Mutty Lall Seal (also written as Mutty Loll Seal, Mati Lall Seal, or Motilal Seal) (1792 – 20 May 1854) was a businessman and philanthropist from
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
. Seal began his life as a bottle and cork dealer but later became very wealthy. He donated large sums of his wealth to charity and education. Seal and
Ramdulal Sarkar, another
shipping magnate
A business magnate, also known as a tycoon, is a person who has achieved immense wealth through the ownership of multiple lines of enterprise. The term characteristically refers to a powerful entrepreneur or investor who controls, through perso ...
, became part of the Bengali folklore as great merchant princes.
Early life
Mutty Lall Seal was born in 1792, in a
Bengali Hindu
Bengali Hindus ( bn, বাঙ্গালী হিন্দু/বাঙালি হিন্দু, translit=Bāṅgālī Hindu/Bāṅāli Hindu) are an ethnoreligious population who make up the majority in the Indian states of West Benga ...
family situated in
Calcutta
Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, commerc ...
(now Kolkata). His father Chaitanya Charan Seal, a
cloth merchant
In the Middle Ages or 16th and 17th centuries, a cloth merchant was one who owned or ran a cloth (often wool) manufacturing or wholesale import or export business. A cloth merchant might additionally own a number of draper's shops. Cloth was ext ...
, died when Seal was five years old. His early education began in a ''
pathshala
Drik Picture Library is a photography agency and picture library based in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Background
Drik Picture Library was established in 1989 by Bangladeshi writer and photographer Shahidul Alam and Bangladeshi writer and anthropolog ...
(Indian rural school)'' which continued onto the Martin Bowl English School and the Baboo Nityananda Sen High School.
In 1809, at the age of seventeen, he married Nagri Dassee, the daughter of Mohan Chand Dey from the Surtir Bagan neighbourhood of Kolkata. Seal accompanied his father-in-law on a pilgrimage to northern and western India, and was said to be greatly enlightened by his spiritual experience on the journey. Around 1815, he started working at
Fort William, and eventually, the bastion of British power. While working at Fort William, he was involved in the supply of essential commodities to the British army. Later, he worked as an inspector for
Indian Customs at
Balikhal.
Achievements
Business activities
Seal started his business career by selling bottles and corks to Mr. Hudson, one of the most extensive importers of beer in those days. Mr. Hudson traded in
cowhides and was the founder and promoter of the first indigo market, which was established under the name of M/s. Moore, Hickey & Co. English merchants hired Seal for his sound judgement on indigo, silk, sugar, rice, saltpeter, and other goods. He was appointed as "Banian" to around twenty first class agency houses out of around fifty or sixty such houses in Calcutta. Later he became a landed property speculator and merchant, successively in partnership with Fergusson Brothers & Co., Oswald Seal & Co. and Tulloh & Co. In these three firms he was said to have lost some thirty
Lakh
A lakh (; abbreviated L; sometimes written lac) is a unit in the Indian numbering system equal to one hundred thousand (100,000; scientific notation: 105). In the Indian 2,2,3 convention of digit grouping, it is written as 1,00,000. For ...
of
rupee
Rupee is the common name for the currencies of
India, Mauritius, Nepal, Pakistan, Seychelles, and Sri Lanka, and of former currencies of Afghanistan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, the United Arab Emirates (as the Gulf rupee), British East Africa, ...
s. He was involved in exporting indigo, silk, sugar, rice, and saltpeter to Europe, and importing iron and cotton-piece goods from England. Seal acquired a number of
cargo boats, which were then new to the market, and used old flour mills to ship tons of biscuits to
Australia for the first
emigrants
Emigration is the act of leaving a resident country or place of residence with the intent to settle elsewhere (to permanently leave a country). Conversely, immigration describes the movement of people into one country from another (to permanent ...
to its newly discovered gold fields. Later, he put up a mill to refine sugar on the centrifugal principle.
The first to use steamships for internal trade in
Calcutta
Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, commerc ...
