Original illustration for Bharat Legends.
Ghanshyam Das Birla
- ◆Built the Birla industrial empire from a Calcutta jute-broking firm
- ◆Founded Hindustan Motors, Hindalco and UCO Bank
- ◆Close friend and financier of Mahatma Gandhi
- ◆Endowed BITS Pilani and the Birla temples and planetaria
The Story
G. D.
Birla began work as a young jute broker in Calcutta, competing head-on with British firms who did not want Indian traders in the market. He built jute, textile and later car and cement companies that grew into one of India's largest industrial houses.
He was also one of Mahatma Gandhi's closest friends — he gave the Mahatma a home in Delhi (Birla House) and quietly funded much of the freedom movement.
Ghanshyam Das Birla (1894–1983) came from a Marwari trading family in Pilani, Rajasthan, and moved to Calcutta as a teenager. Refusing to work only through British agents, he built his own jute-broking firm and then expanded into textiles (Kesoram, Century), cement, aluminium (Hindalco), automobiles (Hindustan Motors, maker of the Ambassador) and finance (UCO Bank).
He was a lifelong friend and confidant of Mahatma Gandhi, and Gandhi spent much of his last years at Birla House in Delhi, where he was assassinated in 1948. Birla founded the Birla Education Trust, which established BITS Pilani, and endowed temples, hospitals and planetaria across India.
His descendants (through the Aditya Birla Group and other houses) still lead some of India's largest companies.
Learn More
These links go to other websites — ask a grown-up before tapping.
- ›In the Shadow of the Mahatma: A Personal Memoir — G. D. Birla
- ›The Marwaris: From Traders to Industrialists — Thomas A. Timberg