Thangal Kunju Musaliar (January 12, 1897 - February 19, 1966) was an industrialist, educationalist and visionary, known for his contributions to the cashew industry, and higher education in the state of

Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South ...

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 ...

Family

He was born as son of Ahmed Kunju Musaliar at

Kollam district Kollam district (), (formerly Quilon district) is one of 14 districts of the state of Kerala, India. The district has a cross-section of Kerala's natural attributes; it is endowed with a long coastline, a major Laccadive Sea seaport and an in ...

on 12th January 1897.It was a middle-class family that traces its ancestry to Malik ibn Deenar, Persian scholar and traveler who came to India in the 8th century. He had three wives namely Khadeeja Kunju and Ayisha Beevi and twenty one childre

His children are prominent businessmen, technocrats and academicians.

Cashew business

After travelling to Sri Lanka, Brunei, Singapore and Malaysia for employment, he returned home and started a cashew processing unit, which became successful. In early 1940's he purchased raw cashew from small scale farmers, and supplied the kernels to industrialists after processing. He then set up the first full-fledged cashew factory in Kerala.The company "A.Thangal Kunju Musaliar and Sons Private Limited" was incorporated in Kerala on 10 Jun, 1946.In the 1940s, Musaliar had 26 cashew units and is believed to have employed around 25,000 to 30,000 people directly. He was called the "Cashew King" in national and international markets, and '' Fortune (magazine), Fortune'' magazine named him as the single biggest individual employer in the world, at the time.

Publishing and education

He set up a book publishing house ''Vignana Poshini'', and in 1944 started a weekly newspaper ''Prabhatham'', which was later on made a daily. He authored multiple books in Malayalam including ''Prayogikadwaitam'', translated to English as ''Man and the world, practical philosophy and law of nature.'', by S Sathyavageeswara Iyer. In 1956, Musaliar formed the TKM Educational Trust to cater for the educational needs of the people of Kerala. The Trust established institutions such as

TKM College of Engineering The Thangal Kunju Musaliar College of Engineering, commonly known as TKMCE, is the first government-aided engineering institution in the Indian state of Kerala inaugurated on 3 July 1958. It is the first Government aided engineering college in K ...

, TKM College of Arts and Science,

TKM Institute of Technology Thangal Kunju Musaliar Institute of Technology ( TKM Institute of Technology) (Malayalam: തങ്ങള്‍ കുഞ്ഞു മുസല്യാര്‍ സാങ്കേതിക വിദ്യാപീഠം) (Hindi:थंगल � ...

TKM Institute of Management The TKM Institute of Management (TIM) is a business management school in Kerala. TIM which is governed by TKM College Trust offers an MBA program which is approved by AICTE and affiliated to University of Kerala. This MBA program is accredited b ...

, TKM Secondary School, T.K.M. Centenary Public School and the TKM School of Architecture.

Legacy

Thangal Kunju Musaliar 2001 cover of India

India Post India Post is a government-operated postal system in India, part of the Department of Post under the Ministry of Communications. Generally known as the Post Office, it is the most widely distributed postal system in the world. Warren Hastings ha ...

issued a commemorative stamp on Musaliar on 26 October, 2001. A biography of Thangal Kunju Musaliar was written by P. Meerakutty in Malayalam, titled ''A. Thangal Kunju Musaliar''.

Family businesses

The descendants of Musaliar has carried forwarded his legacy in business and have expanded themselves into various sectors beyond cashew. Few of these ventures were out of vision laid out by Musaliar. The major ventures managed by the family today are. * Supreme Foods - a chain of 12 bakeries and five restaurants that started at Kollam in 1984 and is spread across

Kollam Kollam (), also known by its former name Quilon , is an ancient seaport and city on the Malabar Coast of India bordering the Laccadive Sea, which is a part of the Arabian Sea. It is north of the state capital Thiruvananthapuram. The city i ...

Thiruvananthapuram Thiruvananthapuram (; ), also known by its former name Trivandrum (), is the capital of the Indian state of Kerala. It is the most populous city in Kerala with a population of 957,730 as of 2011. The encompassing urban agglomeration populati ...

and

Kochi Kochi (), also known as Cochin ( ) ( the official name until 1996) is a major port city on the Malabar Coast of India bordering the Laccadive Sea, which is a part of the Arabian Sea. It is part of the district of Ernakulam in the state of K ...

today. * Hycount Pipes - started by Musaliar's son in law M. K. A. Hameed. * Grand and Prince Theatres at Kollam.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Musaliar, Thangal Kunju Businesspeople from Kollam 1897 births 1966 deaths