, he prospered in competition with Europeans. He owned around thirteen trade ships including a steam tug named ''Banian''. He made a fortune in a single generation through money-dealing, which includes lending, bill counting 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 the revival of transit companies, rare was an undertaking in which he was not an important, though quiet, shareholder. He funded every promising enterprise he found and made profits in the shape of interest. At one point he was in complete control over the market dealing in company papers. Seal was one of the founders of Assam Company Ltd.
Under his influence, the European-created Oriental Life Insurance Company (later reconstructed as New Oriental Insurance Company in 1834) began to underwrite Indian lives, which was the first life insurance company on Indian soil. He was among the founders of the Bank of India, and was on the board of the Agricultural And Horticultural Society of India. In time, he amassed as much wealth as
Dwarkanath Tagore
Dwarkanath Tagore ( bn, দ্বারকানাথ ঠাকুর, ''Darokanath Ţhakur''; 1794–1846) was one of the first Indian industrialists to form an enterprise with British partners. He was the son of Ramlochon Tagore, the founder ...
and Rustomjee Cowasjee. In 1878, Kishori Chand Mitra delivered a lecture on the life of Seal calling him the "
Rothschild of Calcutta". Pandith Sivanath Sastri wrote: "He never adopted unfair means for earning money. He was well-behaved, polite and helpful to others."
Philanthropy
As a philanthropist, in 1841, Seal founded an alms house at
Belgharia
Belgharia is a locality in Kamarhati Municipality of North 24 Parganas district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is a part of the area covered by Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA) and a vital locality in Kolkata metropol ...
(in the suburbs of Calcutta) where 500 people were fed daily on average, and is still open to the poor. It has a bathing ''
ghat
Ghat, a term used in the Indian subcontinent, depending on the context could refer either to a range of stepped hills with valleys (ghati in Hindi), such as the Eastern Ghats and Western Ghats; or the series of steps leading down to a body of ...
'' which exists today on the bank of the
Hooghly River
The Bhagirathi Hooghly River (Anglicized alternatively spelled ''Hoogli'' or ''Hugli'') or the 'Bhāgirathi-Hooghly', called the Ganga or the Kati-Ganga in mythological texts, is the eastern distributary of the Ganges River in West Bengal, Indi ...
known as ''Motilal Ghat''.
He was well known as the donor of an extensive tract of land, which at the time was valued at Rs. 12,000, to the then British Government on which the
Calcutta Medical College
, mottoeng = Humanity and Science
, type = Public medical school
, established =
, founder = Lord William Bentinck
, principal = Raghunath Mishra
, faculty = ...
was built. The Government of Bengal recognized his liberality by naming a ward in his honor, ''The Mutty Lall Seal Ward'', for native male patients. Seal subsequently supplemented this gift by a donation of a lac of rupees for the establishment of a female (lying in) hospital which started functioning in 1838.
In those days, the
Hindu
Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism.Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...
community was alarmed, owing to several conversions to Christianity taking place among the boys at missionary schools offering free education. (Seal himself did partnership with Fergusson Brothers, they did not ask him to convert to
Christianity to do business. Education was not provided for converting to Christianity, many of the people educated outside India at the time were Christians, including
Mahatma Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...
.) To counter this, there was an anti-missionary movement led by the rich and influential
Babu of Calcutta for a free national school of their own.
One afternoon they all assembled in a meeting presided over by
Raja Radha Kanta Deb at the
Oriental Seminary. Many speeches were made and resolutions adopted, but donations recorded in the subscription book were scant. When the book passed to the hand of Seal, he immediately put down his name for one
Lakh
A lakh (; abbreviated L; sometimes written lac) is a unit in the Indian numbering system equal to one hundred thousand (100,000; scientific notation: 105). In the Indian 2,2,3 convention of digit grouping, it is written as 1,00,000. For ...
of rupees. Others who had estimated contributing a few hundred or a few thousand rupees panicked and the meeting ended.
