‘Mahashay Dharampal Gulati, the owner and CEO of the spice masala brand MDH (Mahashian Di Hatti), passed away on Thursday at the age of 98.
http://mdhspices.com/mdh-mahashaya-ji/
Known as the ”The king of spices”, Dharampal Gulati, was undergoing treatment at Mata Chanan Devi Hospital in Delhi for the last three weeks. His condition deteriorated on Wednesday night and he passed away on Thursday morning because of cardiac arrest.
From a humble beginning
Most fondly known as ‘Mahashay’ or ‘Dadaji’, Gulati was born on March 27, 1923 in Pakistan’s Sialkot, where his father Mahashay Chunni Lal Gulati had set up a small shop. Mahashay Dharampal Gulati was a fifth-grade school dropout.
After partition in 1947, his family moved to Delhi in India. The family spent some time at a refugee camp in Amritsar, and then they moved to Delhi in search of work.
When Mahashay Dharampal Gulati left with his brother-in-law in Delhi, he bought a horse-drawn carriage (Tanga) with the money his father gave him. He made an investment of ₹650 out of ₹1,500 given to him. Back then, when he realised that the business wasn’t doing well, he decided to open a small shop and restarted his own family business of selling spices in Karol Bagh.
In 1953, Mahashay Dharampal Gulati rented a shop in Chandni Chowk, named it Mahashiyan Di Hatti (MDH), and started selling spices. From a small shop in Karol Bagh, ‘Mahashay’ Dharampal Gulati built MDH as one of India’s leading spices brand.
He officially established his company in 1959. At that time, he bought a piece of land in Kirti Nagar to set up a manufacturing unit.
He built the entire group to one of India’s leading spices manufacturers expanding to 150 factories and more than 60 products, where three variants (Deggi Mirichi, Chat Masala, and Chana Masala) became famous. MDH also has offices in Dubai and London. As per reports, Gulati became highest-paid CEO of a FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) company in India in 2017. In 2019, the Government of India honoured Gulati with Padma Bhushan, India’s third-highest civilian award. Gulati is also known for his philanthropic work and established a hospital in Janakpuri, New Delhi, and a number of educational institutions.
