That man was Govindram Seksaria, born in the dusty town of Nawalgarh, Rajasthan, in 1888 into a Bhagvati Vaid family. His father was a cloth merchant who died early, leaving the burden of supporting a large family comprising three brothers Bholaram, Ramnath, Makhanlal and two sisters with 16-year-old Govindram.
Young Seksaria figured early that he had to leave his sleepy little hamlet to make two ends meet. In that quest, he arrived in Bombay in the early 1900s when British firms dominated most businesses. Indian entrepreneurs faced an actively hostile environment with little access to capital or opportunities.
Moreover, he didn’t speak English at a time when that was the lingua franca of the international business world, nor did he have any powerful connections. But these were limitations only for the feeble of heart. Govindram was made of sterner stuff.
Immediate success
Starting out as an operator in the Bombay Cotton Exchange, he gradually started trading in cotton. An innate ability to understand the market dynamics, which came from his Marwari genes, brought almost immediate success. Within a few years his firm had become a member of the government’s Cotton Contract Board and also an original member of the East India Cotton Association.
It was the start of a journey that would take him to the very epicentre of the cotton trade culminating in his entry into the New York Cotton Exchange in 1934. With that he shattered the colonial-era barriers that had long kept Indian traders from global financial markets.
Not content with just trading cotton, he grew the business through skilful forward integration at a time when few industrialists in India understood its benefits. Building scale was another of his master strokes. At its peak, his textile operations stretched to half a million spindles. Eventually, his industrial conglomerate spanned businesses ranging from cotton to vegetable oil, sugar, minerals, mining, printing, and motion pictures.
As if that wasn’t enough, he was also the founder and chairman of Bank of Rajasthan.
Global empire
But his global ambitions marked him out as a true pioneer. Operating from his base in Bombay, Govindram proceeded to build a vast trading empire that stretched from Liverpool to Wall Street. While he never travelled abroad and was generally averse to mixing socially or appearing in public events despite his acknowledged stature as a successful business leader, he wasn’t willing to back down when it came to protecting his trading interests.
Evidence of this is available in a case that came up in the Bombay high court in October 1947—Govindram Seksaria vs Edward Radbone. Details of the case, which refers to a 1938 agreement with a German firm, Francke Werke, A.G., to build an advanced oil refining plant, highlight both his industrial ambitions and his comfort with currencies and contracts. It also exhibits his readiness to challenge colonial authorities. When World War II disrupted the project, he fought a precedent-setting legal battle against the Custodian of Enemy Property over payment terms.
His operations on international exchanges were so significant that The New York Times carried an obituary on his death calling him “a leading cotton market figure” as well as an industrialist and a philanthropist.
What was the secret of his success? In his book Govind Ram Seksaria: The Untold Saga of an Empire Builder, author Minhas Merchant writes that he mastered the art and science of risk management. Merchant’s analysis is insightful: “His trading philosophy was strikingly similar to what hedge fund managers routinely practice today.”
Philanthropy
Though he maintained a low public profile, he was a significant contributor to the independence movement, often rubbing shoulders with political stalwarts like Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Patel at his Poona residence. Unlike other businessmen, he did not quite believe in religious endowments but poured his munificence into education and healthcare. His belief was that charity feeds for a day, but education feeds for a lifetime.
His personality wasn’t all dry. His Diwali parties in Bombay were legendary, mixing opulence with heritage. Though his office was as spartan as his lifestyle, he was mostly clad in a simple dhoti. Most days, he would work late into the night with his array of pens while sipping pots of saffron tea, which he thought sharpened his mind.
He believed businessmen should be like farmers—sow, wait patiently and reap the harvest. He even told a young protege: “Think like a river. Go around the obstacle, but don’t stop flowing.”
Before his death in 1946 at age 58, he had donated around ₹2 crore to educational institutions across India.
His legacy lies not just in the financial empire he built but in demonstrating that Indian entrepreneurship could compete and excel on the global stage, even under colonial rule.