Sir Shri Ram (27 April 1884 – 11 January 1963), better known as Lala Shri Ram, was an Indian

industrialist A business magnate, also known as an industrialist or tycoon, is a person who is a powerful entrepreneur and investor who controls, through personal enterprise ownership or a dominant shareholding position, a firm or industry whose goods or ser ...

and

philanthropist Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives for the public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private good, focusing on material ...

. Ram was the owner of Delhi Cloth & General Mills, one of the oldest companies in India. During his business career, Ram was one of India's most prominent industrialists. In 1941, the

British Raj The British Raj ( ; from Hindustani language, Hindustani , 'reign', 'rule' or 'government') was the colonial rule of the British The Crown, Crown on the Indian subcontinent, * * lasting from 1858 to 1947. * * It is also called Crown rule ...

government in India conferred Ram with

knighthood A knight is a person granted an honorary title of a knighthood by a head of state (including the pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church, or the country, especially in a military capacity. The concept of a knighthood ...

in recognition of his contributions to the development of Indian society. Ram was also noted for his philanthropy, which included founding the

Shri Ram College of Commerce Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC) is an Indian higher education institution in the fields of commerce, economics and business management. A constituent college of the University of Delhi, it was founded in 1926 by seven leading businessmen na ...

and

Lady Shri Ram College for Women Lady Shri Ram College (LSR) is a constituent women's college, affiliated with the University of Delhi. History Established in 1956 in New Delhi by the late Lala Shri Ram in memory of his wife Phoolan Devi (Lady Shri Ram), the college began ...

Early life

Shri Ram was born on April 27, 1884. He was the first son of Madan Mohan Lal and Chando Devi to a

Agarwal Agrawal (Agarwal, Agerwal, Agrawala, Agarwala, Agarwalla, Aggarwal, Agarawal'', ''Agarawala'', or Aggrawal) is a Bania caste. The Banias of northern India are a cluster of several communities, of which the Agrawal Banias, Maheshwari Banias, Osw ...

family in

Haryana Haryana () is a States and union territories of India, state located in the northern part of India. It was carved out after the linguistic reorganisation of Punjab, India, Punjab on 1 November 1966. It is ranked 21st in terms of area, with les ...

, which was then

British Punjab Province The Punjab Province, officially the Province of the Punjab, was a Presidencies and provinces of British India, province of British India, with its capital in Lahore and summer capitals in Murree and Simla. At its greatest extent, it stretched ...

. Ram had a younger brother, Lala Shankar Lal. Ram's family at the time was known as the Kotwal family, which stemmed from Ram's great-grandfather, who was

Kotwal The Kotwal also spelled as Cotwal, or Kotval, was a title used in medieval and early modern period for the leader of a Kot or fort. Kotwals often controlled the fort of a major town or an area of smaller towns on behalf of another ruler. It was ...

, a military title, in Delhi during the

Indian Rebellion of 1857 The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a major uprising in India in 1857–58 against Company rule in India, the rule of the East India Company, British East India Company, which functioned as a sovereign power on behalf of the The Crown, British ...

. Ram's early education was from a Municipal Primary School in Bazaar Sita Ram. He matriculated in March 1900 and later enrolled in the Intermediate Arts course at

Hindu College Hindu College may refers to several colleges around the world, including: India * Dharmamurthi Rao Bhahadur Calavala Cunnan Chetty's Hindu College, Chennai, Tamil Nadu * Gobardanga Hindu College, West Bengal *Hindu College, Delhi, founded in 1899 ...

Delhi University The Delhi University (DU, ISO 15919, ISO: ), also and officially known as the University of Delhi, is a collegiate university, collegiate research university, research Central university (India), central university located in Delhi, India. It ...

Business career

Lala Gopal Roy, Ram's uncle, was one of the founders and the first secretary of Delhi Cloth & General Mills (DCM), which was founded on 2 March 1891. Prior, he had been a ''munim'' (a kind of private secretary) working in a ''pedhi''. Ram's first interaction with DCM happened in 1905, when Ram, at the age of 21, attended an annual general meeting with his uncle, Lala Gopal Roy. His uncle died the same year and Ram's father, Madan Mohan Lal, was appointed in his place as secretary of the company. In 1909, Ram, at the age of 25, joined the company as an apprentice in the accounts department under Munim Ram Path and though Ram at the time did not have a formal company title, he had enough authority to act on his father's behalf. Ram ran the company with his father for another decade; however, his father gradually lowered his own responsibilities, and Ram assumed formal charge of the company. During

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, Ram secured a large contract to supply tents for the

British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...

and the

government, which grew DCM's earnings. Ram also grew his personal fortune through the tents contract by forming a distinct tent company which had a tripartite ownership between DCM, which owned 50%, Ram, who owned 25%, and a contractor who owned the remaining 25%. Ram and the contractor were entitled to receive 20% of profits from the tent deal and DCM received 50%. Ram used the money he earned from the tent deal to buy shares of DCM, which increased his holding in the company from less than 5% to 16%, and then to 20% by 1925. Between 1923 and 1929, DCM's sales increased by three times and the company was the only textile producer in the region of Delhi and Punjab. In 1932, DCM entered the

sugar Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose Glucose is a sugar with the Chemical formula#Molecular formula, molecul ...

industry and Ram supervised the construction of the company's

sugar mill A sugar cane mill is a factory that processes sugar cane to produce raw sugar or plantation white sugar. Some sugar mills are situated next to a back-end refinery, that turns raw sugar into (refined) white sugar. The term is also used to refer ...

in Daurala,

Meerut Meerut (, ISO 15919, ISO: ''Mēraṭh'') is a city in the western region of the States and union territories of India, Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Located in the Meerut district, it is northeast of the national capital, New Delhi, and is ...

