Pinto at the Youth For Change event in July 2014 | |
Born | 18 October 1984 (age 34) Mumbai, Maharashtra, India |
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Nationality | Indian |
Alma mater | St. Xavier's College, Mumbai |
Occupation | Actress, model |
Years active | 2005–present |
Denotes upcoming films |
Year | Title | Role | Director | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
2008 | Slumdog Millionaire | Latika | Danny Boyle | |
2010 | You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger | Dia | Woody Allen | |
2010 | Miral | Miral | Julian Schnabel | |
2011 | Rise of the Planet of the Apes | Caroline Aranha | Rupert Wyatt | |
2011 | Trishna | Trishna | Michael Winterbottom | |
2011 | Day of the Falcon[b] | Princess Leyla | Jean-Jacques Annaud | |
2011 | Immortals | Phaedra | Tarsem Singh | |
2013 | Girl Rising | Narrator | Richard E. Robbins | Documentary |
2014 | Desert Dancer | Elaheh | Richard Raymond | |
2015 | Knight of Cups | Helen | Terrence Malick | |
2015 | Unity | Narrator | Shaun Monson | Documentary |
2015 | Blunt Force Trauma | Colt | Ken Sanzel | |
2015 | Black Knight Decoded | Ahna | Jabbar Raisani | Short film |
2016 | Two Bellmen Two | Leila Patel | Daniel Malakai Cabrera | Short film |
2016 | Past Forward | Woman #2 | David O. Russell | Short film |
2017 | Yamasong: March of the Hollows | Geta | Sam Koji Hale | Voiceover Animated film[127][128] |
2018 | Love Sonia | Rashmi | Tabrez Noorani | [129][130] |
2018 | Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle | Messua | Andy Serkis | [131] |
TBA | Needle in a Timestack | John Ridley | Post-production | |
TBA | Love, Wedding, Repeat | Amanda | Dean Craig | Post-production |
TBA | Hillbilly Elegy | Amy Chau | Ron Howard | Filming |
Year | Song | Performer(s) | Album |
---|---|---|---|
2013 | 'Gorilla' | Bruno Mars | Unorthodox Jukebox |
Year | Show | Role | Channel | Note |
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2006 | Full Circle | Host | Zee International Asia Pacific | Talk show[19] |
2015 | The Mindy Project | Herself | Hulu | Guest star[132] |
2015 | India: Nature's Wonderland | Herself | BBC Two | Nature documentary[133] |
2017 | Guerrilla | Jas Mitra | Showtime / Sky Atlantic | Lead role; Miniseries[134] |
2018 | The Path | Vera | Hulu | Recurring role |
Year | Award | Category | Work | Outcome | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2009 | BAFTA Awards | Best Supporting Actress | Slumdog Millionaire | Nominated | [135] |
Black Reel Awards | Best Ensemble | Nominated | [135] | ||
Central Ohio Film Critics Association | Best Ensemble | Nominated | [136] | ||
MTV Movie Awards | Best Breakthrough Performance | Nominated | [135] | ||
MTV Movie Awards | Best Kiss(shared nomination with Dev Patel) | Nominated | [135] | ||
Palm Springs International Film Festival | Breakthrough Performance Award | Won | [26] | ||
Screen Actors Guild Award | Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture | Won | [27] | ||
Teen Choice Awards | Choice Movie Actress: Drama | Nominated | [137] | ||
Teen Choice Awards | Choice Movie Fresh Face Female | Nominated | [137] | ||
Teen Choice Awards | Choice Movie Liplock(Shared with Dev Patel) | Nominated | [137] |
Total population | |
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c. 60 million[1] | |
Regions with significant populations | |
India | 55,492,554[2] |
Pakistan | 1,000,000–3,000,000[3][4] |
USA | 500,000–1,700,000[5][6][7] |
UK | 600,000[8] |
Kenya | 285,000[9] |
Canada | 122,460[10] |
Australia | 52,888[11] |
Oman | 34,900[12] |
Portugal | 30,000[13] |
New Zealand | 26,622[14] |
South Africa | 300,000[citation needed] |
Languages | |
Gujarati | |
Religion | |
Majority: Hinduism Minority:
| |
Related ethnic groups | |
Indo-Aryan peoples |
“ | ..a certain race which eats nothing that has blood, never kills any living things.. and these people are neither moors nor heathens.. if they were baptized, they would all be saved by the virtue of their works, for they never do to others what they would not do unto them. | ” |
There are over half a million Gujarati in America today.
