Historians say Harilal, a rebel, was associated with 'Ponzi like' schemes as he started companies with names like Satyagrahi Company to attract money from people and made them shareholders in them.
Mahatma Gandhi would have known how Shrenik Gandhi, father of Ponzi king Abhay Gandhi who did a disappearing act with Rs500 crore investors' money recently, feels today.
For Gandhiji, similar embarrassing situations were created by his eldest son - Harilal Gandhi. A lawyer wrote a letter to Gandhiji informing him about a non-existent company 'All-India Stores Limited' where Harilal was a director. He had taken money from the lawyer's client and persuaded him to become a shareholder.
Historians say Harilal, a rebel, was associated with 'Ponzi like' schemes as he started companies with names like Satyagrahi Company to attract money from people and made them shareholders in them. But repeatedly, the company would not be located at its notified address and people would be duped of their investment, said city-based historian Rizwan Kadri.
The letter, published in 'The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi' was addressed to the editor, 'Young India' and written by a lawyer from Lyallpur. The letter mentions that his Muslim client feared the company was a "bogus affair and he has been done out of his money" as his letters written to the company at its notified address were returned by the post office through Dead Letter Office.
"So, some ground at least exists for my client's suspecting that the company is no more. Is it a fact that Mahatmaji's son was a director in it, and is it a fact that such a company came into being and is still existing, and where?" asked the letter.
Keeping public interest in mind, Gandhiji wrote a letter responding to the lawyer's letter which was published in the newspaper.
"He started the Stores in question without any the least assistance of any kind whatsoever from me. I did not lend my name to them. I never recommended his enterprise to anybody either privately or openly. Those who helped him, did so on the merits of the enterprise. No doubt, his sonship must have helped him," wrote Gandhiji in the published letter.
Making it clear in the letter that Harilal meets him occasionally and he never pries into his affairs, Gandhiji wrote in the letter, "Let the vakil and his client know that my good name is not worth keeping, if it suffers because of the errors of a grown up boy who has no encouragement from me in them… I pity the client who out of respect for me became a share-holder in a concern whose constitution he evidently never cared to study. Let the client's example be a warning against people being guided by big names in their transactions. Men may be good, not their children. Men may be good in some respect, not necessarily therefore, in all. A man who is authority on one matter is not therefore authority on all matters," wrote he.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}