Mohammad Ali Rogay

Abstract

Mohammad Ali Rogay, long-time participant in the Bombay Country Trade with China in the first half of the nineteenth century, and partner in the prominent trading firm of Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy & Co, was also the most prominent Muslim citizen of Bombay during his lifetime. He was also the leader of the Konkani Musalman community which had been settled in Bombay for many centuries. In spite of his prominence in business and political spheres, very little information is available on him, nor has he, or the community he hails from, attracted serious scholarly attention. This essay outlines Rogay’s trading career in China and India, his public career in Bombay, his role as a patron of publishing and printing, his secular and religious charities, and his leadership of the Konkani Musalman community. A wide variety of sources including contemporary newspapers, government archives, private business archives, contemporary Urdu imprints and community histories, have helped in reconstructing Rogay’s life, which has largely remained obscure. This investigation explores the reasons why Rogay (and, by extension, his community) continues to remain on the fringes of the mainstream historical narrative on nineteenth-century Bombay.