65 Years of growth in the Bulk/Oil trades

The Great Eastern Shipping Co. Ltd. is the largest private sector shipping company in India and was formed at a time of great political and religious turmoil. In August, 1947, India became an independent republic with 28 states and seven federal territories, but this process was violent and tragic. The two independent nations of India for Hindus and Sikhs, and Pakistan for Muslims, were created with Pandit Nehru (1889-1964) as India’s first Prime Minister. Some 15 million people were forced to move across the new borders to the country of their religion, with one million killed in riots and violence in one border province of Punjab alone between August and October 1947. This turmoil exemplifies the struggles that Mohandas Karamchand (Mahatma) Gandhi (1869-1948) went through in order to return India to a free society. On his way to a prayer meeting in New Delhi on 30th January 1948, he was shot in the chest and died shortly afterwards. His assailant was a Hindu nationalist, who had opposed his powerful fasts and conciliatory policy towards Muslims. The funeral took place in New Delhi, but many Bombay residents came together on Chowpatty beach for ritual mourning.