Mutty Lall Seal: Difference between revisions

'''Mutty Lall Seal''' (also spelt '''Mutty Loll Seal''' or '''Mati Lall Seal''' or '''Motilal Seal''') (1792 – 20 May 1854) was a businessman and philanthropist from [[India]]. BeginningSeal begin his life as a bottle and cork dealer, hebut later became very wealthy. andHe donated large sums of his wealth to charity and education. Seal and [[Ramdulal Sarkar]], another renowned [[Business magnate|shipping magnate]], have becomebecame part of the Bengali folklore as great merchant princes.<ref>Bhattacharya, Sabyasachi, ''Traders and Trades in Old Calcutta'', in ''Calcutta, the Living City'', Vol I, p 209.</ref>

Mutty Lall Seal was born in a [[Bengali Hindu]] family in [[Kolkata|Calcutta]] (now Kolkata) in the year 1792. His father, Chaitanya Charan Seal, a [[cloth merchant]], died when Seal was aroundjust five years old. His early education began in a ''[[pathshala]] (Indian rural school)'', thenlater he continued his studied in Martin Bowl's English School and Baboo Nityananda Sen's High School.

In 1809, at the age of seventeen, he was married to Nagri Dassee, the daughter of Mohan Chand Dey from the Surtir Bagan neighbourhoodneighborhood inof the city Kolkata. Seal accompanied his father-in-law on a pilgrimage ofto northern and western India, andthe thespiritual experience greatly enlightened him. Around 1815, he started working inat [[Fort William, India|Fort William]], then the bastion of British power. While working at Fort William, he was involved in the supply of essential commodities forto the British army. Later, he worked as an inspector of [[Indian Customs services|Indian Customs]] at [[Bali Khalk|Balikhal]].{{Citation needed|date=March 2020}}

HeSeal started his business career humbly by selling bottles and corks to one ''Mr. Hudson'' who was one of the most extensive importers of beer in those days.<ref>Mitra, Kissory Chand, ''Mutty Lall Seal'', Calcutta, 1869, p 5-6</ref> He''Mr. Hudson'' traded in [[Cowhide|cowhides]] and was the founder and promoter of the first indigo mart, which was established under the name of M/s. Moore, Hickey & Co. The English merchants used to hire himSeal for his sound judgementsjudgement on indigo, silk, sugar, rice, saltpetresaltpeter, etc. He was appointed as "Banian" to around twenty first class agency houses out of around fifty or sixty such houses in Calcutta. Later he became a landed property speculator and merchant successively in partnership with Fergusson Brothers & Co., Oswald Seal & Co. and Tulloh & Co., and in these three firms he was said to have lost some thirty lacs[[Lakh]] of [[Rupee|rupees]]. He got into exporting indigo, silk, sugar, rice, saltpetresaltpeter to Europe and importing of iron and cotton-piece goods from England.<ref>Chakrabarty, Dipesh, ''The Colonial context of the Bengal Renaissance: A Note On Early Railway Thinking In Bengal'', in ''Indian Economic and Social History Review'', Vol. XI, No. 1, March 1974</ref> HeSeal acquired a number of [[Cargo ship|cargo boats]] which were then new to the market, worked the old flour mills, and shipped cargoes of biscuits to [[Australia]] for the first [[Emigration|emigrants]] to its newly discovered gold fields. Later he put up a mill to refine sugar on the centrifugal principle.

He was well known as the donor of an extensive tract of land, then valued at Rs. 12,000,<ref>''Third Report of the Committee Appointed by the Right Honourable The Governour of Bengal for the Establishment of a Fever Hospital And For Inquiring into Local Management And Taxation in Calcutta, Calcutta: Bishop's College Press, 1847,'' p 35</ref> to the then British Government on which the [[Calcutta Medical College]] was built. The Government of Bengal recognisedrecognized his liberality by naming a ward in his honourhonor, [https://web.archive.org/web/20080511234715/http://www.medicalcollegekolkata.org/personalities.html ''The Mutty Lall Seal Ward''], for native male patients. Seal subsequently supplemented this gift by a donation of a lac of rupees for the establishment of a female (lying in) hospital which started functioning in 1838.<ref>''Missionary And Religious Intelligence'', in ''The Calcutta Christian Observer'', Vol. I, New Series, January–December 1840, p 171</ref>

In those days the [[Hindus|Hindu]] community was alarmed, owing to several conversions to Christianity taking place among the boys at missionary schools offering free education. (Seal himself did partnership with Fergusson Brothers, they did not ask him to convert to [[Christianity]] to do business. Education was not provided for converting to Christianity, many of the people educated outside India at the time were Christians, including [[Mahatma Gandhi]].) To counter this, there was an anti-missionary movement led by the rich and influential [[Babu (title)|babooBabu]]s of Calcutta for a free national school of their own.

