Fukhr-ut-Tojjar Sir Hajee Ismail Sait

Fukhr-ut-Tojjar Sir Hajee Ismail Sait was a banker, businessman and Muslim community leader who served as a member of the Madras Legislative Council.

Ismail Sait was born in March 1859 to Hajee Saliah Muhammad Sait of Bangalore. In 1870, his family moved to Bangalore when the British established their cantonment. Four years later, when his father passed away, Ismail Sait of about 15 at the time, plunged into the business of buying and selling goods.

Hajee Sir Ismail Sait’s first commercial venture was a shop called the English Warehouse. Ismail inherited his father’s business and by the early 1900s was one of the richest merchants, not just in Bangalore, but in all of south India. What distinguished this businessman from others like him was his contribution to the growth of Bangalore. It was obviously something he had a flair for. His first commercial venture has been an extremely successful shop called the English Warehouse, strategically located on St Mark’s Road, close to where his (mainly English) customers were. The shop sold all manner of goods from milk powder to machinery, everything imported from England. The shop flourished and soon, there were branches of English Warehouse in Chennai and Secunderabad too.
Very quickly, Ismail Sait built on the success of his shop and diversified into an astonishing variety of businesses. At the age of 22, he became a director in the newly-established Carnatic Mills (which later merged with another mill to become the well-known Binny Mills). He owned and operated mines in Kolar Gold Fields and Shimoga. He supplied various provisions to the British army establishment in Bangalore, including horse gram. He traded in timber. He ran a distillery and a carbonic acid manufacturing unit in Calcutta. He also served as director in the Mysore Sandalwood Oil company, the Mysore Sugar company, the Bhadravathi Iron Works, and the Mysore Bank Limited. Sait also constructed a number of mosques and hospitals in Bangalore, Madras and Bombay. He died on 6 December 1934.