User:Ampromart/sandbox

= Appasaheb Marathe =

सखाराम पुरुषोत्तम (उर्फ अप्पासाहेब) मराठे Sakharam Purushottam (aka Appasaheb) Marathe was born on 18 June 1911 in Vengurla village in Sindhudurg district.

First Phase - 1930 to 1948
After completing matriculation, he started working in a shop known as P. Shah & Co. After 3-4 years, the owners of the said company established a branch at Karachi in Sindh province and Appasaheb was appointed as Manager there. The company was trading in various fittings, like rexine cloth, waterproof canvas, cushion springs etc. required for motorbus. Due to Appasaheb's skilled guidance, this venture flourished and within a few years, he settled in Karachi. After this, Appasaheb started a chemist shop called Fairdeal Pharmacy and brought it to fame within no time. Around 1942, Appasaheb founded The Sindh Industrial and Pharmaceutical Company Ltd. The company was headquartered in Karachi and it’s factory was in Malir, a suburb of Karachi. This company was producing a vitamin-rich medicine called Shark Liver Oil under /by the brand name 'Sipol'.

The story behind the manufacture of this product in short is that, in those days vitamin-rich cod liver oil was being imported to India in large quantities. Because World War II was raging all over, the import of this medicine had to be stopped and it was not available, but there was huge demand for it. Appasaheb, smartly and quickly assessing the situation, insisted that this medicine should be manufactured in our country. After a lot of endeavor, study and survey, it was noticed that sharks were available in abundance in the coastal areas of Jamnagar, Porbandar, Okha, etc. on the west coast of India, and the quality of this shark oil was matching with that of imported cod liver oil. Naturally therefore, the sale of Sipol made in the factory at Malir, Karachi, was very high at that time.

Prior to 1947, there were 50,000 Marathi people living in Karachi. There were social organizations like Brahmin Sabha, Karachi Maharashtrian Mitra Mandal etc. Appasaheb's son’s thread ceremony was also solemnized at the Brahmin Sabha in Karachi. There were some educational institutions and their high schools. Appasaheb had close association with each of these organizations. In spite of being busy in his own business, he used to devote time to these social causes. Therefore, activists and people from all walks of life used to throng at Appasaheb's residence in Karachi to seek his advice and guidance. Similarly, he also had very good relations with the Muslim brothers / community there. Even though he was not much gregarious in nature, he had consideration for the feelings of others. He was always at the forefront in helping others.

Just when everything in Karachi seemed to be peaceful, India was partitioned in August 1947. Karachi (Sindh province) was incorporated into Pakistan. Waves upon waves of Muslims hoards from North India, mainly from Punjab, started flocking to Karachi. They did not want the presence of Hindus in the newly acquired Islamic land. It was their perception that just as these Muslims came to Pakistan as refugees, so also Hindus in Pakistan should leave Pakistan and go into India. Therefore, incidences of attacks on Hindu families, murders, destruction of properties owned by Hindus, arson and then looting and pillage began to happen frequently ,almost daily. So Appasaheb decided to send his family to Mumbai. And in September 1947, many of his relatives came to Mumbai by boat from Karachi.

"The voyage from Karachi to Mumbai was a real ordeal, a bitter experience. The boat was full of people and their belongings. The ship was packed to its brim with passengers and their belongings There were women, children, youth, the elderly, the very old. Marathi, Sindhi, Gujarati and others were going away with heavy hearts leaving behind and carrying a little bit of their possessions. Everyone was a refugee and sad. The journey from Karachi to Mumbai sitting precariously on a pile of luggage! Altogether, the situation was horrible.”

The Marathe family reached Mumbai safely, but Appasaheb stayed back in Karachi. It was not possible to wind up and leave immediately as there was a huge organized setup of businesses and assets behind to look after. Initially, he was hopeful that in spite of the partition his business would sustain. But when as days passed it became increasingly difficult to stay put there, then his Muslim friends and acquaintances pleaded and expressed that now it would be difficult even for them to shield him any further.

"Now please leave from here". Finally, in utter despair he sold his entire property in Karachi, but he managed to get peanuts, only (12.5%) in the deal. Accepting whatever he got, he left Karachi in January 1948 with a heavy heart and returned back to Mumbai to save his own life.

Second Phase - 1948 to 1961
Since he had lost everything in Karachi, Appasaheb had to make a fresh start and organize things again to reconcile everything. He started a hardware and tools shop named V Ramesh & Company in 1949-50 in collaboration with one of his cousins, Narayanrao Patwardhan and friend Chimanbhai Gandhi, at Lohar Chawl in Mumbai. But his real interest lied in supplying materials required in the engineering field. However, when he realized that his partners were not

interested in growing such a business, he founded ‘Sachin & Company’ in 1953. Even though he had parted ways with his partners, he was grateful to them for the help which both of them had rendered in the initial days. Therefore he named his own company as “SACHIN” by coining together the initials of all 3 owners (Sa-Sakharam, Chi-Chimanbhai and Na-Narayan). The company started supplying engineering materials to various departments through government tenders. In a short time, he established himself as an Approved Government Supplier. Since he wanted to grow in his business he decided not to refuse any order, however small it may be. That is why he was ready to fulfill all sorts of even minor orders such as supplying felt water bottles to the police department. It may be because

the ethics of those times were different or it may be due to Appasaheb's motto of doing business honestly, but he never had to give a bribe. He was the sole manufacturer of navigational lights used in shipping during that period.

