Rai Bahadur Thakur Jaiswal

Late Rai Bahadur Thakur Jaiswal was the prominent businessperson from the royal family of Jamalpur and a strong nationalist from Ranchi in Jharkhand. He was also a gold medalist from Allahabad university.He was known as shellac king of Bihar,Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. He immensely contributed towards the freedom movement donating land, gold and other things. Rai Sahib turned down the title of Raja Saheb by the British government following Gandhiji’s advice in 1938.Rai Bahadur was the industrial advisor to the government before independence.The family has a lineage of 400 years.

Second generation scion Rai Sahib Laxminarayan, whose father Late Rai Bahadur Thakur had migrated to Ranchi from Uttar Pradesh, scaled up the business to great heights. In 1922, he became the first non-British to own a Ford car.

The Ford car owned by the business family once drove the father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi from Ranchi to Ramgarh for the famous Ramgarh Congress in 1940.Besides, it is also the most sought after vehicle for the elite families, especially those known to the Jaiswals, for taking out their marriage processions in this four-seater convertible Ford car.

The Mahatma’s connection with this vintage car imported from London in 1922 by the then Shellac King Late Rai Sahib Lakshmi Narain Jaiswal is the most precious possession of this family into liquor and shellac business. Besides the Mahatma, Indian Presidents Rajendra Prasad and Zakir Hussain too had had honoured the ride.

In 1940,when Gandhiji came to Ranchi, he visited ailing Rai Bahadur and then proceeded to Ramgrah in their Ford. Rai Sahib, also a strong nationalist, grabbed the opportunity and drove the Mahatma in his car.The family is awarded a tamra patra for the active participation in the freedom movement.Rai saheb's son Sheo Narain Jaiswal was chairman Ranchi municipality for a period of 14 years(1962-76). One of the family member Rajaram Shastri was awarded by Padma Vibhusan. Carrying out the legacy the great grandson of rai sahib Aditya Vikram Jaiswal is the state secretary Jharkhand Congress and is the President of social organization Empower Jharkhand which works for the upliftment of the underprivileged people..

Hatia Bypoll

The business family is a traditional Congress supporter. Many of the family ancestors have been leaders of the party. Family campaigned with the vary car in the 2012 hatiya assembly bypoll for a congress candidate, brother of the then union minister of tourism Subodh Kant Sahai. The campaign started from Birsa Chowk and ended in Doranda, urging people to vote for the party," the scion of the Jaiswal family, Aditya Vikram Jaiswal who boasts at least 35 vintage cars.

Ranchi Distillery-

In 18 th century, the British government identified the potential of Madhuca longifolia and went a step forward to help the Jaiswal family in Ranchi to come up with the first distillery of the country named Ranchi distillery in 1875.

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