Svetlanazrc at 14:03, 4 March 2026

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{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2023}}
{{Use Indian English|date=April 2023}}
{{Infobox person
| honorific_prefix = [[Diwan Bahadur]] [[Sir]]
| name = Kasturchand Daga
| honorific_suffix = [[Order of the Indian Empire|KCIE]]
| image = Statue of Kasturchand Daga, Nagpur - panoramio (cropped).jpg
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| caption = Statue of Kasturchand Daga in Nagpur, which was unveiled by then Governor Sir [[Frank Sly]] in December 1924
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| birth_date = 1855
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| death_date = 21 January 1917
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| occupation = Businessman, Philanthropist & Owner of Rai Bahadur Bansilal Abirchand (RBBA) Company
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| spouse = Amritbai Daga
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| father = Rai Bahadur Abirchand Bansilal Daga
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[[Diwan Bahadur]] [[Sir]] Seth '''Kasturchand Daga''', [[Order of the Indian Empire|KCIE]] (1855-1917) was a businessman, landlord, philanthropist, and a pioneer who had conceptualised and implemented the [[hub-and-spoke]] model of trade. He was from [[Nagpur]].<ref name=B>{{cite news |last1=Deshpande |first1=Vivek |title=100th death anniversary: Nagpur recalls contributions of Sir Kasturchand Daga |url=https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/mumbai/100th-death-anniversary-nagpur-recalls-contributions-of-sir-kasturchand-daga-4986242/ |publisher=[[Indian Express]] |date=17 December 2017}}</ref> He was made Knight Commander of the [[Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire]] by [[King George V]] at the [[1911 Delhi Durbar Honours]].<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=28559 |date=8 December 1911 |pages=9355–9366 }}</ref>

Kasturchand started his entrepreneurial and banking journey from Nagpur and expanded his banking business from Lahore (now in Pakistan) to [[Yangon]] (then in Burma), with transactions extending up to [[Europe]].<ref name=B/>

He was the founder of several textile mills in the then [[Central Provinces]] including the Model Mills of Nagpur, and Daga mills at [[Hinganghat]] and [[Badnera]] (now in [[Maharashtra]]). His company, Rai Bahadur Bansilal Abirchand (RBBA) Company, which had over 22 ventures in different sectors, was worth several hundred crores in those times.<ref name=B/>

He served as a Khazanchi to the [[Bank of Bengal]] and Chairman of Nagpur Electric Light and Power Co Ltd.<ref name=A>{{Cite IBD1915|wstitle= Daga, Sir Kastur Chand |volume= 5.1 |pages= 110-111 |year=1915|short=1}}</ref> Sir Kasturchand Daga died on 21 January 1917.<ref name=C>{{cite book |author1=Arnold Wright |author-link1=Arnold Wright |title=The Bombay Presidency, the United Provinces, the Punab, Etc: Their History, People, Commerce, and Natural Resources |date=1920 |publisher=Foreign and Colonial Compiling and Publishing Company |pages=537 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LZ9AXZMGPpMC&q=Sir+Kasturchand+Daga+died+on+January+21,+1917.}}</ref>

== Philanthropy ==
[[File:Kasturchandparknagpur.jpg|thumb|The Kasturchand Park in [[Nagpur]] is named after him. He had organized Nagpur's second industrial exhibition in the park by depositing Rs 25,000 on November 12, 1908.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Anparthi |first1=Anjaya |title=Kasturchand Park goes commercial |url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/nagpur/Kasturchand-Park-goes-commercial/articleshow/11087645.cms |work=[[The Times of India]] |date=December 13, 2011}}</ref>]]
Daga was a philanthropist and had constructed works of Public utility such as tanks, wells, schools, hospitals, [[Dharmshala]]s and markets. He established Daga Hospital in [[Nagpur]], which is now under the [[Nagpur Municipal Corporation]].

