Independence Day: Gritty rags-to-riches stories of Partition refugees

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Below are stories of a few of such industrious and brave people who came over from Pakistan during the Partition and built successful businesses from scratch.Dharampal Gulati Mahashay Dharampal Gulati, the king of spices who built MDH, India's leading spice brand, was born in Sialkot, Pakistan, in 1923, and moved to India with his family during the Partition. The old man with a turban and a moustache, who has adorned commercials and packs of MDH spices for decades, became an icon of success in modern India.

Gulati took over the family business from his father, Mahashay Chunni Lal Gulati, who had started Mahashian Di Hatti (MDH) in Bazaar Pansaariyaan in Sialkot in 1919. During Partition, he had to leave behind in Sialkot his ancestral home, cattle and, most importantly, his Mahashian Di Hatti.

Gulati's joint family in Sialkot reached Amritsar first and eventually to a ramshackled house with a broken roof in Delhi soon after Partition, struggling to make ends meet. Gulati reached Delhi on September 27 on a train with two more relatives and Rs 1,500 in his pocket to live with a sister who had managed to claim one of the abandoned houses in Karol Bagh for them, Mallika Ahluwalia writes in her book 'Divided by Partition: United by Resilience: 21 Inspirational Stories from 1947.' A class 5 dropout, Gulati tried earning his livelihood as a tonga (horse carriage) driver.

«I used to wait near the railway station and say 'two annas sawari, two annas'. I would observe the other tongawallahs and then shout out neighbourhood names, like 'Karol Bagh, two annas, Karol Bagh, two annas', he told Ahluwalia.

But the money he earned was barely enough to provide for his family. He eventually decided to go back to what he knew best, the