Page 19 - Gujar Mal Modi

3.5 kg) per rupee, its retail price for the poor had been kept deliberately at 5

seers per rupee. At a time one customer was allowed to purchase only one ru-
pee worth of flour from the retail shop. The military officers were annoyed at this

apparent disparity in the retail and wholesale prices of flour. Mr. Modi was sum-
moned to explain the position and he stated that the retail price had been kept

deliberately low in order to help the poor and the under-privileged. The military
authorities were not convinced by the argument and maintained that any talk of

philanthropy in this matter was a hoax and that the mill was actually indulging
in profiteering by selling wheat flour to the army at higher rates. It appears that

there was a heated exchange in which the army officer hurt the religious feelings
of the Modi family. This was intolerable to the proud young man and he remind-

ed the colonel that it was not proper for him to use insulting words for the Modi
family. The officer became furious and threatened to court-martial him. But Mr.

Modi stood his ground. The officer complained to Mr. Modi’s father. The father
was fully convinced about the reasonableness of his son’s stand and would not

accept the allegation against him.

Mr. Modi was, however, asked to explain the incident and he reiterated his firm
stand that he would prefer to quit the princely state rather than tolerate insults.

It was with great difficulty that he was prevailed upon to stay on in Patiala.

In the year 1922 Mr. Modi undertook a tour of important trading and business

centres throughout the country. With his hard work and sincere efforts, he was
able to win over numerous customers for the products of his factory. Whoever

came into contact with him became his customer. Then, Mr. Modi took upon
himself the responsibility of reconstructing and re-establishing the mill after

the serious fire accident which had taken place earlier. The fire did not dampen
his spirits and he was on the lookout for a capable engineer to take up the su-

pervision of the construction work of the mill. He approached Mr. Bhanu Kumar
Mathur, a retired engineer who was then living in Delhi. Mr. Mathur had already

served the mill as an executive for about 15 or 16 years and had retired in 19 l 6
after getting his son appointed in his place. Mr. Multanimal wanted the factory

to be constructed under the able guidance of the engineer. However, the latter
did not want to come over to Patiala because there were feelings of extreme bit-

terness between him and his son. After persuasion, he agreed to come to Patiala

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