Meet the man who pushed for, and partly paid for, Mumbai's Vile Parle station

Gordhandas Goculdas Tejpal. The Vile Parle railway station was completed in 1907, after Gordhandas impressed upon the government the need for it, and offered to shoulder part of the expenses.

One-hundred-and fifty-five years ago, in September 1867, Seth Goculdas Tejpal (1822-67) wrote a will in Gujarati leaving behind Rs 11 lakh in charity. At that time, it was the second-largest amount left in charity in Western India after the grant made by Sir Jamsetjee Jeejebhoy.

In colonial Bombay, where vernacular capitalists of various denominations led the development of trade and industry, the British government knew well the potential of philanthropy. The British encouraged it, and the city’s merchant princes didn’t disappoint.

The story of the Tejpal family is intimately tied with the vicissitudes of the city’s moral and material economy. Mumbai is rightly peppered with the name of Tejpal, signifying how successful families goaded the colonial government into developing infrastructure and investing in public amenities.

GT Hospital, Bombay, in 1887. (Image source: Indian Engineering 1888 via Wikimedia Commons)

The Tejpal family gave the city its earliest hospital, schools, public halls and had a crucial role in the construction of Vile Parle railway station in the first decade of the twentieth century.

Goculdas Tejpal’s father came to Bombay from Kutch as a hawker in the early years of the nineteenth century, and became a rich merchant. Goculdas then invested in cotton and reached stupendous heights during the American civil war (1861-65). Mills in England which were dependent on the crop from America were starved, and turned to Bombay where cotton became as precious as gold.

When the civil war ended, supplies from America resumed, and Bombay's cotton boom crashed. Like many other merchants, Tejpal too took a huge hit. That perhaps reduced a few zeroes from the amount he left for charity.

In his own lifetime, he established the Goculdas Tejpal Anglo-vernacular School in 1858 in Mumbadevi, and the Goculdas Tejpal seminary at Masjid Bunder.

For the indigenous merchants, gifting and charity was also a way of enhancing reputation and credit standing, which fetched honours and recognition from the government. But Tejpal stood on a different footing.

Just like other merchants of the era, he was not an anti-colonialist, but played a crucial role in exposing the exploitation of women by a religious figure revered in the Bhatia and Bania communities.

Karsondas Mulji, a young reformer and journalist, identified Jadunathji Maharaj, a direct descendant of the sixteenth century saint Vallabhacharya, as being “lost in a sea of licentiousness”. The Maharaj filed a case of libel against Mulji in the Supreme Court of Bombay in 1861, which resulted in a trial lasting three months. Much work has been done on this fascinating legal case by academics like David Haberman and Amrita Shodhan.

Historian Christine Dobbin mentions how it was the evidence by Goculdas Tejpal and another merchant Lakshmidas Khimji that helped Mulji win the sensational case. Tejpal and Khimji resisted immense pressure from other influential Bhatia merchants. Mulji worked as headmaster at the Goculdas Tejpal Anglo-vernacular School, which provided him a steady income.

Along with speculating for profit, Tejpal also had the stomach to challenge orthodoxy. Colonial Bombay had a small but fair share of such merchants in almost all the communities who made good use of newly established courts.

It took close to two decades after Tejpal’s death for his wishes to be turned into reality due to a protracted legal battle at the Bombay High Court. That was because there was a difference of opinion between the executors of his will - Khimji, Tejpal’s nephew Dwarkadas Vassanji, and his widow.

The couple did not have children and Tejpal had stipulated that his widow should adopt Vassanji’s son. There was also some friction over the fact that Tejpal’s widow continued to hold the religious gurus in high esteem despite a key role played by her husband in the libel case.

In the meantime the interest generated on the money left in the will itself amounted to a considerable fortune. The Gujarati papers regularly highlighted the need to put Tejpal’s money to good use as he wanted and criticised the executors.