Pledged to his subscription, Seal carried out the promise of a national institution with his own independent efforts. On Wednesday, 1 March 1842, a gathering of respectable people took place at his house for the formal opening of the Mutty Lall Seal's Free College. Among those present were Sir Lawrence Peel, the Chief Justice, Sir
John Peter Grant
Sir John Peter Grant, GCMG, KCB, (28 November 1807 – 6 January 1893), was a British colonial administrator who served as Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal (1859–1862) and as Governor of Jamaica.
Life
John Peter Grant was born in London on 28 N ...
, Mr. Lyall, the Advocate-General, Mr. Leith, and the other principal members of the Calcutta Bar, Captain Birch, Superintendent of the Police, Mr. George Thompson, Right Reverend Dr. Carew, Baboo
Dwarkanath Tagore
Dwarkanath Tagore ( bn, দ্বারকানাথ ঠাকুর, ''Darokanath Ţhakur''; 1794–1846) was one of the first Indian industrialists to form an enterprise with British partners. He was the son of Ramlochon Tagore, the founder ...
, Baboo
Ramkamal Sen
Ramkamal Sen (1783–1844) was the Diwan of the Treasury, Treasurer of the Bank of Bengal and Secretary of the Asiatic Society, Calcutta.
Childhood
Born at Garifa, Naihati town in North 24 pargana district. on the banks of the Hooghly River in ...
, Baboo Russomoy Dutt and Revd.
Krishna Mohan Banerjee
Krishna Mohan Banerjee (24 May 1813 – 11 May 1885) was a 19th-century Indian thinker who attempted to rethink Hindu philosophy, religion and ethics in response to the stimulus of Christian ideas. He himself became a Christian, and was t ...
. The Catholic Bishop and all the clergy of the Catholic Cathedral, as well as all the Professors of
St. Xavier's College, were likewise present. Nearly the whole of the dissenting ministers and missionaries of Calcutta and its neighbourhood also attended. There were eloquent speeches in testimony to his noble generosity and liberal mindset with Mr. George Thompson complimenting him as "a Hindu gentleman, who had nobly resolved to consecrate a large portion of the substances he had acquired by honorable exertion, to the intellectual improvement of the youth of his own nation to transmute his money into mind"''.''
Mutty Lall Seal's Free College (later renamed Mutty Lall Seal's Free School and College) was to provide for the education of Hindus to enable them to occupy posts of trust and emolument in their own country. This education included
English literature
English literature is literature written in the English language from United Kingdom, its crown dependencies, the Republic of Ireland, the United States, and the countries of the former British Empire. ''The Encyclopaedia Britannica'' defines ...
, history,
geography
Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth description") is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and ...
,
elocution
Elocution is the study of formal speaking in pronunciation, grammar, style, and tone as well as the idea and practice of effective speech and its forms. It stems from the idea that while communication is symbolic, sounds are final and compelli ...
, writing,
arithmetic
Arithmetic () is an elementary part of mathematics that consists of the study of the properties of the traditional operations on numbers—addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, exponentiation, and extraction of roots. In the 19th c ...
,
algebra
Algebra () is one of the broad areas of mathematics. Roughly speaking, algebra is the study of mathematical symbols and the rules for manipulating these symbols in formulas; it is a unifying thread of almost all of mathematics.
Elementary a ...
, philosophical sciences,
higher mathematics
Further Mathematics is the title given to a number of advanced secondary mathematics courses. The term "Higher and Further Mathematics", and the term "Advanced Level Mathematics", may also refer to any of several advanced mathematics courses at m ...
and the practical application of mathematics. The institution was opened free of cost, but only one rupee was charged per month to cover expenses such as books, stationery, and the surplus being expended towards furnishing the school with mathematical instruments. The number of students receiving education at one time was to be limited to 500. The institute was initially under the management of the Directors of the parent college of
St. F. Xavier, Chowringhee, Calcutta, who furnished teachers to further the cause of
secular education
Secular education is a system of public education in countries with a secular government or separation between religion and state.
An example of a secular educational system would be the French public educational system, where conspicuous re ...
.
