by Sonu Bhasin
The uncles finally agreed to sell the shop to them. There must have been some emotional blackmailing as well by Surjit Kaur and Sohan Singh but all is fair in business! ‘We paid, up front, whatever money we could and paid the rest over the next seven or eight years,’ said Kuldip and added, ‘with full interest.’ While Chattar Singh and Dalip Singh were not happy with this, the family culture prevailed. Since Harbhajan Singh was the eldest, everyone had to obey him and there was no question of disagreement. ‘Even today, all of us are close as a family. All the uncles, cousins, everyone,’ said Kuldip proudly. ‘The family culture of Kesar Singh’s time continues even today.’
Sohan Singh decided to quit working for his uncles. The second shop gave him the reason to do so. He spoke with his mother and suggested that it would be better to move the family to Amritsar. It would be easier to manage the two shops there locally and the cost of living would be lower than in Delhi.
In the latter half of 1961, the family moved back to Amritsar. The Romanian embassy was happy to rent the entire house in Golf Links instead of just the one floor.
Up to 1957
‘This is where it all started—our house in Amritsar. My grandfather, Bhai Kesar Singh (sitting, second from left), and my grandmother, Bibi Rup Kaur (fourth from left), with their sons, daughters-in-law, daughters, sons-in-law and grandchildren. My father and mother are in the back row (seventh and eighth from left). My elder brother is sitting in the middle in the front row’—Kuldip Dhingra.
Six
‘We Had More Than One Hundred Properties in Amritsar’
‘Our business started in Amritsar in 1898,’ said Kuldip. ‘So when we moved from Delhi in 1961 and went to Amritsar, it was really going back to our roots.’
The Dhingra family roots, however, go even further back. The early generations of the family were from Multan, and in course of time some had migrated to Amritsar to participate in the building of Amritsar from a trading station to a bustling town with the Golden Temple at its centre. In the mid-nineteenth century, Bhai Uttam Singh, Kuldip’s great-grandfather, was a well-respected landlord in Amritsar with acres of landholdings. He oversaw the multiple orchards his family owned, and things were going well.
Bibi Atma Kaur was a young girl in the local palace as her father was a courtier to the king. The queen had taken a liking to her and had asked her to be part of her staff. Young Atma Kaur soon earned the trust of her queen and became the queen’s jewellery keeper. The palace, like all palaces, had a toshakhana (a kind of cellar for valuables). When the queen wanted a specific piece of jewellery to wear, Bibi Atma Kaur would be dispatched to get it from the toshakhana. And only Atma Kaur was trusted to go back, use the big iron key to open the vault and put away the precious pieces in the toshakhana.
Bibi Atma Kaur’s father saw an ideal match for his daughter in Uttam Singh. Through common acquaintances he sent in a rishta (literally, relationship; in this context proposal for marriage) for his daughter. The families liked each other and Uttam Singh and Atma Kaur were married. It was unusual in the mid-nineteenth century for a couple to have only one child. However this couple, Uttam Singh and Atma Kaur, had only one child, a son they named Kesar Singh.
Kesar Singh grew up amid prosperity but did not let that come in the way of his ambition. He told his father that he needed to do something more than just manage the orchards. He said that he wanted to do some business. Bhai Uttam Singh may have dithered and asked Kesar what was the need to put in so much work in setting up a new business when they were living a comfortable life. But Kesar Singh was determined and persisted.
In fact, Kesar Singh had wanted not only to set up a new business but to spread his wings beyond Amritsar.
Bhai Uttam Singh and family had a large three-storey house in Darshini Deori (named so because one could walk down the street and get a view of the Golden Temple)—a bustling residential and commercial area. In 1898, heeding the ambitions of his only child, Bhai Uttam Singh bought a big shop opposite his residence.
Kesar Singh was already married to Bibi Rup Kaur, who belonged to the Babbar clan. The Babbars, Jat clans from Punjab, Rajasthan and Afghanistan, were traditionally administrators or members of the military.
