Untold story of Bank of Bombay finally gets chronicled through rare documents and photographs

Chief general manager Deepankar Bose at the galleryPicPradeep DhivarIts not often that a commercial bank has looked beyond mundane money matters But a bank that has clocked no less than 200 years is no commonplace bank The history of the State Bank of India is deeply embedded in the history of the countrys freedom struggle the reason why in the year 1975 the bank commissioned renowned economist professor Amiya Kumar Bagchi to document its story That culminated into four volumes of books and eventually the renowned State Bank archive in Kolkata besides heritage galleries in Nagpur Mumbai Pune and Goa However the recently opened heritage gallery in Mumbai at the BKC head office is not like any of its predecessorsAn accountopening statement of RD Tata at the New Bank of Bombay 1899PicPradeep DhivarCalled Down Memory Lane this one is dedicated to the history of the Bank of Bombay one of the most interesting and adventurous forebears of State Bank of India according to Abhik Ray the brains behind the galleryA page from Act III of 1840 for the incorporation of a Bank for BombayPicPradeep DhivarCovering the period from 1840 to 1920 this space is home to some of the rarest displays excavated from the folds of history We see pages from the bank prospectus bank opening notices advertisements pages from old rule books first legal tenders notices of the bank being shut for Parsi New Year and the marriage of Prince of Wales among other occasions shareholders list besides a collection of archival photos from that period Among the special draws is an account opening statement of RD Tata with the New Bank of Bombay dated 1899 The gallery traces the history of the bank from inception to the time it shut during the American Civil War its resurrection as the New Bank of Bombay and its amalgamation as an allIndia bank when it got nationalised as SBI in 1955The emblem for the Bank of BombayPicPradeep DhivarAs a semigovernment bank that was set up in 1840 its main purpose was to stabilise the rates of interest and mobilise credit for the East India Company government in Bombay A remarkable trait of this bank was how it operated in times of distress raising loans during wars and famines It stood its ground in a difficult business environment and successfully financed manufacturing businesses like the cotton mills for instance Also many of its customers were Indians something that was not the case for its sister concerns mdash the Bank of Madras and Bank of Bengal There were Indians on the board of directors who were eminent industrialists They would back Indian employees and borrowers says Ray who has authored two coffeetable books on the history of SBI and is in the process of penning the fifth volume of SBIs history The former SBI deputy general manager history who has worked closely with Bagchi to document the banks history tells us that Bank of Bombay was the first bank to have a pension fund in place and have retirement benefits for its Indian employees as wellA reason why the story of this bank was harder to trace back says Ray is because all documents from the period between 1840 and 1867 were destroyed when the bank had collapsed It was a deliberate ploy on the part of miscreants to hide their misdeeds But thankfully some records and exchanges of communication with the government of Bombay notices and so on were available in the Maharashtra State Archives What you see in the gallery is mostly retrieved from there Ray tells us in a telephonic interview from Kolkata What makes this bank even more intriguing is how its story ran parallel to Indias nationalist movement Many individuals on the board were eminent nationalists Ray says Dinshaw Edulji Wacha one of the directors joined the freedom movement and was one of the founders of the Indian National Congress as was Pherozeshah Mehta a customer of Bank of Bombay When the Imperial Bank of India which later transformed into SBI was formed in 1921 Wacha was made director of the central board and he was the first to demand the Indianisation of the banking serviceA bench from the Bank of Bombay sits right outside the heritage gallery at BKC PicPradeep DhivarThere are two digitised stands in the gallery that allow visitors to read the history in detail besides an audiovisual clip giving an overview of the story in four parts As he takes us through the gallery chief general manager Deepankar Bose tells us We dont know much about the history of the Bank of Bombay The thought was to create a gallery which tells that story Of all the presidency banks this one is the most charismatic This is the only bank that went out of business for seven years 18671874 and people dont know about it And this is again the bank which started the financing of industry This story is very different from that of its counterpartsWhile the gallery is open to public by appointment only most footfalls are from its staff The young staff members especially are not aware that the bank has such a rich history interconnected with the freedom struggle and industrialisation When they see something like this they connect with the organisation better Thats why we create these heritage galleries And history is always full of learning Bose signs off