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A thread on Goenkas. Margaret Herdeck & Gita Piramal: India’s industrialists: “The Marwari community, particularly in Calcutta, had become wealthy largely because of its symbiotic relationship with the British trading firms. Their whole business centered around foreign trade.”
“Naturally the development of militant nationalism threatened them by its attack on the very source of their livelihood”. p. 109. In other words, Marwaris in Calcutta were dead set against the revolutionary movement.
Moving on to Goenkas.”The Goenka family fortune was founded on links with the British.” Gita Piramal, Business Maharajas. Ramdutt Goenka moved 4m Dundlod, Rajasthan to Calcutta around the turn of the nineteenth century. p. 108,Gita Piramal&Margaret Herdeck, India’s industrialists
Ramdutt made his fortune through profitable brokerships with British firms, Kinsell & Ghose, Kettlewell & Bullen. p. 108, Herdeck & Piramal, India’s Industrialists.
Ramdutt Goenka also became the banyan of the leading jute exporter, Ralli brothers. Scientist Prafulla Chandra Roy notes that through this foothold Marwaris completely displaced Bengalis from the jute business
By the turn of the twentieth century, Goenkas had become very close to the British. This was also the time that the Bengalis revolted against the British & the revolutionary movement started there with the partition of Bengal.
In the fourth generation, two Goenka brothers, Hariram and Badridas were knighted. That was the extent of the collusion. Badridas also became Rai Bahadur in 1925, Companion of the Indian Empire in 1928 pp. 108-109 Herdeck, Piramal These were only awarded to staunch loyalists
Sir Badridas was on the board of several government bodies, eg, Bengal Council, Calcutta Corporation, Calcutta Improvement Trust. In 1930 he became a Director of the Imperial Bank of India, in 1933 first Indian Chairman of the the Bank
Sir Badridas was a member of the committee selected to draft the constitution of the Reserve Bank of India in 1933 p. 109 Herdeck & Piramal
The Goenkas remained orthodox (or regressive) in their personal lives. “The Goenka women stay at home, looking after the children, and RP brought up his sons to think in the same way”. Things changed in the last decade of the 21st century. Piramal, Business Maharajas
The picture we have is a dyed in the wool British loyalist business dynasty. The awards and appointments show they had nothing to do with freedom movement, including funding. While living & earning in the epicenter of the Indian Freedom Movement, Calcutta.
While Goenkas were enhancing their fortune through collaboration with the British, the British were persecuting Indians in every possible way. The Bengal Holocaust of 1942-3 that killed 3-4 million was merely a culmination in the long sequence of vile persecution. Blood money.
These have been sourced from books that are extremely laudatory of big businessmen. So these wont even tip of the iceberg. Where the Indian left failed us was in not digging up details of this blood money.
Cc @realitycheckind a thread on your Institution builders of Calcutta.