Nevertheless, the half or million so Gujaratis in the United States, referred to as Gujjus, are entrepreneurial by nature..
Temple building is a sign of the growth in numbers and the increased prosperity of the Gujarati immigrants..The two decades between 1950 and 1969 were a heady period of success for the Gujaratis of East Africa.. Michael Lyon observed that the Gujaratis acquired a new role in the colonial economics of East Africa, and ultimately a tragic one. They became a privileged racial estate under British protection. The Indian population in Kenya increased from 43,625 in 1931 to 176,613 in 1962.. More than 80 percent were Gujaratis.
Oman's capital Muscat was the first home for Gujarati traders away from the subcontinent. The Bhatia community from Kutch was the first among all Gujaratis to settle overseas — relocating to Muscat as early as 1507! The Bhatias' settlement in the Gulf is emphasized by Hindu places of worship, seen there since the 16th century. As historian Makrand Mehta asserts, 'Business and culture go together.'
The Hindus in Great Lisbon have similarities with Hindus in the United Kingdom: they are mostly from a Gujarati background and migrated from ex-colonial countries. Yet the colonial system they came from was mostly Portuguese, both in India and in East Africa.. Nevertheless, a realistic estimate is that there are about 30,000 Hindus in Portugal. That includes Hindu-Gujaratis, who migrated in the early 1980s, as well as Hindu migrants from all parts of India and Bangladesh, who migrated in the late 1990s.
The Gujarati in New Zealand : they are mostly from a Gujarati background around 15.3 % in 2014. so there are about 26,622 Gujarati out of 176,000 Indian New Zealander in New Zealand. That includes mostly Hindu-Gujaratis, who migrated from Gujarat state
Anti-British sentiment led to a strong Gujarati participation in the Indian independence movement.
Gujarat has a very strong history of migration. The ancient Gujaratis were known for their trading with other countries. The Mercantile caste of western India, including Gujarat, has participated in overseas trade for many centuries and, as new opportunities arose in different parts of the British Empire, they were among the first to emigrate.. The Gujarati Diaspora community is well known for their legendary entrepreneurship.
Modern-day Mumbai is the capital of the state of Maharashtra, but until the creation of this state in 1960 the city has always been as closely linked to Gujarati culture as it has been to Marathi culture. During most of the colonial period, Gujaratis held the preponderance of economic and political power.
In the early 1660s, Surat merchants had 50 ships trading overseas, and the wealthiest of these, Virji Vora had an estate valued at perhaps 8 million rupees..
Of the Asian trading communities the most successful were the Gujaratis, as witnessed not only by Pires and Barbosa but by a variety of other sources. All confirm that merchants from the Gujarati community routinely held the most senior post open to an expatriate trader, that of shah-bandar (controller of maritime trade).
Mulla Abdul Ghafur, one of the richest merchants in Surat, his son, Mulla Abdul Hai, was awarded the title of 'umdat-tud-tujjar' (lit. the most eminent merchant) by the imperial court. Shantidas Shahu, a powerful merchant of Surat, was gifted an elephant and robe by the emperor, both things being emblems of imperial sovereignty, that 'symbolized the incorporation of the recipient into his [King's] person as his subordinate, to act in future as an extension of himself.
The Gujarat region situated in the western part of India is known for its business activities since ancient times. The region has been agriculturally fertile and it also contains a long sea-coast enabling the merchants to undertake overseas trade. Thevenot held the Gujarati merchants in high esteem. Commending them for their skills in the currency business he states that he saw some 15000 banians in Ispahan, the capital of Persia operating exclusively as money-lenders and sharafs. He compared them with the Jews of Turkey and pointed out that they had their own residential settlements at Basra and Ormuz where they had constructed their temples.