Surjit Singh Dhingra, the oldest cousin in Kuldip’s generation, narrated the Dhingra family history. ‘I am the storyteller of the extended Dhingra family,’ said Surjit in his crisp, booming voice. He sounded as if in the prime of middle age, but he was in his mid-seventies. The stories his grandfather had told him were still vivid in his memory.
‘My grandmother was what they call a lucky lady,’ said Surjit. The business prospered and so did the family after she became a part of it. The shop in the main commercial area sold paints and material for horse-drawn coaches. ‘You must remember that in the early 1900s ghoda-gaadis [horse-driven coaches] were the main form of transport,’ said Surjit. The shop sold a variety of material for ghoda-gaadis, including matting for the coach, and blinders, colourful decorations and bells for the horses. B. Uttam Singh Kesar Singh, as the shop in Amritsar was called, became the place to go to for household paint and horse transport supplies.
The city house proved to be small for Kesar Singh’s expanding family. He bought a sprawling bungalow in Amritsar’s upmarket Race Course Road. By now he had six sons and four daughters. Kesar Singh wanted his daughters to be as well educated as his sons. Thus, all ten children were sent to school—the girls went to Alexandra High School in Amritsar and the boys went to Sant Singh Sukha Singh School.
‘Daarji was a man with a vision beyond his time,’ said Kuldip as he remembered his grandfather. ‘In his dealings with the family as well as in the business, he thought far ahead.’
For Kesar Singh to send his daughters to a missionary school—a phirangi (English) school—in the early 1900s took conviction. Reverend Robert Clark had founded Alexandra High School in 1898. He was part of the Church Missionary Society of London. The aim of the school in Amritsar was to enable the girls of Punjab to receive the highest and best education of those times. The name of the school was in honour of the Princess of Wales, Alexandra (1844–1925).
The boys in the family were sent to a desi (Indian) school. Sant Singh Sukha Singh School was established in 1893 by Sardar Sant Singh Rais, a philanthropist. It is the oldest Sikh school in Amritsar. Sant Singh bequeathed his wealth to the school to enable it to provide free education to the less privileged children. He had started the school in the memory of his son who died in 1893. Singh also envisioned it to be a school which would not make a distinction between students based on caste, creed or religion.
Kesar Singh ran his shop while his children got the best education that Amritsar could offer. The boys would come to sit at the shop after school to get hands-on experience of the trading business. ‘But my grandfather always had professionals working in the business,’ said Kuldip. The working partners managed the shops and business, enabling Kesar Singh to maintain a work–life balance.
Kesar Singh’s business was doing well and he wanted his sons to expand beyond Amritsar. However, he did not want all his sons to work in the same business. ‘He was clear that if the family had to stay together, his sons’ businesses had to be separate,’ said Surjit. ‘He told his sons to go out individually and expand the business in different cities.’
‘Where did the money to go out and expand come from?’ I asked Surjit.
‘By this time my grandfather had over a hundred properties in and around Amritsar,’ said Surjit quite matter-of-factly.
Kuldip corroborated this, saying, ‘My grandfather would buy property every time there was some money. All our shops were bought, the warehouses were bought and the houses were bought.’
To execute his plan for the sons of the family, Kesar Singh had a simple rule: As each of his sons attained adulthood, they would receive their share from the one hundred properties along with some money. Each son was told to go out and expand the business and to use the money judiciously.
; In the late 1800s all paint used in India was imported. Around this time, the shop, B. Uttam Singh Kesar Singh, in Amritsar had started focusing on the distribution of paints. As the demand for paint continued to increase, this made sense. ‘I don’t mean the rustic kind of paint, the choona [limestone] variety, but the factory-manufactured kind,’ clarified Kuldip.
The Dhingra family soon became known as the rangwala family (the family dealing with paints). The rang business flourished, and Kesar Singh bought his second shop in 1928. He called it B. Kesar Singh & Sons. It was in Hall Bazar, which was then an upmarket commercial hub in Amritsar.
Shalimar Paints set up their factory in Calcutta only in 1902. This was the first paint factory in the country.
