Ramnath Goenka

Name	Ramnath Goenka
Birth date	April 03, 1904
Birth place	Darbhanga, Bihar.
Death date	October 05, 1991
Death place	Mumbai, Maharastra
Occupation	media businessman
Spouse	Moongibai Goenka
Website	The Indian Express

Ramnath Goenka ( रामनाथ गोयंका )(April 3, 1904 – October 5, 1991) was a newspaper baron of India. He launched The Indian Express and created the Indian Express Group with various English and regional language publications. In its 2000 millennium issue, India Today magazine, named him amongst "100 people Who Shaped India".

Early life

Ramnath Goenka (April 3, 1904 – October 5, 1991) was born in Darbhanga district of Bihar. He completed his primary education in Varanasi. At the age of 15, he came to Chennai to learn the ropes of the business by venturing into the trade of yarn and jute. He was married to Moongibai.

In 1932, he took over the loss-making Madras edition of The Free Press Journal and drove the delivery van himself to dispatch the papers. He founded the Indian Express in 1936, and in 1941, he was elected President of the National Newspaper Editors’ Conference. Following this, both the Indian Express and Ramnath Goenka openly challenged the British Raj.

In 1948, Daily Tej partnered with Ram Nath Goenka to publish Indian News Chronicle, an English daily, from New Delhi. After the death of Lala Deshbandhu Gupta, Ramnath Goenka converted it as The Indian Express. Upon independence he was nominated as a member to the Constituent Assembly of India.

Ramnath Goenka would always be remembered for his role during the "Emergency" in India and his crusade against Indira Gandhi. R. Ramakrishnan who used to work with him was also hailed by Jayaprakash Narayan for organising meetings against the emergency. His bitter fight against the business tycoon Dhirubhai Ambani is still remembered. His critics believe that his passion for politics was the fire that led the newspapers from Indian Express Group on a blazing trail.

Early Start

He was born in Dildar Nagar Village, April l8, 1904. Ramnath's mother died when he was six months old and he was adopted by his aunt who was widow of Basant Lal Goenka who had died in 1901 leaving a large business and several estates.

After graduating from Kashi Peeth, RNG joined the business of his maternal uncles Babu Prahlad Rai Dalmia and Babu Sagarmal Dalmia, brother of his adoptive mother - in Calcutta. The uncle later sent him to the firm of Sukhdevdoss Ramprasad in Calcutta, the largest Indian Firm dealing in yarn and piece goods. He came to Madras in 1922 as the agent of Sukhdevdoss Ramprasad.

END OF 1925 RNG entered into a business partnership with Murliprasad Mohanprasad of Hyderabad,India. The firm started business as piecegoods merchant in Godown Street, Madras in January 1926. The partnership continued till 1932-1933.

1926: Ramnath Goenka was subsequently nominated a member of the Madras Legislative Council by the then Governor.

RNG joined the Bombay Co. Ltd. as chief salesman, a post he held till the end of 1936. A keen racing enthusiast in his younger days, he gave up the pastime in 1935-36 and took to journalism in earnest.

End of 1934: RNG became a debenture. holder of the Free Press of India (Madras) Ltd., the - then owners of Indian Express.

Subsequently, he bought all the shares of the company for Rs. 2.5 lakh.

Nomination Madras Legislative Council & Description

Legislative.

Fort St. George, December 8, 1926.

No. 94. – In pursuance of rule 3(3) of the Madras Elactoral Rules, His Excellency the Governor is pleased to Nominate the following persons to be Members of the Madras Legislative Council:-

No. 15. M.R. Ry. Ramanath Goenka Avargal, The Bombay Company, Madras

Almanac and Directory of Madras and Southern India

Who’s Who for 1928 (Pg. No. 1298)

RAMNATH GOENKA, M. L. C., Dubash , The Bombay Co. Ltd., s. of Basantlal Goenka, b.1901. Educ. Darbhanga Entered business in 1919, as a piece goods Merchantat Calcutta, came to Madras 1922. Agent for Sukhdeodas Ramprasad .of Calcutta. Importers Exporters and Bankers. Started business on own account in January 1926, Dubash of Bombay Co., since 1926, Add. 413 Mint Street, 3-70, Godown Street

Who’s Who for 1933. (Pg. No. 1535)

RAMNATH GOENKA, Dubash , the Bombay Co. Ltd., s. of Basantlal Goenka, b.1901. Educ. Darbhanga Entered business in 1919, as a piece goods Merchant at Calcutta, came to Madras 1922. Agent for Sukhdeodas Ramprasad . of Calcutta. Importers Exporters and Bankers. Started business on own account in January 1926, Dubash of Bombay Co., since 1926, Add. 8, Chinna Naicker Street, 3-70, Godown Street

Who’s Who for 1936 . (Pg. No. 1432)

RAMNATH GOENKA, Dubash , the Bombay Co. Ltd., s. of Basantlal Goenka, b.1901. Educ. Darbhanga Entered business in 1919, as a piece goods Merchant at Calcutta, came to Madras 1922. Agent for Sukhdeodas Ramprasad . of Calcutta. Importers Exporters and Bankers. Started business on own account in January 1926, Dubash of Bombay Co., since 1926, Add. Chinna Naicker Street, Sowkarpet and 3-70, Godown Street.

