Mutty Lal Seal

. Later he started exporting commodities and amassed as many as 13 trade ships. Mutty Lal Seal and Ramdulal Sarkar, another renowned shipping magnate, have become part of Bengali folklore as great merchant princes. [ Bhattacharya, Sabyasachi, "Traders and Trades in Old Calcutta", in "Calcutta, the Living City", Vol I, p 209. ]

Early life

Mutty Lal Seal lost his father, Chaitanya Charan Seal, a cloth merchant, when he was five years old. The death of his father virtually put an end to his efforts at education. However his life took a turn, when at the age of seventeen he was married to the daughter of Mohan Chand Dey of Surtir Bagan neighbourhood in Kolkata. Mutty Lal Seal accompanied his father-in-law on a pilgrimage tour to northern and western parts of India, and the experience greatly enlightened him. On return he started working in Fort William, then the bastion of British power.

Achievements

Business activities

He started his business career humbly by selling bottles and corks to one "Mr. Hudson" who was one of the most extensive importers of beer in those days. [Mitra, Kissory Chand, "Mutty Lall Seal", Calcutta, 1869, p 5-6] He traded in cowhides, was the founder and promoter of the first indigo mart which was established under the name of "M/s. Moore, Hickey & Co.". The English merchants used to hire him for his sound judgements on indigo, silk, sugar, rice, saltpetre etc. He started exporting indigo, silk, sugar, rice, saltpetre to Europe and importing iron and cotton-piece goods from England. He got appointed as banian to various agency houses including his own "Oswald, Seal & Co". [Chakrabarty, Dipesh, "The Colonial context Of The Bengal Renaissance: A Note On Early Railway Thinking In Bengal", in "Indian Economic and Social History Review", Vol. XI, No. 1, March 1974] He was the first person in the country to use steamships for internal trade, and he prospered in competition with Europeans. He made a vast fortune in a single generation through "money-dealing", a phrase which does not merely refer to money-lending, bill discounting and other banking business. There was scarcely a speculation into which he did not enter, and for which he did not supply a portion of funds. From dealings in internal exchanges to contracts for station-building, for the erection of new bazaars to revival of transit companies, there was scarcely an undertaking in which he was not an important, though a quiet shareholder. He funded every promising enterprise he found and made profits in the shape of interest. ["Allen's Indian Mail, And Register Of Intelligence For British And Foreign India, China, And All Parts Of The East", Vol XII, January-December 1854, p 382] Mutty Lal Seal was one of the founders of [http://www.assamco.com/heritage.html "Assam Company Ltd."] . Under his influence, the then "Oriental Life Insurance Company" (later reconstructed as "New Oriental Insurance Company" in 1834) founded by the Europeans, being the first life insurance company on Indian soil, accepted to underwrite Indian lives. [Rungta, Radhe Shyam "Rise of Business Corporations In India 1851-1900", p 12-13] He was among the founders of "Bank Of India". ["Parbury's Oriental Herald And Colonial Intelligencer", Vol II, July-December 1838, p 28] He was a board member of "Agricultural And Horticultural Society Of India". ["The Calcutta Monthly Journal And General Register Of Occurrences Throughout The British Dominions In The East Forming An Epitome Of The Indian Press", For The Year 1836, Calcutta, p 204] In the course of time he amassed as much wealth as Rustomjee Cowasjee and Dwarkanath Tagore. At one point of time he was in complete control of the paper trade in Kolkata. In 1878 Kissori Chand Mitra delivered a lecture on the life of Mutty Lal Seal calling him the "Rothschild of Calcutta". [Sarkar, Tanika, "Hindu Wife, Hindu Nation", p 34] About him, Sivanath Sastri writes - "He never adopted unfair means for earning money. He was well-behaved, polite and helpful to others."

Philanthropy

As a philanthropist, Mutty Lal Seal founded a guest house at Belgharia (in the suburbs of Calcutta) and a bathing "ghat" on the bank of the Hooghly River known as "Motilal Ghat". Perhaps he is best remembered as the donor of the land on which the Calcutta Medical College was built. Mutty Lal Seal also offered a lack of rupees for the establishment of a female (lying in) hospital which started funtioning in 1838 under his benevolence. ["Missionary And Religious Intelligence", in "The Calcutta Christian Observer", Vol. I, New Series, January-December, 1840, p 171] In 1843 he established Seal's Free School to provide for the education of the Hindus to enable them to occupy posts of trust and emolument in their own country. The course of education included English Literature, History, Geography, Elocution, Writing, Arithmetic, Algebra, Philosophical Sciences, Higher Mathematics & practical application of Mathematics. The school was opened free of cost, only one rupee was charged per month to cover the expenses of books, stationery etc. and the surplus being expended towards furnishing the school with mathematical instruments. The institute was under the management of the Directors of the parent college of St. F. Xavier, Chowringhee, Calcutta who undertook to furnish teachers to further the cause of secular education. ["Goethals News", Vol. IV, No. 3 Bulletin, July - September 2001] He extended financial support and cooperation for the establishment of Hindu Charitable Institution and Hindu Metropolitan College. Seal's Free School, Hindu Metropolitan College and some of the other institutions of the time were calculated to offset the 'ill effects' of the liberal education offered at the Hindu College. [ Majumdar, Swapan, "Literature and Literary Life in Old Calcutta", in "Calcutta, the Living City", Vol I, p 110. ]

Later life

In that age, the native society of Kolkata was divided into two parts. One was the reformist section led by Raja Rammohun Roy and the other was the conservative section led by Radha Kanta Deb. Most of the rich people of Kolkata were in the latter group. Radha Kanta Deb strongly opposed both Raja Rammohun Roy's move to ban sati and Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar's efforts for remarriage of widows, many of whom were child-widows. Although Mutty Lal Seal belonged to the latter group, he supported the move for remarriage of widows. He made a public offer for a dowry of 1000 rupees to the first Hindu widow who should have the courage to break through the ancient prejudices of caste, and marry a second time. [Ripley, George, Dana, Charles A.,"The New American Cyclopaedia: A Popular Dictionary Of General Knowledge", Vol. II, 1859, p 443] When Mutty Lal Seal died on 20 May 1854 his obituary in the "Hindu Intelligence" described him as the "richest and most virtuous Baboo of Calcutta". [Sengupta, Nitish, "History Of The Bengali Speaking People", p 259-260] One of the busy streets in Kolkata's business district is named after him as "Moti Sil Street".

Notes

References

*Harvard reference
Surname1 = Chaudhuri
Given1 = Sukanta (Ed)
Year = 1995
Title = Calcutta: The Living City
Edition =
Publisher= Oxford University Press
ISBN = 0195636988
* Sastri, Sivanath, "Ramtanu Lahiri O Tatkalin Banga Samaj" in Bengali (1903/2001), p 48, New Age Publishers Pvt. Ltd.
* Sengupta, Subodh Chandra and Bose, Anjali (Ed), "Sansad Bangali Charitabhidhan" (Biographical dictionary) in Bengali (1976/1998), p 391, Sahitya Sansad. ISBN 81-85626-65-0

External links

* [http://www.abasar.net/bk_main.asp?what=B00663 Biography in Bengali]

Persondata
NAME=Mutty Lal Seal
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=Motilal Seal
SHORT DESCRIPTION=businessman
DATE OF BIRTH=1792
PLACE OF BIRTH=Colootola, Kolkata
DATE OF DEATH=20 May 1854
PLACE OF DEATH=Kolkata