Most of us are aware of the name of the business magnate Syed Babar Ali and his family firm of Wazir Ali Industries which owns Packages Limited and has many other large business interests in Pakistan. If you are interested to know how the business was established 130 years ago and its links with the British India Army, then read on. In 2010, I received a call from an old friend, Syed Shahid Ali, who I first met back in the 1960s, at the small Batakundi Rest House in the upper reaches of the Kaghan Valley.
Shahid is the son of Syed Wajid Ali and the nephew of Syed Babar Ali, the famous industrialist and philanthropist who also established the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS). Shahid sent me a unique unpublished book with the title Syed A. & M. Wazir Ali. General Merchants, Pioneers in the Canteen Services to His Majesty’s British Forces. Syed Wazir Ali was his great-grandfather and established the family business which ultimately transformed into one of the ten largest business houses in Pakistan. The book contains over 230 pages of testimonials from British officers for the excellent services provided by Wazir Ali and the firm that he established. It is a story of hard work and vision and provides a very interesting insight into one of the lesser-known aspects of the British Army in India – its canteen services and contractors.
When the column arrived in Landi Kotal, Wazir Ali established his Coffee Shop in the fortified ‘Serai’. “It has been great advantage to this force to have so respectable and enterprising a firm in camp from which to draw stores of every description.
(Sd.) Neville Chamberlin, Colonel on the Staff, Commanding Khyber Rifles.” Wazir Ali again achieved prominence when he sent a large quantity of stores as a present for the British troops fighting in South Africa during the Second Boer War, for which he was thanked by none less than the United Kingdom’s Secretary of State for War.
Wazir Ali passed away in 1902. “All were very grieved to hear of his death which occurred very unexpectedly when on a visit to Lahore. (Sd.) EDETWINTLE. Major, 15th Bengal Lancers.” Wazir Ali’s two sons Syed Maratib Ali and Syed Ahsan Ali continued the business with the same standard of service and wares for which their father was praised. “Since his death some two years ago his sons have evidently determined to follow in his footsteps, and maintain the high character of the firm. (Sd.) K. P. BURN, Major Commanding 38 Dogras.” It was around this time the system of canteens for British troops in India was regulated by establishing an Army Canteen Board which outsourced the canteen services to contractors. The canteens were renamed ‘Institutes’ and run as clubs for the British soldiers with a bar and grocery shop.
The sons had changed the title of the firm to Messrs. Syed A. & M. Wazir Ali and during the next ten years, extended the business to many other cantonments including Nowshera, the Murree Hills, Rawalpindi, Lahore, Multan, Ambala, Jullundur, Delhi, Ranikhet and even as far as Bareilly. It was present at the Delhi maneuvers and the camp of the great Delhi Darbar held in 1903 to celebrate the succession of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra as Emperor and Empress of India. While on the march from Ambala for the maneuvers, Messrs Wazir Ali & Sons ” …. was the only Coffee Shop in the Force which never failed to be present when required at a time when the roads were congested and the difficulties of getting transport forward was very great. (Sd.) W.F. Fawcett, Lieut. Col., Commanding 1st Northampton Regiment. The Acting Pay Master of the regiment acknowledges that during the maneuvers the firm even “…. arranged the supply of money for the pay and did it very well.”
As the years progressed and the reputation of the firm spread, requests came from distant stations for their services. When the Staff College at Quetta reopened after the First World War, it asked the firm to open up their business for the sale of groceries, stationary, wines, tobacco etc. for about 40 British married officers’ families and a very large population outside the premises of the college. The firm did have competition from Parsi merchants and Mool Chand at Lahore but they kept ahead by being very inventive. “Their travelling soda Water Machine is an excellent institution and the various apparatus they have in use for cutting up bread, meat, etc., (which greatly minimized the handling of food by the natives) should be adopted by all other similar institutes. (Sd.) G. M. BAREFOOT, Lt. Col. Senior Medical Officer, 20th Infantry Brigade. “The volume of business was so large that the firm held “a respectable and most up-to-date warehouse in the Punjab,” at Lahore. What endeared them to the Presidents of the Institutes was their attention to details. The tables were decorated with little flowers and fresh vegetables were always available for the soldiers to supplement the tinned food. British battalions returning to India for another tour would ask for their services in advance – specifically naming a manager whom they had dealt with earlier.
The Army Canteen Board was liquidated in 1927 due to the heavy financial losses and replaced by the Canteen Contractors’ Syndicate (CCS) in the form of a limited company, with shareholding confined to the canteen contractors. Syed Maratib Ali took a keen interest in the establishment of the Board.
In July 1927, the Civil & Military Gazette reported that the Army Headquarters selected the firm to provide Canteens in all Troop Trains with Canteen Cars. Concurrently the Army introduced direct embarkation and disembarkation of units at the ports of Bombay and Karachi and the firm established canteens on the quayside. A testimonial in 1928 by the Railway Transport Officer at Bombay records that the firm gave “… excellent service to the troops in the train and kept the Cars very clean. In spite of constant moves of the trains and being a new organization, they managed it to the entire satisfaction of all concerned. They have a large connection all over India and consequently are in a position to have everything ready at any time for any place”. The Embarkation Commandant at Karachi also greatly appreciated the firm’s services to the British troops and families who disembarked from troopships and were waiting for entrainment at Kemari. The most prestigious tournament in British India was the Durand Football Cup that had been initiated by Sir Mortimer Durand in Simla in 1888 and was initially open to the Army in India.
The firm had become so big that it compiled a booklet that advertised its services and contained testimonials from British officers and battalions. The last and final book was printed in 1937 and lists the stations where the firm provided services to His Majesty’s Forces in different and distant parts of India. Covering nearly 70 years, the list includes six Frontier Expeditions, 16 stations and camps in NWFP, 22 in the Punjab, 17 in the United Provinces and 22 more in the rest of India including Bengal, Bihar, Central and Southern India, the Bombay Presidency and Sind. The firm also serviced two stations in Burma. Officers who returned to India after a spell of 10 years had the opinion that “… the standard of comfort and general wellbeing of the soldiers had improved beyond belief, thanks to the efforts made by Messrs. Syed A.& M. Wazir Ali” (Sd.) R.G. Smithard, 1st Battalion K. S. L. I.” At the commencement of World War II, the CCS could no longer cope with the heavy buildup of British troops in India. In 1942, the Government of India established the Canteen Stores Department (CSD) for the wholesale buying and distribution of stores to contractors in Peace areas, while a Canteen Corps was responsible for the Operational areas.
During the war, A. M. Wazir Ali undertook large wartime construction contracts and also established a textile mill in Rahim Yar Khan. Maratib Ali’s son Wajid Ali left the army to look after the growing family business. With tremendous energy he regularly toured over 50 stations where the firm was operating, sleeping in the rear of his Ford Station Wagon as he was driven by night to arrive at his destination in the morning. Wajid was the epitome of a well-to-do Punjabi with a big mustache and a turban. JRD Tata was his close friend and when he was launching Tata Airlines the airline mascot resembled Wajid.