One afternoon they all assembled in a meeting presided over by [[Radhakanta Deb|Raja Radha Kanta Deb]] at the [[Oriental Seminary]]. Many speeches were made and resolutions adopted, but donations recorded in the subscription book were scant. When the book passed to the hand of Seal, he immediately put down his name for aone [[Lakh|lac]] of rupees. Others who had estimated contributing a few hundred or a few thousand rupees panicked and the meeting ended.

Pledged to his subscription, Seal carried out the promise of a national institution with his own independent efforts. On Wednesday, 1 March 1842, a gathering of respectable people took place at his house for the formal opening of the Mutty Lall Seal's Free College. Among those present were Sir Lawrence Peel, the Chief Justice; Sir [[John Peter Grant]]; Mr. Lyall, the Advocate-General; Mr. Leith and the other principal members of the Calcutta Bar; Captain Birch, Superintendent of the Police; Mr. George Thompson; Right Reverend Dr. Carew; Baboo [[Dwarkanath Tagore]]; Baboo [[Ramkamal Sen|Ramcomul Sen]]; Baboo Russomoy Dutt and Revd. [[Krishna Mohan Banerjee]]. The Catholic Bishop and all the clergy of the Catholic Cathedral, as well as all the Professors of [[St. Xavier's College, Calcutta|St. Xavier's College]], were likewise present. Nearly the whole of the dissenting ministers and missionaries of Calcutta and its neighbourhood also attended.<ref>''The Catholic Cabinet, And Chronicle of Religious Intelligence, Containing Original And Selected Articles, A Monthly Periodical'', Volume I, 1843, p 187</ref> There were eloquent speeches in testimony to his noble generosity and liberal mindset with Mr. George Thompson complimenting him as "a Hindu gentleman, who had nobly resolved to consecrate a large portion of the substances he had acquired by honourablehonorable exertion, to the intellectual improvement of the youth of his own nation to transmute his money into mind"''.<ref>Mullick, Promatha Nath, ''History of Vaisyas of Bengal'', p 136-139</ref>''

The other charities which have made his name known to the public are contained in a deed of trust; by which he donated a considerable portion of his property (amounting to several lacs[[Lakh]] of rupees) for the good of the public. A net yearly income of Rs. 36,000 derived from those properties were spent for various charitable purposes. Apart from running and maintaining the college, about Rs. 4,000 was spent on helping poor widows and orphans every year and for running and maintaining two alms houses for the poor and underprivileged.<ref>''The Calcutta Review'', Vol. CXI, Calcutta, 1900, p 86-88</ref> He extended financial support and co-operation for the establishment of the Hindu Charitable Institution and Hindu Metropolitan College. Seal's Free School, Hindu Metropolitan College and some of the other institutions of the time were calculated to offset the 'ill effects' of the liberal education offered at the [[Presidency College, Kolkata|Hindu College]].<ref>Majumdar, Swapan, ''Literature and Literary Life in Old Calcutta'', in ''Calcutta, the Living City'', Vol I, p 110.</ref>

When he was alive, the native society of Kolkata was divided into two parts. One was the reformist section led by [[Ram Mohan Roy|Raja Rammohun Roy]] and the other was the conservative section led by [[Radhakanta Deb|Radha Kanta Deb]]. Most of the rich people of Kolkata were in the latter group. Deb strongly opposed both the move to ban [[Sati (practice)|sati]] and efforts for remarriage of widows, many of whom were child-widows. Although Seal was a conservative, he was in favourfavor of Roy's efforts of banning sati, supported the cause of women's education as well as remarriage of widows. He made a public offer for a dowry of 1000 rupees to the person who should have the courage to break through the ancient prejudices of caste and marry a widow.<ref>Ripley, George, Dana, Charles A.,''The New American Cyclopaedia: A Popular Dictionary Of General Knowledge'', Vol. II, 1859, p 443</ref> When Seal died on 20 May 1854 his obituary in the ''Hindu Intelligence'' described him as the "richest and most virtuous Baboo[[Babu (title)|Babu]] of Calcutta".<ref>Sengupta, Nitish, ''History Of The Bengali Speaking People'', p 259-260</ref> One of the busy streets in Kolkata's business district is named after him as Moti Sil Street.