However, Gujaratis have been migrating as part of wide-ranging trade diasporas for centuries, long before capitalist development became concentrated in Europe and the United States.
Most historians, even those who have sought to move away from the narratives furnished by the framework of colonial knowledge, are unable to begin their narrative of the Indian diaspora before the nineteenth century, but the Gujaratis had justly established a diasporic presence in the early part of the second millennium. So renowned had the Gujaratis become for their entrepreneurial spirit, commercial networks, and business acumen that a bill of credit issued by a Gujarati merchant would be honored as far as 5,000 miles away merely on the strength of the community's business reputation. They traversed the vast spaces of the Indian Ocean world with confidence, and a Gujarati pilot guided Vasco da Gama's ship to India.. Under Portuguese rule the Indian Ocean trading system went into precipitous decline, and not until the nineteenth century did the Gujarati diaspora find a new lease of life. Gujarati traders migrated under the British dispensation in large numbers to Kenya, Tanganyika, South Africa, and Fiji, among other places, and Mohandas Gandhi, himself a Gujarati, has recorded that the early political proceedings of the Indian community in South Africa were conducted in the Gujarati language. In East Africa their presence was so prominent that banknotes in Kenya, before the country acquired independence, had inscriptions in Gujarati. Khojas, or Gujarati Ismailis, flourished and even occupied positions as teachers and educators in Muslim countries around the world.
Among Gujaratis, emigration from India has a long history that has also affected Pushtimargiyas. As a seacoast mercantile population, the migration patterns of Gujaratis are ancient and may extend back over two millennia.
In the Indian case, though organizational arrangements encourage U.S. and sending-country involvements, and the community displays high levels of economic and political integration, the goals of participation in home-country groups, the requirements of membership, and the insular social milieu in which participation occurs, reinforces homeland ties. Gujaratis may become the most transnational of groups because they assimilate selectively into the U.S. and maintain strong sending-country attachments
A historically mercantile culture, widespread influence of Jainism, diluted casteism and an intrinsic irreverence makes society and polity in Gujarat different from other Indian states. Centre-right in their economic leaning, people here naturally gravitate towards leaner governments with high standards of governance.. Absence of local rulers’ courts meant that trade-mercantile guilds ran affairs and administration. The kind of socio-cultural influence that pervaded the feudal kingdoms of Rajasthan etc was absent in Gujarat. The trade guilds were akin to the influential mercantile guilds of Belgium and the Netherlands, which contributed to making the Dutch world leaders in finance. In Gujarat, this cascaded into a strong entrepreneurial culture. As the English philosopher Bertrand Russell puts it, governments which consist of mercantilists tend to be more prudent in running the administration.
Mahajan means different things in different parts of India; it can refer to an individual banker, a money-lender, a merchant, or an unspecified 'great man'. In Gujarat it usually meant a body representing a group of people engaged in the same commercial occupation, a governing council with an elected or occasionally hereditary headman..
Whereas one religion, Protestantism, has often been associated with the rise of Anglo-Saxon capitalism, Gujarati capitalism was much more a fusion of influences. Ethnic and religious diversity became a source of strength, multiplying the trading networks that each community could exploit. Pragmatism and flexibility over identity, and a willingness to accommodate, perhaps inherited from the mahajans, are strong Gujarati traits, argues Edward Simpson of the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London. Gujaratis have been adept at remaining proudly Gujarati while becoming patriotically British, Ugandan or Fijian—an asset in a globalised economy.
The merchants were organized into mahajans or guilds with hereditary seths. A mahajan could include merchants of different religions and there was no strict segregation of religious, social, and occupational functions.
