Adamjee Haji Dawood

Adamjee Haji Dawood was born in 1880 in Jetpur, Bombay Presidency in British India into a Memon family. While still in his teens, he ventured out to Burma and started operating as an independent businessman. The first few years of his career were spent in the rice, safety matches in wooden boxes, and jute trade.

By 1922, he had accumulated sufficient resources and a strong presence in the commodities markets, enabling him to set up his first industrial venture – a match factory in Rangoon. In 1927, he returned to establish a jute mill in Calcutta. The Adamjee Jute Mills Limited was the third jute mill to be set up by an Indian and the first Muslim-owned public company in British India. To capture this emerging niche, Adamjee along with Mr. G. D. Birla of Birla Jute, broke into this monopolistic trade controlled by the East India Company until that time.

He was also an avid educationist and philanthropist. He was responsible for financing and helping a number of educational institutions in present-day India and Pakistan.

By the 1940s, Dawood had become a prominent figure in the business circles of India and Burma. His recognition was acknowledged by Muhammad Ali Jinnah, who became a good friend and appointed him advisor to the freedom movement of the Muslims, which eventually led to the creation of Pakistan. Dawood convinced the entire Memon and many from other Gujarati Muslim communities to migrate to Pakistan. With this vision in mind again at the request of Jinnah, he also established two major institutions along with Mirza Ahmad Ispahani i.e. The Muslim Commercial Bank Limited and the Orient Airways Limited, forerunner of Pakistan International Airlines. The purpose of this was to assist the migration process by providing transport of Muslims to Pakistan and to create banking facilities in the new country, Pakistan.