The book is about 'The Life and Times of RK Dalmia'. Ramakrishna Dalmia is not as well known a name as the Tatas or Birlas who have somehow sustained their rise and wealth and grown as a family, a group. The Dalmia legacy grew and ended within a lifetime - which is perhaps one reason why the group is not mentioned in the same breath at the other two. Neelima Dalmia Adhar is the daughter of Ramakrishna Dalmia and has her own story to tell which she does with great honesty and clarity and courage.
Ramakrishna Dalmia was born in a Marwari family from a small town in Rajasthan. By sheer dint of his hard work and intelligence and enterprise he rose from being a small time employee in his uncle's business to build an empire that had factories and businesses across India - sugar, iron and steel, mining, finance, biscuits, bauxite - you name it, he had it. He became wealthy beyond imagination, hobnobbed with the rich and famous, developed political affiliations. He funded a lot of Gandhiji's work including the Dandi march, had a dear friend in Mohammed Ali Jinnah who he could not stop from wanting partition (they say he was perhaps the only man who could have influenced Jinnah), was deeply nationalistic, had a One World Mission which he pursued to unite the world. He also had a running feud with Nehru and that cost him when he was put in jail for some financial issues with his company Bharath Insurance. He went to jail for two years and in his later years, the family fell apart and the legacy ended.
That's one part of the story. The other is that Ramakrishna Dalmia was a complicated man. Despite his deeply religious nature he also married six times - Narbada being his first wife and someone older than him, someone who left a deep impression on him. He perhaps abused her from what I read - and she died early. He married Durga, Pritam Takht Singh, and educated Sikh girl who was only married to him for four months, Saraswati, Asha and Neelima's mother, the educated Dineshnandini. Between the six wives he had 18 children with Saraswati and Dineshnandini having seven children each (I think). He had strict rules and controlled the wives and their families, kept them apart from one another in different houses. Dineshnandini was a writer and a poet and she wrote to Nehru who was her hero under the pen name Nero, letters which he wrote are with Neelima still. Overall it became rather difficult as Ramakrishna took a dislike to the spirit Dineshnandini was showing and he cut her off from her friends and supporters and financial help, and pretty much sided with Saraswati. The entire family split up. Ramakrishna Dalmia passed away quietly.
This is the second book of Neelima Dalmia's I have read thank to RK Gupta ji gifting them to me. This is biographical so I could relate to it so much more. Neelima writes well and convincingly and with energy, with a lot of honesty and courage, so one must give her credit for putting her version of her father out. That she dedicates the book to her mother shows that she will not keep quiet about any injustice or unfairness she has suffered. I enjoyed reading the book and am amazed at the circumstances I read it in - I am in Ahmedabad and visited the Sabarmati ashram from where Gandhiji undertook his Dandi march which RK Dalmia financed. All said and done one cannot take away what he achieved and did nor can one wipe away the things he did and did not. Neelima's book shows us that we are all flawed one way or another, being rich and famous does not mean we have no flaws. She also does not hesitate to expose the way the Marwari community works which she did in both the books I read.
I will revisit the book again though. It has interesting angles.
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