THE ORIGIN, GLORY AND DECLINE OF SCINDIAS

Glory of people or organisations is to be measured by the means they use to acquire it. In great
attempts it is glorious even to fail, after winning many struggles. One crowded hour of glorious life is
worth an age without a name.

Scindia company's career from 1919 to its downfall can be divided into three phases: first is ‘Narottam
era’ from 1919 to 1929; the second is ‘Walchand era’ from 1929 to 1950 and the third is the era ruled by
‘Directors Committee’ consisting of Chairman D. M. Khatau (1950-1968), Shantikumar Morarjee and
Sumati Morarjee. The Morarjee family is thus, continuously associated with the management of Scindias
for more than half a century.

Shantikumar Morarjee managed Scindia workshop till the end. Sumati Morarjee as Executive Director,
took charge of Scindia company and managed day-to-day administration. The third phase may be called
Sumit Morarjee era.

Glorious acts, events and achievements, can be identified in each of these eras, forming the
contributions of the Scindias.

It was a slow, laborious and uphill struggle for Scindias till India became free. But from the beginning
they had kept their sights high. They were not content merely to be a commercial firm earning profit.
They were crusaders in noble cause. Fired with the spirit of economic nationalism, their founders aimed
at nothing less than the actual revival of Indian shipping. In the attainment of this objective, they had to
engage themselves in constant struggle with entrenched monopoly of British shipping which had a
powerful man like Lord Inchcape at its head. For the ultimate freedom of Indian shipping they had for
years to submit to unfair restrictions in their progress. With infinite patience and faith, they carried on
their long march towards the goal.

It was during these early crusading years, that the Scindias proved their mettle. The campaign they
launched for the reservation of the coastal trade for Indian shipping and a due share in overseas trade,
for the training of navigation, engineering and wireless personnel, for the Indianisation of the staff and
for other legitimate rights of Indian shipping will ever be remembered in its history. Ex-Scindia
navigating and engineering officers, employed in different organisations in various capacities, regularly
meet every year in December. It indicates the respects they have to their ex-employers who treated
them well.

As champions of public opinion and lobbyist in the legislature, they became educators of public opinion.
It was during their early formative years that Scindias won the sympathy of the foremost nationalist
leaders and the father of the nation Gandhiji himself - for the cause of Indian shipping.

Scindia men had the privilege of lending their expert knowledge and the benefit of their experience to
every major committee connected with shipping appointed by the Central Legislative Assembly and the
Government. Narottam Morarjee was a member of the Fiscal Commission appointed in 1921, in his
business capacity. The Indian Merchantile Marine Committee of 1923 had Lalubhai Samaldas, a founding
director of Scindias, as a member. The Coastal Reservation bill was moved in 1928 by S.N.Haji, a
manager of Sciandias and was a member of the Select Committee which considered it. M. A. Master
represented Scindias on the important Reconstruction Policy, Sub-Committee on shipping appointed in
1945, whose report forms the Magna Carta of Indian shipping. For two decades after Narottam’s death,
Walchand was the accredited champion of Indian Shipping at every meeting and conference connected
with the subject.

J a la ra t n a w a s b u il t in 1 9 6 7 , G R T 1 1 ,3 2 3 , w a s s c r a p p e d i n 1 9 8 6 .

The most far-reaching contribution of Sciandias to Indian shipping and the nation itself is the
establishment of a shipbuilding yard at Visakhapatnam i1941. It was done in the midst of numerous
troubles and in the thick of the Second World War.

This itself forms a saga of which Scindias could well be proud and the nation grateful.

It may not have been noted by people that Scindias have made a similar contribution to the building up
of India’s air communications, particularly in Western India. A company owned by Scindias which later
became the State owned Indian Air Lines Corporation, was managed by Scindias since 1943, until it
amalgamated along with others to form the I. A. C. This company played a useful role in establishing air
services between Bombay-Delhi, Bombay-Ahmadabad, Bombay-Saurashtra and Bombay - Mangalore.

Scindias have always been ready to render humanitarian help whenever the necessity arose during
famines, wars and the partition of the sub-continent. During 1938-39 Scindias carried large quantities of
foodgrains and cattle - fodder to the famine-stricken areas in Kachch. They rendered their services in the
exodus of refugees from Burma in 1942 and again ‘from and to’ West Pakistan in 1947-48. And it was
wanton Portuguese attack on a Scindia Ship- the S. S. ‘Sabarmati’ that served as a prelude in the
liberation of Goa. During the Indo-Pakistan war of 1965, two Scindia ships S. S. ‘Saraswati’ and S. S.
‘Jalrajendra’ were impounded and not returned for over a year inflicting heavy losses on Scindias. Their
assets worth Rs. 24,00,000 which were seized by the Pakistan Government and handed over to their
Custodian of Enemy Property, have not been accounted for.

Scindia have also taken the lead to forming trade associations such as Indian National Steamship Owners
Association (INSOA) later renamed Indian National Shipowners Association which is now the recognised
spokesman of Indian Shipping. Walchand was the first president of INSOA and he adorned that office for
twenty years continuously, during which the Association built its prestige and authority. Scindia also
established the Indian Coastal Conference in 1951 and managed it until 1956.

Even for the emergence of public sector in shipping the Scindia Co. gave full co-operation and help.
Firstly the Government of India and the Scindia Co. founded the Eastern shipping corporation in 1950.
Scindia Co. managed it until 1956. The Government then set up another corporation, the Western
Shipping Corporation in 1956. Both the corporations were merged on 2nd October, 1961 to become the
Shipping Corporation of India.