Although
Jesuits
, image = Ihs-logo.svg
, image_size = 175px
, caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits
, abbreviation = SJ
, nickname = Jesuits
, formation =
, founders = ...
had the responsibility of imparting education, the conductors had pledged themselves to withhold all Christian instruction from the pupils. However, later Seal dissolved the connection between his college and the Jesuits over a dispute that in violation of their pledge, so viands were distributed among the Hindu boys contrary to their religious sentiments. The institute was then placed under Revd.
Krishna Mohan Banerjee
Krishna Mohan Banerjee (24 May 1813 – 11 May 1885) was a 19th-century Indian thinker who attempted to rethink Hindu philosophy, religion and ethics in response to the stimulus of Christian ideas. He himself became a Christian, and was t ...
. A sum of Rs. 12,000 was spent yearly for the upkeep of the college from his trust. The college stood in high estimation of the public and competed successfully with the Government and Missionary Colleges in the university examinations (
Suniti Kumar Chatterji
Bhashacharya Acharya Suniti Kumar Chatterjee (26 November 1890 – 29 May 1977) was an Indian linguist, educationist and litterateur. He was a recipient of the second-highest Indian civilian honour of Padma Vibhushan.
Life Childhood
Chatterji ...
and
Swami Prabhupada were some students of the college). The college initially started functioning at Seal's house and was later shifted to the present building on
Chittaranjan Avenue where it still exists.
The other charities which have made his name known to the public are contained in a deed of trust; by which he donated a considerable portion of his property (amounting to several
Lakh
A lakh (; abbreviated L; sometimes written lac) is a unit in the Indian numbering system equal to one hundred thousand (100,000; scientific notation: 105). In the Indian 2,2,3 convention of digit grouping, it is written as 1,00,000. For ...
of rupees) for the good of the public. A net yearly income of Rs. 36,000 derived from those properties were spent for various charitable purposes. Apart from running and maintaining the college, about Rs. 4,000 was spent on helping poor widows and orphans every year and for running and maintaining two alms houses for the poor and underprivileged. He extended financial support and co-operation for the establishment of the 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.
Image:Mutty Lal Seal's devalaya at Belghoria.jpg, Devalaya at Mutty Lall Seal's Belghoria alms house
Image:Mutty Lal Seal's guest house at Behala.jpg, Mutty Lall Seal's guest house at Behala
Image:Mutty Lal Seal's bathing ghat.jpg, Mutty Lall Seal's bathing ghat on the bank of river Hooghly
Image:Mutty Lal Seal's Free School.jpg, Mutty Lall Seal's Free School & College - Estd. 1842
Later life
When he was alive, the native society of Kolkata was divided into two parts. One was the reformist section led by
Raja Rammohun Roy
Raja Ram Mohan Roy ( bn, রামমোহন রায়; 22 May 1772 – 27 September 1833) was an Indian reformer who was one of the founders of the Brahmo Sabha in 1828, the precursor of the Brahmo Samaj, a social-religious reform ...
and the other was the conservative section led by
Radha Kanta Deb. Most of the rich people of Kolkata were in the latter group. Deb strongly opposed both the move to ban
sati
Sati or SATI may refer to:
Entertainment
* ''Sati'' (film), a 1989 Bengali film by Aparna Sen and starring Shabana Azmi
* ''Sati'' (novel), a 1990 novel by Christopher Pike
* Sati (singer) (born 1976), Lithuanian singer
*Sati, a character in ''T ...
and efforts for remarriage of widows, many of whom were child-widows. Although Seal was a conservative, he was in favor of Roy's efforts of banning sati, supported the cause of women's education as well as remarriage of widows. He made a public offer for a dowry of 1000 rupees to the person who should have the courage to break through the ancient prejudices of caste and marry a widow. When Seal died on 20 May 1854, his obituary in the ''Hindu Intelligence'' described him as the "richest and most virtuous
Babu 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.
References
Further reading
*
* 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.
External links
Biography(in
Bengali information website Abasar)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Seal, Mutty Lall
Businesspeople from Kolkata
1792 births
1854 deaths
Bengali Hindus
19th-century Bengalis
Bengali educators
19th-century Indian educators
Founders of Indian schools and colleges
19th-century Indian philanthropists
Social workers from West Bengal