>Dipenfull: Chellarams, a brand in Gambia, but live as tenants in the Plot no. 63M Balmoral Vila, Cumballa hill, Mumbai.

2021-07-02T12:51:40Z

Chellarams, a brand in Gambia, but live as tenants in the Plot no. 63M Balmoral Vila, Cumballa hill, Mumbai.

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{{Orphan|date=April 2019}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2020}}
{{Use Indian English|date=August 2020}}

'''Kishinchand Chellaram''' was an Indian businessman who operated a global trading network, K. Chellaram & Sons. The firm was founded in 1915, an offshoot of a [[Sindhi workies|sindwork]] trading family in India.<ref name="brill">{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/191934612|title=Cosmopolitan connections : the Sindhi diaspora, 1860-2000|last=Falzon, Mark-Anthony.|date=2004|publisher=Brill|isbn=1429408367|location=Leiden|pages=136–138, 222|oclc=191934612}}</ref>

== Life and business ==
Chelleram was born in [[Chennai|Madras]] to the family of Gianchand Chellaram, a Sindhi textile merchant.<ref name="claude">{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/56416068|title=The global world of Indian merchants, 1750-1947 : traders of Sind from Bukhara to Panama|last=Markovits, Claude.|year=141|isbn=0511018606|location=Cambridge [England]|pages=141|oclc=56416068}}</ref> He and three brothers attended primary school in [[Hyderabad]] and were in training to join the family business. At the age of fifteen, Chellaram began working in the family business and was trained in many aspects of the business.<ref name="brill" />

In 1915, he branched out on his own with the establishment of K. Chellaram and Sons in Madras, the firm merchandised silk textiles and a few other wares. A few years later a branch was opened in Yokohama. An expansion westward led to the establishment of an office in Lagos in 1923. The Lagos firm traded in textiles from India and Japan in the 1920 and 1930s <ref name="claude" /> competing with European firms. Prior to World War II, the firm established a local office in Sierra Leone.{{fact|date=August 2020}}

The Chellarams were Hindu from [[Sindh]] province in [[Presidencies and provinces of British India|pre-partition India]], when the union was split into India and Pakistan, Chellaram sold most of its assets in Sindh and increased his interest in Nigeria.{{fact|date=August 2020}}

Chellaram formally registered the business in Nigeria in 1947 and in the 1950s, he established a chain of department stores.<ref name=":0">{{Cite magazine|last=Africa|first=Forbes|date=2012-03-01|title=From Refugees To Tycoons|url=https://www.forbesafrica.com/focus/2012/03/01/from-refugees-to-tycoons/|language=en-US}}</ref>

Chellaram owned a house in the high brow area of [[Ikoyi]] in colonial Lagos<ref name=":0" /> and later retired to a Pedhi in Hydrerabad.<ref name="brill" /> Before his death, he established an educational trust in India that contributed to the development of [[Kishinchand Chellaram College]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://chellaramcharities.org/Kishinchand.html|title=Chellaram Charities|website=chellaramcharities.org|access-date=2019-04-13}}</ref>
Kishinchand Chellaram was a tenant at 63M, Balmoral Vila, Cumballa hill, Mumbai. Taking advantages of the ambiguous and weak property laws in the era, his sons namely Pishu Chellaram and Ram Chellaram continuous to occupy the property till date as tenants (statutory, at the best). Wonder why such big names are still occupying the property against the wish of the landlord without even paying rents for decades now to the landlord.
== References ==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:Indian businesspeople]]
[[Category:Retail companies of Nigeria]]
[[Category:Year of death unknown]]
[[Category:People from Chennai]]

Kishinchand Chellaram - Revision history

>Dipenfull: Chellarams, a brand in Gambia, but live as tenants in the Plot no. 63M Balmoral Vila, Cumballa hill, Mumbai.