Seth Edulji Dinshaw

Seth Edulji Dinshaw
Died	8 May 1914 Mediterranean Sea
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service/branch	British Army/Military contractor
Battles/wars	Second Afghan War
Other work	Philanthropy

Seth Edulji (or Eduljee) Dinshaw, CIE (died 8 May 1914) was one of the foremost philanthropists from prepartition Karachi.

A member of the Parsi community, he made his initial fortune during the Second Afghan War (1878–1881) by being a contractor for the British Army. He then took his wealth and invested it in land and factories which reaped him huge rewards. By the late nineteenth century, he owned around half of the city of Karachi, and the local government is believed to have placed an informal ban on his acquiring any more. His enterprises included a factory for pressing cotton and wool for export and an ice factory. He also had substantial landholdings in Mumbai.

He donated large sums of money for various charitable works which benefited both his own community as well as the general public at large. These included:

He was a Director of Land and Shipping Co and a delegate of the Parsi Matrimonial Court. He was also a Trustee of the Karachi Port Trust (KPT), located on Eduljee Dinshaw Road, and a member of Karachi Municipal Corporation (KMC).

For his services to the public, in 1899 he became the first recipient of the C.I.E.award in the city.

On 8 May 1914, while on his way to England, he died at sea, near Port Said, Egypt. In recognition of his contribution, and that of his first son Nadirshaw, to the city of Karachi, statues of them were placed at the intersection of Karachi's main roads in the 1930s. When unveiling the statue of Edulji Dinshaw, Sir Frederick Sykes, then Governor of Bombay, remarked that 'It is peculiarly appropriate that the city of Karachi should choose Mr Edulji Dinshaw as a fitting subject to be honoured by the erection of a statue in one of the most imposing and important sites in the whole town, for he had the vision to recognise fully the possibilities of greatness that the city held and also contributed very largely himself to developing it.' After partition, the statues were removed, and can now be seen in the grounds of the Karachi Parsi Institute.

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