Mathunny Mathews (1936-2017), also known as Toyota Sunny, was a Kuwait-based Indian businessman from the state of Kerala, who was one of the people credited with the safe airlift evacuation of about 170,000 Indians from Kuwait during the 1990 Invasion of Kuwait, which is hailed as the world's largest air civilian evacuation in history.

Early life

Matthews was born in 1936. He hails from Kerala ( Eraviperoor),

Kumbanad Kumbanad is a town located in the Koipuram Town Panchayath Along with Pullad. It is part of Thiruvalla Taluk & Thiruvalla Revenue Division of Pathanamthitta district in the State of Kerala. It is an important town situated on T.K. Road, eq ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

and was popularly known as Toyota Sunny, owing to his work in Kuwait with the

Toyota is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on August 28, 1937. Toyota is the List of manuf ...

agency owned by the Al-Sayer Group. He retired in 1989 as its MD. During the early phase of industrialization in Kuwait, Matthews had reached Kuwait by ship in 1956 as a prospective immigrant for employment. He was also the chairman of the Jabriya Indian School in Kuwait and one of the founding members of the Indian Art’s Circle, a widely recognized cultural association of all Indian expatriates in Kuwait.

Indian Airlift Evacuation

With the help of Mathunny Mathews, the airlift of Indians was carried out from 13 August to 11 October 1990 after the

Invasion of Kuwait The Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, codenamed Project 17, began on 2 August 1990 and marked the beginning of the Gulf War. After defeating the Kuwait, State of Kuwait on 4 August 1990, Ba'athist Iraq, Iraq went on to militarily occupy the country fo ...

Air India Air India is the flag carrier of India with its main hub at Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi, and secondary hubs at Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru and Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport in Mumbai, alo ...

holds the

Guinness Book of World Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a British reference book published annually, listi ...

for the most people evacuated by a civil airliner as a result of this effort. The operation was carried out during the

Persian Gulf War , combatant2 = , commander1 = , commander2 = , strength1 = Over 950,000 soldiers3,113 tanks1,800 aircraft2,200 artillery systems , page = https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-PEMD-96- ...

in 1990 to evacuate Indian expatriates from

Kuwait Kuwait, officially the State of Kuwait, is a country in West Asia and the geopolitical region known as the Middle East. It is situated in the northern edge of the Arabian Peninsula at the head of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to Iraq–Kuwait ...

and

Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...

. It is believed to be the largest civilian evacuation in history. The Indians based in Kuwait also helped in the evacuation efforts. Leading daily ''Times of India'' reported that Kuwait-based Malayali entrepreneur Mathunny Mathews (also known as Toyota Sunny) duly supported by Harbhajan Singh Vedi, played a stellar role in co-ordinating the evacuation operation by meeting Indian ambassador in Baghdad and overseeing the transport of thousands of Indians to Amman via Baghdad by bus after striking a deal with Iraqi transporters, Indian authorities and UN.Article title
/ref> On 22 January 2016,

Airlift An airlift is the organized delivery of Materiel, supplies or personnel primarily via military transport aircraft. Airlifting consists of two distinct types: strategic and tactical. Typically, strategic airlifting involves moving material lo ...

, a Hindi film playing

Akshay Kumar Akshay Hari Om Bhatia (born Rajiv Hari Om Bhatia; 9 September 1967), known professionally as Akshay Kumar (), is an Indian actor and film producer working in Hindi cinema. Referred to in the media as "Khiladi Kumar", through his career span ...

as Ranjit Katyal, a fictional character somewhat merged character based on Mathunny Mathews and Harbhajan Singh Vedi was released.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mathews, Mathunny 1990 in India Evacuations of Indians Airlifts Gulf War India–Kuwait relations Air India 1990 in aviation Year of birth missing 2017 deaths