Seven
‘London Badi Manhoos Jageh Hai’
‘LONDON IS A CURSED PLACE’
While the business was doing well, there was cause for concern for the family. The elder three sons of Kesar Singh had grown up, married into good families, but had no children. The eldest, Harbhajan Singh, had two daughters but they passed away at an early age, one of them due to typhoid. The next two sons, Harcharan Singh and Kartar Singh, did not have any children.
Unable to expand their own families, the three eldest sons focused on expanding the geographical reach of their businesses. The bulk of their supplies came from London and Holland. The three brothers decided to go to the source and establish a distribution relationship directly with the manufacturers in those countries. They sought their father’s permission to travel to distant lands and, happily, it was granted.
The idea of going to London was indeed good but there was a small problem. Not one of the brothers spoke English. Today when people travel to foreign countries, it is possible to use Google Translate and make themselves understood. Conversation happens through the mobile app. But in 1934, leave alone mobile phones, even landlines were practically non-existent.
Kesar Singh and his sons demonstrated that entrepreneurship is a state of mind. The Dhingra brothers were completely unfazed by their not knowing English. They simply took their English schoolmaster with them to the UK as a translator! The London business trip was a success and the brothers came back with distribution agreements with some of the most well-known British paint companies.
The London-returnees were now faced with another problem. Amritsar seemed small compared to the Western cities. Having seen a bit of the world, the brothers wanted to expand beyond their hometown. Kesar Singh wanted each of his sons to run his business independently but the eldest three went to him to seek his permission to join hands.
‘This was the family value. The word of the elders was sacrosanct. Even to do business together my uncles went to my grandfather to seek his permission,’ said Kuldip with pride.
The three brothers argued that none of them had any children and, therefore, could travel and focus on business together. Kesar Singh saw merit in the logic and gave permission to the three brothers to work together.
The landing ports of undivided India were Karachi and Bombay. The brothers set up shops in these port cities. Using these as bases, they expanded in the hinterland as well. Kesar Singh had by then expanded outside Amritsar—in 1932 he had bought a shop in Chandni Chowk in Delhi and also set up a shop in Lahore.
‘The Delhi shop is still there in Chandni Chowk,’ said Kuldip, ‘in the original location. But it belongs to my uncles.’
Business was booming in several cities of undivided India. ‘We had become the sole distributors for some of the British and Dutch paint companies,’ said Surjit Singh. Shiploads of supplies would come to India from UK and Holland. ‘Sometimes there would be two ships full of material for us at both Bombay and Karachi,’ said Surjit.
Then World War II hit the business. Supplies and the shipping routes were affected almost immediately. But in India, the demand for paint kept rising. It was a strange business situation for the Dhingras. They had the demand but no supplies. Once again a brief consultation was held between the three brothers and it was decided that Harcharan Singh and Kartar Singh (by now they were quite proficient in the English language) be sent to London to set up liaison and trading office and they would do a six monthly stint each. The office was called Harkat Brothers. They would establish direct contact with paint manufacturers, give them the orders, work with freight companies, make sure that the ships were loaded and the supplies were sent back to India regularly. The Dhingras were not short of funds and were ready to make upfront payment to the manufacturers. Thus, once the supplies were ensured, Harcharan Singh demanded a better price. ‘Everything can be negotiated you know,’ said Kuldip, his eyes twinkling as he laughed, probably remembering some of his own negotiations.
Harkat Brothers was able to manage the negotiations and freight charges well. In spite of the war, the Dhingras had managed to get their supply for the paints business in India.
Harcharan Singh and his wife by now had a son, Surjit. All three continued to stay in London even after the war. As the family celebrated India getting her independence in 1947, tragedy stuck. Harcharan Singh suddenly became ill and he passed away in London.
Kesar Singh was distraught. ‘Baddi manhoos jageh hai yeh. Mere jawan puttar nu khaa gayi. Wapas aa jaao bachchon. Jaldi [London is a cursed place and has devoured my son. Come back to India soon, my children],’ he commanded Harcharan Singh’s wife and child.