The land for Kasturchand Park was also donated by him. Lady Amritbai Daga College, a women's college, located in Nagpur, which was named after his wife, Amritbai Daga, was one of his contributions at the time when [[women's education]] was the last priorities in the society.<ref name=B/>

Kasturchand Daga had donated Rs 3.7 lakh, which facilitated the construction of the first railway line in [[Bikaner]].<ref name=B/> He alone advanced a loan of Rs 3.46 lakhs towards the expansion of the railway network in [[Rajasthan]].<ref>{{cite book |author1=D.K. Takne |title=The Marwari Heritage |date=2016 |isbn=9781942322061 |pages=119 |publisher=IntegralDMS |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kXS2DAAAQBAJ&q=Kasturchand+Daga+rail&pg=PA128}}</ref>

== Honours and titles ==
* He received the title of [[Rai Bahadur]] from [[Bikaner State]] in 1880; [[Rai Bahadur]] from [[British Government]] in 1887; [[Dewan Bahadur]] in 1903.<ref name=A/>
* He was honoured with [[Empress of India Medal|K.I.H. Silver medal]] in 1898.<ref name=A/>
* Daga was awarded the [[Companion of the Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire]] in the [[1909 New Year Honours]] and then was made [[Knight Commander of the Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire]] by [[King George V]] at the [[1911 Delhi Durbar Honours]].<ref name=C/>

== Kasturchand Park ==
The ground generally known as KP was part of the land ceded to East India Company by the treaty of 1818. It was under the control of British army (Madras Army) for many years. It had built few building on this ground as arsenal and had stored several tons of explosive gunpowder till late 19th century. In 1880 Nagpur Civil Station municipal committee was formed and the land was handed over to the civil authorities. Kasturchand Daga donated rupees twenty five thousand for construction of an open pavilion during the exhibition in the year 1905.the Pavilion in the center of the Arsenal Ground. This was built with pale sandstone found locally and is a permanent structure destined to be a perpetual memory of the Exhibition of 1908 in days to come. The structure is light and graceful in design,characteristically Indian in its intricate arches and elaborate pillars rising one above the other to the delicate cupolas that crown the whole. It was designed and carried out by W.B Starkey, the Superintending Engineer, the finest carving being done by local skill. A marble plaque over the central arch on the southern side of the Pavilion says that the Pavilion was constructed to commemorate the Industrial Exhibition of 1908 by Diwan Bahadur Kasturchand Daga. The plaque now lies unnoticed under a layer of whitewash.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Sane |first=Hemant |title=THE SITABURDI FORT NAGPUR |url=https://www.academia.edu/38115621}}</ref>

The Bishop Cotton School completed 50 years in 1913 and its week-long celebrations were inaugurated at the ‘Diwan Kasturchand's Pavilion Ground’. It was shortened to "Kasturchand Ground" a name that has stayed with it to date, giving rise to the myth that the land was donated by Diwan Kasturchand Daga.{{citation needed|date=April 2023}}

Kasturchand Daga was knighted in 1911 and he died in 1917. In 1920 his business partner and friend Manekji Dadabhai erected a statue of Sir Daga in the north-east corner of this ground. But the ground has belonged to the government military or civil since 1818 and will always belong to it.{{citation needed|date=April 2023}}

== References ==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==
* [http://www.marwar.com/tribute-to-titans/in-tribute-to-a-forgotten-legend.html In Tribute to a Forgotten Legend] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190813012208/http://www.marwar.com/tribute-to-titans/in-tribute-to-a-forgotten-legend.html |date=13 August 2019 }}

[[Category:Honorary Knights Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire]]
[[Category:1855 births]]
[[Category:1917 deaths]]
[[Category:Indian knights]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian philanthropists]]
[[Category:19th-century Indian businesspeople]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian businesspeople]]
[[Category:Businesspeople from Nagpur]]
[[Category:Businesspeople from British India]]
[[Category:Businesspeople awarded knighthoods]]

Kasturchand Daga - Revision history

Svetlanazrc at 14:03, 4 March 2026