Wassiamull Assomull

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Wassiamull Assomull, also known as Seth Wassiamull Assomull Mahtani, was a Sindhi workie who established overseas trading-firm businesses in Singapore, the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia), Hong Kong, China, and Australia. [1] [2] [3] [note 1] His international company was known as Messrs. Wassiamull Assomull & Co. [4] [5] The company had around fifty-two branches worldwide, with specialization in the trade of Chinese, Japanese, and Indian products (especially silk and curios). [5] [6] Other companies, such as those associated with D. Chellaram, M. Dialdas, J. T. Chainrai, Wassiamull Assomull, and Chotirmal, operated on a similar model based around a transnational Sindhi-origin family. [7]

Contents

Career

Wassiamull Assomull & Co. advertisement published within The Brisbane Courier (Wednesday, 17 December 1902) Wassiamull Assomull & Co. advertisement published within The Brisbane Courier (Wednesday, 17 December 1902).png
Wassiamull Assomull & Co. advertisement published within The Brisbane Courier (Wednesday, 17 December 1902)

Wassiamull's family originated from Hyderabad in Sindh but migrated overseas in 1840. [8] In 1864, Wassiamull began a textile business in Singapore and is believed to have been the first Sindhi to visit Singapore. [3] According to Dayal N. Harjani, Wassiamull founded his company in 1866. [1] In 1868, the company established itself in Hong Kong and began selling and exporting Chinese products, such as raw-silk, silk piece-goods, and curios, but also Indian products. [5] The Chinese products were exported worldwide, including in India. [5] They avoided dealing with grains, yarns, opium, and cassia. [5] In the 1890's, Wassiamull's company began trading in Hong Kong. [2] By the 20th century, his company grew to have sixty-four branches around the world, with twenty of them being in China. [2] In Australia, the company had branches in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, and shortly in Adelaide. [4] The company also helped establish educational institutions in Bombay. [9]

Establishing diasporic Sikh gurdwaras

A civilian gurdwara was established at Queen Street in Singapore in 1912 on property purchased by a committee of Sikhs led by Wassiamull. [10] The Sindwork firm Wassiamall Assomull donated funds toward the construction of a gurdwara in Manila in the Philippines in 1933. [11]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ His name is also spelt as 'Wassiamull Asoomull' and 'Wassiamall Assomull'.

References

  1. 1 2 Harjani, Dayal N. (2018). Sindhi Roots & Rituals. The firm W.Assomull was founded in 1866 by Seth Wassiamull Assomull Mahtani who made inroads in the Far East network with phenomenal success and the first to enter Singapore in 1873 and thence in Dutch East Indies (Indonesia) and first to establish branch in Melbourne in 1876 and had 21 branches in their cap.
  2. 1 2 3 Bard, Solomon, ed. (1 January 2002). Voices from the Past: Hong Kong, 1842-1918. Hong Kong University Press. p. 354.
  3. 1 2 Yong, Tan Tai; Major, Andrew J. (1995). "1: India and Indians in the Making of Singapore". In Yong, Mun Cheong; Rao, V. V. Bhanoji (eds.). Singapore-India Relations: A Primer. NUS Press. p. 9. ISBN   9789971691950. Initially, most of the major business concerns then were in the hands of European houses, but gradually, however, as Singapore began to flourish as a free port, and with the expansion of trade, Indian businessmen began to realise the economic opportunities available in Singapore and started to move to the British station. One such entrepreneur was Wassiamull Assomull, a Sindhi textile merchant who brought his textile business to Singapore in 1864. An Indian businessman with extensive trading connections outside India, Assomull was believed to be the first Sindhi ever to set foot in Singapore.
  4. 1 2 Something Rich and Strange: Sea Changes, Beaches and the Littoral in the Antipodes. Sue Hosking, Susan Hosking. Wakefield Press. 2009. p. 199. ISBN   9781862548701. The transnational Sindhi company, Wassiamull Assomull and Company, had offices and representatives in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and briefly in Adelaide ...{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 Faure, David, ed. (1 September 1997). Society. Hong Kong University Press. p. 147. ISBN   9789622093935.
  6. ↑ Thacker's Indian Directory. 1918. p. 221.
  7. ↑ Lentin, Sifra (8 February 2024). "The Bombay-Cairo connect". Gateway House. Retrieved 13 February 2025.
  8. ↑ Calcutta Mosaic: Essays and Interviews on the Minority Communities of Calcutta. edited by Nilanjana Gupta, Himadri Banerjee, Sipra Mukherjee. Anthem Press. 2009. p. 12. ISBN   9788190583558. A hundred years later, around 1840, the inhabitants of Hyderabad, the capital of Sindh, joined the migration as the family of Wassiamull Assoomull migrated overseas.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  9. ↑ Chidambaran, T. V. (1957). Centenary Souvenir, 1857-1957. University of Bombay. p. 113.
  10. ↑ Yong, Tan Tai (20 September 2016). "The Sikhs in Singapore". Asia Samachar. Retrieved 13 February 2025.
  11. ↑ Ballantyne, Tony (16 August 2006). "Entangled Pasts". Between Colonialism and Diaspora: Sikh Cultural Formations in an Imperial World. Duke University Press. p. 73. ISBN   9780822338246.
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