Daniel Hamilton (businessman)

Daniel Mackinnon Hamilton
Born 6 December 1860
Arran, Scotland
Died 6 December 1939
Scotland
Occupation Businessman, landlord
Spouse(s) Lady Margarete Elizabeth Hamilton

Sir Daniel Mackinnon Hamilton (6 December 1860 – 6 December 1939) was a Scottish businessman who made Bengal his second home. He established a zamindari in Gosaba, where he experimented with programmes of rural and social upliftment. He was a visionary and builder of rural reconstruction programmes at a time when the Indian national movement was gaining momentum, and gave importance to rural upliftment and self-help.

Early life

Hamilton was brought up in a business family on the Isle of Arran, off the west coast of Scotland. He was sent out to Bombay in 1880 to look after the branch of the mercantile firm Mackinnon Mackenzie.

He was married to Margaret Elizabeth Hamilton (later Lady).

Career

He became the chief of Mackinnon Mackenzie in Calcutta in the early twentieth century. In 1903 he bought land of "... about 9000 acres in Gosaba and had it reclaimed by felling the woods and raising embankment on the riverside".[1] His involvement with Gosaba was motivated by his desire to improve the living conditions of the poverty stricken people of British India. He introduced the cooperative system in Gosaba, and in all of Sunderbans, and thus educated the people to share responsibility. His championing of the cooperative society in the Sunderbans ran parallel with the growth of the cooperative movement in India. He also established the cooperative credit society with 15 members in Gosaba. He provided an initial capital of Rs. 500 for the society, forming "...a nucleus of a group of rural credit societies...".[2] In 1918 he started a Consumers' Cooperative Society. In 1919 he set up a central model farm to experiment with paddy, vegetables and fruits. A Cooperative Paddy Sales Society was established in 1923. In 1924 he established the Gosaba Central Cooperative Bank, and in 1927 he established the Jamini Rice Mill. In 1934 he started the Rural Reconstruction Institute, and two years later he began the issue of one rupee notes in Gosaba.

He was a contemporary and close associate of the Nobel Laureate poet, Rabindranath Tagore, with whom he exchanged several letters on the need for village reconstruction and cooperative societies.[3] He was also considered to be close to Mahatma Gandhi.

Death

Hamilton died on his 79th birthday.

References

  1. ↑ Alapan Bandopadhyaya and Anup Matilal, eds., The Philosopher's Stone: Speeches and Writings of Sir Daniel Hamilton (Calcutta, 2003), p.2
  2. ↑ Alapan Bandopadhyaya and Anup Matilal, eds., The Philosopher's Stone: Speeches and Writings of Sir Daniel Hamilton (Calcutta, 2003), p. 12
  3. ↑ "A house in the Sundarbans « Amitav Ghosh". amitavghosh.com. Retrieved 2016-07-25.

External links

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