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PATEL, FRAMJEE NASARWANJEE (1804-1894)
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See also:PATEL, FRAMJEE NASARWANJEE (1804-1894) , Parsee See also:merchant and philanthropist, was See also:born in 1804, and had a See also:sound See also:vernacular See also:education, with a smattering of See also:English received in Bombay. At the See also:age of fifteen he entered upon a business career, and its pursuit proved so congenial that by 1827 he had worked his way to a See also:partnership in the See also:firm of See also:Frith, Bomanjee & Co. Banking facilities being then exceedingly scanty, such See also:Parsees as had any See also:capital at command acted as bankers and brokers to the rising English firms. Patel's experience enabled him in a few years to raise the status of his compatriots to the higher level of See also:independent merchants, and he founded in 1844 a business See also:house under the name of See also:Wallace & Co., in which he was himself a partner with the English members of the firm. When he retired in 1858 he had amassed a large competence, and in the following See also:year he established a firm on the same lines under the See also:style of Framjee, Sands & Co., of which the members were some of his sons, together with English partners. It was, however, not so much for his success as a merchant, as for his spirit and liberality as an educationist, reformer and philanthropist, that his name is notable in the See also:annals of western See also:India. He entered on his civic labours in 1837, and in all public movements figured prominently Is an accredited representative of his community. As a See also:pioneer of education, both for boys and girls, his example inspired the younger men of his See also:time, like Dadabhai See also:Naoroji, at one time M.P. for See also:East See also:Finsbury, and Naoroji Fardoonjee and Sorabjee Shapurjee Bengallee. When Mountstuart See also:Elphinstone, during his governorship, conceived the See also:idea of concentrating the See also:literary and educational activity which had arisen from isolated efforts on the See also:part of men who had themselves been brought into contact with Western culture, among his See also:chief collaborators were Framjee Cowasjee Banajee and Framjee Patel. To their initiative was due the See also:establishment of the Elphinstone Institution, which comprised a high school and, after some years, a See also:college, which continue to hold foremost See also:rank among the similar See also:academies since established in western India. But Mr Patel's most remarkable public service was performed in connexion with the Parsee See also:Law Association, of which he was See also:president. Since their See also:exodus from See also:Persia the domestic affairs of the Parsees had been in a very unsettled See also:state. Matrimonial obligations and the rights of See also:succession in cases of See also:intestacy had fallen into hopeless confusion, and the See also:adjudication of disputes in relation thereto was effected by certain elders of the community, who had neither the knowledge and help of fixed principles to See also:guide their judgments, nor any authority to enforce their decisions. The See also:case of Ardesir Cursetjee v. Peeroxebai, which came up on See also:appeal before the privy See also:council in See also:England, brought to See also:light the See also:strange fact that even the supreme See also:court of Bombay had no See also:jurisdiction over matrimonial and ecclesiastical disputes among Parsees. This state of lawlessness was recognized by that community as intolerable, and the agitation which ensued thereupon led to the See also:appointment of a See also:commission, of which the distinguished jurist, See also:Sir See also:Joseph See also:Arnould, was the president and Framjee Patel the chief Parsee member. The Parsee Law Association, under the guidance of Patel and Sorabjee Bengallee, rendered invaluable help to the commission, and their See also:joint efforts resulted in the passing by the See also:government of India of the Parsee See also:Marriage and See also:Divorce See also:Act and the Parsee Intestate Succession Act (r5 and 21 of 1865). These acts See also:form the See also:charter of matrimonial and ecclesiastical status for the Parsees. At the time of his See also:death in 1894, at the ripe age of nearly ninety years, Framjee Patel was the most revered and best beloved of the distinguished natives of India, having during an eventful public See also:life extending over sixty years worked in co-operation with three generations of the most prominent of his compatriots to better the See also:condition of their See also:country. His See also:family surname refers to the See also:title of Patel, that is, " See also:mayor," of Bombay, conferred on its founder for services rendered to the English in 1692. (M. M. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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