The last years of life

During the rein of Indira Gandhi the traumatic political events he went through forced him to take leave of the public and professional life. Even upto 1980 barbs kept targeting him. His personal and business methods were again and again got scrutinised and faults dug out. When Birla entered 81st year of age W. Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu launched open assault. He said.” Every act of G.D. Birla was inspired by selfish motive. Even his works of aiding educational institutions add wings or hostels or religious bodies was meant to save taxes. Birlas did not touch anything that was not profitable. Earning profit has been first and last aim of Birla.
” In such kind of vicious atmosphere it was better for him to stay away from public activity. He had seen K.K. take up politics against Birla tradition. It created dilemmas for G.D. Somehow K.K. had gained closeness to Indira Gandhi. Her son Sanjay Gandhi was his good friend. In the early phase of 1970s Basant Kumar had provided financial help for Sanjay’s Maruti Motor car enterprise.

Four generations together—Kumar Manglam,
Aditya Vikram, Basant Kumar and G.D.

Birla’s participation had been narrowed down to sometimes addressing Chamber of Commerce meetings. He stayed away from press. Even his visits to Pilani educational institutions and Kolkata Kala Mandir functions had become rare. But his 80th birthday was celebrated at Pilani with great enthusiasm. The director C.R. Mishra took special interest. A 944 page book titled ‘Adhunik Bharat—Virasat avam Uplabhdhiyan’ was released. In the first part contained messages of noble ones. Another chapter dealt with religious people and important personalities and it also contained biodata of G.D. Birla, his personality, character, education and business endeavours. Second part was dedicated to his legacy, humility, economic rise, Gandhian ideology involvement in education, literature and arts. It was his last birthday celebrated publicly. There after all his celebrations were held with family and close associates. In the Laxmi Narain Temple of New Delhi, on Birla’s birthday prayers were said and Ramayana was recited which used to be attended by the members of Birla family. His birthday coincided with Ram Navami Day which called for a double celebration every year.

A fulfilled life is a smile

Although Birla had withdrawn himself from the public view, yet he gave a select time to his busines just to lend advice, give suggestions or get updated on the progress. G.D.’s next two generations were in the business saddle. The sons and grandsons were running the works satisfactorily and there was not cause for any worry. He took interest in knowing the fate of the enterprises he had set up for emotional reasons. He also showed interest in business being handled by his favourite grandson Aditya and the expansion plans he was working on. Gwalior Rayon, Hindalco and Mysore Cement were Birla’s primary interests.
He sometimes went to see those plants to see their progress with his own eyes. They were now in the hands of young generation. Infact’s Aditya was incharge. Lately Sudarshan Kumar had come to share his burden. Birla had seen Aditya when he was just trying to take charge of Hindalco and Gwalior Rayon.
Aditya had earned engineering degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. When Aditya planned to expand abroad Birla lend him whole hearted support. Till then as foreign venture Birlas had a textile mill in Ethiopia and an engineering unit in Nigeria. Aditya wanted to expand in South-East Asia. With the support of his grand father Aditya set up Indo-Thai Synthetics Ltd. with 12000 spindle capacity. Then a 24 ton capacity rayon production unit was started again in Thailand. A textile mill came up in Philippines as a joint venture. Similarly enterprises come up in Malaysia and Indonesia.
In 1978 an expansion plan was drawn for Gwalior Rayon Plant to add viscos fibre unit. Even after 18 months the sanction for the expansion plan did not arrive. Aditya decided to set up the plant in Thailand instead.
Once in Manila he was asked about his future plans. He replied, “What future plan can a 82 year old man have? All the targets I had set have been achieved. I want to spend rest of the life efficiently and intelligently.”
Birla’s two brothers had died and younger generations were in command. Birla was very close to his son Basant and his wife Sarla. He spent most of the time with them. Basant had lost his mother when he was yet a child. Perhaps Birla was compensating for that. He had buried his emotions, pain and sorrow under the burden of work of his ventures and expansion plans. But now 85 year old Birla was spending quality time with his family. He was confiding his pain to the close ones. The memory of second wife Mahadevi still made him emotional. He had begun to share his sorrows, joys and feelings with the family. Angst and arrogance had totally seeped off his character. He was kind to all, spoke politely to others and in happiness felt grateful to God.
For decades Birla had been reading Gita and now was feeling the presence of his immortal soul reality within his mortal body. In 1977 he suffered a heart attack. Basant Kumar, Sarla and Brijmohan took him to Mumbai for better care. After heart attack he started sincerely thinking of the division of business amongst the heir of the family. As Birla and his brothers had wished the young members agreed to inherit whatever business whoever was running or was in charge of. The various companies were although independent units yet being a part of the same group made the dividing lines a bit hazy. The companies having public shares posed a bit harder problems but there were no bickerings and complaints. Young Birlas had inherited the spirit of the unity of the family at all costs.
Some ventures under different charges faced the prospect of being in competition. Birla was happy to hear that his heir did not mind the competition. Infact they considered it a key to success and progress. Total division was not an easy task because 200 companies being controlled directly and 70 were under indirect control. Birlas had country’s largest jute mills, 45% of the total aluminium production of India was in their hands, biggest tea estates were with Birlas, second biggest paper mill was their concern, they had biggest car manufacturing unit and country’s 3% sugar production was being done by Birlas. Their foreign ventures were in 12 countries. Besides these industrial enterprises Birlas were connected to educational institutions, public welfare bodies, hospitals, 40 temples, Dharmashalas and cultural centres.
The big companies were easily taken over by Aditya and Sudarshan. To be away from division hassles G.D. Birla had started to live at Pilani and other places instead of Kolkata. He spent time in writing religious type of books for creative satisfaction and peace of soul.
In January, 1982 his last surviving brother Brijmohan also left him. The last days of his life G.D. Birla spent in Park Towers apartment of London. On June 11, 1983 Birla had gone out for a walk with his two friends Nandlal Hamirvasia and Sushil Kumar Babu. When they reached Piccadily Circus and moved to Regent Road Birla felt physical discomfort. A taxi was called and Birla was taken to the apartment. There his frail body collapsed on a sofa and moments later he breathed his last.
The news of his death brought entire Birla clan to London within 24 hours from various places of the world besides India. On June 13, 1983 at 4.45 p.m. his last rites were performed at ‘Golders Green Cremation Centre’. 300 people attended the funeral. The rites were performed by Pt. Krishnamoorti. The 18th chapter of Gita was recited. The family members and friend sang Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram…prayer that was favourite of Gandhiji too. His last remains were brought to India and kept at Mumbai, Delhi, Pilani and Kolkata to enable people to pay their last respects to the departed soul. Then the ashes were immersed into Ganga at Haridwar. A great man of achievements had gone.

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