The times of Dalmia

Sonu Bhasin’s Entrepreneurs Who Built India: Ramkrishna Dalmia follows the rise of the man who turned the Dalmia name into a household one. Ramkrishna Dalmia, the founder of Dalmia Industries, was a humble speculator who began life in the commodities market in Calcutta (now Kolkata), setting a new benchmark in all the businesses he touched. He was a man with a Midas touch whose vast empire included sugar, cement, banks, insurance, aviation, cargo, biscuits, dairy products, and newspapers. A man of modest means, he founded the third-largest business group of undivided India. He had ‘come from nowhere,’ blessed with a razor-sharp mind, which had been sharpened on the whetstone of our bullion market.

The fact remains that he was friends with his neighbour, Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Yet no two men could have been more opposite. Jinnah loved: “Lavish meals, expensive Cuban cigars, Bordeaux wines, and preferred wearing Italian suits. In contrast was a man who abhorred the killing of animals for food. Deeply religious, he lived according to Vedic principles, wore only khadi, and lived a simple life.” While Jinnah was a monogamist, Dalmia had four wives and eighteen children. They met regularly, as he tried to broker peace between the Congress leaders and his close friend, who was hell bent on creating Pakistan. “Partition took place, and people on both sides were brutally killed.”