Sir Tharia Topan Born the son of a small vegetable seller in Kutch, Tharia Topan left for Zanzibar in 1835 at the age of 12, penniless and illiterate. An accountant working with the prominent Indian firm of Jairam Shivji knew Topan’s father, and secured Topan the job of garden sweeper at six rupees a month. By the time he was 22, his honesty had earned him charge of the credit department and had made him wealthy. Topan had the “distinction of entertaining Livingstone as a personal guest at his Zanzibar home, today named Livingstone House. About his expedition to Ujiji, Livingston writes: ‘I felt as if I was dying on my feet, at almost every step I was in pain, my appetite failed, and a little bit of meat caused violent diarrhoea, whilst the mind, sorely depressed, reacted with the body.’ He reached Ujiji on October 23, 1871, a living skeleton, when Sir Tharia Topan met him and brought him to his residence”. Stanley, who had set out to find Livingstone, did so a few weeks later on November 10, 1871 in Ujiji, greeting him with the now famous, “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?” On his return, Stanley, too, met with difficulties, and again it was Topan who helped, sending his faithful Zanzibari Arab partner Tipu Tip, retired ruler of lands west of Lake Tanganyika. Stanley, who also stayed at Topan’s home, wrote in his book How I found Livingston: “One of the most honest men among all individuals, white or black, red or yellow, is a Mahometan Hindi called Tarya Topan. Among the Europeans at Zanzibar he had become a proverb for honesty and strict business integrity. He is enormously wealthy, owns several ships and dhows, and is a prominent man in the councils of Seyyid Burgash.” In 1870, Sultan Syed Bargash appointed Topan Honorary Prime Minister, and from 1875 to 1880, Chief of Customs: a key position not held by any other Ismaili between 1835 and 1886. “Since customs were the principal source of revenue, Topan became the Sultan’s confidant and right-hand, in daily contact with European officials who sought him on business and consular matters. It was by Topan’s efforts that Sultan Bargash was able to conclude an accord with the British in 1873 to end Zanzibar’s slave trade. His services were recognised by Queen Victoria, who conferred knighthood on him in 1875 in Africa and again in 1890 in India. He was the first Indian to earn such a distinction.” Topan was munificent. In 1881, he donated 200,000 rupees to a school established by the British in Zanzibar, and in 1887 built the Sir Tharia Topan Jubilee Hospital at a cost of £30,000 (US$140,000) to commemorate Queen Victoria’s 50th anniversary. Known as the uncrowned King of Bagamoyo, Tharia Topan died in 1891 in Bombay at the age of 68. Tharia Street in Zanzibar is named after him.
Posted on: Sat, 16 Aug 2014 05:10:37 +0000
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