For Banias and Muslims there was a clear division of commercial activities based on religious persuasions and canonical injunctions. For example, Muslim merchants did not deal in printed textiles with motifs of living creatures on it, while these were procured by the Bania and Jain brokers. On the other hand Bania and Jain merchants would not deal in the trade of animals while Muslims did not have any problems with such trade. Similarly, Muslim merchants dominated the shipping trade and many were big ship-owners. The nakhudas and the lascars were also primarily from the Muslim community. On the other hand, some of the Banias and the Jains were prominent merchants and they organized an extensive trade from Gujarat to other parts of Asia. Thus, two forms of trade which formed the shipping and commerce were controlled by these two major communities of Gujarati merchants. For both these communities their relationship necessitated mutual understanding and interdependence in commercial matters so that they could play a complementary role in advancing their trading interests
He found that Gujaratis are highly family-oriented valuing family network and highly familial. They are also spiritualistic, religious and relationship oriented, attaching importance to co-operation. They are accepted to be materialistic. Panda, on the basis of empirical evidence, has named the society as 'collectivist familial (clannish) society'. Further, Gujarati society is found to have a high social capital. The dominant cultural characteristics identified from this study, which are essentially 'familial', 'co-operative' and 'non-hierarchical' (democratic) are consistent with Joshi's findings.
Gujaratis continuously redefine and contest caste and hiearchical values in a competitive pluralistic social environment. In post-colonial Gujarat, the merchant culture and its values of purity and economic wealth have prevailed over plural notions of hierarchy (Tambs-Lyche 1982)
Hindu Vaniya networks from Kathiawar, in particular, operated prominently in the region, and directed their trade primarily to Yemen, and Hadramawt. They were also active in the early eighteenth century in the southern Red Sea, where Mocha and other ports such as Aden provided them with their principal markets
As an important port-town in the Gulf of Oman, Muscat attracted foreign tradesman and settlers, such as the Persians, the Balochs and Gujaratis.
Other Indian groups with a long-standing presence in Bahrain include the Gujarati businessmen whose enterprises historically centered on the trade of gold; the Bohra community, an Indian Muslim sect with a belief system particularly configured around business..
Some centuries later, the Gujarati merchants established permanent trading posts in Zanzibar, consolidating their influence in the Indian Ocean.. Gujarati Muslims, and their Omani partners, engaged in a network of mercantile activities among Oman, Zanzibar and Bombay. Thanks to those mercantile Gujarati, India remained by far the principal trading partner of Zanzibar.
In the Persian Gulf, Hurmuz (Hormuz), was the most important entrepot for the international exchange for goods which were either bartered or purchased with money. The rise of Hurmuz in the thirteenth century followed the decline of the neighbouring entrepot of Qays, where there was a community of Gujarati Bohra merchants
Gujarat's proximity to the Arabian Sea has been responsible for the ceaseless mercantile and maritime activities of its people. Through the ports of Gujarat, some of which date back to the dawn of history, trade and commerce flourished, and colonizers left for distant lands.
A lot of the spread worldwide took place after a pit-stop in East Africa, right across the sea from Gujarat. When Idi Amin turfed out some 100,000 Indians (mostly Gujaratis) from Uganda in 1972, most of them descended on Britain before peeling off elsewhere.
No wonder bank hoardings flashing interest rates for NRI deposits (up to 10%) is a common sight in these villages. 'Some villages in Kutch like Madhapar and Baladia have very high NRI deposits. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest in the country,' said K C Chippa, former convener of the State Level Banker's Committee (SLBC) Gujarat. Between them, Madhapar, Baladia and Kera have 30 bank branches and 24 ATMs.
Gujaratis form 33% of the Indian diaspora and Gujarat is among the top five states in the country in terms of NRI deposits. RBI data shows there was a little over $115 billion (about Rs 7 lakh crore) in NRI accounts in India in 2014-15, with Gujarat accounting for 7.78% of the kitty.
Gujaratis, mainly Patels, now own 21,000 of the 53,000 hotels and motels in the US. It makes for a staggering 42% of the US hospitality market, with a combined worth of $40 billion.
NRI Gujarati Sonal Shah, an eminent economist who heads Google's philanthropic arm, has been appointed an advisory board member by US President-elect Barack Obama to assist his team in smooth transition of power.
AT was lucky to meet the Ahmedabad-born, 50-year-old business honcho in person.
