Manu Chandaria: From an illiterate penniless immigrant to business mogul

Manu and the Chandaria family have come a long way from when their patriarch, Premchand Popat Chandaria, set sail for Kenya in 1916.

Premchand was escaping the grinding poverty in his native Jamnagar, a town in the Saurashtra region in the Gujarat State on the west coast of India. With no more than the dried food in his small bag which he hoped would last him for the duration of the journey, he fixed his eyes and mind on the future.

A simple man, he had a modest ambition and an equally humble plan to achieve it. In Kenya, he would find work and keep most of his earnings in order to save 4,000 rupees in the shortest time possible.

He would then return to his village of Chapa Beraja and town of Jamnagar and start a business. This way he would not only provide for his family, but also haul it from the yoke of poverty. He wished to build a fortune and secure the future prosperity of the family.

Local people who had migrated to East Africa returning home told stories of lands that were full of opportunity both on the Indian Ocean coastline and hinterlands of Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.

This was in sharp contrast to drought-stricken Gujarat, which held few opportunities. Premchand was told stories about, and also saw for himself, how the lives of some families changed for the better because their parents or children remitted money from distant lands with which they improved their purchasing power.

 Premchand was 25 years old when he arrived at the port of Mombasa after a 10-day voyage from the port of Bedi-Bundar near Jamnagar. He was illiterate. He did not know what to expect.

While he could speak three different vernaculars, they were all Indian and, therefore, useful only when he was in the company of fellow immigrants. But he was determined to make a new beginning in the new land and succeed.

With the help of relatives and members of the Oshwal community, Premchand found a job in a wholesale shop in Nairobi and straight away realised the importance of education.

He could not speak English which was the lingua franca at the shop he worked, and also the medium of communication of choice when transacting business with government agencies or between businesses.

Premchand quickly noticed that people who had some education and skills got good jobs, but those, like him, who did not, settled for back-breaking manual work. But the going got really tough, when, as a businessman, he was forced to turn to relatives or members of his community to ask them to read for him his correspondence and write for him the appropriate response. And he would need help to carry out a simple bank transaction.

His wife Punjiben, who was two years his junior, was also illiterate and would learn the alphabet when she was 53, with the help of her fifth born son, Manu.

 Premchand and Punjiben were blessed with eight children, namely Devchand, Kastur, Ratilal, Keshavlal, Manu, Manjula, Sushila, and Ramila. Devchand, the eldest child, was born in 1916, followed by his sister Kastur in 1918, and brothers Ratilal, Keshavlal and Manu, in 1922, 1927 and 1929, respectively. Sisters Manjula, Sushila and Ramila were born in 1931, 1933 and 1937.

 They were all born in Nairobi on Canal Road, which is now Keekorok Road. Premchand Chandaria made up his mind, and Punjiben agreed with him, that he would move heaven and earth to give his children the best education possible.

He was persuaded this would stand them, in particular, and family, in general, in good stead in future. Premchand  ideology was that if the future of his children was going to be different from his, then they must get the best education he could afford to give them.

His life revolved around his family and was driven by a desire to improve its lot and earn it respect. His next resolve was that he would work hard to bring this goal to fruition.

 Therefore, from the very beginning the Chandaria children were brought up to know that education would play a pivotal role in their lives and their family. Mum and dad rose at 4.30 am and woke up the children at 5.00 am so that they could do their homework.

The idea inculcated in the children was that what one read early in the morning was easily understood and retained better. It is no coincidence that later in life Manu’s workday always began at 6.30 am and ended at 11.00 pm. 

They were taught to take education seriously because this was the key to a better life. The children were similarly taught by their parents and other members of the larger family that it pays to work hard, diligently and with a purpose. Education and hard work would rid the family of poverty.

Premchand was served three meals by his employer, and he slept in the shop. He was clad in heavy American khaki clothes, better known locally as Merikani, which were made from tough fabrics that could withstand the wear and tear that was his lot for 18 hours, seven days a week.

After six months of “work, work and more work”, Manu says, his father gathered enough courage to ask his employer what his monthly earnings were.

He was informed that he had earned 120 rupees, which translated to 20 rupees per month. He was, however, entitled only to a balance of 20 rupees because he had used up 100 rupees on provisions, including his work outfit.

The news broke his heart, but not his spirit or his determination to succeed. At 20 rupees per month, he was not going to realise his dream of amassing 4,000 rupees as quickly as he had imagined when he boarded the ship to Kenya and later found work at the provision store.

 Premchand quit his job determined to strike out on his own. He borrowed money from two relatives, one of whom lived in Kisumu town. Together they set up their own shop in what is now Ngara in Nairobi and entered into a partnership. 

Life revolved around the shop. For most of the immigrants, the shops were both business and residential premises. Parents and their children stayed and worked in the shop. After two years, circa 1918, Premchand’s life changed dramatically.

He had saved 10,000 rupees, which was 6,000 rupees more than he had hoped to raise and return to Jamnagar to set up a business. He had to make a choice: Return home and start life afresh or continue to stay in Kenya and invest and grow.

He settled for the latter and opened a second shop in Mombasa, the port town from which Indian immigrants panned out into the interior of Kenya and into Uganda to look for work and earn a living and send remittances back home to enable families and relatives to make ends meet.

Every immigrant who settled in Nairobi, for example, was invited and accommodated by an earlier arrival. Then the new immigrant would work for a year or two and, with the help and encouragement of the community, would leave to strike out on his own or with a relative or friend, and set up their own shop.