Among Tejpal's legacies are institutes like the Gokuldas Tejpal (GT) Hospital, Gokuldas Tejpal Sanskrit College in Gowalia Tank (where the inaugural meeting of the Indian National Congress took place in December 1885), numerous schools, public halls and the development of Vile Parle, in the suburbs of Mumbai.

Gordhandas Tejpal, the natural son of Vassanji, took over the vast assets of Seth Goculdas Tejpal, as his adopted son, but lacked his business acumen, perhaps spoiled by the riches into which he was born. Vassanji died in 1880 at the young age of 45 in Dariya Mahal, Malabar Hill which he had built for Rs 5 lakh. Dariya Mahal, was nothing short of a museum, and had a rich collection of art and treasures. It was a bungalow that befitted the owner of Jivraj Baloo Spinning and Weaving Company, one of the best run cotton mills in the city.

At the turn of the twentieth century, Gordhandas set his sight on the distant suburb of Vile Parle, buying large plots of land. Much before Gordhandas, prominent Salsette Christians like the Misquitta, Gonsalves, and Fernandes families had settled in Vile Parle. A member of the Misquitta family had secured the construction of the Santa Cruz station, but it was Gordhandas who did the same for Vile Parle.

Gordhandas entered into correspondence with the authorities seeking the construction of a railway station, sensing that it could be built close to his land. In 1907, the Vile Parle railway station was ready after Gordhandas successfully impressed upon the government the need for it, lubricating it with the offer of shouldering part of the expenses.

The railway station served him and his family and friends well by providing a quick connection to his Mor Bungalow, known as such due to a glass studded iron peacock atop the house. Mor bungalow became a landmark and set a rather high standard but led to a spurt in the construction of several villas. From a sleepy hamlet, Vile Parle was now set on the path to become a buzzing place.

Shortly after, it emerged that Gordhandas had racked up a huge debt of Rs 20 lakh, and was declared insolvent. Seth Goculdas Tejpal survived the bust following the end of the American civil war, but perhaps Gordhandas was not as lucky in his partnership with Messrs Glazebrook & Company, which dealt in cotton.

One of his biggest creditors was the Bank of India, which resisted all his attempts to get a discharge from the insolvency. They complained that Gordhandas continued to live in style in a bungalow and drove a motor car while choosing to not pay his debt. The bungalow and other assets, countered Gordhandas, belonged to his wife, Monghibai. The couple had a battery of lawyers which included, among others, M.A. Jinnah, who appeared on their behalf in the Bombay High Court.

Gordhandas may have been declared insolvent as a business necessity, but no one doubted that the family continued to have substantial assets. In 1926, Gordhandas passed away and his son Seth Lakshmidas Tejpal succeeded him. Lakshmidas realised early the potential of the land he inherited and sat tight on the Vile Parle property, although he too made substantial provision for charity in his own lifetime.

Sensing the market well, he built roads and sold land as individual building plots to maximise returns. One such road which he developed – situated close to the Vile Parle station east – is named after his mother Monghibai which survives to this day.

In 1935, Seth Lakshmidas sold the whole portfolio of 50,000 square yards of land in Vile Parle which had over 12 buildings. It is said that when he sold the land, the returns were hundred times over the cost at which his father had bought it just over 30 years ago! Mor Bungalow also changed hands, and was demolished in the late 1950s as the structure was deemed dangerous due to neglect and lack of regular repairs.

It became the site for a municipal market, but old-timers continued to refer it as Mor Bungalow market. It is thus no surprise that large parts of Vile Parle have the stamp of the Tejpal family – Tejpal Road, Monghibai Road, Tejpal Scheme Main Road, Tejpal Scheme Road 1, etc.

While the Parsis understandably are identified as key players in the development of Mumbai as the urbs prima in India, other communities like the Banias, Khojas, Bhatias, Bohras, East Indians, Memons, too, played an important role. The Tejpal family perhaps is one of the rare few who left their mark all over the city.