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The Adamjee name has been a prominent and highly reputed name amongst the business
circles of the Indian subcontinent throughout the 20th century.
The House of Adamjee was founded in Burma (now Myanmar) by the illustrious Sir Adamjee
Haji Dawood. Born in 1880 in Jetpur Town
of Gujarat. Whilst
still in his teens,
he ventured out to Burma and started operating as an independent businessman. The
first few years of his career were spent in rice, matches & jute trade. With
his keen business sense and financial acumen, he met with early success.
By 1922, he had accumulated sufficient resources and a strong presence in the commodities
markets, enabling him to setup his first Industrial venture - a match factory in
Rangoon [now Yangon]. In 1927, he returned to India to establish a jute mill in
Calcutta. The Adamjee Jute Mill Ltd. was the third jute mill to be setup by an Indian
and the first Muslim public company. To capture this emerging niche, Adamjee alongwith
Mr. G.D. Birla of Birla Jute, broke into this monopolistic trade controlled by the
East India company.
The founding father of the Adamjee industrial group was not just a businessman,
but also an avid educationist and philanthropist. Education of the youth, was a
subject very close to his heart, thus he was responsible for financing and helping
a number of educational institutions. In addition to that, he also established numerous
educational institutions from his own resources.
In recognition for his services to his countrymen, the British government knighted
him in 1938.
By the 1940's, Sir Adamjee, as he was then called, had become a prominent figure
in the business circles of India and Burma. His recognition was acknowledged by
Muhammad Ali Jinnah (Founder of Pakistan) who become a good friend and appointed
him advisor to the freedom movement of the Muslims, which eventually led to the
Creation of Pakistan.
Sir Adamjee at the request of Jinnah, convinced the entire Memon & Gujarati
Muslim communities to migrate to Pakistan. With this vision in mind again at the
request of Jinnah, he also established two major Institutions alongwith Mr. M.A.
Ispahani i.e. The Muslim Commercial Bank Ltd. and the Orient Airways Ltd. The purpose
of this was to assist the migration process by providing transport of Muslims to
Pakistan and to create banking facilities in the new country.
Once Pakistan was created, Sir Adamjee and his sons established Businesses in both
East (now Bangladesh) & West Pakistan. In January 1948, six months after the
creation, Pakistan fell in financial difficulties and was in urgent need of funds.
On January 24th 1948, Jinnah sent an "SOS" to Sir Adamjee who rushed to Karachi
on 25th to the present day Governor House and presented a Blank Cheque to Jinnah
to save Pakistan from Financial collapse.
Sir Adamjee was then invited by Jinnah to participate in the establishment of the
State Bank of Pakistan, it was during this meeting that he suffered an heart attack
and later passed away on the night of January 27th, 1948.
Though Sir Adamjee passed away in the very early days of
Pakistan, his dedication lived on in the ideas and ideals passed on to his family.
It was this same spirit and dedication that led his eldest son Mr. A.W. Adamjee
to spearhead the industrial and financial development efforts of the new country,
which was industrially backward. At the time, the Adamjee Group was the only business
house of its kind with experience in large scale manufacturing.
In less than two decades, the Adamjee group setup and managed
over forty industrial and financial enterprises in the East and West Pakistan, Burma,
Thailand, Malaysia, Lebanon and United Kingdom. In 1971, due to the ethnic and social
differences between the Eastern and Western Pakistan, a Civil war broke out which
ultimately resulted in bifurcation of the East wing and creating it into the independent
Bangladesh. The newly formed socialist Government of Bangladesh took over control
of all major industrial and financial institutions. The Adamjee Family lost all
its assets in Bangladesh and were compelled to shift its group head quarters to
Karachi.
On the Western front, the Group became a subject of public criticism under the propaganda
of anti-trust laws concerning the monopolistic business families of the country.
As a consequence of this movement, the greater percentage of West Pakistan Assets
were also lost, under the Prime Minister Z.A. Bhutto's Nationalization Programs
in 1974.
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