Motilal Seal
The generous businessman (1792-1854)

Motilal Seal was born in 1792 in the Colootola neighbourhood of Kolkata in British India. His father Chaitanya Charan Seal was a cloth merchant. Motilal lost his father when he was just five. Therefore, he had to discontinue his studies and try out various jobs to make his ends meet. His first job which was mainly to supply essential commodities to Fort William, then the bastion of British power, exposed him to many nitty gritties of business which helped him in his ventures in the future.
Motilal’s entry into business though was by selling bottles and corks to a prominent British businessman, named Mr. Hudson, who was one of the frontrunners of importers of beer. Motilal then traded in cowhides and slowly rose to become one of the most prominent entrepreneurs of Kolkata. He also founded the first indigo mart of the country.
He also exported indigo, silk, sugar and rice to Europe and imported iron and cotton goods from England. He was also most sought after by the British merchants for his expertise in indigo, silk, sugar and rice. He was also the first person in India to use steamships for internal trade. He made a vast fortune through money-dealing, which involved not just lending of money but many other aspects of it including banking work. There was hardly any ventures which he did not fund. From dealings in internal exchanges to contracts for station building, for establishing new markets, revival of transit companies, Motial Seal was involved in most of the ventures happeing at the time, as a quiet shareholder.
Motilal Seal was one of the founders of Assam Company Ltd. It was due to his efforts that the Oriental Life Insurance accepted underwriting of Indian lives. The company was later renamed as New Oriental Insurance Company in 1834. Motilal was also one of the founders of Bank of India. He was a board member of the Agricultural and Horticultural Society of India. Due to his varied profit making business interests, Motilal soon became one of the richest entrepreneurs of Kolkata. At this point of time, he also solely controlled the paper trade in Kolkata.
There were many wealthy businessmen at the time but what made Motilal Seal stand tall among them was the kind of philanthropic activities he was associated with. He built a guest house for travellers at Belgharia, in the suburbs of Kolkata and a bathing ghat on the bank of the Hooghly river. He donated funds to build a women’s hospital in Kolkata which started functioning in 1838 and also his land on which the Kolkata Medical College is built. In 1843, he established a school where education was imparted free to underprivileged children.
Kolkata, in those days, was under the influence of two contrast thoughts - one which believed in reforms like widow remarriage and banning sati while the other was the conservative group. Motilal belonged to the latter group but at the same time, he was not averse to modern thinking like widow remarriage. He offered a prize money of Rs.1000 to the first Hindu widow who will have the courage to break free from the shackles of superstitions and blind beliefs and remarry. This great philanthropist died on May 20, 1854. His obituary in the Hindu Intelligence described him as the “richest and most virtuous Baboo of Calcutta”. A busy street in Kolkata named after him stands as a tribute to perhaps the richest and kindest philanthropist of the country.
Motilal Seal could be best described in the words of the renowned reformer and educationist, Sivanath Sastri - “He never adopted unfair means for earning money. He was well-behaved, polite and helpful to others.”