National Maritime Day which is observed since 1964, every year commemorates the sailing of S. S. :
Loyalty’ the first ship of Scindias on 5th April, 1919 from Bombay to U. K. In maritime training, Scindias
always took keen interest. Navigation and engineering cadets were trained since 1921, until the
establishment of T. S. Dufferin in 1927, (for which again the Scindia Co. played a key role). Scindias as
the managers of a subsidiary company, The Bombay Steam Navigation Co. established two cadet ships
IRRAWADI and BAHADURI in 1940s and trained deck and engineering officers. These efforts helped to
strengthen the training base.

The Scndia Co. always offered place and required assistance for conducting educational activities in
‘Scindia House’. The early classes towards establishing LBS Nautical and Engineering College and later
Narottam Morarjee Institute of Shipping were conducted in Scindia House. The company with SCI,
helped in bringing in an UNCTAD Project - TRAINMAR (Training Development in the Field of Maritime
Transport) - to India in 1980 and trained hundreds of shipping executives until 1988. The examinations
of the Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers, London were also conducted in Scindia House for many years.

† Talking about the variety of shipping runs, Scindia company has the unique distinction of
launching a passenger-cum-cargo service between India and U. K. at their very inception and that too
with a single ship the ‘Loyalty’.’

†‘An India-U. K.-Continent service was started in 1948 by first berthing some coastal vessels, whilst four
new ships were under construction for this service. Two of them, ‘Jalazad’ and ‘Jaljawahar’, maintained
the passenger-cum-cargo service to U. K. till 1950, when these ships were required by the Eastern
Shipping Corporation to inaugurate their passenger services to East Africa and Malaya.
† Scindia’s own development plan, envisaging the acquisition of 24 new ships at a total cost of Rs.
25 crores in the five and half years from 1955 to 1960, was duly fulfilled. The Company had itself
financed three-fourths of this plan, the Government having loaned Rs. 11 crores. Most of these vessels
were put on the overseas trade enabling Scindias to resume the India-U.S.A. service in July, 1958 and to
offer regular sailings to and from Polish ports and the Adriatic ports of Trieste and Rijeka, over and
above the India - U. K.-Continental ports.

J a l a p u tr a B u i l t i n 1 9 7 1 , G R T 9 ,1 0 1 , e x -M o ld o v a , w a s p u r c h a s e d f r o m
A m a z o n S h ip p i n g C o r p n . , G r e e c e i n 1 9 7 6 a n d w a s r e n a m e d J a l a p u tr a ,
s cra p p e d in 19 87 .

† In July, 1956 Scindias started a bilateral service to U. S. S. R. in co-operation with I. S. S. and

Bharat Line, each company contributing two ships and in the following month, on their own, a direct
service between India and the West Coast of Africa via Mauritius.

† Scindias inaugurated their Overseas Liner Services from India to the Pacific Coast of U. S. A. in
1960-61, to East Canada and the Great Lake in 1964 and the India-West Asian Gulf Service in 1967-68.’

† In association with two other companies, Scindias also ran a regular service from Calcutta and
other ports on the East Coast of India to ports in the Adriatic, Egypt and the Near East, each of the line
getting four sailings a year.

† In December, 1968 they joined the express cargo service to the German Democratic Republic
within a multilateral framework, their Indian associates being the India Steamship Company and the
Shipping Corporation of India Ltd.

Post independence era was not that smooth for Scindias, as is clear from the following text:

A justified feeling is being entertained by Scindias that the scale are not being held even by the
Government between them and other companies, especially the one in the public sector. This grievance
was ventilated by their chairman, Dharamsey M. Khatau, in his annual speeches for two successive
years. The following passages from his 1966 address warrant reproduction:
“We are predominantly a Liner Company. We established Liner trades on the coast of India and
adjuacent countries before the war”............“It cannot be the intention of the Act to differentiate
between the interests of one company and another. It is interesting to recall here the situation
somewhat analogous to pre independence era arose when the Shipping Corporation sought entry in the
U. K.-Continental trade. We had built that trade with considerable effort and great sacrifice for over a
decade. It was because of the Private Sector’s efforts that India was successful in securing participation
for Indian shipping in the U. K.- Continental Liner Services. When, however, the Shipping Corporation of
India came into existence, the Government intervened to secure for it a share in that trade according to
a formula under which while our share remains the same, that of the Shipping Corporation goes on
increasing.”

Scindias justifiably claim that their fleet expanding and their horizon is widening year after year. In the
20 years since independence the Scindia fleet has more than trebled as the following figures will show:

J ala V ih a r B u ilt in 19 7 6, G R T 4 1 ,30 6 , w a s o n e o f t h e f o u r b u lk

c a r r ie r s S c i n d i a s h a d , s o l d t o T r e a s u r e M a r i t im e L td ., S t. V in c e n t
in 19 96 w a s re n a m ed X in g H u a .

Prosperous Years

Compared to earlier years, the period from 1950 to 1969 proved to be prosperous for the company
which witnessed, in line with the then market trends, substantial increases in gross earnings and net
profits. This enabled the company to pay appropriate higher dividends and issue bonus shares for 1953-
54 and 1957-58. Officers and staff members of the company were also pleased with bonuses and other
emoluments received every year.

J a la m a n i w a s b u il t in 1 9 7 0 , G R T 9 , 5 6 6 , w a s s c r a p p e d i n 1 9 8 6 .
In 1967-68, the company’s authorised capital was Rs. 11,60,00,000, paid-up capital Rs.11,27,93,593;
number of shares 56,38,649 held by 37,425 shareholders. Scindia's merchant fleet stood at 48 vessels
amounting to 3,77,130 gross tons.Scindia ruled the Indian Maritime, lived instyle, made her presence
felt for nearly 75 years. Will be remembered for all the generations to come. (Concluding text next
month)