Next comes Romesh T. Wadhwani (No. 250), Founder and Chairman, Symphony Technology Group, with a net worth of $1.9 billion. Landing in the US with only a few dollars in his pocket, he developed business software firm Aspect Development. Today his portfolio includes more than 10 different enterprise software companies.
Romesh Wadhwani is the chairman and CEO of Symphony Technology Group, which brings in $2.5 billion in annual revenues. In January 2017 the firm sold MSC Software to Swedish company Hexagon for $834 million. After graduating from the Indian Institute of Technology, he went to Carnegie Mellon and received a Ph.D. in 1972 in electrical engineering.
Born in Houston, Bhavsar is 100 percent Gujarati; his father hails from Vadadora (Baroda), a city in the small Indian state of Gujarat, near Mumbai. His mother was born in Kampala, Uganda, but was educated in Gujurat. Most of Bhavsar's relatives are Gujarati.
I come from a pretty traditional Gujarati family and that made getting into the music business pretty tricky. My parents like most Indian parents, wanted me to go to Uni and be a Doctor or Lawyer. That meant I was on my own for the most part as far as figuring out how to 'make it'. It also gave me something to prove which made me work extra hard.
'We are close to our extended families in Ahmedabad and Mumbai and grew up with Gujarati culture as a predominant influence in our lives.. The Gujarati community has done it all in the US — from doctors to entrepreneurs, from retail to the hospitality industry.
DeWulf, a Gujarati Muslim by origin, has carved out a successful career for herself in Hollywood and her repertoire includes Hollywood films like `West Bank Story` and `Ghosts of Girlfriends Past` besides TV shows `Maneater`, `90210` and `Girlfriends`.
Britain places high value on the power of commerce. After all, its political and military dominance when Britannia ruled the waves was founded on its trading power. The Gujaratis know this better than many others, which explains their prosperity and success in the UK.
British Gujaratis were also more successful than other minority communities in Britain because they had already tasted success in Africa. The book also says that Gujarati Hindus have become notably successful public citizens of contemporary, capitalistic Britain; on the other hand, they maintain close family links with India. 'British Gujaratis have been successful in a great variety of fields. Many younger Gujaratis took to professions rather than stay behind the counter of their parents' corner shops, or they entered public life, while those who went into business have not remained in some narrow commercial niche,' says the book.
'What most people don't get is that those who took the Arab dhows in the 17th and 18th century to leave their villages and set up life in an alien land were already an entrepreneurial and driven minority, in search of a better life. They communicated that hunger to their children,' says Raxa Mehta, director at Nomura, based in Tokyo and first generation child of Kenyan Indian parents. So it doesn't surprise the Gujaratis that they did well in Britain – it only surprises the Brits and Indians. The Gujaratis are a trader community. As Manubhai says, they always left the fighting to the others. If there's one diaspora community that East African Asians model themselves on, it's the Jews. Except of course, the Jews get more publicity than they do.
According to him 'It was a very warm discussion. PM Modi knows Canada well because we have been such active participants in Vibrant Gujarat for over 18 years now. He also knows very well how strong the Gujarati diaspora is in Canada. It may be up to one quarter of all the Indo-Canadians in this country, and so their success has been part of Gujarat's success.' And 'the prime minister (of India) recognizes that,' Alexander stated emphatically.
Verjee also has produced successful radio campaigns spreading awareness of HIV/AIDS, road safety and violence against women. Her community efforts include work with Street Children and with Operation Smile. Verjee received her undergraduate degree in English from McGill University in Montreal and studied at York University in Canada. She speaks Gujarati, Kiswahili and conversational French.
Jaffer, who is an Ismaili Muslim of Gujarati origin, became Canada’s youngest non-white MP at the age of 25 in 1997. He served four terms till his loss in the 2008 parliamentary elections.
But there was more. In two words, he was challenging and electric. And his own background is so varied as to make him unique. He’s an east Indian who lived in Tanzania prior to coming to Canada. He’s slightly over 40 years of age, a Muslim, has a degree from Harvard, and just happened to best three solid status quo challengers to win Calgary’s top job. Seated together at the front of that assembly room, I realized it was the very mystique about him that caused people to look at things in a new fashion.