Harcharan Singh had been a partner in the business with his two brothers, Harbhajan Singh and Kartar Singh, who had set up shop in Bombay. In 1948, the young widow and the two-year-old child packed their bags and moved to Bombay. Soon after, Harbhajan Singh, the eldest brother, moved to Delhi, leaving Kartar Singh to manage the Bombay business.
‘My chachaji, Kartar Singh, at that time did not have a child and he and his wife welcomed my mother and me into their family,’ said Surjit. With Harcharan Singh dead and Surjit still a boy, the partnership remained between Harbhajan Singh and Kartar Singh. The young widow and the son were looked after by Kartar Singh and his wife. ‘In fact I think of my chachaji as my father and my guru as he brought me up,’ said Surjit.
After Partition, the establishments in Karachi and Lahore were left behind in Pakistan. Kesar Singh’s two elder sons had their shops and establishments in Bombay, Delhi, Ahmedabad and other cities, while the younger three sons had their shops in Amritsar and Delhi. Kesar Singh’s fourth son was Niranjan Singh, Kuldip’s father. There was a four-year age gap between him and his older brother, Harcharan Singh. The other two elder sons were already business partners, so Kesar Singh bunched Niranjan Singh with his younger sons. Thus, it seemed that Kesar Singh had two sets of inheritors—the elder lot and the younger lot of three.
Since Niranjan Singh was the eldest among the three youngest sons, he was inducted into the business earlier. He ran the Amritsar shops as well as the Delhi one. ‘Before Partition my grandfather had sent him to Lahore as well to manage that business,’ said Kuldip. ‘Niranjan Singh was industrious and wanted to do more than just shopkeeping. He saw an opportunity in manufacturing and prevailed upon his father to set up a factory in Delhi. The factory was set up in 1951. It was a big factory in Najafgarh that manufactured varnish and such stuff,’ Kuldip said.
Any large family that has common business interests and where the patriarch owns numerous properties goes through its share of interpersonal issues. It was Kesar Singh’s foresight that kept the Dhingra family from experiencing the typical break-up that joint families often undergo. The patriarch had planned astutely as he wanted his sons and their families to remain cordial with each other. He had also realized that it was money, business and property that caused the breakdown of relations between siblings.
When each son became an adult, Kesar Singh had given him a portion of his property and some money. By the time all six sons were in business, albeit in two groups, the bulk of the properties and business had all been divided. Relations remained cordial between all siblings and their families. ‘I have learnt this lesson fr
om my grandfather and have tried to implement it in my own life,’ said Kuldip.
After Harcharan Singh’s death, the five sons continued to run their own businesses well. They knew that their father had wanted each of them to be independent. They were the ones who had decided to work together.
As their families started expanding, the next generation came into the dynamics. Each son of Kesar Singh wanted the best for his own sons. Thoughts of going completely independent started being articulated within the family.
As was the family culture, this important matter was discussed with Kesar Singh. The patriarch had wanted each of his son to be running an independent business right from the start, and he gave his sons permission to go ahead and separate their businesses. He was, however, clear that interpersonal relations between the sons, their wives and children were to remain cordial. The sons and their families agreed.
The first ones to disengage their business interests was the elder lot of brothers. When Harcharan Singh was in London and sending supplies to India, business had grown. To manage the expanded business, the eldest son Harbhajan had moved his family to Delhi and managed the shop that his father had bought. After Harcharan Singh’s death, when Surjit and his mother moved to Bombay, the two brothers decided to divide territories amicably. Harbhajan wanted to stay on in Delhi and manage the business in the north and it worked well for Kartar Singh as he was free to expand in Bombay and around.
The next division took place between the youngest three sons of Kesar Singh. Niranjan Singh was the oldest of the three, so he got the 1898 shop in Amritsar and the factory in Najafgarh. The Chandni Chowk shop went to the youngest two sons.
‘Since the businesses were all divided during the lifetime of my grandfather, there was no rancour among the families,’ said Kuldip. ‘Anyway, the word of the eldest was law so even if anyone had an issue, they didn’t voice it.’ He shrugged and then said, ‘Who knows? Maybe there was some dissent. But we are all very cordial even today.’