Tikamdas Rajani was a merchant dealing in rubies and diamonds at Shikarpur, a part of Sindh in Pakistan. Sindhi merchants were involved in trade and thanks to the railroad which came to India, they could explore greener pastures. That is how Madhavdas, the second son of Tikamdas came across Coimbatore during one of his travels. He liked what he saw of the city, its developing commercial atmosphere and its people and he decided to move here. The family set up home and shop in Coimbatore before partition.
Naraindas and Gobindram, Madhavdas’ brothers moved in with their families too and thus and began a fresh chapter in their lives from the Raja Street area of the city. The son of Naraindas, octogenarian C.N. Rajani, or as he is fondly known, Chunilal, remembers studying at the Stanes Anglo Indian School. He also remembers the train journeys which took them back and forth between Sindh and Coimbatore, “The train journey lasted about four days. We boarded the train at Shikarpur and then change trains twice at Marwar and Mumbai in order to come to Coimbatore. We carried food with us, traditional stuff such as koki - a fat onion stuffed roti, lola – a sweet phulka, dhal stuffed phulkas and fried potatoes along with pickles and the famous Sindhi papads. Water was refilled at railway stations. The entire family travelled together. We never returned to Sindh after Partition. Our family established the banking firm ‘Naraindas Gobindram’ before independence with the resources on hand and later we added capital thanks to compensation granted by the Government of India.”
Naraindas Gobindram was located in Raja street and the family began lending money to traders, jewellers, cloth merchants, bus operators, theatre operators, etc., in Coimbatore and later in Erode, Pollachi, Palladam, Tirupur, Mettupalayam and a number of other nearby commercial centres. It was in these centres that they funded vegetable vendors, bidi manufacturers, farmers and the knitwear industry. The banks used to refinance the Sindhi banking firm thereby enabling the indigenous bankers to expand their base further. The firm Naraindas Gobindram had hundreds of clients who borrowed money for short durations but regularly and collections were weekly, monthly and quarterly.
Adds Chunilal, “We had a busy accounts department where all the transactions were recorded and since we had a large number of clients we used to asses the general commercial condition on a regular basis. Those days Coimbatore was the only big trading and retail centre. Therefore the commercial establishments were kept open for longer hours in order to provide service to the mofussil customers. The people of Coimbatore were sincere and we hardly had any bad debts. We did not face difficulties and were quickly absorbed into the society. Our neighbours took very good care of our children and we never felt out of place, ever. We were always on the move and would travel for business. Our community was mostly located in Raja street, Oppanakkara street, Vysial street and Thomas street those days. The people of Coimbatore were not only enterprising but also very hospitable. On our part we reinvested every rupee we made here itself and never took capital out of the city and are happy for having done so. I must further state that captains of the local business community like P.K.Doraiswamy Gounder were always very helpful."
The Sindhis took to banking and a number of them were popular textile merchants too. They established the Sindhi Vidyalaya, Shikarpur Sindh Bankers Association , temples and a number of other institutions. They celebrated the Sindhi New Year - Cheti- chand, Diwali and other traditional festivals with gusto. They continue to worship their patron deity, Jhoole Lal, who they believe has guided them for over thousand years. Jhoole Lal apparently promoted harmony among the various communities in Sindh.
“As children, we would go to the Shaahibag canal in Sindh and bathe in the waters while our mother Godavari cooked for us. The waters of the Indus nourished us. The only thing that we miss are the many varieties of fruits that was available in Sindh those days. However the coffee houses of Coimbatore and the tree lined Race Course, the water bodies of Coimbatore made us feel at home."
The family of ‘Naraindas Gobindram’ were known as the Raja Veedhi Saits and like the other members of this community they moved on to R.S.Puram. Over the years they have become teachers, doctors, and businessmen who have added much to the commercial and social fabric of Coimbatore.