Sachedina speaks French, Gujarati, and Kutchi. He enjoys travelling, music, and sampling food from around the world
During British ascendancy, the early Gujarati-speaking traders were predominantly Muslims—Khoja, Bhora, and Ithna Asheri. They were quickly followed by Patel, Lohana, Bhatia and Oshawal. 'Community was a major factor. It both energized Indian identity and simultaneously prevented Indians from coming together as a political whole except in times of dire crisis,' Misha says.
Baloobhai Patel, a director of Pan Africa Insurance, is invariably listed as one of the largest individual shareholders of more than 10 companies on the Nairobi bourse. The 75-year-old has major interests in Pan Africa Insurance, Barclays, Bamburi, DTB, Mumias Sugar, and Safaricom currently valued at Sh2.4 billion.
Historian Makrand Mehta credits Gujaratis' contribution for the success of this project. He describes how A M Jeevanji, a Dawoodi Bohra from Kutch, got labour contract for the project.
Even as the India-Africa Forum Summit 2015 kicked off celebrating Indo-Africa ties, the Kutchi Leuva Patel Samaj settled in Kenya is building a super-speciality charitable hospital at the cost of Rs 100 crore in Nairobi to gift a state-of-art healthcare facility to locals..Lakshman Raghwani, a Nairobi-based contractor and community leader, said the community is running a school for 22 years in Nairobi that has over 3,000 Indian and Kenyan students. 'The hospital is an extension of our engagement with the local community.Two other major hospitals on national level - MP Shah Hospital in Nairobi and Agha Khan Hospital in Mombasa - also have Gujarati connection,' he said.
He has earned the sobriquet 'Guru' amongst his peers in Kenya. With a net worth of $650 million, Gujarati steel tycoon Narendra Raval (53) of Devki Group is one of the wealthiest businessmen of Kenya today. Narendra Raval, through his pragmatic business ideologies and philanthropy, aims to transform the once-hostile perception of Africans about Indian businessmen. His company employs 98% staff from local Kenyan and African populace and also runs many orphanages and schools for the underprivileged.
In 1997, Ugandan President Museveni invited the displaced Asians to return home. And while some returned to sort out their affairs, very few went back for good.
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(help)Through the efforts of the Aga Khan, other countries agreed to take in the refugees, and they were scattered over the world. Britain took in 20,000, the U.S. took 50,000, and 75,000 came to Canada.. Ladha said Canada's role in taking in the refugees has earned the praise of the Aga Khan for its treatment of refugees and its multiculturalism. 'The Aga Khan is a great admirer of Canada's multicultural policies,' said Ladha. As a result, he's putting $4 million toward a global centre for pluralism in Ottawa, with the Canadian government providing $3 million.
The Gujaratis comprised a large number of the traders drawn from the Western Indian port province of Gujarat (including Kutch) who had had long historical trading links with Zanzibar. Their presence meant that from very early on Zanzibar became demographically colonised by a religiously and ethnically diverse Gujarati speaking population of Ismaili Khojas, Bhoras, Suni Memons, Hindu Vaniyas and the Parsis. Frustratingly for historians this group of immigrants left few records, but it is widely agreed that they were the ancestors of the communities of Indian traders that the British encountered when they arrived in Zanzibar and the East Coast of Africa at the end of the nineteenth century.
Gujaratis of Durban, who came to South Africa mainly from Surat and Saurashtra, have gone a step further and are keeping their unique Gujarati identity alive as well. Most of them arrived as traders soon after the first Indian labourers were brought in to work on sugarcane fields in the 1860s and have carved out a unique niche for themselves.
Mobility remains a feature of Gujaratis. While apartheid may have sought to keep people in a mould, Gujaratis kept resisting this through their caste, class, and national mobility.CS1 maint: Extra text: authors list (link)
His parents are South African-born, but his grandparents were indentured workers from Surat -- and the family still occasionally speaks Gujarati from that western Indian region.
