Birla family

The Birla family is a family connected with the industrial and social history of India. Foundations The Birla family origins lie with the Maheshwari caste of Bania Vaishya traders but they were outcast from their traditional community in 1922 when one of their member, Rameshwar Das Birla, was thought to have broken the caste marriage rules. They are Marwari and by convention merchants from Rajasthan are termed Marwari. The family originates from the town of Pilani in the Shekhawati region in North-east Rajasthan. They still maintain their residence in Pilani and run several educational institutions there, including the BITS, Pilani. Shiv Narayan Birla In Pilani during the early 19th century lived Seth Shobharam, grandson of Seth Bhudharmal, a local tradesman of modest means. It was his son, Seth Shiv Narayana (1840–1909), who first ventured outside Pilani. At this time, Ahmedabad was the railhead which serviced trade from a large region of northwest India. Goods (mainly cotton) would be brought from the hinterland to the city and sent from there by train to Bombay for export to England and other countries. Several cotton ginning units were also set up in Ahmedabad, to clean the cotton before shipment to England. Shiv Narayana Birla was one of the early Indian traders to participate in this cotton trade. Later, Britain vigorously fostered the trade of opium with China and developed the cultivation of poppy in India. The Ratlam-Mandsaur region (not far from Ahmedabad) became prime poppy cropland due to suitable soil and climate. Shiv Narayan Birla and his adopted son, Baldeo Das Birla, made an enormous fortune by trading opium with China, and this formed the basis of the family's fortune. With growing wealth and increasing confidence, Shiv Narayana Birla moved up the value chain and began chartering cargo ships in partnership with other Marwadi tradesmen to trade opium with China, thus by-passing British middlemen. To facilitate this, he moved to Bombay in 1863. Baldeo Das Birla Shiv Narayan Birla had one overwhelming sorrow in his life: he had no children. By the early 1880s, Shiv Narayan (Narain) had passed on the baton of his business interests to his adopted son, Baldev Das Birla, established Shivnarayan Baldevdas, a trading house based in Bombay. His son, Baldev Das Birla moved to Calcutta set up Baldevdas Jugalkishor in 1887. Baldeo Das was succeeded by four sons – Jugal Kishore, Rameshwar Das, Ghanshyam Das and Braj Mohan.