Later on, when demands from Telco and Premier Auto grew, he decided to start his own workshop by the name Sachin

Engineering Corporation in 1958 and transferred the business of Sachin & Company to Sumanbhai Doshi. The company is operating at the original address 25, Bank Street till date.

Appasaheb did not have any financial backing, so this was not possible unless a loan was taken. He applied for a loan to the Hamam Street branch of Saraswat Bank. In those days, Saraswat Bank was mainly offering loans against mortgaged gold. However, one of the employees of the branch, Mr. R. K. Pandit realized that the bank would not grow unless loans are given to industries. He convinced the Board of Directors of the bank about this and Sachin Engineering was one of the first industrial borrowers of the bank.

The workshop was initially located in an industrial unit (gala) outside the Siddhivinayak Temple and later on in 1960 due to insufficient space they shifted to bigger premises near Bandra Lake, next to Nandi Cinema. Probably due to his prior experience in Karachi, but Appasaheb knew the mindset of Muslim artisans and so one or two of the departments of his workshop was manned by all Muslim artisans. In addition to having Telco and Premier as clients, he also started supplying radio parts to Philips. In 1955, he founded Swifts Limited. He started supplying tools to Air India with the help of one of his friends and acquaintances, P.N. (Baburao) Patwardhan, who was working with Air India. For this he took the agency of Gedore, a German company. They also started making the stainless steel tea and coffee jugs for Air India. Similarly he continued his business expansion by taking agency of Rallis India Limited. Rallis fans and the Wolf brand electric hand tools were very popular at the time. Air India and Rallies continued to patronize him till about 1960-61. Later Appasaheb developed Gestetner's Stencil Duplicator as a cheaper alternative to the Spirit Duplicator; however, the product could not get popularity in the market. He also established a company named Alpha Electricals to make battery connectors required by Telco. Since the orders from Telco and Premier were pouring in, the space at Bandra premises was also falling short now and so Appasaheb started looking for a larger space. Once during a meeting, a friend told him that the Portuguese Church owned a lot of land in Prabhadevi and suggested he try for it.

Third Phase - 1961 and onwards
Appasaheb called on Father Vaz of the Portuguese Church and Father agreed to lease out land owned by the Church in Prabhadevi to S P Marathe & Company.

In fact, in those days it was all forested land and even then half of that land was encroached upon by some 100 hutments. And even in those days, there was a slum lord. He offered a deal to Appasaheb, saying that they would leave the land quietly if each of them were paid Rs. 500. But there was a stumbling block as to where the money will come from. That was when he met Mr. Deokule of the Rational Art Press who was ready to bring in finances. But his condition was that half the plot should be in his name. Appasaheb persuaded Father Vaz about this too and gave half of the plot to Mr. Deokule.

There existed a farm land on the remaining half of the plot which was owned by one man. When that farm owner came to know that Rs 50,000 were compensated to his neighbors, he also wanted the same amount for vacating the land. Again another demand, and another stumbling block arose. Then Mr. K P Menon of Therapeutic Pharma showed willingness to give the money and in return he asked for some space in the to-be constructed building. There was no other way but to agree.

Again, the Saraswat Bank also pitched in and Marathe Udyog Bhavan was erected half in 1964 and the remaining half in

1966.

Initially, it was to be named as Marathe Industrial Estate, but Appasaheb’s nephew Pt. Vasant Gadgil persuaded Appasaheb to change the name. The inauguration ceremony was graced by the presence of Shri. Lalchand Hirachand and there was a singing concert on the terrace by Pt. Bhimsen Joshi.

Around 1965 onwards Appasaheb started residing there

In the year 1967, due to the inspiration from Appasaheb’s friend, Mr. Madhukar Bhatt of Automatic Electric and out of a desire to have a product of his own, Appasaheb thought of manufacturing an Offset Printing Machine. At that time no one was making offset machines in India, so it was going to be a  pioneering

venture in our country. Appasaheb's son Suresh and son-in-law, Shri. Rajabhau Kelkar shouldered this responsibility. Prototypes of the machine were even getting ready in the next two years. But on August 28, 1969, fate struck and Appasaheb died of a heart attack at the age of only 58.

It is indeed an ideal, worth looking up to by all Marathi businessmen that this enterprising Marathi industrialist arrived from Karachi with absolutely naught in his hands and despite this he rose like the Phoenix bird and established his own business empire in Mumbai. Among the Marathi entrepreneurs who returned to India after going through the tribulations of the Partition, not many are known to have re-established themselves firmly in businesses as Appasaheb did. Many Marathi industrialists who came from there did not  prosper much as independent entrepreneurs. The Sindhi community, which came as refugees from Pakistan into India after the Partition, have now spread all over the globe. Due to their innate business acumen, many of them soon became billionaires within a few years. However, the common Marathi man from Karachi who came to Mumbai after the Partition kept wandering in search of a job.

Until 1971, there was no road access to Maratha Udyog Bhavan. Vehicles had to be parked in the alley of the Prabhadevi temple in front. In 1974, due to the efforts of Mr. Sadanad Varde and cooperation from Mr. Manohar Joshi and Mr. Sudhir Joshi of the Shiv Sena, the road which was to be built was named as Appasaheb Marathe Marg.

The Swift Company also received the Import Substitution Award from the Government of India in 1978 for being the first manufacturer of offset printing machines.

Marathe Udyog Bhavan is still standing tall and glorious to this day, even in the year 2020. The building has become a famous landmark in this city today.

Also, Appasaheb Marathe Marg is one of the major arterial roads in Mumbai.