Dinshaw was a member of the Parsi community, he made his initial fortune during the Second Afghan War (1878–1881) by being a contractor for the British Army.

[3] By the late nineteenth century, he owned around half of the city of Karachi,[4] and the local government is believed to have placed an informal ban on his acquiring any more.

[citation needed] For his services to the public, he was the first person in the city to be appointed a Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire (CIE).

The award was announced in the 1899 New Year Honours list on 2 January 1899,[12][13] and he was invested by Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle on 1 March 1900.

When unveiling the statue of Edulji Dinshaw, Sir Frederick Sykes, then Governor of Bombay, remarked that 'It is peculiarly appropriate that the city of Karachi should choose Mr. Edulji Dinshaw as a fitting subject to be honored by the erection of a statue in one of the most imposing and important sites in the whole town, for he had the vision to recognize fully the possibilities of greatness that the city held and also contributed very largely himself to developing it.