Muscat, the capital city of present day Oman, has had a long history as an Indian Ocean port at the mouth of the Persian Gulf. International trade brought about a mix of various ethnic and religious groups including, besides Arabs, Africans, Baluchis, Mekranis, Sindis, Gujaratis, Persians, and many others. At the turn of the twentieth century fourteen languages could be heard spoken in the city.
Hindus had settled in Oman by the sixteenth century, and from at least the early nineteenth century Omani commerce and trade has been conducted by Hindu Banyans of Bhatia caste deriving from Kutch in Gujarat.
One of these families is another Banyan one, known today as Khimji, whose ancestor came to Oman around 1870 from Gujarat. The family business grew during the Second World War, when it became the Sultan's most important contractor: the Khimji group was the exclusive supplier of the royal palace, and was granted the monopoly and distribution of food products in the Dhofar region.
'We see achievements as milestones in the quest for excellence. We just want to be the best,' says the 77-year-old tycoon, Kanaksi Khimji. Not sales and volumes, Khimji believes that the most important measure of success for his family's business is how far it has helped advance the national development plans laid out by Oman's Sultan Qaboos bin Said. In fact, Khimji with his Indian roots was one of the first to embrace Omanisation, a directive to train and empower Omani professionals. Such a rare honour makes Khimji the most distinguished Indian in this Middle Eastern country.
Gujarati merchants enjoyed a special place in the political economy of an emerging Omani Empire in the Western Indian Ocean, while as British-protected subjects they became the advance guard of British imperial presence in both the Gulf and eastern Africa north of the Portuguese possessions. Already by this time Omani customs collection, which was farmed out on five-year contracts to the highest bidder, was in the hands of a Kachchhi Hindu trader named Mowjee Bhimani whose family maintained control of the Masqat farm into the 1840s.
The Western trade had, for example, led to settlement of merchants from the Gulf of Kutch and from Jamnagar in Zanzibar. In view of local hostility to intermingling, the merchants brought in wives, and a community emerged by 1860s. Its five to six thousand Hindus and Muslims fragmented, however, along ethnoreligious and occupational lines: Baluchi as soldiers of the Omani sultan, Memons from Sind in shipping and fishing, Parsi merchants, Hindu trading castes - Baniyas, Bhatias, Lohanas, and Shia Muslims, as well as Daudi Bohoras, Ismaili Khojas, Isthnasteris, and Goan Catholics. Ethnoreligious-professional traditions framed agency: Hindus usually returned when they had accumulated savings and wealth, whereas Muslims stayed and formed families.. In the frame of dependencies between colonizer and colonies, the Gujarati enclave, protected by the Omani sultanate, did in the 1870s, become a conduit for British influence and, over time for British ascendancy. Distinct vertical links of each of the South Asian ethnoreligious groups to the British in Mumbai hindered horizontal Indian-cultured homogenization in the community. Mumbai's commercial expansion resulted in increased Gujarati in-migration, and Gujarati became the community's lingua franca. The privileged and thus distinct status granted by the Omani sultanate prevented indigenization.
But attitudes are changing, according to Mr. Dauwa. 'More people, especially businessmen from China and Japan, are visiting Gujarat and many of them want non-vegetarian food,' he said. 'And also, Gujaratis are becoming wealthier, and when they live abroad they pick up nonvegetarian eating habits.'
He read many Shwetambar Scriptures and preached in so impressed way that people called him ‘KOHINOOR OF KATHIAWAD’
People think from my surname Varma that I am Punjabi. But I belong to Kutch so I speak Gujarati and Kutchi. Sanju and I got along well. We spoke in Gujarati on the sets and we ate the same kind of food.