Heirs

Goenka had a son B. D. Goenka who was slated to take over the Indian Express. He, however, died as a result of a tragic cardiac arrest. Ramnath got along well with Saroj Goenka, his son's widow. His son B. D. and Saroj had three children, Arati Agarwal, Ritu Goenka and Kavita Singhania.

Ramnath had other children. He had a daughter named Krishna who was married to A. M. Khaithan of the Calcutta Khaithan's; who are the worlds largest tea producers and battery manufacturer's through the ownership of Williamson Magor. . Vivek Khaitan (who eventually was made heir after a change of name to Vivek Goenka (now Viveck Goenka). Another of Ramnath's daughter married in to the Sonthailia family in Chennai. Her son Manoj Kumar Sonthaila runs The New Indian Express Group based in Chennai.

The next generation is Manoj Santholia's son Aditya currently studying in Australia, and Viveck Goenka's son Anant, who is pursuing a master's degree in journalism from the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.

The battle against Dhirubhai Ambani

At one point in time, Ramnath Goenka was a friend of Dhirubhai Ambani. Ramnath Goenka was also considered to be close with Nusli Wadia. On many occasions, Ramnath Goenka tried to intervene between the two warring factions and bring an end to the enmity. At one occasion, Ramnath Goenka is believed to have said "Nusli is an Englishman. He cannot handle Ambani. I am a bania. I know how to finish him"

As the days passed by The Indian Express, a broadsheet daily published by him carried a series of articles against Reliance Industries and Dhirubhai in which they claimed that Dhirubhai was using unfair trade practices to maximise the profits. Ramnath Goenka did not use his staff at the Indian Express to investigate the case but assigned his close confidant, advisor and chartered accountant S. Gurumurthy for this task. Apart from S. Gurumurthy, another journalist Maneck Davar who was not on the rolls of Indian Express started contributing stories.

The end to the tussle came only after Dhirubhai Ambani met with a stroke. While Dhirubhai Ambani was recovering in San Diego, his sons Mukesh Ambani and Anil Ambani managed the affairs. The Indian Express had turned the guns against Reliance and was directly blaming the government for not doing enough to penalise Reliance Industries. The battle between Wadia - Goenka and Ambanis took a new direction and became a national crisis.

Jan Sangh and BJP

Many people believe that Ramnath Goenka was supporting the sister organizations of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. Goenka’s best friends were Nanaji Deshmukh and the Rajmata of Gwalior, Vijayaraje Scindia both known supporters of RSS. His chief advisor was S. Gurumurthy, who has RSS links. His doctor and advisor was J. K. Jain (of Jain TV fame) who is a known Swaymsevak or Volunteer of RSS. His most famous editor was Arun Shourie, who later became a BJP minister. His lawyer was Arun Jaitley, who served V. P. Singh’s government in a legal capacity but found fame as a BJP minister.

Later years and death

Ramnath Goenka continued his fight till his last days. After a prolonged illness, on October 5, 1991 Ramnath Goenka died in Mumbai.

Biography

Warrior of the Fourth Estate, is the official biography of Ramnath Goenka and is authored by BG Verghese. It has been published by Penguin, India. ISBN 0-67-005842-4 "Ramnath Goenka: A life in Black and White" is a coffee table book written on the personal life by his daughter-in-law Ananya Goenka. It has been published independently in 2005.

Media

He was portrayed as the ageing press baron, Manikdas Gupta, by Hindi film actor, Mithun Chakraborty in the 2007 Hindi movie, Guru (2007 film).

Further reading

The Goenka Letters: Behind the scenes in The Indian Express, T. J. S. George. 2006, East West Books, Madras. ISBN 9788188661503.

References

Take Over of Indian News Chronicle

Article in Deccan Herald

Rare Photos

External links

Tribute to RNG by Indian Express

Dhirubhai's fight with RNG

Ramnath Goenka in various moods

Category:1904 births Category:1991 deaths Category:Indian businesspeople Category:Hindu writers Category:People from Bihar Category:Members of Constituent Assembly of India Category:Lok Sabha members Category:Indian newspaper founders