a house in the high brow area of Ikoyi in colonial Lagos^[3] and later retired to a Pedhi in Hyderabad.^[1] Before his death, he established an educational trust in India that contributed to the development of Kishinchand Chellaram College.^[4]

Related Research Articles

Hyderabad is a city and the capital of Hyderabad Division in the Sindh province of Pakistan. It is the second-largest city in Sindh, and the fifth largest in Pakistan.

Sindhis are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group who speak the Sindhi language and are native to the Sindh province of Pakistan. The historical homeland of Sindhis is bordered by the southeastern part of Balochistan, the Bahawalpur region of Punjab and the Kutch region of Gujarat. Having been isolated throughout history, unlike its neighbours, Sindhi culture has preserved its own uniqueness.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sukkur</span> Metropolis in Sindh, Pakistan

Sukkur is a city in the Pakistani province of Sindh along the western bank of the Indus River, directly across from the historic city of Rohri. Sukkur is the third largest city in Sindh after Karachi and Hyderabad, and 14th largest city of Pakistan by population. The city was originally founded by the Rai dynasty of Sindh. The modern city was built in the 1840s. New Sukkur was established during the British era alongside the village of Sukkur. Sukkur's hill, along with the hill on the river island of Bukkur, form what is sometimes considered the "Gate of Sindh".

Bhatia is a group of people and a caste found in Punjab, Sindh and Gujarat. Traditionally, they have been a trading and merchant community. The Bhatias primarily live in Northwestern India and Pakistan. The Bhatias, Lohanas and Khatris were similar communities and were known to intermarry. The Bhatias recruit Saraswat Brahmins as priests.

Shikarpur is a city and the capital of Shikarpur District in Sindh province of Pakistan. It is situated about 29 km west of the right bank of the Indus, with a railway station, 37 km north-west of Sukkur. It is the 42nd largest city of Pakistan by population according to the 2017 census.

Lohana are a trading or mercantile jāti mostly in India and also in Pakistan.

The Hyderabad (Sind) National Collegiate Board or HSNC Board is an Indian non-profit organisation founded in 1922 in the British India province of Sind and moved to Bombay, India after the 1947 Partition. It is one of the oldest educational trusts of India and currently administers 27 institutes under its umbrella including the HSNC University, Mumbai.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Talpur dynasty</span> Sindhi medieval dynasty ruling till 19th century

The Talpur dynasty were rulers based in Sindh, a region of present-day Pakistan. Four branches of the dynasty were established following the defeat of the Kalhora dynasty at the Battle of Halani in 1783: one ruled lower Sindh from the city of Hyderabad, another ruled over upper Sindh from the city of Khairpur, a third ruled around the eastern city of Mirpur Khas, and a fourth was based in Tando Muhammad Khan.

Hinduism is a minority faith in Gibraltar followed by 2% of the population. Most of the Hindus in Gibraltar are of Sindhi origin.

Hirabad is one of the oldest parts of the city of Hyderabad in Sindh, Pakistan. Before partition in 1947, Hirabad was a thriving township of wealthy Hindu Sindwork merchants and traders who generally belonged to the Amil and Bhaiband castes of Hindu Lohanas.

Hinduism spread to Nigeria mainly by arrival of Hindus from India and by way of ISKCON. Sindhis were the first to arrive in Nigeria in the early part of the nineteenth century. Initially, they were primarily engaged in trading but gradually, while retaining their interest in trading, they ventured into other fields such as manufacturing and professional services. In succeeding decades, they made substantial investments, aggregating more than US$4 billion. Sindhi names like Chellaram, Bhojson, Chandrai etc are well known in Nigeria. Indian Sindhis run Superstores and are in the textiles sector, as well as in pharmaceuticals, fishing and engineering industries. Around 1 million Indians live in Nigeria.

Hassaram Rijhumal College of Commerce and Economics, commonly known as HR College, is an autonomous educational institute located in Churchgate, Mumbai. It is run by the Hyderabad (Sindh) National Collegiate Board and is affiliated to the HSNC University.

Bhaiband, meaning “brotherhood”, are a Hindu jāti within the Sindhi caste of India and Pakistan.

The Sindhi diaspora consists of Sindhi people who have emigrated from the historical Sindh province of British India, as well as the modern Sindh province of Pakistan, to other countries and regions of the world, as well as their descendants.

Sindhi Hindus are Sindhis who follow Hinduism. They are spread across modern-day Sindh, Pakistan and India. After the partition of India in 1947, many Sindhi Hindus were among those who fled from Pakistan to the dominion of India, in what was a wholesale exchange of Hindu and Muslim populations in some areas. Some later emigrated from the Indian subcontinent and settled in other parts of the world.

Sindhi workies, (alternativelySindworkis, SindworkiesorSindwork merchants,, were wealthy Hindu traders and merchants from the Sindh region of British India. This merchant class rapidly gained prominence during the British rule of India and spread their businesses overseas to places as far as Malta, South Africa and Singapore.

The Indian community in Malta, about 6,900 people in 2023, is just under 0.5 percent of the population of Malta. Most families have been living in Malta since the country was a Crown colony.

Popati Hiranandani was an Indian writer who authored more than sixty books in Sindhi language during her life. She was an essayist, fiction writer, poet, educationist, feminist and social activist. She made significant contributions to Sindhi literature before and after the partition of India. She won several awards including the Sahitya Akademi Award (1982), Woman of the Year Award (1988), and the Gaurav Puraskar (1990) among others.

Hotchand Gopaldas Advani was an Indian lawyer, educationist, social reformist and a businessman. He was one of the founders of K.C. College, K.C. Law College and Jai Hind Cooperative Bank of India. He served as founding president of Hyderabad (Sindh) National Collegiate Board, and chairman of the Sindhu Resettlement Corporation Gandhidham, India.

Khushiram Motiram Kundnani, popularly known as Principal K.M. Kundnani, was an eminent educationist of India. Born in Hyderabad, Sindh, he was the founder secretary of the Hyderabad (Sind) National Collegiate Board and founder principal of Kishinchand Chellaram (K.C.) College, Churchgate and R.D. National College & S.W.A. Science College, Bandra.

References

1 2 3 Falzon, Mark-Anthony. (2004). Cosmopolitan connections : the Sindhi diaspora, 1860-2000. Leiden: Brill. pp. 136–138, 222. ISBN 1429408367. OCLC 191934612.
1 2 Markovits, Claude. (141). The global world of Indian merchants, 1750-1947 : traders of Sind from Bukhara to Panama. Cambridge [England]. p. 141. ISBN 0511018606. OCLC 56416068.
1 2 Africa, Forbes (1 March 2012). "From Refugees To Tycoons".{{cite magazine}}: Cite magazine requires |magazine= (help)
↑ "Chellaram Charities". chellaramcharities.org. Retrieved 13 April 2019.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[brill-1] 1 2 3 Falzon, Mark-Anthony. (2004). Cosmopolitan connections : the Sindhi diaspora, 1860-2000. Leiden: Brill. pp. 136–138, 222. ISBN 1429408367. OCLC 191934612.

[claude-2] 1 2 Markovits, Claude. (141). The global world of Indian merchants, 1750-1947 : traders of Sind from Bukhara to Panama. Cambridge [England]. p. 141. ISBN 0511018606. OCLC 56416068.

[:0-3] 1 2 Africa, Forbes (1 March 2012). "From Refugees To Tycoons".{{cite magazine}}: Cite magazine requires |magazine= (help)

[4] "Chellaram Charities". chellaramcharities.org. Retrieved 13 April 2019.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]