My father Kakabhai Haribhai Shroff was an astrologer. My father was a Gujarati and my mom Turkish. My mom came from Kazakhstan, where there was a coup and she, along with six sisters and my nani, came down all the way down to Ladakh where they slept on a chatai on ice, down to Delhi and then Mumbai where she met my dad and they got married. My dad was from a wealthy pearl trader's family
Parveen Babi was born as Parveen Wali Mohammad Khan Babi to Gujarati Muslim family on April 4, 1949 in the Junagadh district
I was born into riches: Ours was a Kutchi business family. My father, Jafferseth, owned 10 buildings and also ran a glassware business. My mother, Kulsumbai Padamsee, ran a furniture business. Anything I wanted was there for the asking. We were eight children in all but I, being born after three daughters, was pampered most. Among Gujarati families, it was only the Padamsees and the royal house of Rajpipla. At school, I learnt to speak in English. Later, our parents learnt the language from us. All that I am today is because of what I learnt at school. Miss Murphy, who ran the school, was an inspirational figure for me.
Looking dapper in the cool denims and hooded jacket, actor Darshan Pandya managed to turn quite a few heads as he struck poses at the River Front during his recent trip to Ahmedabad. The actor, who came into the limelight for his impressive performance in his debut TV show 'Aapki Antara' has been in the news for his recent endeavour in 'Kya Huaa Tera Vaada' where he played Vineet until recently. In town for a personal visit, Darshan says, 'I have come here for few days as my parents and sister live here. I watched a film and enjoyed some lovely food in various restaurants in the city.'
Gujarati actor Vatsal Sheth is back on the small screen with a bang!
ESHA KANSARA: Being a Gujarati, Navratri is a festival that's very close to my heart. I simply love the vibrancy this festival brings with it.
Your family is Gujarati, you were born and brought up in Bombay, and you have worked in Hindi, Kannada and Tamil cinema, so what languages do you speak? Well I speak Kannada. I speak Gujarati, Hindi of course, English of course, and a bit of Marathi and Telugu.
Chirpy, Dhrasti Dhami exudes great energy not just on the small screen, but insists she is the same in real life too. Dhrasti has a strong Gujarat connect and is proud of her roots. 'I am a very proud Gujarati. I have lots of relatives in Surat, but it's been quite some time since I have been there. I came to Ahmedabad as a child, but haven't visited the city for some time,' she says.
Hometown: Kutch. As the nagging wife Bobby in Neeli Chhatri Wale, Disha Savla has made quite an impression, and shares screen space with Yashpal Sharma. The actress who hails from Kutch has been part of a number of plays in Mumbai and has also done a Gujarati show on TV. Making her debut on Hindi TV, she says, 'The Gujarati show has prepared me for taking this next step. It is a very different concept so I hope this show clicks with the audience.'
Karan Suchak Hometown: Ahmedabad. After playing character roles in Ek Hazaaron Mein Meri Behna Hai, Savitri and Pavitra Rishta, Karan shot to fame as Dhrishtadyumna in Mahabharat. Now playing Raja Vikramaditya in Singhasan Battisi, Karan says, 'I was born in Ahmedabad and I am a Gujarati. It's only been a few months for me in this industry and it has been a busy journey, I hope it remains that way.'
Actress-danseuse Isha Sharvani who was in Vadodara to perform at a mega art and culture festival, says, 'My mother is a Gujarati and I have very fond memories of Gujarat.
Shenaz Treasurywala is a famed Indian model, actress, VJ and a Travel writer. Born on 29th June, 1981 in Mumbai, Shenaz Treasurywala belongs to a middle class Gujarati speaking Parsi family.
Darshan Rawal has been quite a sensation with his signature style singing and an adorable personality which has won him many fans.
I belong to Jamnagar but my mother has many friends in Ahmedabad. I miss eating ice-candies and listening to Gujarati folk music during Navratri. I want to travel to the interiors of Gujarat and some places in Kutch, and interact with the local musicians who compose on those rare musical instruments. What attracts me is the strong folk music heritage that Gujarat has kept alive after so many years.
Sunil Gavaskar had the audience in splits when he said how he learnt Gujarati. 'We had two Gujaratis, Ashok Mankad and Karsan Ghavri, in Mumbai team and others were Maharashtrians. Mankad and Ghavri used to murder Marathi so we said that we will learn Gujarati. 'Mane pan thodu Gujarati aavde che',' said Gavaskar to an amused audience.
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