Basant Kumar Birla – Indian industrialist belonging to Birla group of industries
Basant Kumar Birla (1921 – 2019) was a third generation member of Birla Business Empire. He was an industrialist and educationalist. He was born as the son of prominent industrialist of pre-independent era, Ghanshyam Das Birla, close associative of Mahatma Gandhi. Now his family business is headed by his grandson Kumar Mangalam Birla (5th generation member), who expanded the group of companies named as Aditya Birla Group, and the now the group enjoys the third-position in private sector conglomerate in India with a turnover of 41 billion US dollars in 2015. Basant was the son-in-law of Indian independence activist and writer, Brajlal Biyani.
Basant Kumar Birla was born into an influential business family of India, with many generations associated with it. His father Ghanshyam Das Birla was a businessman and philanthropist, and also a close associate of Mahatma Gandhi. In fact Gandhi was staying in Birla’s house for the last three months before he was assassinated. At that time Basant was in his 20s. His elder brother Krishna Kumar Birla was also an industrialist. He started earning at the age of 13, as he didn’t want to depend on to his family for pocket money. He made his first income by buying and selling a few shares. The first year itself he paid taxes too. He joined family business two years later and started taking formal training. At that time the family was mostly active in textile industry and commodities market, before diversifying into technology sector and others.
Over the years he created a platform of his family group of industries, on which his son and grandson established a big empire. He married writer Brijlal Biyani’s daughter, Sarala in 1942 and had three children – one son and two daughters. Their marriage was solemnised by Mahatma Gandhi, who along with Jamnalal Bajaj introduced the couple to each other. His wife also got active in family business.
Basant Kumar Birla – Some interesting and less-known facts
1. He concentrated on to textile and paper business during his active professional career, apart from tea, coffee, spices, chemicals, construction materials and a few more.
2. He formerly served as chairman of the Krishnarpan Charity Trust, BK Birla Institute of Engineering & Technology, apart from being a board member of many educational institutions and trusts.
3. He was a patron of more than 25 educational institutions.
4. He outlived his son Aditya Vikram Birla for nearly 25 years. While Aditya passed away in 1995 in his middle ages due to prostate cancer, his father died in 2019 aged 98.
5. His wife Sarla died in 2015 at the age of 91.
6. He was a writer, who authored a few books including his autobiography work.
7. Present generation (6th) of his family members include Ananya Birla – a singer and Aryaman Birla – a cricketer, and both stay away from business.
8. Rameswar Das Birla, Baldeo Das Birla, Krishna Kumar Birla, Ganga Prasad Birla, Chandrakant Birla and Yasovardhan Birla are some other prominent figures of Birla family belonging to different generations. Most of them were associated with business and well-known industrialists.
9. His daughter-in-law Rajashree Birla is a philanthropist, businesswoman and Padma Bhushan recipient. She replaced Basant as chairman of Pilani Investors a few months before his death in 2019.
10. He has been honoured with Order of Menelik II, the highest Ethiopian award by Emperor of Ethiopia, Haile Selassie I.
11. He was active in family business even in his 90s, and while at Kolkata, used to tour his factories once in every month.
12. He was a well-disciplined person who gave great importance to punctuality.
13. He was well-known for frugal in his habits, and instead of wearing a suit worth 50,000 Indian rupees, he preferred to give it for charity.
14. He was a philatelist, movie buff and numismatist.
15. He loved vocal music and had learnt violin from Rameshchandra Takur, sibling of Pandit Onkarnath Takur.
16. Seth Shobharam, grandson of Seth Bhudharmal, who lived in the early 19th century, was the first one from Birla family who got into trade and business. He was a local trader. It was his son, Seth Shiv Narayana in the second half of 19th century who ventured business outside their hometown Pilani, now a part of Rajasthan. Birla industrial family flourished since then.
17. His father married his mother Mahadevi Birla, after the death of his first wife Durga Devi Birla. He has one half-brother Shrinivas Birla. However it was Basant along with his elder brother Krishna Kumar Birla who carried forward the business legacy. He also had three sisters.
18. His niece Shobhana Bhartia (daughter of Krishna Kumar Birla) is perhaps the most prominent female member of Birla family (Rajashree Birla and Sarla Birla being daughter-in-laws). She is the Chairperson and Editorial Director of the Hindustan Times Group, inherited from her father.
19. The family firm was initially known as Baldeodas Jugalkishore, which was renamed as Birla Brothers Limited in the year 1918.
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