Gujarmal Modi

[1][failed verification] A sugar mill in Modinagar marked the beginning of the Modi Group conglomerate, which later diversified into varied fields.

He also contributed in the field of higher education by giving grants to established institutions such as Banaras Hindu University, and different colleges in Meerut and other places.

During his time studying in the tenth standard, Gujarmal neglected to pay his examination fees, which resulted in the loss of an academic year.

This incident led to his father inducting Gujarmal into the family business at a young age while simultaneously being home-schooled.

After his second marriage that year, Modi became enthused and motivated for carrying on his business, because the sense of futility and depression left him when his wife became pregnant.

During the years 1920-31, Modi's wife bore as many as ten children, but every single child died either in childbirth or in infancy.

[13] Dayawati, the daughter of Chheda Lal, a tradesman of Etah, was seventeen years old; Gujar Mal was thirty.

The two co-wives lived harmoniously together in the same household, because Gujar Mal began treating his first wife as a family elder.

In 1926, he was insulted on the basis of his nationality by an Englishman working in India by the name of Mr. Turner, after the young Modi outbid him during a public auction.

An incensed Modi subjected the Englishman to a beating, which later resulted in a telling off by the Maharaja of Patiala; but earned him the respect of the public.

The British duly complied and decided to honour him with the title of Raja Bahadur, which was the catalyst behind the renaming of Begumabad to Modinagar.

[24] GM Modi established various institutions in the fields of education, science, medicine and women’s welfare to uplift the country’s downtrodden and encourage competence-development in the youth.

The Gujarmal Modi Innovative Science and Technology Award was instituted in 1988 in honour of his numerous philanthropic contributions to the field.

Bust of Gujarmal Modi.
Lalit Modi.