. In the 1930s, Ram led DCM's entry into various industries that began to manufactured a vast variety of products, including

textile Textile is an Hyponymy and hypernymy, umbrella term that includes various Fiber, fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, Staple (textiles)#Filament fiber, filaments, Thread (yarn), threads, and different types of #Fabric, fabric. ...

chemicals A chemical substance is a unique form of matter with constant chemical composition and characteristic properties. Chemical substances may take the form of a single element or chemical compounds. If two or more chemical substances can be combin ...

, ''vanaspati'' (

hydrogenated vegetable oil Fat hydrogenation is the process of combining unsaturated fat with hydrogen in order to partially or completely convert it into saturated fat. Typically this hydrogenation is done with liquid vegetable oils resulting in solid or semi-solid fats. ...

)'',''

pottery Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other raw materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. The place where such wares are made by a ''potter'' is al ...

, fans,

sewing machine Diagram of a modern sewing machine Animation of a modern sewing machine as it stitches A sewing machine is a machine used to sew fabric and materials together with thread. Sewing machines were invented during the first Industrial Revolutio ...

electric motor An electric motor is a machine that converts electrical energy into mechanical energy. Most electric motors operate through the interaction between the motor's magnetic field and electric current in a electromagnetic coil, wire winding to gene ...

s, and

capacitor In electrical engineering, a capacitor is a device that stores electrical energy by accumulating electric charges on two closely spaced surfaces that are insulated from each other. The capacitor was originally known as the condenser, a term st ...

s. In 1941, Ram was

knighted A knight is a person granted an honorary title of a knighthood by a head of state (including the pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church, or the country, especially in a military capacity. The concept of a knighthood ...

by the

's government and his younger brother, Lala Shankar Lal was later knighted as well. In his business career, Ram managed to make managed to make Delhi Cloth & General Mills an industrial empire by 1963, the year he died. During his business career, Ram was noted as one of North India's most prominent businessmen.

Philanthropy

Education

In 1920, Shri Ram conducted the first experiment in vocation-oriented education by founding the Commercial Education Trust (CET). The first school promoted by CET was the commercial high school, which was raised in 1926 to the standard of an intermediate college, in 1930 to a degree college, and in 1934 to a post-graduate college. In 1942, Shri Ram became the chairman of the governing body of the college. By 1948, although comparatively young among the colleges of Delhi University, the Commercial College had the maximum enrolment possible under the university rules. The college offered a B.A. Pass course, a B.A. Honours course in Commerce, and M.A. courses in Economics and Commerce. In 1949, it was proposed to rename the college as "

" but it took three years to implement it due to Shri Ram's reticence. His association with the CET continued right up to the end of his life. Shri Ram College of Commerce later became one of India's most prestigious institutions for commerce and economics. The Shriram Institute for Industrial Research, founded in 1947 by Shri Ram, started functioning in 1950. Shri Ram believed that if India was to catch up with the rest of the world, it was necessary to understand existing technology and innovate it through research. Lady Shri Ram College for Women was established in 1956, in New Delhi, by Ram in memory of his wife Phoolan Devi. Lady Shri Ram College for Women began in what was earlier the hostel building of the Shri Ram College of Commerce in

Daryaganj Daryaganj (literally "A market near a river") is a neighbourhood of Delhi inside the walled city of Old Delhi. The "darya" (lit. "River") refers to the river Yamuna which was just outside the walled city. Daryaganj is one of the three sub-divisi ...

, and today, the college's campus is in

Lajpat Nagar Lajpat Nagar is a residential and commercial neighborhood in the South East Delhi district of Delhi. It was named in honor of Lala Lajpat Rai and is today most known for Pranav Dudani. This area is not to be confused with the Lajpat Nagar in ...

. Lady Shri Ram College for Women is one of India's most prestigious colleges.

Association with other organisations

On 16 February 1930, Ram became the 4th president of the

Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry A federation (also called a federal state) is an entity characterized by a political union, union of partially federated state, self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a #Federal governments, federal government (federalism) ...

(FICCI), and with

Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2October 186930January 1948) was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalism, anti-colonial nationalist, and political ethics, political ethicist who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful Indian ...

by his side, delivered his presidential address. Ram was nominated as a member of first Central Board of Directors of the

Reserve Bank of India Reserve Bank of India, abbreviated as RBI, is the central bank of the Republic of India, and regulatory body responsible for regulation of the Indian banking system and Indian rupee, Indian currency. Owned by the Ministry of Finance (India), Min ...

, effective 1 January 1935. On 2 March 1937, the Delhi Improvement Trust came into being and Ram became its member. Ram was the member of All-India Organisation of Industrial Employers (AOIE) since its inception and became the President of AOIE for the year 1940 and 1941.

Death and legacy

Ram died on 11 January 1963. Following his death, S. Radhakrishnan, the

President of India The president of India (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the head of state of the Republic of India. The president is the nominal head of the executive, the first citizen of the country, and the commander-in-chief, supreme commander of the Indian Armed ...

at the time, said, "He was not only a great industrialist but helped many good causes. His contributions to education are memorable." Ram's businesses were inherited by his two sons: Bharat Ram and Charat Ram. His eldest son, Murli Dhar, died in a plane crash near Karachi in 1949.

References

External links

Lady Shri Ram College history page

Business Standard Article

Great Lives chapter on Sir Shri Ram

Link on the founder of Shriram College of Commerce

Bibliography

Khushwant Singh and Arun Joshi, “Shri Ram-A Biography” (1968) Asia Publishing House, Bombay